A satisfied clientele seeking more diverse services: Latinos and the courts.

This article assesses Latino views of the court system, both of their beliefs about the courts and their experiences with the courts. Relying primarily on the Latino over-sample of the National Center for State Courts (2000) survey of public attitudes toward the courts, we evaluate three aspects of the Latino-judicial relationship. First, we measure whether there are differences between Latino and non-Latino views of the courts. Second, we assess whether there are differences within the Latino community, particularly differences based on nativity, in Latino attitudes toward the courts. Finally, we assess the implications of Latino views of the courts for US society in general. We are particularly concerned about whether having a greater share of Latinos in the population will create new pressures to reform the judiciary.

Autoerotic asphyxia in adolescents.

The death of a child or young adult is always tragic, regardless of the cause. Cases of autoerotic asphyxia are often labeled as suicide, or are underreported because of embarrassment of relatives or misidentification of the initial clinical manifestations. It may be that autoerotic asphyxial death is far more common than realized. Many emergency nurses and physicians lack adequate knowledge about this phenomenon to make an accurate diagnosis. Family members are often reluctant or unwilling to provide enough data surrounding the circumstances in which the patient was found, and the cause of death is mislabeled as suicide. Autoerotic asphyxia is frequently labeled as a sexual aberrancy and an act that society would rather not acknowledge. But there are a number of implications for emergency nurses, such as prevention and sensitive support of family in the emergency department, that demand our attention.