PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS IN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE FAMILIES DISPUTING CUSTODY

This article reports data on allegations of domestic violence in two samples of high-conflict families in child custody disputes. It delineates five basic types of interparental violence and corresponding patterns in parent-child relationships. The findings should be viewed as preliminary exploratory hypotheses, which, if confirmed in future research, suggest that differential assessment of domestic families is important when helping divorcing parents make custody and visitation plans.     

A Comparison of Disaster Paradigms: The Search for a Holistic Policy Guide

The following article discusses the current emphasis and attention being given to the future of emergency management, as well as theoretical constructs designed to guide research and help practitioners reduce disaster. It illustrates that while the disaster-resistant community, disaster-resilient community, and sustainable development/sustainable hazards mitigation concepts provide many unique advantages for disaster scholarship and management, they fail to sufficiently address the triggering agents, functional areas, actors, variables, and disciplines pertaining to calamitous events. In making this argument, the article asserts that any future paradigm and policy guide must be built on—yet go further than—comprehensive emergency management. The article also reviews and alters the concept of invulnerable development. Finally, the article presents "comprehensive vulnerability management" as a paradigm and suggests that it is better suited to guide scholarly and practitioner efforts to understand and reduce disasters than the aforementioned perspectives.     

Rationale and Strategies for Central Involvement of Educators in Effective School-Based Mental Health Programs

Unfortunately, for many mental health professionals classroom teachers and other educators are, at best, viewed primarily or solely as useful sources of information about a child, and their broader, invaluable roles as members of the mental health team are diminished or dismissed. This article examines the conceptual rationale and empirical support for central involvement of educators (especially classroom teachers) in effective mental health services, and in effective expanded school-based mental health programs. The importance of partnerships with educators for school-wide mental health promotion efforts, as well as for the success of primary and secondary prevention initiatives, are highlighted. Effective strategies and recommendations for enhancement of educator-mental health professional collaboration are included.     

Lessons to be learnt? The role of evaluations of active labour market programmes in evidence‐based policy making

The interest in results‐based policy formulation requires us to examine the impact of evaluations. This article focuses on the production and use of impact evaluations of UK active labour market programmes. It is intended to be useful for non‐evaluators and for those working in developing and transition countries. The UK provides a case study where there is good evaluation data, available expertise and high‐level political commitment to evaluation. However, obstacles remain in the generation and use of impact data. The article seeks to identify the opportunities and difficulties faced in the UK, and it considers the implications for other countries. It suggests that the measurement of impact concepts will prove difficult in countries that do not have sound administrative data, comprehensive labour market statistics and well‐established macroeconomic and tax‐benefit models. Furthermore, the use of evaluation data may be limited by a range of factors, most crucially those emanating from the legislative and policy‐making environment. The conclusion is that if knowledge‐based policy management is to be improved, changes in evaluation methodology will only be effective if supported by changes in the wider government environment. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fatal hepatic failure following accidental tramadol overdose

A case of fatal overdose of tramadol is described, occurring in a 67-year-old man with painful rib fractures who accidentally ingested more than the recommended daily dose. The mode of death was acute liver failure due to fulminant hepatic necrosis. Post-mortem toxicology was negative apart from revealing a blood tramadol concentration well above the normal therapeutic range. This is the first report of fatal tramadol ingestion occurring in a therapeutic setting and also the first tramadol-related death where the mechanism was liver failure.     

Removal of a PCR inhibitor and resolution of DNA STR types in mixed human-canine stains from a five year old case.

The analysis of biological trace evidence from a reopened investigation into a 1991 murder from Vernon, B.C. revealed mixed human and dog bloodstains on blue jean pants that contained a PCR inhibitory substance. The presence of the inhibitory substance was detected by the inhibition caused from adding a small aliquot of the test DNA extract into a PCR reaction designed to produce a known standard product. The removal of the PCR inhibitory substance was accomplished by treating the extracted DNA with Thiopropyl Sepharose 6B beads. DNA profiles from two human contributors and a canine were obtained using species specific polymorphic STR markers. The two human DNA profiles obtained from blue jean pants were resolved, one matched the suspect and the other matched the victim. The DNA profile from the canine component matched that obtained from the known sample of the victim's dog who was also slain during the assault. This evidence along with other DNA typing evidence was critical in obtaining a resolution of the case.     

Single-issue voting: Elite-mass linkages

In this paper we consider the abortion and E.R.A. issues as examples of single-issue politics, as well as the nature of single-issue politics in general. We argue that many single issues are what others have called easy issues but that hard-issue voting as well as easy-issue voting may be occurring on both issues. We test this hypothesis using both mass and elite data sets. Our findings suggest that political activists may be cuing the masses into a pattern of single-issue voting, and hence keeping the battle over abortion and the E.R.A. intense.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1981 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, New York, September 3–6, 1981.