The impact of race on perceptions of criminal injustice

Based on a stratified sample of 239 residents of Cincinnati, Ohio, the present study explored whether African Americans and Whites differ in their perceptions of racial injustice in the criminal justice system. The data revealed a cleavage in the extent to which the races believed that Black citizens would be differentially stopped by the police, given a speeding ticket, jailed, and sentenced to death. The effect of race remained strong even when controls were introduced for sociodemographic characteristics, experience with the criminal justice system, experience with crime, neighborhood disorder, and political and crime related ideology. Perceptions of injustice, moreover, were strongest among the least affluent African Americans. The possibility that the racial divide in perceived criminal injustice both reflects and contributes to a larger racial chasm in how Black and White citizens understand and experience their lives in American society is explored.     

Comparative study of ethanol levels in blood versus bone marrow,vitreous humor,bile and urine

Post-mortem ethanol levels in blood were compared to corresponding levels in rib bone marrow, vitreous humor, urine and bile. In forensic toxicology, a good correlation between blood and a tissue or body fluid is needed to estimate a blood alcohol concentration when blood is unavailable or contaminated. In this study, direct injection and headspace gas-chromatographic techniques were employed to quantitate the ethanol concentrations. Comparable findings by these two techniques showed a reproducibility of results. When the determined bone marrow ethanol levels were corrected for the lipid fraction, a consistent correlation could be established between ethanol levels in blood and bone marrow. The relationship (linearity and ratio range) between ethanol levels in blood and corrected levels in bone marrow was better than that between blood and vitreous humor, bile or urine. This study showed that blood ethanol levels can be predicted by extrapolating the corrected rib bone marrow ethanol level.     

Madison's View of Federalism in The Federalist

Interpreters of James Madison's treatment of federalism in TheFederalist are divided into two general camps: those who considerhim to have defended federalism with cogency and convictionand those who consider his defense, on account of his concealedantipathy to federalism, to be half-hearted. Although Madisonhad reservations about the Constitution's new structure, threecharges of disingenuousness that have been leveled against himare mistaken. The evidence mainly suggests that he viewed theConstitution as establishing a divided system of government,that he was not particularly confident that future state-federalconflicts would be resolved peacefully, and that, despite hisreservations about the new system, he wanted to see it in operationbefore thinking about how it might be reformed.     

New mafia: Black, hispanic and Italian styles

Organized crime is a functional part of the Ameri-can social system and, while successive waves of immigrants and migrants have found it an available means of mobility, it transcends the involvement of any particular group and even changing definitions of legality and illegality in social behavior. Francis A.J. Ianni is professor and director of the Division of Educational Institutions and Programs, director of the Horace Mann-Lincoln Institute and chairman of the department of educational administration. Teachers College of Columbia University.     

Compensation Schemes and Dispute Resolution Mechanisms: Beyond the Obvious

Because compensation and dispute resolution lie at the core of most resettlement proposals, this panel had two main objectives: to get an accurate grasp of the current Israeli approach to these challenges and to glean insights from relevant experiences in other settings. Before reading our panelists' presentations, one might be forgiven for reasonably thinking that "compensation equals cash" and "dispute resolution equals court." As our panelists discussed, however, such a straightforward view is simply inadequate to the needs of the resettlement problem — a much richer view of compensation and dispute resolution is required.