Different than the Sum of Its Parts: Examining the Unique Impacts of Immigrant Groups on Neighborhood Crime Rates

Objectives

Examining the immigration-crime nexus across neighborhoods in the Southern California metropolitan region, this study builds on existing literature by unpacking immigration and accounting for the rich diversity that exists between immigrant groups.

Methods

Using data from a variety of sources, we capture this diversity with three different approaches, operationalizing immigrant groups by similar racial/ethnic categories, areas or regions of the world that immigrants emigrate from, and where immigrants co-locate once they settle in the U.S. We also account for the heterogeneity of immigrant populations by constructing measures of immigrant heterogeneity based on each of these classifications. We compare these novel approaches with the standard approach, which combines immigrants together through a single measure of percent foreign born.

Results

The results reveal that considerable insights are gained by distinguishing between diverse groups of immigrants. In particular, we find that all three strategies explained neighborhood crime levels better than the traditional approach.

Conclusion

The findings underscore the necessity of disaggregating immigrant groups when exploring the immigration-crime relationship.

     

Limits to partnership working: developing relationship-based approaches with children and their families

Located within a context of widespread change social work professionals are required to navigate tensions between organisational imperatives and developing effective relationships with families. Achieving effective partnership working is premised on the development of relational ways of working where trust is formed through co-creation. The recent emergence of 'Fast-track' approaches in education and training reflects a shift away from developing skills in critical/analytical reflection, towards an employer-led approach that prioritises the need for 'ready practitioners'. Simultaneously there has been change in the family justice system, culminating in the Children and Families Act 2014 and the 26-week time frame for the completion of care cases. This paper explores current contradictions within social work practice. Pivotal is defining the role of social work within a contemporary English jurisdiction. Adopting deeper relational ways of working with families may help to define the boundaries of a profession that appears to have lost its identity. Rather than facing the prospect that the door is closed on the possibility of reclaiming practice that prioritises and values professional judgement and discretion, this paper reflects upon some positive examples of relational work with families by social workers within different sectors of practice.     

Inaccessible and Unknowable: Accretion and Uncertainty in Modern Criminal Law

Between May 1997 and August 2006 over 3,000 new crimes and offences entered the statute book expanding the criminal law exponentially and insinuating criminal liability into areas of everyday life previously untouched. This unremitting intensification of the criminal law where often quite random and unrelated provisions are embedded in huge, generic and virtually annual Criminal Justice Acts has made the law inaccessible and unknowable to the public, and uncertain to those charged with interpreting and applying it. This article examines the phenomenon of accretion in the criminal law within the last decade drawing on historico-legal contexts, jurisprudential theory (particularly the Rule of Law), and contemporary illustrations. It argues that uncontrolled legislative accretion and a bloated statute book may introduce dangerous levels of uncertainty into the law not only undermining its integrity but eroding the essential mutual respect between government and the governed which legitimises the authority of the criminal law. The political hothouse of spin-cycle government has sought to rely on the creation of new law as the panacea to all ills blurring the democratic boundary between citizen and government.

Can APB 2000 Be Used to Discern Sincerity of Effort in Unimpaired Subjects from Maximal Performance in Subjects with Shoulder Pain?

The automated pegboard (APB 2000), which has been found to objectively quantify motor performance, was used to differentiate maximal motor performance among subjects with shoulder pain, healthy unimpaired subjects performing normally and also while feigning shoulder pain. Six participants with shoulder pain and 15 healthy unimpaired individuals participated. Individuals with shoulder pain were tested on the APB 2000 using their affected upper extremity. Unimpaired participants were instructed to perform normally on the test with randomly selected upper extremity and to feign shoulder pain with the other upper extremity. The two tests for the unimpaired participants were conducted 1 week apart. There were significant differences in mean performance time for normal, patient, and feigned performance, with 80, 111, and 149 sec for the three groups respectively (p < 0.0005). There was also considerable overlap in the three distributions of performance times. These preliminary findings suggest that the APB 2000 is able to distinguish performance time between these three groups. Whether it can be used to distinguish between maximal performance and submaximal performance in individuals suspected of submaximal performance requires further study.     

Repeating the errors of our parents? Parental violence in men's family of origin and conflict management in dating couples

Within a social learning model, family-of-origin violence places men at risk for developing negative communication in their adult relationships. Thirty young men exposed to family-of-origin violence (exposed group) and 30 unexposed young men were videotaped discussing a conflict topic with their female dating partners. Relative to the unexposed group, the exposed men and women reported higher relationship aggression and during discussion showed more negative communication, were more domineering, and the men reported more negative affect. There were no differences between the groups on cognition or heart rate. The conflict management deficits and aggression evident in the exposed group suggest that these partners are at high risk for future relationship aggression and distress.     

