Relations between human beings and the physical environment have been the foci of research and speculation for at least two millennia. One such focus has dealt with the relationships between climate and crime. This paper develops four hypotheses concerning the interaction between violent behavior and the thermal environment. These hypotheses relate to the structural density of local areas, alcohol consumption across the city, calendar effects, and neighborhood context. We developed a taxonomy of high-, medium-, and low-status residential areas ("neighborhoods") in Dallas, Texas. These groupings formed the basis of several crosstabulations in which the relative frequency of aggravated assaults was the dependent variable. Neighborhood types differed markedly in the amplitude of their summer peaking of assaults, low-status neighborhoods having a peak not amenable to explanation entirely on the basis of month length or number of weekend days in the months. Assaults directly linked to alcohol sales establishments were less prominent than expected. Apartment-based assaults were heavily overrepresented in the low-status neighborhoods. Although findings reported here are exploratory and suggestive, they imply that giving greater attention to environmental influences in geographic contexts may be appropriate.

Continuing education programs don't always expand quickly enough to keep practitioners abreast of recent developments. However, there are several simple teaching and research tools that can aid in elder abuse education.

The findings of the elder abuse surveys conducted in the United States are not strictly comparable, although they may be combined to suggest a more organised approach to elder abuse research. This paper presents a model of elder abuse derived from those studies, and suggests that abuse is the predictable outcome of the interactions between and among elders' and abusers' characteristics. A list of the research hypotheses suggested by the model is presented, two forms of analysis that could be used to test them are described, and the implications of this model for scholars and practitioners are outlined.

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