European Community Law and the Redistribution of Regulatory Power in the United Kingdom

Abstract: This paper draws on a series of case studies of implementation of specific Community law instruments, in the fields of food safety, toy safety, beverage labelling, television broadcasting, and free movement of persons. The objective is to explore the question of how, and to what extent, the need to implement Community law and policy functions to reinforce or to retard shifts in regulatory power in the United Kingdom: from local to central regulatory power; from official regulation to self-regulation; and from bureaucratic and political controls to privately-initiated control through the courts.     

Book review

Anthony Arnold, Afghanistan: The Soviet Invasion in Perspective. Stanford, California: Hoover Institution Press, 1981. 126 pp. $9.95.

Michael Radu (ed.), Eastern Europe and the Third World. Eastbourne: Holt‐Saunders Ltd., 1981. 358 pp. £21.75.

E. J. Feuchtwanger and Peter Nailor (eds.), The Soviet Union and The Third World. London: Macmillan Press, 1981. 229 pp. £20.00

Wladyslaw Bienkowski, Theory and reality: the development of social systems. London & New York: Allison & Busby, 1981. 303 pp. £5.95.

Allen S. Whiting, Siberian Development and East Asia: Threat or Promise? Stanford: University Press, 1981. xv + 276 pp. $22.50.

Christopher D. Jones, Soviet Influence in Eastern Europe: Political Autonomy and the Warsaw Pact. Praeger, 1981. 322 pp. $29.95 cloth, $10.95 paperback.

Stephen Kaplan, Diplomacy of Power. Washington: Brookings Institution, 1981. 733 pp. $9.50 paper, $19.95 cloth.

Derek Leebaert (ed.), Soviet Military Thinking. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1981. xii + 300 pp. £14.50 hardback, £6.95 paperback.

J. Brine, M. Perry and Andrew Sutton (eds.), Home, School and Leisure in the Soviet Union. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1980. xiv + 279 pp. £15.00.

Manfred Melzer, Anlagevermögen, Produktion und Beschäftigung der Industrie im Gebiet der DDR von 1936 bis 1978, sowie Schätzung des künftigen Ange‐botspotentials. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1980. 250 pp.

Ilmari Susiluoto, The origins and development of systems thinking in the Soviet Union. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1982. 210 pp.

Michael Waller, Democratic Centralism, an Historical Commentary. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1981. 155 pp. £14.50.     

DNA Analysis of Natural Fiber Rope*

Abstract: When rope is found at a crime scene, the type of fiber is currently identified through its microscopic characteristics. However, these characteristics may not always unambiguously distinguish some types of rope from others. If rope samples contain cells from the plants of origin, then DNA analysis may prove to be a better way to identify the type of rope obtained from a crime scene. The objective of this project was to develop techniques of DNA analysis that can be used to differentiate between ropes made from Cannabis sativa L. (hemp), Agave sisalana Perrine (sisal), Musa textilis Née (abaca, “Manila hemp”), Linum usitatissimum L. (flax), and Corchorus olitorus L. (jute). The procedures included extracting the DNA from the rope, performing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using the extracted DNA as a template, and analyzing the DNA products. A primer pair for PCR, chosen from within a chloroplast gene for the large subunit of ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase, was designed to be specific for plant DNA and complementary to the genes from all five plants. The resulting PCR fragments were approximately 771 base pairs long. The PCR fragments, distinguished through base sequence analysis or restriction enzyme analysis, could be used to identify the five different rope types. The procedure provides a useful addition to visual methods of comparing rope samples.     

Mickey Mouse numbers and inequality research in developing countries

The usage of unreliable statistics is common in development economics, particularly in research on income distributional issues. It is widely believed, for example, that the distribution of income in Taiwan equalised dramatically between the early 1950s and about 1980. Under close examination it is clear much of the evidence advanced is flawed, the treatment of data by a number of analysts is puzzling, and links between export‐orientation and inequality trends are flimsy. It is argued that economists should be far more concerned about data problems in their research.     

Intergenerational continuities and discontinuities in intimate partner violence: a two-generational prospective study

This study focuses on intergenerational continuity in violent partner relationships. We investigate whether exposure to caregiver intimate partner violence (IPV) during adolescence leads to increased involvement in IPV during early adulthood (age 21-23) and adulthood (age 29-31). We also investigate whether this relationship differs by gender. Although there is theoretical and empirical support for intergenerational continuity of relationship violence, there are few prospective studies of this issue. We use data from the Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS), a longitudinal study of the development of antisocial behavior in a community sample of 1,000 urban youth followed from age 14 to adulthood. The original sample includes 73% men and 85% African American or Hispanic youth. Measures come from a combination of interviews and official records. The Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS) is used to assess IPV and severe IPV in the youth and parent generations. Analyses controlled for child physical abuse, race/ethnicity as well as parent education, family stability, and poverty. In multivariate models, adolescent exposure to caregiver severe IPV resulted in significantly increased risk of relationship violence in early adulthood (age 21-23). Furthermore, there is an indirect effect of adolescent exposure to severe IPV on later adult involvement in IPV (age 29-31), mediated by involvement in a violent relationship in early adulthood. These results were largely invariant by gender. However, we observed a direct pathway between IPV exposure and adult IPV for women (marginally significant) suggesting that adolescent exposure to caregiver IPV may set in motion women-specific processes.     

Evaluation of pediatric skull fracture imaging techniques

Radiologic imaging is crucial in the diagnosis of skull fracture, but there is some doubt as to whether different imaging modalities can accurately identify fractures present on a human skull. While studies have been performed to evaluate the efficacy of radiologic imaging at other anatomical locations, there have been no systematic studies comparing various CT techniques, including high resolution imaging with and without 3D reconstructions to conventional radiologic imaging in children, we investigated which imaging modalities: high-resolution CT scan with 3D projections, clinical-resolution CT scans or X-rays, best showed fracture occurrence in a pediatric human cadaver skull by having an expert pediatric radiologist examine radiologic images from fractured skulls. The skulls used were taken from pediatric cadavers ranging in age from 5 months to 16 years. We evaluated the sensitivity and specificity for the imaging modalities using dissection findings as the gold standard. We found that high-resolution CT scans with 3D projections and conventional CT provided the most accurate fracture diagnosis (single-fracture sensitivity of 71%) followed by X-rays (single-fracture sensitivity of 63%). Linear fractures outsider the region of the sutures were more identifiable than diastatic fractures, though the incidence of false positives was greater for linear fractures. In the two cases where multiple fractures were present on the same anatomical skull location, the radiologist was less likely to identify the presence of additional fractures than a single fracture. Overall, the high-resolution and clinical-resolution CT scans had the similar accuracy for detecting skull fractures while the use of the X-ray was both less accurate and had a lower specificity.     

Temporal Linkages in Violent and Nonviolent Criminal Activity

Research on the temporal distribution of criminal behavior has highlighted two distinct mechanisms—population heterogeneity and state dependence. Most of this work indicates that long-term patterns of criminal offending reflect a mixture of stable individual differences and the causal effect of life events and experiences. Yet several ambiguities remain. Among the most important of these problems is whether both population heterogeneity and state dependence processes operate for different types of offending. We use longitudinal official record and self-report data for violent and non-violent offending activity from the Rochester Youth Development Study to address these ambiguities.