Income inequality and economic freedom in the U.S. states

This paper examines the impact of economic freedom on income inequality using cross-sectional data for U.S. states. While previous research has explored this relationship internationally, the results have been conflicting. In addition, while it seems obvious that the large institutional differences across countries will impact income inequality, it isn’t so obvious that the smaller variation in policies among U.S. states can have a measurable impact. Can improvements in income inequality be used as a justification for marginal pro-market policy reforms at the state level, or is this argument applicable only to national-level institutional reforms?     

Priority and rescue financing in the Commonwealth Caribbean: lessons from the United States of America,United Kingdom and European Union

In investigating the operation of the rescue culture in the Commonwealth Caribbean as compared to the United Kingdom administration regime and Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code, this paper laments that the Commonwealth Caribbean and the USA fail to consider key issues of post-petition priority for finance. It also delves into a critical, but overlooked, pillar of strong rescue frameworks: access to finance. Taking guidance from the European Union framework on state aid and the UK Funding for Lending and National Loan Guarantee, the author proposes a fair, transparent and efficient framework encompassing state involvement and state-driven private sector engagement.     

Different Concepts of Ethnicity in a Cross-Atlantic Study of Violence and Drug Use among Deviant Youth

Despite their common multi-ethnic populations, the meaning and application of the term ethnicity varies between the United States, Canada and the Netherlands. This paper attempts the construction of a racial/ethnic measure that enables meaningful cross-national comparisons. As part of the Drugs, Alcohol and Violence International (DAVI) project, the link between different measures of ethnicity and alcohol use, drug use, violence, and delinquency was studied within samples of 14- to 17-year-old juvenile detainees and dropouts in Philadelphia, Toronto and Amsterdam. Results showed a relationship between origin (the most discriminating of ethnicity measures) and alcohol and drug use, but not violence-related behaviour. Differences in substance use and violence were more attributable to differences between countries and samples than between ‘western’ and ‘non-western’ youth.Annemieke Benschop (MSc) is a researcher at the Bonger Institute of Criminology at the University of Amsterdam. Lana D. Harrison (MA, PhD) is Associate Director of the Center for Drug and Alcohol Studies and a Professor at the University of Delaware (Newark, DE). Dirk J. Korf (MA, PhD) is an Associate Professor and Research Director at the Bonger Institute of Criminology at the University of Amsterdam, and an Associate Professor in Criminology at Utrecht University. Patricia Erickson (MA, PhD) is a Senior Scientist with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto (Canada) and a cross-appointed Professor in Sociology and Criminology at the University of Toronto.     

Routine Activities and Proactive Police Activity: A Macro-scale Analysis of Police Searches in London and New York City

This paper explored how city-level changes in routine activities were associated with changes in frequencies of police searches using six years of police records from the London Metropolitan Police Service and the New York City Police Department. Routine activities were operationalised through selecting events that potentially impacted on (a) the street population, (b) the frequency of crime or (c) the level of police activity. OLS regression results indicated that routine activity variables (e.g. day of the week, periods of high demand for police service) can explain a large proportion of the variance in search frequency throughout the year. A complex set of results emerged, revealing cross-national dissimilarities and the differential impact of certain activities (e.g. public holidays). Importantly, temporal frequencies in searches are not reducible to associations between searches and recorded street crime, nor changes in on-street population. Based on the routine activity approach, a theoretical police-action model is proposed.     

Stranger and acquaintance sexual assault of adult males

This study examined victim and assault characteristics and the nature and extent of coercion, violence, and physical injuries among adult male victims of sexual assaults. Client records of three groups presenting to a sexual assault care center were included: males assaulted by a stranger (n = 64), males assaulted by an acquaintance (n = 81), and females assaulted by an acquaintance (n = 106). Study results revealed that male victims of sexual assault tended to be young, single men who reported high rates of vulnerabilities such as homelessness and physical, psychiatric, and cognitive disabilities. Male stranger assailant victims were more likely to experience assaults involving weapons and physical violence. Injuries sustained by victims and services delivered at the sexual assault care center were similar for both male and female clients. The results of this study reveal new information about violence in male sexual assaults and the vulnerability of the male victims.     

Deliberate self-harm patients who discharge themselves from the general hospital without adequate psychosocial assessment

Deliberate self-harm patients who leave the acute hospital environment before the completion of psychiatric assessment have an increased risk of subsequent self-harm. We considered the available data on 50 premature self-discharges identified prospectively in a general hospital with a well-developed integrated-care pathway for self-harm patients, and compared them to a control group. The self-discharge group was found to be more likely to have attempted self-poisoning without alcohol intoxication or other forms or combinations of self-harm, and an absence of identifiable previous self-harm or prior contact with local specialist psychiatric services. The two groups showed no difference in age, sex, or area of residence based on community mental health team sectors. It is proposed that these findings indicate hypotheses for further studies of why people leave the hospital without adequate assessment, and how service design could be improved in order to help them.     

The medical provision of hydration and nutrition: two very different outcomes in Victoria and Florida

Decisions to withhold or withdraw medical hydration and nutrition are amongst the most difficult that confront patients and their families, medical and other health professionals all over the world. This article discusses two cases relating to lawful withdrawal and withholding of a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube (PEG) from incompetent patients with no hope of recovery. Victoria and Florida have statutory frameworks that provide for advance directives, however in both Gardner; Re BWV and Schindler v Schiavo; Re Schiavo the respective patients did not leave documented instructions. The article analyses the two cases and their outcomes from legal, medical and ethical perspectives.     

Heart embolization with the Kirschner wire without cardiac tamponade

The case of the heart embolization with the Kirschner wire that was used for shoulder trauma fixation, 2 years previously in a 67-year-old female, is reported. This case is unique; although embolization of foreign bodies to the heart is not a novel occurrence, heart embolization with non-broken Kirschner wire with a total length of 13.5 cm without cardiac tamponade was not described in medical literature so far.