Emerging Liabilities from Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products

There is growing awareness and concern regarding the presence of chemical constituents of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (“PPCPs”) in the environment. A recent USGS study indicated that PPCPs are present at low levels in surface water throughout the U.S. Concern is based in part on the fact that certain PPCPs: (1) are designed to have biological effects (particularly pharmaceuticals), (2) are persistent in or continually added to the environment, (3) have negative environmental effects (specifically on aquatic life) even at low levels, and (4) potentially have cumulative and synergistic effects when combined with other PPCPs. The primary route of PPCPs into the environment is sewage discharges, septic systems, and large stock yards and feedlots where the unmetabolized PPCPs are excreted by humans and animals and end up in surface water and ground-water. Given these circumstances, manufacturers of PPCPs may face a risk of increased regulation and possibly litigation similar to that faced by oxygenate manufacturers and petroleum refiners over the use of Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (“MTBE”). Companies can take steps now and in the future that may minimize the impact of these risks.     

A LOG‐MULTIPLICATIVE ASSOCIATION MODEL FOR ALLOCATING HOMICIDES WITH UNKNOWN VICTIM‐OFFENDER RELATIONSHIPS*

This research note critically evaluates conventional methods for allocating homicides with an unknown victim/offender relationship to meaningful categories, and it proposes an alternative approach. We argue that conventional methods are based on a problematic assumption, namely, that the missing data mechanism is “ignorable.” As an alternative to these methods, we propose an imputation algorithm derived from a log‐multiplicative model that does not require this assumption. We apply this technique to estimate levels of homicides disaggregated by victim/offender relationship using the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Supplementary Homicide Report (SHR) data for 1996 and 1997, and we compare the resulting estimates with those obtained from the application of conventional procedures. Our results yield a larger proportion of stranger homicides than are obtained from the conventional methods.     

RACIAL–ETHNIC INTOLERANCE AND SUPPORT FOR CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: A CROSS-NATIONAL COMPARISON*

This article tests cross-nationally the minority group threat thesis that public sentiments toward repressive crime-control policies reflect conflicted racial and ethnic relations. Using multiple data sets representing France, Belgium, the Netherlands, East and West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Denmark, Great Britain, Greece, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Austria, Canada, Ireland, and Portugal, we examine whether racial and ethnic intolerance—animus, resentments, or negative sentiments toward minorities—predicts greater support for the death penalty. Our results reveal that the respondents were significantly more likely to express support for capital punishment if they were racially or ethnically intolerant while controlling for other covariates of public opinion. These findings indicate that the link between support for capital punishment and racial and ethnic animus may occur universally in countries with conflicted racial and ethnic relations.     

Thirty Years of Social Science in Supreme Court Criminal Cases*

The Supreme Court early took note of extralegal, “social science” materials in Muller v. Oregon (1908), and a half-century later made specific reference to social science authorities in the famous footnote 11 of Brown v. Board of Education (1954). Since Brown, much has been written about the Supreme Court's use of social science research evidence, but there has been little systematic study of that use. Those writing on the subject commonly focus on areas of law such as jury size, where social science has been used, and have generally assumed that social science information has been utilized in Supreme Court decisions with increasing regularity. Surprisingly little is known, however, about either the justices' baseline use of social science authorities, or many other aspects of their uses of social science information. The focus here is on the citation of social science research evidence in a sample of 240 criminal cases decided during the 30 years between the Supreme Court's 1958 and 1987 Terms. The resulting portrait contributes to a fuller understanding of the justices' use of social science materials, and may ultimately help promote more effective utilization of social science research evidence in Supreme Court decisions.     

Stand Up and Be Counted

IF business reputations arebuilt on the marketplace's per-ceptions, China is becoming alot more sophisticated a placeto do business. Eighty percentof respondents in a study of 140 Chi-nese opinion leaders feel that foreignmultinational corporations (MNCs)operating in China are now being heldto a higher standard of performancecompared to Chinese firms. Fifty-sixpercent of respondents feel that stan-dards demanded of foreign-owneddmultinationals have increased duringthe past year, and 95 perc…     

Institutional Arrangements and the Dynamics of Agenda Formation in the U.S. Supreme Court and Courts of Appeals

The manner in which agenda change occurs demonstrates how institutional arrangements influence agenda priorities in the Supreme Court and Courts of Appeals. A neo-institutional theoretic perspective is employed to examine the dynamics of agenda formation in these courts. The article finds that the Supreme Court's agenda choices influence the decisions of litigants, interest groups, and lawyers to appeal certain cases to the Courts of Appeals. While the Supreme Court's agenda primarily is influenced by internal factors, it is constrained by agenda changes in the appeals courts. Critically, it is shown that these federal appellate courts exist within an endogenous system with respect to agenda formation, as both courts respond to agenda changes made in the other over time.