scholarly journals A five-year overview of fatal thermal and electrical burns in Johannesburg, South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 117 (5/6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig Keyes ◽  
Khumo L. Liphoko

Burn injuries affect millions of people globally each year. South Africa is a developing country where fatal fires are common. Despite the pervasiveness of fatal burns in South Africa, there is a paucity of information regarding the frequency of fatal burns in the city of Johannesburg. This study aimed to describe the demographics and frequency of fatal burn cases received at the Johannesburg Forensic Pathology Services Medico-legal Laboratory for medico-legal death investigations. This study was a five-year (2010-2014) retrospective review of 185 forensic medico-legal case files of the Johannesburg Forensic Pathology Services Medico-legal Laboratory. The demographic at the greatest risk of fatal burns in Johannesburg, South Africa are black males between the ages of 20-39 years. The most common type of fatal burns is thermal in nature, as a result of flames. Burns are prevalent in the winter months, most notably July and August. Burn wounds are most common on the head, chest, upper back, abdomen, arms, and legs. This study is the first to report of fatal burns in Johannesburg, South Africa and may be used as a source to improve public services for the prevention of fatal burns.

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Khangelani Moyo

Drawing on field research and a survey of 150 Zimbabwean migrants in Johannesburg, this paper explores the dimensions of migrants’ transnational experiences in the urban space. I discuss the use of communication platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook as well as other means such as telephone calls in fostering the embedding of transnational migrants within both the Johannesburg and the Zimbabwean socio-economic environments. I engage this migrant-embedding using Bourdieusian concepts of “transnational habitus” and “transnational social field,” which are migration specific variations of Bourdieu’s original concepts of “habitus” and “social field.” In deploying these Bourdieusian conceptual tools, I observe that the dynamics of South–South migration as observed in the Zimbabwean migrants are different to those in the South–North migration streams and it is important to move away from using the same lens in interpreting different realities. For Johannesburg-based migrants to operate within the socio-economic networks produced in South Africa and in Zimbabwe, they need to actively acquire a transnational habitus. I argue that migrants’ cultivation of networks in Johannesburg is instrumental, purposive, and geared towards achieving specific and immediate goals, and latently leads to the development and sustenance of flexible forms of permanency in the transnational urban space.


Author(s):  
Dachev Veliko Z ◽  
Dachev Veliko Z

The article represents a retrospective review of long time research of genesis and development of the Central beach in the City of Varna which makes possible a forecast of its further development. Both natural and anthropogenic impact on the beach evolution is taken into consideration. It is ascertained that construction of coastal protection structures at the northern part of the beach in 80’s resulted in cessation of natural beach area growth. The strengthen of a breakwater in the main port and illegal building also contributed to considerable coast recession and beach volume reducing. Because of this a recreational potential of the Central beach is gradually decreasing. New method named “cross-shore sediment bypassing” is suggested to reduce the negative trend.


Author(s):  
Domininkas Burba

Bridges and ferries, as objects of dispute and crime locations among the eighteenth century nobles of Vilnius district, is the main topic of research in this article. Case materials and auxiliary documents from the records of Vilnius district castle and land courts reveal how often bridges are mentioned in the court processes in both violent and non-violent crimes. Research explores what types of violent crimes took place on bridges or ferries most often. It also works on questions of geographic localisation and statistics, discussing general situation of bridges in Vilnius and its neighbouring areas in the eighteenth century. Bridges are regularly mentioned in the books of the eighteenth century Vilnius castle and land courts, albeit most references are not related to conflicts and bridges are mentioned as orientation marks or in reference to location of a real estate object. Both non-violent legal disputes, involving bridges as objects, and violent crimes on the bridges were not in multitude, however non-violent crimes were in smaller numbers. There were seven dispute cases about lands, properties and plots of land where bridges and ferries are mentioned. Non-violent conflicts mostly took place in rural areas of the district, four of them, and three such disputes happened in Vilnius (one on the Green Bridge and two on the bridges over the River Vilnia). Most commonly recorded violent crime on a bridge was beating and, since this was the most common type of crime perpetrated by nobles in the eighteenth century Vilnius district, this trend is logical. A bridge is once mentioned in the record about a raid. In terms of location, more crimes on the bridges took place in the rural space, although this particular space wasn’t dominant, since six crimes were reported in the province and five in the city – two in Vilnius on the Green (Stone) Bridge, two on the bridges over the River Vilnia and one on a ferry near Šnipiškės. Trends in crime locations match general crime tendencies in Vilnius district, where more crimes took place in the rural space than in the urban one. One may guess, that the rare mention of bridges partially testifies to the fact that in the eighteenth century Vilnius district level of communication was not high and there were not too many bridges. On the other hand, when assessing trends in violent crimes in Vilnius district it was revealed that bridge based crimes comprised only one percent of all crimes. Having in mind that bridge is a relatively small object, compared to several different or other urban and rural spaces, this number isn’t that small. Keywords: Vilnius district, castle court, land court, crimes, nobles, peasants, bridges, ferries, passings.


