The effect of outpatient methadone maintenance treatment facilities on place-based crime

Journal of Experimental Criminology - This study evaluates the effect of outpatient methadone maintenance treatment (OMMT) facilities on crime in surrounding areas. Between 2007 and 2017 in...     

Project USA: American competitiveness and what must be done to restore it

The United States today faces a loss of influence as a world power, a reduction in American independence as a policymaker, and a decline in the standard of living on which Americans have come to depend. History teaches that nations weaker and less productive than the United States can rise to become economic powerhouses and rapidly increase their standards of living. History also teaches that nations failing to recognize their fundamental problems will inevitably decline. American politicians must face what is abundantly clear: the United States is losing ground and must act quickly to reverse its course. This White Paper outlines what must be done. Information about the nation's current status must be analyzed and communicated. Incentives to improve the level of competence in government must be provided and maintained. The emphasis of government policy must be changed to reflect broad economic and technological interests as opposed to special interests. Savings must be encouraged and increased. Infrastructure must be improved Tax laws must be modified to help bring these changes about. Economic and technological issues must be elevated to the importance they require. American thinking must reflect the new realities: that the age of leadership through military power is over, that the requirements for success in the world of the 1990s and beyond require a sound and growing economy that is internationally competitive. The US can accomplish these goals only through foundation-shaking, comprehensive, fundamental changealong the lines we propose herein.This paper is the executive summary (with minor editing modifications) of a white paper that is available from Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management.     

Civil commitment of the mentally ill: an overview

This article discusses historical themes that led to the civil commitment reforms of the sixties and seventies. The changes in the substantive criteria for commitment are analyzed and critiqued. The author believes that the present criteria tend to focus so specifically on various external indicia of mental illness that they render commitment difficult for many seriously ill patients. An alternative commitment scheme is discussed.     

Causes of death in hospitalized intravenous drug abusers

The authors reviewed at autopsy the causes of death of 274 patients with evidence of intravenous drug abuse who had been admitted to a large public hospital. There were 127 who died from diseases unrelated to intravenous drug abuse, and in 41% of these, chronic alcoholism was implicated. Deaths from overdose syndromes and drug-related organ pathology comprised only 11% of all cases. The mean age at death was 39 years. There was a male/female ratio of 3.6:1. Half of all patients died from infection--72 from acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) alone. These findings indicate that persons hospitalized with a history of intravenous drug abuse usually die from causes other than overdose and that AIDS and chronic alcoholism are significant problems. Emphasis should be placed upon detecting "hidden" intravenous drug deaths to provide more accurate statistical information.     

Physician recruitment after Hermann Hospital

The state of physician recruitment changed after the Internal Revenue Service required Hermann Hospital to publish its closing agreement with the IRS. The closing agreement released the long-awaited IRS "Hospital Physician Recruitment Guidelines." The IRS' recently proposed revenue ruling provides additional insight on acceptable physician recruitment practices as well.     

'Political Correctness': Pauline Hanson and the Construction of Australian Identity

In Australia there has been a great deal of discussion in recent years of something called ‘political correctness’. This term is an insidious phrase applied to academic humanists, who, it is frequently said, do not think independently but rather according to norms established by a cabal of ‘correct-thinking’ leftists. These norms are supposed to be overly sensitive to racism, sexism and the like, instead of allowing people to debate in what is supposed to be an ‘open’ manner (Said 1994:58). This article asks why Australia has witnessed a backlash against ‘political correctness’ at this point of time. Why has Hanson been able to mount a sustained attack on ‘political correctness’ and why has John Howard's response been muted? The article suggests notions of identity and difference are at the centre of the recent debate — the rhetoric has highlighted the politics of division while obsuring the issues of those marginal to the mainstream.