Specification Issues in Proximity Models of Candidate Evaluation (with Issue Importance)

Bryce E. Corrigan Department of Political Science, University of Michigan, 5700 Haven Hall, 505 S. State Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1045 e-mail: becorrig{at}umich.edu e-mail: grynaviski{at}uchicago.edu (corresponding author) The use of the proximity model to represent the relationshipbetween citizens' policy attitudes and the positions of candidateson the issues of the day has considerable appeal because itoffers a bridge between theoretical models of political behaviorand empirical work. However, there is little consensus amongapplied researchers about the appropriate representation ofvoter behavior with respect to the measurement of issue distance,candidate location, or whether to allow heterogeneity in theweight that each individual places on particular issues. Eachof these choices suggests a different, and reasonably complicated,nonlinear relationship between voter utility and candidate andvoter issue positions which may have a meaningful influenceon the substantive conclusions drawn by the researcher. Yet,little attention has been given to the best way to representthe proximity model in applied work. The purpose of this paperis to identify which forms of the proximity model work best,with particular consideration given to the identification offunctional forms that are invariant to the choice of scale forthe independent variables.     

Massive systemic silicone embolism: a case report and review of literature

Subcutaneous injections of inert or quasi-inert plastic material designed to smooth out wrinkled skin or to create a more esthetically sought appearance have become very popular with the American public in general, and, in particular, with certain groups highly focused on their physical image. The case of the injection procedure has attracted into the field of plastic medicine a substantial number of illegal, incompetent, and unscrupulous operators. Their ignorance of involved medical risks and procedures not uncommonly results in severe complications, disfigurement, and death of patients. We report the typical pathological and chemical findings of a systemic fatal silicone embolism in a 53-year-old heterosexual woman following illegal chronic injections of silicone in her hips and buttocks. The injected subcutaneous silicone apparently migrated rapidly from the interstitial subcutaneous tissue into the general blood stream resulting in a fatal systemic silicone embolism. An analysis of the presented case in conjunction with a review of the pertinent medical literature, including a recent article, revealed a marked similarity in the clinicopathologic findings between silicone embolism and fat embolism.     

Violence in the city: Empirical bases for a collective working image

Many police patrol officers in Newark, New Jersey, articulate a working image of violence in the city that is similar to Louis Wirth's classical model of the effects of urban social disorganization on deviant behavior. In Newark, however, the working theory posits the 1967 civil disorders as a cataclysmic disorganizing event that generated ominously unique patterns of violence in the post-disorder years, compared to earlier times. Using data on violent crimes reported to the Newark police between 1940 and 1980, this article attempts to test the adequacy of that working theory as an explanation of reality. Regression techniques similar to those used by Friesma (1979) to assess natural disaster impacts are applied to three transformations of these crime data. The analysis demonstrates that the police working version of the disorganization model is more accurate as an inference from the pattern of violence that characterizes their workload than it is one from the patterns of absolute incidence of violent crime or of the risk of violent victimization incurred by residents of Newark. The article closes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for the larger problem of police-citizen distance.