The hospice movement and its implications

Hospices, unheard of in this country a few years ago, have become a fast-growing American phenomenon. They promise effective pain relief for terminal cancer patients as well as a warm, homey atmosphere where fear and loneliness are minimized. Hospices are basically a creation of the British and it is still unclear how--or even whether--the principles they embody can be successfully incorporated into American medicine. However, hospices can make an important philosophical contribution by showing the way toward removing the stigma attached to death. Hospice principles also have implications for all of health care, in emphasizing the importance of treating the whole person rather than just the disease.     

A decade of rapid change: the outlook for human resources management in the '80s

The new decade also means a new chapter for personnel professionals. From our research, interviews and observations during the '70s come these predictions for the '80s.     

The ordinary and the extraordinary in institutional litigation

Institutional litigation, in which courts are requested to oversee the operation of large public institutions, has been frequently attacked as a departure from the traditional model of litigation. In this Article, Professors Eisenberg and Yeazell argue that the procedures and remedies employed in institutional litigation are not unprecedented but have analogues in older judicial traditions. Nor, they assert, do the doctrines of separation of powers and federalism present any obstacles to institutional litigation. They conclude that the novelty lies in the newly created substantive rights which courts are asked to enforce.     

Evaluation of automobile safety regulations: The case of compulsory seat belt legislation in Australia

A basic tenet of the new conservatism in political economy is that government policies frequently lead to unintended consequences which may offset the benefits of the policy. Auto safety legislation may be a case in point. As the first country to make the wearing of seat belts compulsory, Australia is highly suitable as a case study. Traffic accident casualties were regressed on six independent variables for the pre-seat belt period 1949–71. The equations were then used to predict casualties for the period 1972–77, using the actual values of the independent variables. In the aggregate, predicted occupant casualties were higher than the actual rates, whereas non-occupant casualties were underpredicted by the equations. An additional test, using a dummy variable to predict the effect of seat belts, supported these conclusions. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that drivers respond to a reduction in risk by increasing driving intensity, shifting some of the welfare cost of auto safety legislation on to non-occupants, whose casualty rates are higher than they would have been in the absence of seat belt legislation.I am grateful to Chris Adam and to an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments and suggestions.     

Evaluating a new computer-based system for face recall

The Computer-Aided Design Centre has developed a new face recall system which enables a witness to construct the image of a suspect on a television screen. The system currently uses the Photofit library and method of construction. Likenesses of target faces produced by subjects (n=36) using the new system were compared to conventional Photofits produced by a second group of subjects (n=36) of the same targets. There was no difference on any of the three measures employed in the assessed quality of the likenesses produced by Photofit and the CADC System. Both systems tended to produce more recognizable composites when construction was carried out in the presence of the target compared to its absence. Composites made from memory on the initial trial were marginally better with the CADC System than with Photofit. While both systems showed low absolute accuracy, they enjoyed a measure of success in transmitting a likeness of a facial type. It is concluded that while the CADC system shows promise, psychological constraints upon witnesses' powers of recall may place limits on the absolute accuracy achievable with any system of face reconstruction.These experiments were financed by grant No. POL/73 1675/24/3 from the Police Scientific Development Branch of the U.K. Home Office. Points of view expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of the funding body. Our gratitude and thanks are due to Tony Kitson and Clive Holloway for their many hours spent developing and operating the CADC system; Jean Shepherd for her skills as a Photofit operator; the Computer-Aided Design Centre; and the MRC Applied Psychology Unit, Cambridge for facilities and subjects.