Detection of medical examiner cases from review of cremation requests

Title 9, Chapter 19, Article 3 of the Arizona Administrative Code requires all bodies that are to be cremated must have the death certificate reviewed by a county medical examiner. In Tucson, AZ, and surrounding Pima County, all cremation requests are submitted to the Forensic Science Center, where the death certificates are reviewed by one of 5 board-certified forensic pathologists. In 2002, there were 5557 cremation requests, and in 2003 there were 5662 cremation requests. Of these requests, 670 (12.1%) and 447 (7.9%) death certificates were flagged for further investigation in 2002 and 2003, respectively. Eventually, 47 cases (0.8% of total, 7.0% of flagged cases) were accepted as medical examiner cases in 2002, and 43 cases (0.8% of total, 9.6% of flagged cases) were accepted as medical examiner cases in 2003. In 2002, the majority of cases were handled as a records review; however, 4 cases were brought in for autopsy and 1 was certified after an external examination only. In 2003, all cases were certified via a records review. The manner of death in all but 3 of these deaths was certified as accident, with complications of remote trauma being the most common proximate cause of death. The 3 most common injuries were complications of fractured pelvis or femur (15 in 2002, 22 in 2003), head injury due to fall (18 in 2002, 8 in 2003), and complications of remote motor vehicle accident (3 in 2002, 6 in 2003). The other 3 deaths included 2 homicides, 1 in each year, and 1 suicide in 2003.     

Treating sexual offenders with learning disabilities in the community: a critical review

This study offers a critical review of a treatment group for sexual offenders with learning disabilities. The participants were diverted from criminal proceedings due to their level of cognitive functioning and attended a 7-month treatment program comprising of four main components: sex education, cognitive distortions, offending cycle, and relapse prevention. A number of psychometric assessments were administered immediately before and after intervention. Although no significant differences were found in attitudes toward sexual offending following treatment, the trend was for improvements in sex knowledge and honesty of sexual interest. Improvements in socialization skills (leisure time and interpersonal skills) were significant. No further incidents of sexual offending have been reported during a 12-month follow-up. A number of explanations for the nonsignificant improvement in attitudes are considered and recommendations for future treatment evaluation studies are made. The development of specific questionnaires and treatment programs for sexual offenders with learning disabilities is discussed.     

Reviews

Jeffrey D. Sachs & Katharina Pistor (eds), The Rule of Law and Economic Reform in Russia. Boulder: Westview Press, 1997, ix + 214 pp., £16.00.

Igor Chernyshev (with a contribution by Guy Standing) Statistics for Emerging Labour Markets in Transition Economies: A Technical Guide on Sources, Methods, Classifications and Policies. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997, xv + 171 pp., £45.00.

Soren Rinder Bollerup & Christian Dons Christensen, Nationalism in Eastern Europe. Causes and Consequences of the National Revivals and Conflicts in the Late‐Twentieth‐Century Eastern Europe. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997, xx + 308 pp., £45.00.

Jane I. Dawson, Eco‐Nationalism: Anti‐Nuclear Activism and National Identity in Russia, Lithuania and Ukraine. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1996, xii + 221 pp., $49.95 h/b, $16.95 p/b.

Mehdi Mozaffari (ed.), Security Politics in the Commonwealth of Independent States: The Southern Belt. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997, xlv + 234 pp., £42.50.

Fred Wehling, Irresolute Princes: Kremlin Decisionmaking in Middle East Crises, 1967–1973. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997, 225 pp., £40.00.

Roland Dannreuther, The Soviet Union and the PLO. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998, ix + 222 pp., £45.00.

William T. Lee, The ABM Treaty Charade: A Study in Elite Illusion and Delusion. Washington, DC: Council for Social and Economic Studies, 1997, 165 pp.

Willie Thompson, The Communist Movement Since 1945. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998, 262 pp., £13.99.

Robert Service, A History of Twentieth‐Century Russia. London: Allen Lane, 1997, xxxiv + 654 pp., £.25.00.

R. W. Davies, Soviet History in the Yeltsin Era. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997, viii + 264 pp., £15.99.

Paul R. Josephson, New Atlantis Revisited. Akademgorodok, the Siberian City of Science. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997, xxii + 351 pp., £27.50.

Andrei Sinyavsky, The Russian Intelligentsia. Translated by Lynn Visson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997, x + 98 pp.

