Stature estimation based on dimensions of the bony pelvis and proximal femur

Pelin et al. recently showed that sacral height measured on lateral magnetic resonance images can be used with moderate accuracy to reconstruct stature in males. In most forensic anthropological cases, however, sacral dimensions must be obtained from dry bones. In this study, the relationship between stature and sacral height, hip height, and femur head diameter measured on dry bone was evaluated for American Blacks and Whites of both sexes (n = 247). There are significant correlation between stature and these three dimensions, but the results suggest that none of the dimensions predict stature with the accuracy needed to be useful in forensic anthropological investigations.     

Individual and Marital Consequences of Victimization: Moderating Effects of Relationship Efficacy and Spouse Support

Marital dissatisfaction and depression are common characteristics of abused women. In this investigation, we attempted to identify variables that might buffer women's marital satisfaction and stability, and their psychological adjustment against the effects of verbal and physical abuse. Verbal and physical victimization had significant negative direct effects on women's marital satisfaction: victimized women were characterized by less satisfaction and less stability regardless of their sense of relationship efficacy or their perceptions of spousal support. However, the effects of victimization on women's depression were moderated by relationship efficacy, perceived intimacy, and acceptance of emotional expression provided by the spouse: nonvictimized women who perceived more support and felt more efficacious, relative to those who felt less support and less efficacy, experienced fewer depressive symptoms, while victimized women who perceived more support and felt more efficacious in their relationships, relative to those characterized by less support and less efficacy, experienced more depressive symptoms. In the context of marital violence, increasing levels of relationship efficacy and perceptions of spouse support may be accompanied by an increase in the risk for depressive reactions.     

UNIFIED FAMILY COURTS

Fragmented court systems are especially problematic for domestic violence victims because they typically are involved in more than one proceeding that stems from the same pattern of abuse. The proceedings are handled in different courts and before different judges, who are often unaware of these orders being issued in other proceedings. Consequently, conflicting orders are prevalent and the protection and needs of victims are often not met. A unified family court, on the other hand, provides one court with the subject-matter jurisdiction to handle all family-related matters and one judge to hear all cases that involve a single family, resulting in conflicting orders being issued less frequently. Additionally, the needs of victims are better served as a result of the services component. Given the fragmented state of the court systems in New York and Pennsylvania, United States; Alberta, Canada; and Australia, unified family courts should be implemented in each locality.     

PRO SE DIVORCE LITIGANTS

With the increased number of divorce litigants appearing pro se in the past century, trial court judges and court personnel are forced to deal with their conflicting obligations with more frequency. It is virtually impossible for a trial court judge to ensure all litigants have a fair and meaningful trial without compromising their neutrality. Likewise, court personnel are allowed to give out legal information but not legal advice, with the definition of legal information and advice not neatly packaged into two separate and distinct categories. Consequently, changes must be made. This note suggests various solutions that can be imposed to either reevaluate the role of trial court judges and court personnel so that they no longer have conflicting obligations and are able to accommodate the needs of the pro se litigants or implement services that can provide pro se litigants with other avenues of obtaining information and assistance.     

President Clinton's Fiscal 1998 Budget: Political and Constitutional Paths to Balance

This article examines President Clinton's FY 98 budget proposals and the political and economic factors that led to the balanced budget agreement. Also explored are the constitutional approaches to fiscal discipline: the balanced budget amendment, the tax supermajority amendment, and the line item veto that was used 80 times by President Clinton to delete over a billion dollars. The analysis reveals that budget bargaining was continuous before and after the budget agreement was reached, moving downward from decisions on macro-budgetary totals to micro-budgetary choices on tax cuts and appropriations. The study concludes that President Clinton was relatively successful in achieving budgetary goals under divided government, that the agreement was significant despite the economic growth that made it easier, and that constitutional remedies will continue to be important in the coming years.     

Review

Timothy J. Colton, Moscow: Governing the Socialist Metropolis. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1996, xvi + 939 pp., £28.50.

