Welfare Implications of Costly Litigation under Strict Liability

This article examines a model of strict liability with costlylitigation and presents conditions under which (1) potentialinjurers take optimal precautions, (2) increasing the cost oflitigation enhances precaution and social welfare, (3) the optimallevel of liability exceeds the compensatory level, and (4) increasingthe rate of settlement enhances social welfare. The resultshave implications for controversies surrounding fee shifting,optimal damage awards (e.g., punitive damages), and the socialdesirability of settlement. The most striking implication isthat fee shifting in favor of prevailing plaintiffs is sociallydesirable in low-transaction-cost settings.     

Spatial and temporal dimensions of assaults against children in Dallas,Texas, 1980–81

The role of environmental factors in incidents of violence has been relatively neglected in recent decades. Complementing recent research in social psychology and social geography, the present study tested two hypotheses: (1) general environmental conditions-day of the week, season of the y ear, and thermal stress-are significant predictors of the daily incidence of assaults on children, and (2) victim characteristics, sites of incidents, and types of assaults on children vary with levels of neighborhood socioeconomic status. Some 1614 incidents involving persons aged 18 and under were abstracted from a data base of 9994 aggravated assaults drawn from the files of the Dallas, Texas, Police Department, covering a 20-month period from March 1980, through October 1981. Analysis indicated that general environmental indicators are significantly related to daily frequencies of assaults on children. Further, neighborhood socioeconomic status was significantly associated with children's race, sites of assaults on children, and types of assault. Overall, only 11% of the assaults studied were classified as “abuse.” The dominant modes of assault involved firearms (28%) and knives (23%). The analysis revealed how assaults on children varied quantitatively and qualitatively as a function of victim characteristics, temporal and spatial context, and thermal stress.     

“Hut ab,” “Promenade with Kamerade for Schokolade,” and the Flying Dutchman: British Soldiers in the Rhineland, 1918-1929

This essay explores the social history of the “British Army of the Rhine,” especially their interactions with the German population, over the eleven-year period of occupation in Cologne and part of the Rhineland. It covers the initial, sometimes fraught establishment of the occupation and interactions with the civil population, especially the perennial problem of British soldiers' relations with German women. These were initially prohibited altogether, but the rule was quickly relaxed, and the British authorities even accepted and regulated the use of brothels, leading to criticisms back home. The essay also discusses the comparatively small number of serious violent crimes (including four murders) during the occupation, and concludes that the occupation was characterized on both sides by grudging acceptance and some degree of forbearance.