Realities and mythologies of rape

He is author of Capitalism and the Welfare State; Clients and Constituents;and co-author of The Enabling State: Modern Welfare Capitalism in America;and Protecting Young Children from Sexual Abuse: Does Preschool Training Work?     

The debate on World Dynamics: A response to Nordhaus

In a recent paper published in the Economic Journal, Professor William D. Nordhaus of Yale University reviewed World Dynamics by Jay W. Forrester. In his criticism, Nordhaus signals three serious problems and several additional questionable assumptions of sufficient importance to undermine the usefulness of Forrester's book. However, a careful examination of his analysis shows that each point made by Nordhaus rests on a misunderstanding of World Dynamics, a misuse of empirical data, or an inability to analyze properly the dynamic behavior of the model by static equilibrium methods.The three serious problems raised by Nordhaus concern the assumptions that connect industrialization to net birth rates in World Dynamics, the representation of technology and production within the world model, and the impact of prices on global resource use. The analysis presented here refutes the Nordhaus arguments and shows that World Dynamics is consistent with his references to real-world data on population, production, and capital accumulation.This paper is a response to William D. Nordhaus, World Dynamics: Measurement Without Data, published in the Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, December 1973. An earlier, unpublished, version of the Nordhaus paper, bearing the same title, was widely circulated hand-tohand within the United States, Canada, and Europe. A response to the original Nordhaus paper (System Dynamics Group Memorandum D-1736-4) was written in February 1973 and is available from Jay W. Forrester, Alfred P. Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. 02139. The present paper, a revised version of the earlier response, deals with several new or modified arguments contained in the Economic Journal article by Nordhaus.     

Gasoline exposure in motor vehicle accident fatalities

Three cases are described in which deaths after motor vehicle accidents occurred as a result of positional asphyxia associated with exposure to gasoline. The deceased individuals were aged 16, 34, and 35 years, respectively (M:F = 1:2) and had all been in the back seat of motor vehicles involved in rollover accidents that had resulted in spilling of gasoline with contamination of the cabins. Major components of gasoline were detected in blood and tissues by headspace gas chromatography. Postmortem toxicologic investigations of such cases, which include analyses for volatile hydrocarbons, may therefore produce additional significant information.     

Fatal childhood vascular injuries associated with seat belt use

The deaths of two children who were passengers in motor vehicles involved in accidents were directly attributable to vascular injuries derived from seat belts. In the first case, a 10-year-old boy died as a result of abdominal aortic transection by a lap seat belt, and in the second case a 15-year-old boy died as a result of transection of his common carotid artery by a lap-shoulder seat belt. Although these cases demonstrate rare fatalities associated with seat belt use, there is no doubt that seat belts have significantly reduced mortality and morbidity from traffic accidents. Although it is possible that a fatal outcome might have occurred in each of these cases from other injuries that might have been sustained had seat belts not been worn, appropriate positioning and size of seat belt harnesses might have avoided the lethal injuries.