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J A Mercy

Publications and source records attributed to J A Mercy.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1991

Preventing homicide: an evaluation of the efficacy of a Detroit gun ordinance.

BACKGROUND: In November 1986, a Detroit, Michigan city ordinance requiring mandatory jail sentences for illegally carrying a firearm in public was passed to preserve "the public peace, health, safety, and welfare of the people." METHODS: We conducted a set of interrupted time-series analyses to evaluate the impact of the law on the incidence of homicides, hypothesizing that the ordinance, by its nature, would affect only firearm homicides and homicides committed outside (e.g., on the street). RESULTS: The incidence of homicide in general increased after the law was passed, but the increases in non-firearm homicides and homicides committed inside (e.g., in a home) were either statistically significant or approached statistical significance (p = .006 and p = .070, respectively), whereas changes in the incidence of firearm homicides and homicides committed outside were not statistically significant (p = .238 and p = .418, respectively). We also determined that the ordinance was essentially unenforced, apparently because of a critical shortage of jail space. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings are consistent with a model in which the ordinance had a dampening effect on firearm homicides occurring in public in Detroit. The apparent preventive effect evident in the time series analyses may have been due to publicity about the ordinance, whereas the small nature of the effect may have been due to the lack of enforcement.

Firearms↗
PubMed1990

Risk of injury from resisting rape.

Women may resist rape by taking a variety of self-protective measures. To examine the association between a woman's use of self-protection during a rape incident and four injury outcomes, the authors analyzed data from the National Crime Survey, an ongoing survey of self-reported victimizations throughout the United States. The study population was 851 women greater than or equal to 12 years of age who reported being a victim of completed or attempted rape during 1973-1982. Logistic regression was used to control for eight covariates, including use of weapons by the offender and the nature of the victim-offender relationship. The use of self-protection during a rape incident was protective against completed rape. The odds ratios for completed rape were 0.2 for all measures of self-protection--nonforceful, forceful, and both forceful and nonforceful (all 95% confidence intervals between 0.1 and 0.4). After controlling for type of rape incident, the odds ratios for physical injury were greater than 1.0 for all measures of self-protection but, in the case of physical injury requiring medical attention, only the odds ratio for use of both forceful and nonforceful measures was statistically significant. Because of the limitations of the National Crime Survey, these findings should be interpreted cautiously. Further research is needed to help women respond in ways that will minimize injury should a rape incident occur.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Responding to community-identified suicide clusters: statistical verification of the cluster is not the primary issue.

Establishing the presence of an epidemic is traditionally a first step in any outbreak investigation. For two reasons, however, this has not been a fruitful approach for suicide cluster investigations. First, the data necessary to statistically verify an excess number of suicidal incidents are often lacking or of poor quality. Second, and more important, when a community perceives that it is experiencing a suicide cluster, it is not immediately relevant whether the cluster is statistically significant. The perception of suicide clustering, and the highly charged emotional atmosphere associated with that perception, may dramatically heighten the potentially "contagious" effect of suicide. That the perception of clustering may itself be a risk factor for suicide distinguishes suicide clusters from all other clusters of fatal disease or illness. A community response plan should, therefore, be implemented to identify and refer persons who may be at high risk of suicide, regardless of whether the community-identified suicide cluster is statistically significant. Statistical techniques may be useful at several stages in the investigation and control of apparent suicide clusters, but statistical verification of a community-identified suicide cluster is not appropriate as a starting point for response to the cluster.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Mortality associated with the use of upper-body control holds by police.

A review of police records for the nine-year period from 1974 to 1982 identified 20 men who died following restraint by an upper-body control hold while in the custody of a large, urban police department. Using evidence from autopsy findings and police reports of events immediately preceding death, we concluded that control-hold use was associated with death in 19 of the 20 cases. This investigation points to three factors potentially associated with control hold-related death that deserve further investigation: Phencyclidine (PCP) use, sickle cell trait, and stress-related arrhythmias in the heart. PCP was detected in blood or other tissues from 6 of 17 decedents tested. Intravascular red blood cell sickling was found at autopsy in 4 of 14 black decedents (29%). Four decedents had some indication of cardiovascular abnormalities.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Magnitude and patterns of family and intimate assault in Atlanta, Georgia, 1984. Collaborative Working Group for the Study of Family and Intimate Assaults in Atlanta.

