Transitional narratives of identity among ethnic minority youth gangs in Denmark: from collectivism to individualism

Current literature often depicts the street cultures of ethnic minority youth as forms of collective cultural resistance to experiences of marginalization from mainstream society. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and qualitative interviews in 2014 with 23 young men attached to a rehabilitation centre for criminal offenders in Denmark, this article focuses on ethnic minority youth who desist from such street culture and their former gang life, criminality and drug use and how they describe this shift within their narratives. More specifically, we show how this shift can to some extent be characterized by a move from collective to more individualistic self-narratives re-articulating broader individualistic discourses existing in contemporary society. Among these more individualistic self-narratives, we find extensive reference to ideas of self-responsibility and also individual pragmatic interpretations of Islam. Such re-articulations can be seen as a way to create feelings of agency in severely disempowering circumstances.     

Sniffing-associated deaths in Denmark

An account is given of 20 deaths, which occurred in association with sniffing during the period 1959 – 1978. The annual number of deaths was almost constant during the period. Most of the deaths occurred in males. Ether and trichloroethylene were the predominant toxic substances. The material was divided into two groups. Group A, 14 cases, included real sniffing deaths, the cause of death being poisoning by the substance inhaled. In group B, 6 cases, sniffing was a contributory factor to death: 2 cases of suffocation by obstruction, one case of carbon monoxide poisoning during fire, one case of septicemia/severe anemia caused by bone marrow depression, and one case of bleeding to death from stab wounds inflicted by a sniffer against a non-sniffer. The circumstances before and at the time of death are reported, together with the autopsy and toxicological findings when these were performed.     

Liver pathology in fatal drug addiction

Liver sections from 273 drug addicts submitted to medicolegal autopsy at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Copenhagen in the period 1975 – 1979 were studied. In 65% of the cases non-specific portal inflammation only was found. Birefringent foreign material — identified as the mineral talc (magnesium silicate) was observed in 38% of the cases; in these cases non-specific portal inflammation was always present. Changes compatible with acute or chronic persistent hepatitis or hepatitis sequelae were observed in 8% of the cases; cirrhosis in 3%. HBs-antigen was detected in 4%. In 22% fatty infiltration was present; in 4% as the only abnormal finding. Finally no pathological changes were found in 6%. The results were related to anamnestic information of kind and duration of drug abuse and to the cause of death. Furthermore a comparison was performed between the groups with and without birefringent material. The data suggest that the birefringent material may be of importance to the pathogenesis of the non-specific portal inflammation.     

Evaluation of post-mortem estimated dental age versus real age: a retrospective 21-year survey

The aim of the study was to evaluate the reliability of methods used for forensic dental age estimation. We analysed all cases over the last 21 years (1984-2004) of unidentified bodies that were examined for identification purposes (including age assessment), and of which secure identification was subsequently achieved. In total, the study included 51 cases and 7 different methods had been used for dental age estimation, with the Bang/Ramm and the Gustafson/Johanson methods being the most frequently applied. The age estimates had usually been recorded as 10-year intervals. Factual ages at death were in the range of 6-76 years, with the largest concentration of cases being in the age interval of 25-55 years (34 cases). There was good agreement between estimated age interval and factual age at death in 37/51 (72%) of the cases. In eight cases the factual age at death deviated up to +/-5 years from the estimated age, and in six cases by more than 6 years. The average difference between factual age at death and estimated age was 4.5 years. The four subadults in the material were all correctly estimated within an age range of +/-3 years. Our study showed that forensic odontological age estimates are reliable. However, the implementation of the specific methods may need to be adjusted concerning age ranges. In the future we recommend to register anamnestic information and the different steps in the methods used. Clinical evaluation should contain more details about attrition, colour, number and presumed age of the restorations and periodontal status.     

In search of Simone de Beauvoir: A review essay

Toril Moi, Simone de Beauvoir. The Making of an Intellectual Woman. 324 pp. Oxford and Cambridge: Blackwell, 1994.

Margaret A. Simons, ed., Feminist Interpretations of Simone de Beauvoir. 324 pp. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995.

Eva Lundgren‐Gothlin, Sex and Existence. Simone de Beauvoir's “The Second Sex” (English text revised from Kön och Existens, 1991). 329 pp. London: Athlone, 1996.     

‘Perceived social citizenship’: a comparative study between two different hukous

In China, there are immense barriers to inclusive social citizenship because of the failure to overcome the institutional fragmentation of social security across the hukou division. The hukou system continues to be important in determining how social citizenship is granted in China; not only does it facilitate dual social citizenship, it imposes perceptions of deservingness that bolster these divisions. The aim of this paper is to build a social-citizenship-based framework, drawing upon the strengths of the capability approach, which is applicable to the complexity of the rural–urban divide in China. Referring to several data sources, the paper examines social citizenship as a subjective phenomenon. The paper highlights the social exclusion mechanisms embedded in the hukou system that might have an effect on social citizenship as a state of self-awareness.     

Deaths among narcotic addicts in Denmark in 1978 and 1979

Objective measurements were carried out to study the evolution of rigor mortis on rats at various temperatures.Our experiments showed that:(1) at 6 °C rigor mortis reaches full development between 48 and 60 hours post mortem, and is resolved at 168 hours post mortem; (2) at 24 °C rigor mortis reaches full development at 5 hours post mortem, and is resolved at 16 hours post mortem; (3) at 37 °C rigor mortis reaches full development at 3 hours post mortem, and is resolved at 6 hours post mortem; (4) the intensity of rigor mortis grows with increase in temperature (difference between values obtained at 24 °C and 37 °C); and (5) at 6 °C a “cold rigidity” was found, in addition to and independent of rigor mortis.