Sex offender residence restriction laws: Parental perceptions and public policy

Despite a steady decline in sex crime over the past twenty years, new laws, such as residence restrictions, targeting such crime have proliferated. Some scholars have argued that public concern about sexual offending against young children has served as a catalyst for the emergence of these laws. Few studies, however, have empirically tested this claim. To address this gap and to contribute to scholarship on public opinion about crime and justice, this research tests a central implication flowing from prior work—namely, the notion that people with children will be more likely to endorse increased restrictions on where sex offenders can live. Analyses of public opinion data from a 2006 poll of Florida residents suggest that parents are indeed significantly more likely to support such restrictions. Implications of the study for research and policy are discussed.     

Court Sentencing Patterns for Environmental Crimes: Is There a “Green” Gap in Punishment?

Objectives

This study examines sentencing patterns for environmental crimes and tests the assumption that “green” offenders receive more lenient treatment from criminal courts than non-environmental offenders.

Methods

We present two sets of analyses. First, we present an empirical portrait of environmental felony offenses convicted in a single state (Florida) over a fifteen-year period and the resulting criminal sanctions. Second, we use a precision matching analysis to assess whether environmental offenders receive more lenient treatment when compared to non-environmental offenders with the same characteristics and offense severity scores.

Results

Findings indicate that an overall small percentage of felony convictions in state courts stem from environmental crimes. We also find that punishments for environmental crimes are more lenient than sanctions assigned to comparable non-environmental offenses when the environmental crime is ecological, but that punishments are sometimes harsher when the environmental crime involves animals.

Conclusions

The findings provide general support for the argument that courts and other formal institutions of social control treat environmental crimes more leniently than non-environmental crimes. This paper also raises important questions about citizen and state actors’ perceptions of crimes against the environment and, more generally, about the ways in which theories of court sentencing behaviors apply to environmental crime sanctioning decisions.

     

Deer stand fatalities in Kentucky: two cases of reverse suspension and blunt force trauma

Hunting many types of wild game is an avidly pursued outdoor activity that attracts all ages and both genders at various times of the year. Deer hunting is a popular sport in many regions of North America. A variety of weapons are used in the hunting, trapping, and killing of game. As a variety of different modalities are used, myriad types of injuries unique to the type of hunting can occur. Most deer hunting-related fatalities identified at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Kentucky are accidental firearm injuries. Less commonly encountered are fatalities resulting from elevation of the hunter in a tree stand, often associated with poor design or construction of the perch. We present 2 tree stand-related deaths. One victim died of positional asphyxia due to reverse suspension from a hunting tree stand. The second victim died of multiple blunt force injuries sustained in a 20-foot fall from a tree stand. We summarize the features of morbidity and mortality related to deer hunting based on investigations by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.     

Does one size fit all? Modelling macroeconomic linkages in the West African Economic and Monetary Union

We construct a structural macroeconometric model for member states of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA). Fitting this model to annual and quarterly time-series data allows us to identify the channels through which macroeconomic innovations in one country impact on other countries in the union. We also discover the extent of heterogeneity across the member states in terms of the degree of similarity of macroeconomic transmission mechanisms. This is one important element in measuring the costs of union membership for each country.     

Support for Le Pen in France: Two Elections in Trompe l'œil

There is a comforting consensus among political commentators that the 2007 presidential election marked the end of Jean-Marie Le Pen as a force in French politics. The shock election of the Front National leader to the presidential run-off in 2002, by contrast, is explained as a surge in the Le Pen vote specific to the prevailing electoral conditions. This article challenges that interpretation of both elections. It shows that, despite Le Pen's unforeseen success in 2002, there was no surge of support for him, and that despite Le Pen's supposed collapse in 2007, he won close to 4 million votes while popular agreement with his ideas rose to its highest recorded level. The article concludes that Le Pen remains a powerful presence in French politics and that his supporters continue to constitute a large and highly influential constituency.     

Iatrogenic catheter-related cardiac tamponade: a case report of fatal hydropericardium following subcutaneous implantation of a chemotherapeutic injection port

The need to obtain dependable access to the vascular system constitutes a significant component in the treatment and management of critically ill patients. Intravenous chemotherapy administered to cancer patients over an extended period of time often results in loss of peripheral vascular access due to vein sclerosis, "exhaustion" or tissue necrosis. Medical investigators have designed and steadily upgraded a variety of devices constructed to improve venous access for long-term utilization. As with the introduction of any foreign object into the body, each of these devices has complications which may be life threatening and occasionally fatal. We present an unusual case of iatrogenic acute hydropericardium and cardiac tamponade caused by the percutaneous infusion of chemotherapeutic fluid via a right subclavian central venous implant system (Port-a-Cath). Failure to implant and monitor the device with a radiograph following placement according to manufacturer's guidelines and accepted standards of medical practice were causally related to an unusual complication, namely, perforation of the right cardiac ventricle by the catheter tip, resulting in sudden and unexpected cardiac death.     

Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy: neuropathologic findings

Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy refers to sudden death of an individual with a clinical history of epilepsy, in whom a postmortem examination fails to uncover a gross anatomic, toxicologic, or environmental cause of death. Evidence of terminal seizure activity may not be present. One to two percent of natural deaths certified by the medicolegal death investigator are attributed to epilepsy. Detailed microscopic examination of the brain has increasingly afforded the identification of structural changes representative of epileptogenic foci. The authors present 70 cases of death attributed to sudden unexpected death in epilepsy. These cases were classified as follows: individuals who lacked a gross brain lesion, those who had a brain lesion demonstrable at autopsy, and those who lacked neuropathologic evaluation because of decomposition or because only an external examination was done. All of the subjects had a clinical history of seizures. The authors confirm that various microscopic findings, including neuronal clusters, increased perivascular oligodendroglia, gliosis, cystic gliotic lesions, decreased myelin, cerebellar Bergmann's gliosis, and folial atrophy, are present in a higher percentage of the brains of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy subjects than in the brains of age- and sex-matched control subjects.