Performance characteristics of the Cozart RapiScan Oral Fluid Drug Testing System for opiates in comparison to ELISA and GC/MS following controlled codeine administration

Oral fluid is an interesting alternative matrix for drug testing in many environments, including law enforcement, workplace drug testing, and drug treatment facilities. Performance characteristics of the FDA-cleared, qualitative, Cozart RapiScan Opiate Oral Fluid Drug Testing System (Opiate Cozart RapiScan System or Opiate CRS) were compared to the semi-quantitative Cozart Microplate EIA Opiate Oral Fluid Kit (Opiate ELISA) and to gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The following oral fluid opiate cutoffs were evaluated: the GC/MS limit of quantification (LOQ) of 2.5 mg/l; 15 microg/l currently used for oral fluid testing in the United Kingdom (UK); 30 microg/l (Opiate CRS cutoff); and 40 microg/l, the proposed Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) cutoff. Subjects provided informed consent to participate in this IRB-approved research and resided on the closed research ward throughout the study. Three oral codeine doses of 60 mg/70 kg were administered over a 7-day period. After a 3-week break, subjects received three doses of 120 mg/70 kg within 7 days. Oral fluid specimens (N = 1273) were analyzed for codeine (COD), norcodeine (NCOD), morphine (MOR) and normorphine (NMOR) by GC/MS with an LOQ of 2.5 microg/l for all analytes. MOR and NMOR were not detected in any sample; 26.5% of the specimens were positive for COD and 13.7% for NCOD. Opiate CRS uses a preset, qualitative cutoff of 10 microg/l; this is equivalent to 30 microg/l in undiluted oral fluid as the oral fluid collection process involves a 1:3 dilution with buffer. Sensitivity, specificity, and efficiency of Opiate CRS compared to Opiate ELISA were 98.6, 98.1, and 98.2% at a 30 microg/l cutoff and 99.0, 96.2, and 96.6% at a 40 microg/l cutoff. Compared to the much lower GC/MS LOQ of 2.5 microg/l, sensitivity, specificity and efficiency were 66.8, 99.3 and 90.7%. Increasing the GC/MS cutoff to the current UK level yielded performance characteristics of 81.5% (sensitivity), 99.3% (specificity), and 95.4% (efficiency). Using a GC/MS cutoff identical to the preset Opiate CRS cutoff yielded sensitivity, specificity, and efficiency of 88.5, 99.2, and 97.5%, respectively. At the proposed SAMSHA confirmation cutoff of 40 microg/l, sensitivity increased with little change in specificity and efficiency (91.3% sensitivity, 98.9% specificity, and 97.5% efficiency). Oral fluid is a suitable matrix for detecting drugs of abuse. Opiate CRS, with a 30 microg/l cutoff, is sufficiently sensitive, specific and efficient for oral fluid opiate analysis, performing similarly to Opiate ELISA at the same cutoff, and having performance characteristics >91% when compared to GC/MS at the proposed SAMHSA cutoff.     

Inter-Korean relations and the roles of the US and of the EU

The North Korean nuclear standoff has escalated since North Korea let slip that it was developing nuclear weapons while James Kelly, U.S. Assistant Secretary of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, was visiting Pyongyang in October 2002. The Bush administration has acknowledged that the United States will not discount a preemptive military strike on the suspected nuclear development facilities, and North Korea has stood firm against any pressure to halt its nuclear development from the international community. Dialogue and meetings for international cooperation among the major countries concerned, including Korea, the U.S., Japan and China, have been activated to resolve the nuclear crisis in the Korean Peninsula, especially after the U.S. pronounced an end to its war against Iraq in early May of this year. In the middle of the rapidly changing situation on the Korean peninsula, the inter-Korean reconciliation and cooperation initiated by the Sunshine Policy of the Kim Dae Jung administration and followed by the Roh Moo-hyun administrations Policy of Peace and Prosperity are not separable from the nuclear situation. This paper follows recent developments of inter-Korean relations, illustrates South Koreas stance on the issue and suggests the EUs role on the nuclear issue. This is a revised version of the paper presented at the Asia-EU Journalists Seminar organized by the Asia Europe Foundation and the Korea Press Foundation (KPF), held in Brussels, Belgium, May 22 2003. Financial support from the KPF is gratefully acknowledged.     

Study shows Aboriginals who inject drugs are at higher risk for HIV

One in five Aboriginal people enrolled in a Vancouver study of people who inject drugs became HIV-positive over a five-year period ending in May 2001. This is twice the rate among non-Aboriginal people in the study.     

Pediatric homicides related to burn injury: a retrospective review at the medical university of South Carolina

Many burn injuries are mistakenly referred to as "accidents" because they occur suddenly and seem unpredictable and uncontrollable; however, injuries often occur in predictable patterns. We reviewed all pediatric forensic cases referred to the Medical University of South Carolina Forensic Pathology Section over a 28-year period from January 1975 to December 2002. There were 124 cases with 121 fire-related fatalities and three scald fatalities. Ninety of the burn victims were in the 0-5-year age group. The manner of deaths showed 108 accidents and 12 homicides (four undetermined). Eleven of 12 burn-related homicides occurred at the home with all of the victims in the 1-8-year age group. The perpetrator of the home fire homicides was the mother in five cases and the sister in one case (two undetermined). Homicide involved a vehicle fire in one case in which the father caused an explosion with an accelerant. The three scald death perpetrators were the father, mother's boyfriend, and an aunt.This retrospective study and review of the literature may reveal patterns useful for evaluation of manner of death. By recognizing scene characteristics, potential perpetrators, and children at risk, we can better classify pediatric burn-related fatalities.