On the Design of Efficient Priority Rules for Secured Creditors: Empirical Evidence from A Change in Law

This article assesses the effect of a reduction in secured creditor priority on distributions and administrative costs in liquidating bankruptcy cases by reporting the first empirical study of the effect of a priority change. Priority reform had redistributive effects in liquidating bankruptcy. As expected, average payments to general unsecured creditors were significantly higher after the reform than before the reform and payments to secured creditors decreased. Reform did not increase the size of the pie to be distributed in bankruptcy. Nor did it increase the direct costs of bankruptcy.JEL Classification: K00, K20, G33     

Screening of myocardial contraction bands: a comparison between two histological staining methods.

Two histological stains for demonstration of contraction bands (cb): Mallory's phosphotungstic acid hematoxylin (PTAH) and a modification of luxol fast blue (LFB) were compared. Microscopical sections from hearts from 60 autopsies were screened. The regional distribution of the cb lesions was also studied. It was found that PTAH showed cb more consistently than LFB. None of the stains were suitable for screening in the lowest magnification. In cases of cardiac death the cb were often extensive and scattered throughout the myocardium. In non-cardiac deaths with cb these were always discrete and seen only in one location which might be a means of differentiating lesions of pathogenetic importance from agonal ones.     

Sex Differences in Age Patterns of Delinquent/Criminal Careers: Results from Poisson Latent Class Analyses of the Philadelphia Cohort Study

Applications of latent class analyses to the study of criminal careers have yielded results with implications for criminological theory. Distinct latent classes of individuals within various samples have been identified based upon the similarity of individuals with respect to their rate of offending across the teen and adult years, net of the effects of other regressors. In previous research on samples of males taken from the cities of London and Philadelphia, four and five such categories have been identified respectively, ranging from a group of nonoffenders to a group of chronic offenders. However, the question of whether similar findings hold for females has not been adequately addressed, in part due to the scarcity of longitudinal samples with sizable female populations. Data from the Second Philadelphia Cohort are used to address this and related questions. First, are there latent classes of female offenders? Second, if such categories do exist, how do they compare? Third, how do classes of male and female offenders compare on key measures of criminal careers? Analyses of the samples yield differing numbers of classes for males and females. Gender invariances as well as differences in patterns of offending are also found and are discussed.     

Injuries due to deliberate violence in areas of Denmark. II. Victims of homicide in the Copenhagen area

As part of a transcultural investigation of injuries due to deliberate violence in Denmark and South America, homicides in the Copenhagen area were studied for a 1-year period. Forty-five cases corresponding to a rate of approximately 2/10(5) per year were recorded. The rate seems to be increasing and the pattern changing with a higher frequency of stabbing and with an increasing frequency of high blood-alcohol concentrations in the victims. The highest number were killed at home. In the majority of cases the aggressor and the victim knew each other. A reduction in alcohol consumption is indicated as a possible preventive measure.