Routine activities and social control in the aftermath of a natural catastrophe

The first two being from the University of Miami, the latter two from the University of Florida.     

Toward the privatization of the CIS weapons industry: The ‘collectivist’ option

The Russian military-industrial sector, like the economy generally is undergoing a turbulent transformation. Property rights, institutional arrangements, regulatory mechanisms and procurement demand are in rapid flux. In 1992 weapons production declined drastically, variously estimated between 20 and 67 percent, but arms contracts for 1993 are reported to be double last year's volume. This essay attempts to illuminate key elements of Russia's military-industrial transition by analyzing how property rights, tax and regulatory reforms of the sorts advocated by Alexsandr Isaev and Anatoly Chubais are apt to effect efficiency and military-industrial conversion. It is shown that while collectivist ownership could enhance economic efficiency, despite the usual Ward-Domar effects, Yeltsin's market reforms may not be sufficient to foster large scale military-industrial conversion.     

References for determining the time of death by potassium in vitreous humor

The different statements concerning the slope and intercept of the regression line and the 95% limits of confidence are the reason that potassium in vitreous humor is not used (at least in Germany) as an aid in estimating the time of death. The relationship between the concentration of potassium and the time of death is mainly influenced by antemortem electrolyte imbalances caused by disease and/or duration of terminal episode. The influence of terminal episode is best identified by its duration (Adelson et al., J. Forensic Sci., 8 (1963) 503–514). In order to have a method suitable for every case and to be as precise as possible we looked therefore for parameters in vitreous humor which were stable postmortem and indicating antemortem electrolyte imbalance. Urea is such a parameter, being stable postmortem (Coe, Am. J. Clin. Pathol., 51 (1969) 741–750) and useful as a marker of antemortem electrolyte imbalance. Our investigations on potassium in vitreous humor, including sudden and hospital deaths after chronic lingering disease, revealed 95% limits of confidence of ±34 h up to 120 h postmortem. Reviewing only cases with urea less than 100 mg/dl the 95% limits of confidence could be reduced to ±22 h. Considering the duration of terminal episode (<6 h) the precision was ±20 h. In this way our modified procedure is suitable for every case with the resulting precision of estimation being determined only by the duration of the terminal episode and urea concentration.     

Creating change in the legal system

Focuses on the potential contributions that community psychology models can make to theory, research, and practice in the area of psychology and law. The author, in his presidential address to the American Psychology-Law Society, looks specifically at the criminal and juvenile justice systems and the impact that these systems, and law and policy more broadly, have on individuals. He argues that community psychology perspectives would help shift the focus away from the disproportionate and often incorrect emphasis that our system of justice places on individual deficit models and individual level interventions, and concludes that a community psychology approach would also reinforce efforts to promote prevention programs that in the long term might prove more effective in dealing with the problem of crime in our society.This article is a revised version of the American Psychology-Law Society (Division 41 of the American Psychological Association) Presidential Address, read at the American Psychological Association Convention, Los Angeles, August, 1994. I want to thank Ray Corrado, Steve Hart, John Monahan, Jim Ogloff, Julian Rappaport, Dick Reppucci, Kathy Roesch, and Ed Seidman for their comments and feedback on earlier versions of this paper.Simon Fraser University.     

National memory: The duty to remember,the need to forget

Ronald Koven has served as a correspondent in France for twenty-four of the past thirty-two years, successively as the de Gaulle watcher of the International Herald Tribuneand as the Paris correspondent of the Washington Post(for which he was the diplomatic editor and the foreign editor) and the Boston Globe.He concentrates on surveying and coordinating aid for independent news media in Eastern Europe.     

Looking for Sustainability: Environmental Coalitions across the State-Society Divide

This paper compares environmental policymaking in two Brazilian cities, Rio de Janeiro and Cubatão. It examines the formation of state-society synergistic interactions in the public policymaking process and their effect on long term sustainability of social mobilization. It concludes that whereas social capital can be constructed in the context of policymaking, it is critically dependent on a concerted effort from both state and society actors to build trust in their daily interactions. The Cubatão and Carioca River cases show that state-society synergy had little effect on the ability of the policy coalitions formed for pollution clean up to sustain themselves over time. Instead, there are indications that rather than a constraint, the flexible and informal nature of such coalitions may have been a critical factor in their ability to carry out policy successfully.