STRUCTURAL FACTORS AND BLACK INTERRACIAL HOMICIDE: A NEW EXAMINATION OF THE CAUSAL PROCESS*

This study evaluates the assumption that deprivation among African Americans and racial inequality lead to black interracial homicide due to racial conflict and antagonism. Using refined race‐adjusted Supplemental Homicide Report data, Uniform Crime Report data and census data, we test an alternative hypothesis that draws on the macrostructural opportunity theory to assess and more accurately specify the relationship between structural characteristics and black interracial homicide. We find that first, the relationship between economic factors and black interracial homicide can be explained in large part by high rates of financially motivated crime such as robbery, and second, that economic factors are associated with financially motivated but not expressive black interracial killings. Analyses of black intraracial killings are performed for comparison purposes. Collectively, the findings suggest that conflict‐based explanations rooted in racial antagonism and frustration aggression may be premature.     

Measuring the severity of physical injury among assault and homicide victims

Criminologists seldom have attempted to measure the severity of physical injury to victims of aggravated assault and homicide, even though it is significant to many of their research efforts. Previous attempts have been neither medically accurate nor medically acceptable. In this paper the author discusses the shortcomings of these efforts and introduces an alternative method which is valid, reliable, and medically acceptable. In addition, the author discusses its applicability to research the impact of medical intervention on violent criminal assault, on factors which contribute to the severity of assaultive injury and the lethal outcome of violent assault, on specific questions regarding the patterns of offending and victimization, and on the administration of criminal justice.     

Internet mediated crimes and theoretical approaches

Purpose: in the literature, the term ‘Internet crime’ has been coined to indicate the scenario in which a victim of homicide or other crimes is met through a chat room, and lured to death at the hands of the murderer. Various criticisms have been made of this new concept, on the grounds that the outcome is no different from that of other crimes committed without the use of Web resources, and so the method used has no particular influence. Indeed, it has been claimed that informatic crime just reflects a technological change in the nature of crime rather than a new form of criminal behavior attributable to the use of the Internet for criminal purposes. Method: our reflections were prompted by our experience as expert forensic psychiatry witnesses in three cases in which the aggressors had confessed to having had an exclusively virtual relationship with the victims, in which they spent a lot of time daily in a chat room. Conclusion: this scenario offers points for reflection on the nature of Web-mediated victim–aggressor interactions, to assess the effects on the planning and commission of the crime. Discussion. it’s our opinion that there really is such a thing as Internet-correlated crime, because in this case the quality and quantity of the Internet interactions progressively altered the men’s perception of the real relationship between themself and their victims.     

The Homicide–Suicide Phenomenon: Findings of Psychological Autopsies

Homicide–suicide represents a single episode of violence which may decimate an entire family. This study aimed to further describe motives and context of these tragedies. Psychological autopsies were completed for 18 homicide–suicide cases in Dallas, Texas. This included postevent interviews with surviving family members and review of police and coroner records. Two‐thirds of perpetrators had made either verbal or written threats prior to the homicide–suicide. A simplified typology describing victim–perpetrator relationship and motive type is suggested for future studies and clinical ease. Two‐thirds of perpetrators fell into the category of Intimate‐Possessive, most of whom were depressed men who were abusing substances and undergoing separation. Additional categories included Intimate‐Ailing, Filial‐Revenge, Familial‐Psychotic, and Friend‐Psychotic. Further, implications from this psychological autopsy study regarding risk assessment include use of collateral interviews regarding threats and past violence.     

集雨工程应走向城镇

水资源紧缺已成为世人共同关注的全球性问题。近年来 ,我国北方农村实施集雨工程 ,收到了明显的效果。鉴此 ,本文主张将农村集雨成功的经验向乡镇、城区推广 ,城乡同步实施集雨工程 ,开发利用天然的水资源。这也是一条缓解我国乃至世界水资源紧缺的有效途径。这项工程费时短、耗资少、见效快。只要实施起来 ,就能使城乡水资源紧缺的问题得到缓解。     

SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS AND VIOLENCE: A SUB‐NATIONAL TEST OF INSTITUTIONAL ANOMIE THEORY*

Messner and Rosenfeld's institutional anomie theory is grounded in the assumption that relatively higher crime rates in the United States are due to (1) the overwhelming influence of economic motives and institutions in society, and (2) the subjugation of all other social institutions to cultural economic interests (e.g., the American Dream). Our analysis is designed to extend the limited body of empirical research on this theory in several ways. First, we seek to test the utility of institutional anomie theory for predicting crime rates across aggregate units within the United States (counties). Second, we draw out the theory's emphasis on instrumental crime and suggest that measures of noneconomic social, political, familial, religious, and educational institutions will be particularly relevant for explaining instrumental as opposed to expressive violence. Third, in contrast to prior research, we develop conceptual reasons to expect that these factors will primarily mediate (as opposed to moderate) the relationship between economically motivating pressures and instrumental violence. Our negative binomial regression analyses of data from the Supplementary Homicide Reports and various censuses indicate that the measures of noneconomic institutions perform well in explaining both instrumental and expressive homicides, but that these measures mediate the impact of economic pressures (as measured by the Gini coefficient of family income inequality) to commit instrumental violence most strongly. Further, we find only very limited support for the more popular moderation hypothesis.     

榕江苗族的栽岩文化

苗族自古无文字。在最先的苗族社会活动中,集会议事所产生的结果,只凭口传心记。为了体现民族的意志、大众的决策以及协议某一区域内的规矩,在苗族古代社会中便产生了“栽岩议事活动”。由于这一活动涉及的村寨和人是相对固定的,这就进一步产生了苗族的“栽岩议事组织”。苗民每次集会、议事,形成决议或法规之后,便于村口寨头或集会地栽一岩石(半截在土中,半截露出地面),以作凭据,并警告后人,这就是苗族历史上千古不朽的石头“文字”。     

国家级贫困县城镇化建设

贫困表现出特有的经济社会特征,严重地制约和阻碍经济发展和社会进步,是发展的大敌。加速城镇化进程对贫困落后的地区实现资源的优化配置、扩大就业空间、实现劳动力就业转移、增加农民收入、实现“脱贫”和现代化具有积极的作用和现实意义。     

When parents kill their young children: Detroit 1982–1986

The population of 36 parents or parent figures arrested for killing their children or charges, who were under the age of 6 years in Detroit, Michigan, between 1982 and 1986, are described in the context of their deadly acts. This profile of parent-on-child homicide includes demographic and social characteristics of offenders and victims, circumstances of offense, andarrest and court dispositions.