On assessing the mood of the public toward the police: Some conceptual issues

The use of attitudinal surveys has become a widely accepted method for the incorporation of public opinion in public policy decisions. Because of the assumption that the interpretation of such surveys is straightforward and clear, little critical attention has been devoted to the methodological and theoretical problems encountered when translating these findings into public policy. A case in point involves the proliferation of surveys aimed at assessing the mood of the public toward the police. A review of the literature reveals that the research findings about the public mood are contradictory and thus lack convergent validity. The findings of this study indicate that this lack of convergent validity in the images of the public toward the police can be explained on both methodological and theoretical grounds. More specifically, the findings indicate that the mood of the public is very different depending on the level of specificity of the items used to tap that mood. Items eliciting evaluations of a general nature show the public as supportive of the police, while items of a specific nature show much less public support. This apparent paradox is explained through the use of a theoretical framework developed by Easton (1965), which emphasizes diffuse and specific support as external influences on institutions.     

CENTRAL CO-ORDINATION OF COMMONWEALTH POLICY-MAKING: ROLES AND DILEMMAS OF THE PRIME MINISTER'S DEPARTMENT

The Cabinet, in a word, is a board of control chosen by the legislature, out of persons whom it trusts and knows, to rule. the nation…A Cabinet is a combining committee—a hyphen which joins, a buckle which fastens, the legislative part of the State to the. executwe part of the State. In its origin it belongs to the one, in its funcuons it belongs to the other…The real power is not in the sovereign, it is in the Prune Minister and in the Cabinet—that is, in the hands of a committee appointed by Parliament, and of the chairman of that committee. Walter Bagehot: The English Constitution, 1867.     

A fatal interaction of methocarbamol and ethanol in an accidental poisoning

A case is presented of a fatal drug interaction caused by ingestion of methocarbamol (Robaxin) and ethanol. Methocarbamol is a carbamate derivative used as a muscle relaxant with sedative effects. Therapeutic concentrations of methocarbamol are reported to be 24 to 41 micrograms/mL. Biological fluids were screened for ethanol using the Abbott TDx system and quantitated by gas-liquid chromatography (GLC). Determination of methocarbamol concentrations in biological tissue homogenates and fluids were obtained by colorimetric analysis of diazotized methocarbamol. Blood ethanol concentration was 135 mg/dL (0.135% w/v) and urine ethanol was 249 mg/dL (0.249% w/v). Methocarbamol concentrations were: blood, 257 micrograms/mL; bile, 927 micrograms/L; urine, 255 micrograms/L; gastric, 3.7 g; liver, 459 micrograms/g; and kidney, 83 micrograms/g. The combination of ethanol and carbamates is contraindicated since acute alcohol intoxication combined with carbamate usage can lead to combined central nervous system depression as a result of the interactive sedative-hypnotic properties of the compounds.     

Mental health policy for the 1990s: tinkering in the interstices

That public policy has abysmally failed the chronically mentally ill seems beyond genuine dispute. Successive reforms have foundered on the familiar shoals of overblown expectations and insufficient resources. In this paper, we review current policies affecting the chronic and disabled mentally ill, and we consider some approaches to reform. We begin by trying to identify and characterize the chronically mentally ill and their disabilities. Next, we consider the chaotic patchwork of federal and state programs that has come to replace the asylum. We then criticize several competing models of reform that we believe fail to make an empathic connection with the mentally ill. Finally, we urge a strategy of limited reform consistent with available empirical data about program effectiveness and sensitive to the likely economic, political, and legal constraints of the 1990s.