Stray bullets and “mushrooms”: Random shootings of bystanders in four cities, 1977–1988

Bystanders killed by bullets not specifically intended for them have long been a very small part of the homicide problem. But the frequency of press accounts of such killings and woundings has apparently increased nationally in recent years. To test this impression, we compiled all shootings of bystanders hit at random and reported in the published indexes of theNew York Times, theLos Angeles Times, and theWashington Post for 1977–1988, as well as a key word computer search of stories in theBoston Globe. We found a rapid increase in both bystander woundings and killings since 1985 in all four cities. The base rate was quite low, and total bystander deaths appear to comprise less than 1% of all homicides in these cities. Nonetheless, the numbers were large enough to show that most bystanders reported shot in New York and Los Angeles are victims of random shootings into crowds, rather than single stray bullets striking a lone individual mushroom. The reverse was true in Boston and Washington, with the effect of much lower rates of bystanders reported shot in those cities.     

Reviews

Feminisms’ Psychoanalysis

Parveen Adams and Elizabeth Cowie (eds), The Woman in Question: m/f (Verso) London, 1990; Elizabeth Grosz, Jacques Lacan: A Feminist Introduction (Allen & Unwin) Sydney, 1990; John Lechte, Julia Kristeva (Routledge) London, 1990; Margaret Whitford, Luce Irigaray: Philosophy in the Feminine (Routledge), London, 1991.

Feminist Re‐Readings

Sarah Mills, Lynn Pearce, Sue Spaull and Elaine Millard (eds), Feminist Readings/Feminists Reading (Harvester Wheatsheaf) Hemel Hempstead, 1989.

Oppositional Interests and Women's Health Centres

Dorothy H. Broom, Damned If We Do: Contradictions in Women's Health Care (Allen & Unwin) Sydney, 1991.

(Re)Claiming Her Own Words: The Return of Michele Wallace

Michele Wallace, Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman (Verso) London and New York, 1990 [first published (Dial Press), New York, 1978]; Invisibility Blues (Verso) London and New York, 1990.

Australian Lesbian Feminist Studies

The Myth of Superwoman and Feminist Fictions

Ann Cranny‐Francis, Feminist Fictions (Polity Press) Cambridge 1990; Resa L. Dudovitz, The Myth of Superwoman (Routledge) London and New York, 1990.     

“Ought to” as a Chinese Legal Performative?

The article discusses the legal performatives as used in Chinese legislative language consisting of bixu (shall), yingdang (should or ought to), keyi (may) and bude (shall not) with the illocutionary force of imposing obligations, conferring rights and permission, and prohibition (bude). It postulates that the use of bixu and yingdang is traceable to the influence of the ancient Chinese cultural and legal philosophy of li and fa. It argues that Chinese language is a carrier of messages with built-in Chinese cultural codes and to be able to understand Chinese law, the wider cultural and linguistic contexts must be considered. It also proposes that speech act theory needs to address the interlingual and intercultural variables in the construction of meaning.     

Editorial

Liverpool Law Review -     

Separation of visibly-excited fluorescent components in fingerprint residue by thin-layer chromatography

The use of lasers for the detection of fingermarks is widespread in the forensic field. Despite this, and the fact that many studies have been conducted into the composition of fingermark residue, the components responsible for the inherent visible fluorescence remain unidentified. Traditionally compositional studies have been performed on sweat, sebum, or skin surface washes, none of which are truly representative of the situation when a fingerprint is deposited on a surface. In this paper thin-layer chromatography (TLC) has been performed on sebum-rich fingermarks laid directly onto TLC plates and an argon ion laser used to visualize the separated components. It has been found to be a robust and reproducible method for studying the fluorescent components in fingermark residue and is considered to be more realistic than other methods of sample preparation as it eliminates the chances of extraneous matter being extracted from the skin surface. Investigations into the nature of the separated compounds have also been made and the results are reported.