Phenomenological Theories of Crime

The distinctive aspect of phenomenological theories of crime is that they are based upon a stated epistemology: how things are known and a specific ontology—the nature of social reality. This specificity aligns itself with neo-Kantian concern with forms of knowing, interpretation, and meaning, as well as with 20th-century concern with perception, cognition, and the framing of events. While there are influences of phenomenological thinking on varieties of theorizing, such as symbolic interactionism, critical theory, queer theory, and gender-based theories of crime, these ideas are refractions and are inconsistent in their reference to and understanding of the foundational phenomenological works. A phenomenological theory assumes that the practices and associated meanings of actors and the responses of others can produce a valid explanation of crime. These cannot be grasped by counting responses to questionnaires or surveys, or positing the “natural attitude” or the “taken for granted” unless these are shown to be working in interaction. It is only by studying how these processes are revealed in and through routine interactions, especially those between the controllers and the controlled, that valid explanations for crime result. The elegance of an explanation is found in its ability to explicate and reproduce the actors’ perspective. This is not a “micro” view of interaction: social action is always collective, mutual, and intersubjective. Features of phenomenological theories of crime stand in some opposition to the ruling statistical inference and naive positivism that command social science. Phenomenological theories have at least five features. First, they focus on intentionality over the course of action. The question of interest is how orientation to and action toward objects produces such social objects. It is through gestures, postures, signs, and indicators that elicit a response that a social object is made meaningful. A robbery occurs as the robber first selects a place, targets a person, confronts the person-as-target, and creates the illusion of violence to get the preferred response, handing over money. The sequence produces a “working consensus,” a social object, a robbery. It is now a real, shared social fact. Second, they view the field of consciousness or awareness as replete with stimuli cues, empirical indices that are themselves merely appearances, not the relevancies that emerge intersubjectively. These cues must be reduced by means of bracketing to create forms, types, or typifications. These types, in turn, can be identified only through actors’ usage. Think in this regard about the meaning of different types of crime as they are experienced (e.g., homicide, rape, burglary, auto theft). Third, these observed gestures, negotiations, indicators, representations, and postures are made intersubjectively meaningful not by “reading minds,” but by behavior. And what is done is very often emotionally loaded and full of bodily sensations such as anger, passion, greed, or desire. These emotions are an integral aspect of crimes. Fourth, in the phenomenologically grounded versions of crime, even the objective attitude of the scientist must itself be questioned : How is it possible to create sense of actors’ behavior and studying it “objectively” (Heap and Roth 1973, p. 364; cited under Introductory Works)? The answer is to remain true to the observed collective actions and attributions associated with crime. Finally, phenomenological views of crime require an interrogation of action, not attributions of motives. The question is: How is order indicated, sustained, and/or changed in the context of studying things called “crime”? A constant debate is whether and to what extent the actor’s view of everyday life is captured, as opposed to a typification, ideal type, or conceptual scheme. This is one of the few areas of social science that acknowledges philosophical foundations during the course of research. Phenomenological theories of crime recognize the ongoing nature of what is deemed criminal, and keep this awareness in the forefront. Please keep this in mind as you conduct your research. The articles and books discussed here are directed toward academics, graduates, and advanced undergraduates

One-year mortality after hospital admission as an indicator of palliative care need: A retrospective cohort study

Background. Globally there is increasing awareness of the need for end-of-life care and palliative care in hospitalised patients who are in their final year of life. Limited data are available on palliative care requirements in low- and middle-income countries, hindering the design and implementation of effective policies and health services for these patients.Objectives. To determine the proportion of patients who die within 1 year of their date of admission to public hospitals in South Africa (SA), as a proxy for palliative care need in SA.Methods. This was a retrospective cohort study using record linkage of admission and mortality data. The setting was 46 acute-care public hospitals in Western Cape Province, SA.Results. Of 10 761 patients (median (interquartile range (IQR)) age 44 (31 - 60) years) admitted to the 46 hospitals over a 2-week period in March 2012, 1 570 (14.6%) died within 1 year, the majority within the first 3 months. Mortality rose steeply with age. The median (IQR) age of death was 57.5 (45 - 70) years. A greater proportion of patients admitted to medical beds died within 1 year (21.3%) compared with those admitted to surgical beds (7.7%).Conclusions. Despite a median age <60 years at admission, a substantial percentage of patients admitted to public sector hospitals in SA are in the final year of their lives. This finding should be seen in the context of SA’s high communicable and non-communicable disease burden and resource-limited public health system, and highlights the need for policy development, planning and implementation of end-of-life and palliative care strategies for hospitals and patients.

Delirium in HIV-infected patients admitted to acute medical wards post universal access to antiretrovirals in South Africa