Vera Tolz, Russian Academicians and the Revolution: Combining Professionalism and Politics. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997, xiv + 236 pp., £45.00.

Peter Waldron, Between Two Revolutions. Stolypin and the Politics of Renewal in Russia. London: UCL press, 1998, viii + 220 pp., £40.00.

Aleksandr B. Kamenskii, The Russian Empire in the Eighteenth Century. Searching for a Place in the World, trans. David Griffiths. New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1997, xii + 308 pp., $65.95 h/b, $24.95 p/b.

Mark Brzezinski, The Struggle for Constitutionalism in Poland. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998, xi + 254 pp., £45.00.

Anita J. Pra?mowska, Britain and Poland, 1939–1943: The Betrayed Ally. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, xi + 233 pp.

Mette Bryld & Erik Kulavig (eds), Soviet Civilization between Past and Present. Odense: Odense University Press, 1998, 193 pp., Kr. 225.00.

Graham Roberts, The Last Soviet Avant‐Garde: OBERIU—Fact, Fiction, Metafiction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, xiii + 274 pp., £40.00.     

The decline of partisanship in the United States: A reexamination of the neutrality hypothesis

The neutrality hypothesis suggests that the erosion of partisan loyalties in the United States does not reflect a growing sense of alienation from the party system, or a loss of public confidence in political parties generally. Instead, we are told that many independents simply regard the parties as irrelevant in the search for solutions to our most important national problems. The following report challenges the assumption that such beliefs necessarily lead citizens to express neutral feelings toward either the Democrats or the Republicans, or toward both. Data from the CPS election studies show, first, that aggregate levels of neutrality are about the same today as they were 20 years ago and, second, that there is a relationship between nonpartisanship and negative views concerning the parties' capacity to serve as representative (or linkage) institutions in democratic politics. It is our contention that, to some degree, this relationship can help us to account for the weakening of partisan attachments since 1964. If we are correct, a restoration of the parties' mass base will be even more difficult to achieve than the neutrality hypothesis implies.     

Psychotropic Medications for Youth in Child Welfare: Developing and Pilot-Testing A Field Guide for Team Decision-Making

High rates of children involved with the child welfare system are prescribed psychotropics. In response, federal legislation has mandated state child welfare agencies to develop policies to improve the coordination and oversight around the use of psychotropics. This project aimed to support such policies by developing and pilot-testing a field guide for team discussions and decision-making related to the use of psychotropics among youth in child welfare. We used a community-based participatory research (CBPR) framework to engage a team of local stakeholders, including former youth in foster care and parents, in the research. We developed a field guide to facilitate team discussions and decisions around the individual needs and preferences of youth and families, and we pilot-tested the field guide with child welfare staff, parents, and care team members in seven team meetings. Parents and care team members, in particular, highly valued the guide and found it useful to increase knowledge and improve practices such as side effect monitoring and information sharing. Child welfare responses were more mixed, and some reported feeling burdened by the additional tasks. More work is needed to integrate the guide into routine child welfare practice and reduce burden on staff.     

The extension of territorial waters

The oceans once belonged to everyone and to no one. Freedom of the seas served the world well for ages. But this anarchic principle is now hopelessly inadequate given the present environmental crisis involving massive water pollution and widespread extinction of marine species. The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea （UNCLOS） is all bark and no bite. Other international organizations are similarly ineffective including the International Whaling Commission, International Maritime Organization, and the International Seabed Authority. And regional bodies such as the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas and the Antarctic Treaty System are not much better. So, at least temporarily, it is up to coastal nations to police the waters of the world. The United States, as a superpower, should lead the way. The unilateral extension of U.S. territorial waters will enhance the prospects not only for environmental protection but also economic development and national security. It will also encourage other nations to do the same.     

Constitutions,Constitutionalism, and the European Union

The institutional reforms of the EU, coupled with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, have fuelled the debate about a European Constitution. This paper begins by examining the nature of constitutions and constitutionalism. The focus then turns to the EU itself. It is argued that the Community has indeed been transformed into a constitutional legal order, and that the arguments to the contrary are not convincing. This does not however mean that the EU has, or should have, a European Constitution cognisable as such which draws together the constitutional articles of the Treaties, together with the constitutional principles articulated by the European Court of Justice. The difficulties with this strategy are examined in detail, and the conclusion is that we should not at present pursue this course. It would be better to draw on the valuable work done by the European University Institute in its recent study in order to simplify and consolidate the Treaties.