Organization and environment: The case of correctional personnel training programs

An intensive field study of 17 correctional personnel training programs was conducted to assess the organization-environment context in which these programs emerged and operated. Content analysis of site visit data revealed that correctional training programs less often served specific organization goal achievement purposes, and more often served as general strategies for coping with external environmental demands and pressures. A theoretical framework for examining organization-environment relations is described, and then used to analyze correctional training programs as a boundary-spanning activity that relates correctional organizations to environmental conditions. Organizational responses to environmental demands are placed along a continuum of adjustment ranging from survival, to adaptation, and innovation. Organizational responses to environmental demands, in turn, are related to training patterns that dovetail with the major needs of organizations and their personnel in efforts to adjust to the environment.     

Multiple self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head: report of a case and review of the literature

Multiple self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head are rare and usually present a challenge to the pathologist and to the police in determining the manner of death. We report a case of two suicidal gunshot wounds to the head. The literature is reviewed, and the pertinent findings, including location of the wounds, location of the brain injuries, types of weapons used, and criteria important to determine the manner of death, are discussed.     

Immigration: perspectives from receiving countries

The author examines the issue of international migration from the standpoint of receiving countries. He attempts "to understand how and why migrant-receiving countries respond as they do, and to suggest some of the new issues in international migration that arise in a world in which the supply of would-be migrants and refugees is now greater than receiving countries are willing to accept."     

An attributional examination of retributive versus utilitarian philosophies of punishment

Two basic goals of punishment—retribution and utility—and the means to those goals, including isolation, rehabilitation, and the creation of fear, were first examined. The objectives of punishment were then related to attributions regarding the cause of a transgression. It was documented that punishment goals are mediated by the expectancies and affects that are elicited by causal beliefs. It also was argued that the purposes of punishment are more state-like than trait-like, for they change as a function of the reason for a transgression. Data from three laboratory experiments, as well as a field study regarding reactions to O. J. Simpson for his alleged crimes, were presented in support of the above beliefs. In addition, the morality of retribution versus utilitarianism was discussed in the context of the caning of Michael Fay in Singapore. It is suggested that rehabilitation may be the most moral of the punishment means.