Background. Delirium is associated with increased mortality and length of hospital stay. Limited data are available from HIV-infected acute hospital admissions in developing countries. We conducted a prospective study of delirium among acute medical admissions in South Africa (SA), a developing country with universal antiretroviral therapy (ART) access and high burdens of tuberculosis (TB) and non-communicable disease.Objectives. To identify the prevalence of, risk factors for and outcomes of delirium in HIV-infected individuals in acute general medical admissions.Methods. Three cohorts of adult acute medical admissions to Groote Schuur and Victoria Wynberg hospitals, Cape Town, SA, were evaluated for prevalent delirium within 24 hours of admission. Reference delirium testing was performed by either consultant physicians or neuropsychologists, using the Confusion Assessment Method.Results. The study included 1 182 acute medical admissions, with 318 (26.9%) HIV-infected. The median (interquartile range) age and CD4 count were 35 (30 - 43) years and 132 (61 - 256) cells/µL, respectively, with 140/318 (44.0%) using ART on admission. The prevalence of delirium was 17.6% (95% confidence interval (CI) 13.7 - 22.1) among HIV-infected patients, and delirium was associated with increased inpatient mortality. In multivariable logistic regression analysis, factors associated with delirium were age ≥55 years (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 6.95 (95% CI 2.03 - 23.67); p=0.002), and urea ≥15 mmol/L (aOR 4.83 (95% CI 1.7 - 13.44); p=0.003), while ART use reduced risk (p=0.014). A low CD4 count, an unsuppressed viral load and active TB were not predictors of delirium; nor were other previously reported risk factors such as non-opportunistic acute infections or polypharmacy.Conclusions. Delirium is common and is associated with increased mortality in HIV-infected acute medical admissions in endemic settings, despite increased ART use. Older HIV-infected patients with renal dysfunction are at increased risk for inpatient delirium, while those using ART on admission have a reduced risk

Agricultural productivity in past societies: toward an empirically informed model for testing cultural evolutionary hypotheses

Agricultural productivity, and its variation in space and time, plays a fundamental role in many theories of human social evolution. However, we often lack systematic information about the productivity of past agricultural systems on a scale large enough to test these theories properly. The effect of climate on crop yields has received a great deal of attention resulting in a range of empirical and process-based models, yet the focus has primarily been on current or future conditions. In this paper, we argue for a “bottom-up” approach that estimates potential productivity based on information about the agricultural practices and technologies used in past societies. Of key theoretical interest is using this information to estimate the carrying high quality historical and archaeological information about past societies in order to infer the temporal and geographic patterns of change in agricultural productivity and potential. We discuss information we need to collect about past agricultural techniques and practices, and introduce a new databank initiative that we have developed for collating the best available historical and archaeological evidence. A key benefit of our approach lies in making explicit the steps in the estimation of past productivities and carrying capacities, and in being able to assess the effects of different modelling assumptions. This is undoubtedly an ambitious task, yet promises to provide important insights into fundamental aspects of past societies, enabling us to test more rigorously key hypotheses about human socio-cultural evolution

Prevalence and outcome of delirium among acute general medical inpatients in Cape Town, South Africa

Background. Delirium is a common, serious, underdiagnosed condition in medical and surgical inpatients with acute conditions. It is associated with increased risk of mortality and morbidity. Data of geriatric cohorts are largely limited to developed countries.Objectives. To describe prevalence, risk factors and outcomes of delirium among general medical patients admitted to two hospitals in Cape Town, South Africa.Methods. This was a prospective cohort study of patients with acute conditions admitted to a general medical inpatient service in secondary- and tertiary-level public hospitals in the Metro West area of Cape Town. Patients ≥18 years of age were recruited daily from all acute medical admissions. Patients were excluded if they were aphasic or their Glasgow coma scale was <8/15. Delirium was diagnosed using the validated confusion assessment method (CAM) tool and performed by trained neuropsychologists. Demographic data were collected by a clinical team and short- and long-term mortality data were obtained using linkage analysis of hospitalised patients and routinely collected provincial death certification records.Results. The median age of inpatients was 51 (interquartile range 36 - 65) years, 29% were HIV-infected and the overall prevalence of delirium was 12.3%. Multivariate predictors of delirium included the presence of an indwelling urinary catheter (odds ratio (OR) 4.47; confidence interval (CI) 2.43 - 8.23), admission with a central nervous system disease (OR 4.34; CI 2.79 - 7.90), pre-existing cognitive impairment (OR 3.02; CI 1.22 - 7.43) and immobility (OR 1.88; CI 1.01 - 3.51). HIV infection was not associated with increased risk of delirium. Delirium was associated with an increased risk of inhospital (delirium v. no delirium: 29% v. 12%; p<0.01) and 12-month (30% v. 20%; p<0.01) mortality, as well as increased length of hospital stay (7 days v. 5 days; p<0.01).Conclusions. In this cohort of medical inpatients (relatively young and with a high HIV prevalence) 1 of 8 (12.3%) patients was delirious. Delirium was associated with adverse outcomes. Delirium risk factors in this young cohort were similar to those in geriatric cohorts in developed countries, and neither HIV nor opportunistic infections increased risk

Safety and Security at Special Events: The Case of the Salt Lake City Olympic Games

Special events offer the potential for considerable threats to public safety. Perhaps no other special event rivals the Olympic Games in scope, duration, and potential for threat to communities, participants, and dignitaries. This paper reports on the results of a study of safety and security at the Salt Lake Olympic Games by a team of researchers with wide-ranging access to operations, personnel and documents from the security effort at the 2002 Winter Games. This paper focuses on three specific areas: changing definitions of safety and security during the Games; the development and maintenance of organizational structures and interaction; and lessons learned for other large-scale events. The goal of this paper is to document some of the challenges of establishing a temporary security organization. The paper concludes that building such organizations require for their success a major focus on creating a set of shared assumptions and working relationships

Scientific Drilling and Related Research in the Samail Ophiolite, Sultanate of Oman

This workshop report describes plans for scientific drilling in the Samail ophiolite in Oman in the context of past, current, and future research. Long-standing plans to study formation and evolution of the Samail crust and upper mantle, involving igneous and metamorphic processes at an oceanic spreading center, have been augmented by recent interest in ongoing, low temperature processes. These include alteration and weathering, and the associated sub-surface biosphere supported by chemical potential energy due to disequilibrium between mantle peridotite and water near the surface. This interest is motivated in part by the possibility of geological carbon capture and storage via engineered, accelerated mineral carbonation in Oman