Cocaine- and methamphetamine-related deaths in San Diego County (1987): homicides and accidental overdoses

Cocaine- and methamphetamine-related homicides and fatal accidental overdoses in San Diego County were studied retrospectively for the 1987 calendar year. Cocaine was involved in 66 cases (39 homicides, 27 accidental overdoses), methamphetamine in 32 cases (23 homicides, 9 accidental overdoses), and a combination of cocaine and methamphetamine in 10 cases (4 homicides, 6 accidental overdoses). The composite for cocaine-related deaths was a 30-year-old black man in whom was also found at least 1 other drug, usually ethanol or morphine. The composite for methamphetamine-related deaths was a 32-year-old Caucasian man who used methamphetamine with at least 1 other drug (usually ethanol). For cases involving both cocaine and methamphetamine, the composite was a 36-year-old Caucasian man in whom was also found at least 1 other drug, usually ethanol, codeine, or morphine. Mean tissue concentrations of cocaine and benzoylecgonine were significantly higher in accidental overdoses than in homicides except for cocaine concentrations in liver, which did not differ significantly between the two groups. For methamphetamine-related deaths there was no significant difference between mean tissue concentrations in accidental overdoses and in homicides. Cocaine or methamphetamine or both were involved in approximately one third of homicides in San Diego County in 1987, and when fatal accidental overdoses were included, cocaine was involved in twice as many cases as methamphetamine.     

THE BOOK SHELF

Books reviewed in this article: 1. Armstrong, Herbert W., The Missing Dimension in Sex . 2. Eisner, Betty Grover, Ph.D., The Unused Potential of Marriage and Sex . 3. Greer, Germaine, The Female Enuch . 4. Gunther, Bernard, What to Do Till the Messiah Comes . 5. Hastings, Donald W., M.D., A Doctor Speaks on Sexual Expression in Marriage . 6. Pannor, Reuben; Fred Massarik, and Byron Evans, The Unmarried Father . 7. Peale, Mrs. Norman Vincent, The Adventure of Being a Wife . 8. Burton, John David, and Robert L. McFarland, Ph.D., Learning for Loving - Communication in Marriage . (See remarks)     

A Life of Grief: an Exploration of Disenfranchised Grief in Sex Offender Significant Others

In criminal justice, researchers have identified disenfranchised grief, or the denial of empathy and social support during the grieving process, in family members who have lost relatives through imprisonment and execution. Although both of these situations involve the physical removal of the offender from the family members’ lives, non-physical losses may also prompt the grieving process. One of these non-physical losses is a psychosocial loss, in which the person the family members knew is now gone. Given the public stigma of the label “sex offender” and the collateral consequences that occur as a result of that label, it is possible that sex offender significant others experience a psychosocial loss. The current research is an exploratory study that used qualitative interviews with 29 spouses and significant others of convicted sex offenders to explore if and how disenfranchised grief impacts sex offender partners. Findings support both the existence of and the detrimental impact of disenfranchised grief on sex offender partners.     

The Transition to 'New' Social Democracy: The Role of Capitalism, Representation and (Hampered) Contestation

This article argues that existing accounts of the transformation from 'traditional' to 'new' social democracy has thus far only identified the contextual changes that have prompted this move. In doing so, they have failed to account for the motives of social democratic party actors in undertaking the transition to 'new' social democracy in response to those changes. The article draws upon a critical realist method, and Marxist and anti-representational theories, to conceptualise 'traditional' social democratic party relations as suffering from tensions between constituents' demands for decommodification, the attempt by party elites to contain (and thereby 'represent') those demands and the (in)compatibility of this process of containment with the need to recommodify social relations in the light of periodic crises in contemporary capitalism. It argues that these tensions explain the attempt by party elites to promote the move towards 'new' social democracy, the (eventual) acquiescence of party constituents to those attempts and the subsequent exit from social democratic constituencies which has resulted. The argument is made with reference to the British Labour Party and Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).     

Community Empowerment or a Strategy of Containment? Evaluating Neighbourhood Governance in the City of Westminster

The longstanding emphasis on the neighbourhood as a scale for intervention and action has given rise to a variety of forms of governance with a number of different rationales. The predominant rationales about the purpose of neighbourhood governance are encapsulated in a fourfold typology developed by Lowndes and Sullivan (2008). This article sets out to test this approach by drawing on an evaluation of neighbourhood initiatives in the City of Westminster which were delivered through a third sector organisation, the Paddington Development Trust. ‘Insider’ perspectives gathered at city and neighbourhood levels regarding the infrastructure for neighbourhood management are discussed and evaluated in the light of these rationales. The conclusions, while broadly reflecting Lowndes and Sullivan and a follow-up study of Manchester, suggest that in Westminster the civic and economic rationales tend to predominate. However, the Westminster approach is contingent on the prevailing ethos and funding regimes at central and local levels and remains relatively detached from mainstream services. While community empowerment is an important part of the policy rhetoric, it is argued that in practice a ‘strategy of containment’ operates whereby residents in the neighbourhoods have relatively little control over targets and resources and that new governance mechanisms can be relatively easily de-coupled when required. In retrospect, co-production might have been a more effective model for neighbourhood governance, not least given its fit with policy direction.     

.177 caliber pellet classification system and identification key

A classification system and identification key for .177 caliber air gun pellets was developed based on a five-class characteristic criterion. Sixty-eight pellet types from 15 companies were examined and compared. A classification system was developed based on the pellets' head shapes, skirt types, lengths, weights, and other markings or observations. In some cases, when a pellet is recovered from a crime scene, product brand identification may aid the investigation. Even though all product brands cannot be identified, various brands of pellets can be eliminated based on a pellet's class characteristics. The pellet producers in this study were located in the following countries: China, Czech Republic, England, Korea, Spain, and the United States. An identification key can be used for possible pellet identification or elimination.     

A two-dimensional analysis of seventy years of United Nations voting

International relations scholars frequently use roll-call votes on resolutions in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to measure similarity in the foreign policy ideologies of states. They then correlate those measures with consequential outcomes, such as development lending, trade, or military disputes. Dynamic ideal point models of UNGA voting thus far have been restricted to a single dimension. We examine the existence of a stable, important, and interpretable second dimension underlying contestation in the UN. From the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, North–South conflict constitutes a stable second dimension, shaped heavily by the agenda-setting powers of the so-called Non-aligned Movement and the Group of 77. In the periods before and after, the second dimension neither is stable nor easily interpretable, though it is sometimes important. We suggest that in most applications, our original one-dimensional estimates have conceptual advantages with minimal losses in explanatory value. We illustrate that conclusion with an analysis that correlates ideal point changes with militarized interstate disputes. Yet, our findings also suggest that scholars interested in specific issues, such as the Middle East, human rights, or arms control, might benefit from more specifically tailored ideal point estimates.