Author(s):  
Dachev Veliko Z ◽  
Dachev Veliko Z

The article represents a retrospective review of long time research of genesis and development of the Central beach in the City of Varna which makes possible a forecast of its further development. Both natural and anthropogenic impact on the beach evolution is taken into consideration. It is ascertained that construction of coastal protection structures at the northern part of the beach in 80’s resulted in cessation of natural beach area growth. The strengthen of a breakwater in the main port and illegal building also contributed to considerable coast recession and beach volume reducing. Because of this a recreational potential of the Central beach is gradually decreasing. New method named “cross-shore sediment bypassing” is suggested to reduce the negative trend.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 21-21
Author(s):  
Kriti Gogia ◽  
Alyssa Elman ◽  
Sunday Clark ◽  
Page Ulrey ◽  
Marie-Therese Connolly ◽  
...  

Abstract Elder neglect is common and can have catastrophic consequences. Cases may benefit from integrated responses from multiple sectors. Little research exists describing prosecutorial involvement and its impact, but existing evidence suggests neglect is seldom criminally prosecuted. Our goal was to closely examine neglect prosecution in a jurisdiction that has been a leader in using prosecution to attempt to address it. We quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed legal case files of felony elder neglect prosecuted in King County, Washington from 2008-2011. 13 cases were prosecuted, with a total of 10 victims. 90% of victims were female, with a median age of 88. 90% were unable to ambulate, and 90% had dementia. Defendants were commonly the victim’s adult child (38%). 23% had previous criminal citations/convictions. 46% of cases occurred in an Adult Family Home. 15% of cases went to trial, and all trial cases ended in conviction of some charge. Themes identified included: (1) perpetrators were either professional caregivers receiving compensation or non-professional caregivers financially dependent on the victim, (2) victims were malnourished and severely injured at time of reporting, and (3) medical expert contribution is imperative given complexity of these cases. Victims were unable to participate in prosecution in any case. This research shows that these cases are seldom prosecuted, even in a jurisdiction focusing on this phenomenon, but highlights characteristics of cases and demonstrates they may be prosecuted without victim participation. Future research is needed to examine prosecution’s impact on elder neglect to better understand how it may be optimally used.


Author(s):  
Unine Van den Berg ◽  
Jean-Pierre Labuschagne ◽  
Hugo Van den Berg

Companies in South Africa should realise the important influence of greening their suppliers and of innovation to achieve environmental goals and competitive advantages. In order to prove this, a questionnaire survey was conducted with 75 companies from 11 industries in the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality region, South Africa. A confirmatory factor analysis was done, followed by bivariate correlations to determine the strength of association between the latent constructs. Correlations between greening the supplier, innovation, environmental performance and competitive advantages were done. The research found that a green innovative process had a significant effect on environmental performance. Green managerial innovation further had a significant correlation with competitive advantage. The primary result of the study indicated that all the constructs positively related to each other, meaning that greening suppliers, by means of green innovation, leads to an enhanced environmental performance and to competitive advantages.


Author(s):  
Taeyoung Kim ◽  
Seung Yeop Paek ◽  
Julak Lee

Subway sex offenses are a serious issue in the nations around world, but existing research has failed to explore the offense types or patterns systematically. In order to fill this gap, the authors employed Crime Script Analysis (CSA) to examine the two most common subway sex offenses in Seoul, South Korea. Specifically, the authors assessed the reasoning behind the steps taken to prepare for, carry out, and complete harassment and surreptitious recording. The offenses committed in the subway stations around the city of Seoul were analyzed based on the interviews with the subway police, official crime reports, and crime case files. Drawing from the findings, theoretical and practical implications are discussed.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document