Corporations in Court: Big Business Litigation in U. S. Federal Courts, 1971–1991

This article provides an overview of federal litigation involving the largest 2,000 U. S. corporations over the period 1971–91. Reporting from a unique data set of the authors'construction, it finds that althugh the aggregate volume of business litigation grew during the 1970s and early 1980s, it has actually been declining in recent years in all major categories of cases; business-related litigation is heavily concentrated, with an extremely limited number of business "mega-litigants" accounting for most of the activity; this concentration is particularly evident in tort, with the result that the tort trend line outside the concentration is actually flat or declining; a good deal of the growth in litigation outside the tort area can be attributed to business itself; and big business wins overwhelmingly, as plaintiff and defendant, in cases that involve it. The general applicability of these findings is limited by the data's restriction to federal court litigation and the structure of the Integrated Federal Court Data Base from which the authors'data set was constructed. This granted, the report is by far the most comprehensive treatment of U. S. big business litigation to date, and its findings are strikingly at odds with the premises of much current policy discussion.     

Assessing treatability in mentally disordered offenders

The research literature on the treatability of forensic patients is sparse and fragmented. Employing available studies, we argue for a radical rethinking of treatability within the criminal justice system as a complex predictive task that tests the very limits of clinical competence. Issues that must be addressed in examining treatment needs of mentally disordered offenders include (a) making crosssituational predictions, (b) determining the relationship, if any, between the mental disorder and criminal behavior, and (c) estabilishing the likelihood of treatment compliance, favorable treatment response, and the availability at some future date of recommended interventions.     

Simultaneous temporal and frontal suicidal gunshots

A white man in a remote area of Alaska shot himself simultaneously with two revolvers--a .41 magnum and a .44 magnum. Only three examples of two-gun suicides are described in the literature.     

Analytical pyrolysis of Streptococcus saliivarius as and aid to identification in bite-mark investigation

The use of pyrolysis mass spectrometry (Py-MS) and statistical analysis of mass spectra is introduced as a method for “finger-printing” strains of Streptococcus salivarius. The objective is to provide correlative evidence regarding the identity of suspects in cases of assault or rape involving bite-marks. The results of the analysis of isolates from two individuals are presented, illustrating the differentiation of S. salivarius at strain level according to the origin of the isolate.