Fire and suicide: a three-year study of self-immolation deaths.

Thirty-two self-immolation deaths by fire, representing about 1% of suicides, occurred in the province of Ontario (population 9 million), Canada, from 1986 through 1988. The victims, mostly male (male/female ratio, 26:6), were between 21 and 71 years old (mean age, 38 years). Although the scene of self-immolation was usually familiar to the deceased, some chose remote locations. Eleven were found dead in motor vehicles. An accelerant, usually gasoline, was used in most cases. Many of these individuals had, at some time, indicated their intent to commit suicide, a few by self-immolation, but only about half had a diagnosed psychiatric illness. Most of the victims had a reason to kill themselves, but the factors that motivated them to chose self-immolation by fire were uncertain. Fourteen individuals died in hospitals from severe burn complications. The remainder were found dead at the scene. The postmortem findings of soot in the airway and elevated carbon monoxide in the blood of most of these victims [the carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) concentration was in one case less than 10%, in ten cases greater than or equal to 10 to 50%, and in seven cases greater than 50%] were helpful in determining that the individuals were not only alive at the time of the fire but also that a significant number died from smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning. The highest levels of carbon monoxide were observed in victims discovered in motor vehicles.     

Private Policing in Context

This article considers the development, growth and significance of private policing in a wider context. Section one suggests that the rebirth of private policing is associated with - and, in effect, demands - a change in the conceptual framework with which policing is analysed. While section one addresses the conceptual context of private policing, section two examines its theoretical context by considering various explanations for the post-war growth of commercial security. Moving from specific to general accounts, it is suggested that two explanations - one based upon sociological accounts of the development of modern societies, the other on genealogical accounts of developing mentalities - provide a crucial context for understanding contemporary changes in policing and governance. In the next section, two of these changes - the growing influence of risk-based policing and the increasing significance of diverse patterns of governance - are considered in the context of the fragmented forms of security provision (commercial, municipal, civil and state policing) which are prevalent today. A short concluding section offers some final thoughts on how these arguments impact on the governance of policing. One of the implications contained in this article is that the re-emergence of private policing needs to be considered not only as a problem, but also as an opportunity to identify and address critical questions of contemporary governance.     

Fishing for status: Impact of development on goa''s fisherwomen

An ignored but significant group in the local economy, female vendors of the traditional Kharvi fishing community in Goa, India have, in many ways, benefited from recent fisheries development. Their success in the markets has reinforced more egalitarian gender relations within fishing households, as well as affecting their class mobility and caste status in Goan society. Rather than being “victims” of technological development that has focused on fishermen, many Goan Catholic fisherwomen, in contrast to their Hindu counterparts, have made an economically successful transition from “barefoot, headload peddlers” in the villages to market entrepreneurs, working in small cooperative groups. The more complementary and egalitarian gender relations of fishing groups represent a reversal of the dominant patriarchal norms of Indian society. Ironically, the effects of economic success, education for the younger generation, and the withdrawal of Kharvi daughters from marketing activities may alter their economic and domestic independence and undermine more egalitarian gender relations in the future.