A sample of police incident reports was used to examine the magnitude and patterns of family and intimate assault involving weapon use or threat, bodily force, or verbal threat of assault in a defined urban population during 1984. More than half of the incidents involved partners (spousal and nonspousal), about a fourth involved prior or estranged partners, and the remainder involved family members and relatives. The 1984 rate of nonfatal family and intimate assault was estimated at 837 per 100,000 population--the fatal rate was 7 per 100,000 population. Fatal and nonfatal victimization rates for blacks and other races were three times the rates for whites. Fatal incidents predominantly involved handguns, and nonfatal incidents most often involved bodily force. Most nonfatal victims (66%) and some perpetrators (13%) suffered physical injuries. Data on prior police contacts suggest that family and intimate assaults occur within a context of repeated violence. Information about prior incidents might contribute to preventive efforts by identifying people at high risk of being victims or perpetrators.

Cross-Sectional Studies↗
PubMed1989

An epidemiologic study of risk factors in two teenage suicide clusters.

Two clusters of teenage suicides occurred in Texas between February 1983 and October 1984. The eight suicides from the first cluster and the six from the second were investigated together in a case-control study using a closed-response questionnaire administered to parents. Three control teenagers were matched with each case subject on the basis of school district, grade, race, and sex. Questions concerned the direct and indirect exposures of subjects to previous suicides as well as their life circumstances and behaviors. Case subjects were not more likely than control subjects to have had direct exposure to suicide as measured by their acquaintance with a person who committed suicide. Similarly, indirect exposure to suicide through the media was not associated significantly with suicide. Case subjects were more likely to have attempted or threatened suicide previously, to have damaged themselves physically, and to have known someone closely who died violently. Case subjects were more likely to have broken up with their girlfriends or boyfriends recently. They also had moved more often than control subjects, attended more schools, and lived with more parent figures. Identification of high-risk youths through knowledge of relevant risk factors can help to direct preventive services to those young people most susceptible to suicide.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Firearm-related assaults on Los Angeles roadways.

During the summer of 1987, we investigated a series of firearm assaults occurring on Los Angeles County (California) roadways. Using law enforcement records, we identified 137 incidents of roadway assaults with firearms. Of these 137 incidents, 39% were brandishings and 61% were shootings. Of the shootings, 20% resulted in injuries; two were fatal. We compared the findings for June through August 1987 with findings for earlier years and found that the incidence rate of freeway firearm assault had increased each year from 1985 through 1987 for both freeway shootings and brandishings. We also found a positive association between freeway congestion and freeway firearm assaults in 1987.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Fatal violence among spouses in the United States, 1976-85.

In this paper we examine patterns and trends in homicides between marriage partners in the United States for 1976 through 1985 using data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Supplemental Homicide Reports (FBI-SHR). We identified 16,595 spouse homicides accounting for 8.8 per cent of all homicides reported to the FBI-SHR during this 10-year period. The rate of spouse homicide for this 10-year period was 1.6 per 100,000 married persons. The risk of being killed by one's spouse was 1.3 times greater for wives than for husbands. Black husbands were at greater risk of spouse homicide victimization than Black wives or White spouses of either sex. The risk of victimization was greater for spouses in interracial than in intraracial marriages and increased as age differences between spouses increased. From 1976 through 1985, the risk of spouse homicide declined by more than 45.0 per cent for both Black husbands and wives but remained relatively stable for White husbands and wives. Demographic patterns in the risk of spouse homicide were similar to those reported for nonfatal spouse abuse suggesting that the causes of spouse homicide and nonfatal spouse abuse may be similar.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Regional variation in homicide rates: why is the West so violent?

