How many physicians are enough?

Although it is difficult to ascertain whether or not the nation faces an oversupply of physicians in the coming decades, there is no doubt that a health care system can be operated more effectively with a taut supply of medical personnel than with a loose supply. The perception of severe specialty and geographic imbalance, which informed national health policy during the 1960s and 1970s, has been modified by evidence of a significant redistribution in the supply. Increasing numbers of practitioners are likely to effect further escalation in the costs of physician services and total expenditures for health care, even if--in conformity with classical laws of supply and demand--individual physicians' incomes and the relative economic advantage of the profession were to decline. Since the objective of improved access has to a considerable extent been realized, the principal benefit of the loosened supply in the future will be to facilitate the initiation of innovative practice modes and alternative health care delivery systems that offer the potential of improved efficiency and quality.     

Between normality and deviance: the breakdown of batterers' identity following police intervention

With the transformation of intimate violence from private trouble to social problem, police intervention in domestic violence cases became more prevalent. Research has focused mainly on battered women's perception of police intervention, their evaluations, and their level of satisfaction with the intervention. However, there is little research examining the perpetrators' subjective perceptions of such interventions. The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze battering men's perceptions of police intervention. The study is based on semistructured, in-depth interviews with 20 batterers who had repeated encounters with police. Findings show a continuum of self-management, ranging from attempts to preserve a normative identity in the first encounter to struggling against criminalization in the second encounter and adopting a victim identity in the third encounter. The findings are discussed in the context of gender identity and power relations.     

Liberal battle zones and the study of law and the media

One approach to the study of law and the media is to assume that autonomy of law and legal decisions from media influence is desirable. Reviewing the other articles in this special issue, this Afterword examines the strengths and weaknesses of this approach. Its strength is in the battle zones for liberal values; it contributes to fights against bias and prejudice. Its weakness stems from subjectivity's contributions to justice; it does not explore the necessity and desirability of a legal system embedded in culture. The Afterword suggests areas for research on the interdependencies between law and culture that can complement the research reported in this special issue.