Reiner Weichhardt (ed.), Status of Economic Reforms in Cooperation Partner Countries in the mid‐1990s: Opportunities, Constraints, Security Implications. Brussels: NATO, 1996, 293 pp.

Pal Gáspár (ed.), Changes and Challenges: Economic Transformation in East‐Central Europe. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1995, 146 pp.

Ian Jeffries, A Guide to Economies in Transition. London: Routledge, 1996, ix + 816 pp.

Rumen Dobrinsky & Michael Landesmann (eds), Transforming Economies and European Integration. Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1995, xvi + 331 pp. £59.95.

John P. Hardt & Richard F. Kaufman (eds), East‐Central European Economies in Transition. New York: M. E. Sharp, 1995, xv + 709 pp., $39.95.

Eckhard J. Dittrich, Gert Schmidt & Richard Whitley (eds), Industrial Transformation in Europe. Process and Contexts. London: Sage, 1995, x + 290 pp., £35.00.

Gary McMahon (ed.), Lessons in Economic Policy for Eastern Europe from Latin America. London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996, xxii + 256 pp., $40.00.

Sergei Sinel'nikov‐Murylev, Byudzhetnyi krizis v Rossii: 1985–1995 gody. Moscow: Evraziya, 1995, 316 pp.

Sue Bridger, Rebecca Kay & Kathryn Pinnick, No More Heroines? Russia, Women and the Market. London: Routledge, 1996, ix + 220 pp., £12.99.

Simon Clarke (ed.), Labour Relations in Transition: Wages, Employment and Industrial Conflict in Russia. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 1996, x + 282 pp., £49.95.

Oksana Dmitrieva, Regional Development: The USSR and After. London: UCL Press, 1996, xi + 211 pp., £40.00 h/b, £14.95 p/b.

Richard Pomfret, The Economies of Central Asia. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996, 205 pp., £27.50.

Mehrdad Haghayeghi, Islam and Politics in Central Asia. London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1995, xxiv + 264 pp., £30.00.

Revaz Gachechiladze, The New Georgia: Space, Society, Politics. London: UCL Press, 1995, xxi + 205 pp., £40.00 h/b, £14.95 p/b.

Uri Ra'anan & Kate Martin (eds), Russia: A Return to Imperialism? Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996, viii + 216 pp., £29.50.

Thomas Carothers, Assessing Democracy Assistance: The Case of Romania. Washington: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1996, vi+ 144 pp., $12.95.

Peter Lentini (ed.), Elections and Political Order in Russia: The Implications of the 1993 Elections to the Federal Assembly. London: Oxford University Press/Central European University Press, 1995, xii + 292 pp., £30.00 h/b, £11.95 p/b.

Stephen White, Russia Goes Dry: Alcohol, State and Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, xiii + 250 pp., £40.00 h/b, £14.95 p/b.

Edvard Radzinsky, Stalin: The First In‐depth Biography Based on Explosive New Documents from Russia's Secret Archives. Translated by H. T. Willetts. New York, Doubleday, 1996, xii + 607 pp.

Robert F. Byrnes, V. O. Kliuchevskii, Historian of Russia. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1995, xxi + 301 pp., £31.50.     

Changing legal standards for proof of causation in hazardous waste tort cases. Plaintiffs' problems and congressional responses

Increasing public awareness and concern over the possible dangers of exposure to toxic chemicals and hazardous wastes has resulted in a variety of lawsuits brought by plaintiffs claiming injury resulting from chemical exposure. The legal system and its traditional approach to tort cases demands that a plaintiff demonstrate that a particular chemical substance was the "cause in fact" of his injury. However, a plaintiff's inability to present credible scientific evidence sufficient to pinpoint conclusively the specific cause of his injury or disease, particularly in cancer cases, leads to defeat in courts of law. This article discusses the existing barriers to plaintiffs' recovery in toxic tort cases and reviews congressional proposals designed to ease plaintiffs' evidentiary burden and increase their chances of prevailing.