Prolonged activity after an ultimately fatal gunshot wound to the heart: case report

In this article, we describe an unusual case of suicide involving a gunshot wound to the left ventricle. The victim engaged in premortem activity that was both prolonged and methodical. This report stresses the importance of a complete investigation to distinguish such case from an homicide.     

Law and Human Behavior: Reflecting Back and Looking Forward

Law and Human Behavior -     

The Hong Kong civil service in transition

As a result of its autonomy from society and institutional integrity, both legacies of British colonialism, the transition of the Hong Kong civil service to Chinese rule has been smooth. To accommodate continuing changes to state‐society relations, however, the civil service must begin sharing power with society to ensure stability. This paper examines changes in the state‐society and inter‐state sectors since the 1 July 1997 handover.     

Sex role and dating orientation

The assumption that males approach dating from a pronounced psychobiological orientation while females approach it from a psychoaffectional orientation was questioned. The sex role adopted by the individual was considered to be as important a variable as biological sex. Male and female subjects from three age groups, 16–17 years, 19–20 years, and 24–25 years, completed questionnaires designed to measure their sex roles and dating orientations. All groups of males were found to approach the dating relationship from both a psychoaffectional and psychobiological orientation, while all groups of females approached it from a psychoaffectional orientation and showed an increase in psychobiological orientation with increasing age and increasing depth of relationship. Significant differences were also found in dating attitudes between male and female subjects adopting different sex roles. It was concluded that neither masculinity and femininity, nor psychobiological and psychoaffectional attitudes to dating, lie on single continua. Masculine and feminine sex roles as independent dimensions influence psychobiological and psychoaffectional orientations to dating which are in themselves independent dimensions and not ends of a single continuum.Received her B.A. (Hons. 1) at Macquarie University and Dip. Teaching from Syndney Teachers' College. Current research interest is adolescent sexuality.Received M.A. (Hons. I) and Ph.D. at University of Sydney. Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society. Chairman (Sydney Branch) of the Australian Psychological Society. Current research interest is the psychology of adolescence.     

Homicides in two Scandinavian capitals.

In this study we investigated homicides in the two Scandinavian capitals, Copenhagen, Denmark and Oslo, Norway, for the 10-year period from 1985 to 1994. The total number of homicides was 431; 63.8% occurred in Copenhagen and 36.2% in Oslo. The average homicide rate was 1.6/100,000 in Copenhagen and 1.8/100,000 in Oslo. Blunt force, sharp force, and strangulation were the most common methods. Firearms were also used but did not account for >20% in either of the two cities. This is probably due to strict gun laws in both countries. There was no clear difference between the homicide victim populations in the two cities with regard to age, gender, or social and marital status. The proportion of alcoholics and unemployed persons was much higher than in the background population and to a similar extent in both cities, indicating that the homicide victim populations differ from the background populations. The perpetrator knew the victim in the majority of the cases. The most frequent motives or circumstances in both cities were fights, family rows, financial controversies, or jealousy.