Household structure as a response to economic adjustments: evidence from urban Mexico in the 1980s

"This paper presents the results of exploratory efforts to examine the determinants of the structure of households in urban areas of Mexico, focusing on those of women with young children.... The empirical analysis uses two cross-sectional national surveys of Mexico, the 'Encuesta Nacional Demografica' 1982 and the 'Encuesta Nacional de Fecundidad y Salud' 1987...." (SUMMARY IN ENG)     

Federal crime legislation through the eyes of Alexis de Tocquiville

The political process entailed in the passage of federal crime legislation in 1994 and the revisions of it being considered in 1995 are analyzed as a manifestation of three central themes about American politics articulated by Alexis de Tocqueville inDemocracy in America published in 1835. It is argued that crackdown measures of dubious value in fighting crime are the result of majoritarianism, a national consensus favoring very conservative crime policies. A second factor at work is pluralism, the strong role played by interest groups in American politics. Thirdly, the racial politics which De Tocqueville thought were destined to plague the United States indefinitely are shown to form a backdrop to the formulation of crime control measures. The article concludes with a discussion of a strategy for the development of more enlightened crime policies in the face of stark realities about the nature of the policy-making process.A version of this article was delivered at the 1994 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Miami, Florida, November 9–12, 1994.     

The interpretation of cocaine and benzoylecgonine concentrations in postmortem cases.

This study examined cocaine and benzoylecgonine concentrations in 100 consecutive deaths where either compound was identified in blood or urine specimens to determine whether any relationship between these concentrations and cause of death can be found. Forty-seven of the 100 cases were deaths attributed to cocaine, narcotic or combined cocaine and narcotic intoxication. There were 13 cases of cocaine intoxication where no psychoactive substance other than ethanol was detected. The mean cocaine concentration in these deaths was 908 ng/ml; three cases had cocaine concentrations greater than 2000 ng/ml, while the other ten cases had cocaine concentrations less than or equal to 700 ng/ml. The mean cocaine concentration in non-cocaine deaths where no psychoactive substance other than ethanol was detected was 146 ng/ml. This difference was not statistically significant. However, the average blood benzoylecgonine concentration in the 13 cocaine deaths was significantly higher than in the 19 non-cocaine deaths. A review of combined cocaine and narcotic deaths suggest that the narcotic is the main causative agent in these deaths.     

Relationship between type of trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder among urban children and adolescents

This study examines the association between trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among 157 help-seeking children (aged 8-17). Structured clinical interviews are carried out, and linear and logistic regression analyses are conducted to examine the relationship between PTSD and type of trauma exposure controlling for age, gender, and ethnicity. Confrontation with traumatic news, witnessing domestic violence, physical abuse, and sexual abuse are each significantly associated with PTSD. Witnessing a crime, being the victim of a crime, and exposure to accidents, fire, or disaster are not associated with PTSD. These findings underscore the association between interpersonal violence and childhood PTSD.     

Interaction between carbon monoxide and ethanol in fire fatalities.

Impairment due to ethanol is clearly a risk factor in deaths due to fire. However, it is less clear whether there is a physiological interaction between ethanol and carbon monoxide (CO) that would alter the carboxyhemoglobin saturation level (COHb sat.) that accounts for death. In an attempt to explore this issue further, 196 fire fatalities investigated by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, State of Maryland over a 3-year period were examined. COHb sat. and blood ethanol concentrations (BAC) were tabulated. Twelve cases positive for therapeutic or abused drugs other than lidocaine or atropine were excluded; 184 cases were included. The data indicate that ethanol does not affect the COHb sat. that accounts for death, since the percentage of cases positive for ethanol at a given COHb range shows no trends. Therefore, we conclude that although ethanol remains a risk factor in fire fatalities, the risk appears to be related to the impairment that it produces as opposed to a direct interaction with CO.     

Organizations,Credibility, and the Psychology of Collective Action

Political organizations frequently attempt to recruit sympathetic citizens to support their causes. Doing so requires communicating credibility—that is, persuading potential new supporters that they can actually achieve the goals they set out to achieve. In this article we investigate two of the predominant kinds of information that organizations might use to establish credibility: retrospective information (about past successes) and prospective information (about future plans). Using one field experiment and one survey experiment, we find that retrospective information fails to increase people’s willingness to spend scarce resources supporting political organizations. We find that this occurs because information about past successes suggests that the organization can succeed without any additional help. In contrast, we find that prospective information motivates new participants to become active.