Gender convergence in crime: Evidence from Canadian adult offense charge data

This study provided some new empirical evidence relating to the hypothesis that there was convergence between certain male and female offenses over time. Using time-series data for adults charged with offenses in Canada over the period 1983 to 2000, several formal statistical tests of this convergence hypothesis were conducted. This study allowed for the particular characteristics of the data, such as various types of structural breaks and changes over time in the process that generated the data. A number of new tests that had not previously been applied to this problem were employed, and the results that were obtained provided the first strong evidence in favor of gender-convergence for a range of offenses in Canada.     

Nations hospitable to organized crime and terrorism

This report assesses conditions that contribute to or are potentially hospitable to transnational criminal activity and terrorist activity in selected regions of the world during the period 1999–2002. Although the focus of the report is on transnational activity, domestic criminal activity is recognized as a key foundation for transnational crime, especially as the forces of globalization intensify. The report has been arranged geographically into the following major headings: Africa, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Western Europe, and the Western Hemisphere. Within the geographical headings, the report addresses individual countries with particularly salient conditions. Cases such as the Triborder Area (TBA) of South America and East and West Africa, where conditions largely overlap national borders, have been treated as regions rather than by imposing an artificial delineation by country. The bibliography has been divided into the same geographical headings as the text. The major sources for this report are recent periodical reports from Western and regional sources, Internet sites offering credible recent information, selected recent monographs, and personal communications with regional experts. Treatment of individual countries varies according to the extent and seriousness of conditions under study. Thus some countries in a region are not discussed, and others are discussed only from the perspective of one or two pertinent activities or conditions. Because they border the United States, Canada and Mexico have received especially extensive treatment.     

Introduction: The state of labor in the People’s Republic of China

Studies in Comparative International Development -     

Inequality, unemployment and crime in Latin American cities

Crime rates in many Latin American citiestend to be very high. But there is alsodiversity between and within cities. Regardless of whether the role ofdeterrence or those of poverty andinequality are emphasised as causes ofcrime, the use of aggregate data instatistical work may provoke seriousunobserved-heterogeneity biases. Diversity, divisiveness and heterogeneitymay also affect future trends, includingfurther vigilantism, official orsemi-official violence, segmentation,privatisation and ``medievalisation'. Thediscussion is completed by some ideas as tothe possibility that Latin America'spresent may be an accurate forecast ofEurope's future.     

Differentiation of hydrocephalic calf and human calvariae

Occasionally, partial calvariae of hydrocephalic calves are found in forensic contexts and mistakenly identified as human. Such specimens can be properly identified through immunological assessment of associated soft tissue, microscopic analysis of associated hair, and morphological comparison with documented museum specimens. Morphological comparison should focus on the form of the occiput, supraorbital grooves, and bulbous vault and presence of coronal processes.     

Cocaine and sudden "natural" death

The cardiovascular effects of cocaine may culminate in clinical episodes of angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, arrhythmias, and intracranial hemorrhage. To clarify whether or not cocaine causes fatalities by these mechanisms, we studied 24 cases of sudden, apparently natural deaths as a result of coronary arteriosclerosis (15 cases), hypertensive cardiovascular disease (4 cases), and intracranial hemorrhage (5 cases) associated with cocaine use. In 11 cases, cocaine was found in the blood (average concentration: 0.57 mg/L, range: 0.05 to 1.45 mg/L), whereas in the remainder, cocaine or its major metabolite was found in the urine or other tissues. In the majority of decedents, autopsy disclosed the existence of severe natural disease which could have been exacerbated by the administration of stimulant drugs, including cocaine. These data, and a review of the current medical literature, indicate that cocaine may precipitate the sudden death of an individual with undiagnosed cardiovascular disease. A contributory role of cocaine should be considered in any apparently natural death occurring in a population where cocaine abuse is prevalent.     

东亚地区秩序的未来：东亚还是亚太？

东亚历史上曾先后建立以中国为中心的朝贡——华夷秩序以及以日本、美国为核心的霸权秩序,在以国家主权为国际关系核心机制的当代,这些反映不平等国家间关系的秩序无法复制到当今东亚,东亚的现实也决定了不存在孕育这些秩序的土壤。同时,20世纪80年代以来的全球化和区域经济一体化两种趋势极大程度地影响了当今东亚秩序的建构,然而一个统一的东亚秩序的建构又受到该地区复杂的大国关系的制约,东亚秩序将摇摆于“东亚”与“亚太”之间。     

Which is it you want – equality or maternity leave?

In Alabaster v. Barclays Bank plc and Secretary of State for Social Security (No. 2: [2005] E.W.C.A Civ. 508, [2005] I.R.L.R. 576.) Michelle Alabaster won a grand total of ￡204.53 (plus ￡65.86 interest) after eight years of litigation, which included two visits to the Court of Appeal and one to the European Court of Justice. This marathon resulted from the sex discrimination which Alabaster had alleged in relation to the calculation of her Statutory Maternity Pay (S.M.P.) whilst she was pregnant 10 years earlier. The technicalities of the statutory schemes involved should not be allowed to disguise the important principle which finally emerges in the Court of Appeal and which underlines one of the longstanding criticisms of the equality legislation, namely the requirement that a woman must compare herself with a man in order to establish unlawful sex discrimination.