Scientists have long been interested in the fact that the South has consistently had the highest crude homicide rates in the United States. Past investigations, however, have generally been predicated on the assumption that this geographic pattern was not attributable to or substantially altered by the age or race structures of the populations being compared. In this study, we calculated age-adjusted homicide rates for each of three race categories--white, black, and other--for each state and region in the United States in 1980. We found that for each race group, homicide rates were highest, not in the South, but in the West. Moreover, homicide rates for blacks were lower in the South than in any other region of the country. We infer that, for 1980 at least, the high crude homicide rate in the South results from the mutual effect of two factors: (1) blacks have very high homicide rates compared with whites, and (2) blacks make up a larger proportion of the population in the South than in other regions of the country. It remains to be determined whether the age-adjusted, race-stratified rates of past decades also show this pattern.

Black or African American↗
PubMed1988

Marital status and the risk of suicide.

No recent United States study has previously calculated national suicide rates by marital status for specific age, race, and sex categories in order to better identify high-risk groups for suicide. We used national vital statistics and census data to calculate marital-status-specific rates. Results show that for each marital status group, by age and sex, married persons have the lowest suicide rates and young widowed males have exceptionally high rates.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

New directions in violence prediction: the public health arena.

Injury resulting from interpersonal violence is now recognized as an important public health problem. Consequently, the public health community is applying its perspectives and strategies to the goal of preventing violence. The public health approach emphasizes preventing injuries due to interpersonal violence from occurring or recurring, rather than treating the health consequences of these injuries. Four interrelated steps are used to develop information to guide the development of prevention strategies: public health surveillance, risk group identification, risk factor exploration, and program implementation/evaluation. The ability to predict which people are at greatest risk of injury (or producing injury) and the relative effectiveness and costs of alternative prevention strategies are central to decisions influencing the nature and focus of public health prevention strategies. In order to improve the information base on which decisions concerning violence prevention strategies are founded, the following activities should be given priority: (a) developing surveillance systems for morbidity associated with interpersonal violence; (b) precisely identifying risk groups for nonfatal violent events; (c) applying case-control methods to the exploration of potentially modifiable risk factors for injuries and violent behaviors; and (d) rigorously evaluating extant programs that are intended to prevent interpersonal violence or modify a suspected risk factor for violence.

Homicide↗
PubMed1986

Drug use and interpersonal violence. Barbiturates detected in homicide victims.

To characterize patterns of barbiturate use in homicide victims, we used data from the Los Angeles City Police Department and the Medical Examiner-Coroner's Office to study 4,950 victims of criminal homicide committed in that city in 1970-1979. Barbiturates were detected in 323 (7.9 per cent) of the 4,063 victims who were tested. Detectable levels were present most often in black victims (10.4 per cent), in equal proportions of Anglos and Hispanics (6 per cent), and least often among victims in other race-ethnic groups (4.1 per cent). Among specific subgroups, barbiturate use was greatest in black female victims (15.1 per cent). The detection of barbiturates more commonly among certain subgroups and in specific types of homicidal encounters suggests that barbiturate use may be linked to specific behaviors that precede homicide.

Barbiturates↗
PubMed1986

Alcohol use and interpersonal violence: alcohol detected in homicide victims.

To characterize the relationship between alcohol use and homicide victimization, we used data from the Los Angeles City Police Department and the Los Angeles Medical Examiner's Office to study 4,950 victims of criminal homicides in Los Angeles in the period 1970-79. Alcohol was detected in the blood of 1,883 (46 per cent) of the 4,092 victims who were tested. In 30 per cent of those tested, the blood alcohol level was greater than or equal to 100 mg/100 ml, the level of legal intoxication in most states. Blood alcohol was present most commonly in victims who were male, young, and Latino, categories where rates have been increasing at an alarming pace. Alcohol was also detected most commonly in victims killed during weekends, when homicides occurred in bars or restaurants, when homicides resulted from physical fights or verbal arguments, when victims were friends or acquaintances of offenders, and when homicides resulted from stabbings. The evidence for alcohol use by homicide victims focuses attention on the need for controlled epidemiologic studies of the role played by alcohol as a risk factor in homicide and on the importance of considering situational variables in developing approaches to homicide prevention.

Adolescent↗