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Abstract A central issue in the controversy surrounding the death penalty is the question of deterrence. Specifically, does the additional severity of capital punishment over life imprisonment serve to deter potential criminals? I attempt to deal with this question by separating the effects of severity of punishment from those of certainty of punishment by examining various woys in which these factors have been manipulated in the attempt to curb the incidence of skyjacking. I conclude that increasing the certainty of punishment results in a decrease in crime, whereas increasing the severity does not, in effect arguing against the necessity of the death penulty.

Abstract
Communicating the threat of severe winter weather is not simply a matter of the number of inches of snow or degrees of cold; it also considers the potential impacts of the storm. The winter storm severity index (WSSI) is a graphical product from the National Weather Service that presents anticipated impacts from forecast winter weather for a range of winter conditions. To assess the utility of the WSSI and how an impact-based winter weather forecast product is interpreted and used to inform decision-making, a mixed-methods social science study was conducted by the Nurture Nature Center in coordination with the Weather Prediction Center. Through focus groups and surveys, testing in the Hydrometeorological Testbed, and iterations on design and category descriptions, several themes emerged about how professional stakeholders understand, interpret, and use this product for communicating about impending winter weather. There is perceived utility in the WSSI for situational awareness and as part of a package of other information to inform decision-making. However, there is variability in interpretations of impacts, resulting from differences in geography, community readiness, and experience, among other factors, which creates complications in communicating the forecast. Furthermore, many users seek quantities related to winter weather, suggesting that education about what impact-based products include and what data are shown is necessary. Understanding the factors that influence perspectives on impact levels and the variable needs for winter weather information across regions improves forecasters' abilities to effectively communicate and provide critical information that helps end users prepare for severe winter weather.

Significance Statement
Effectively communicating severe winter weather is critical to supporting communities in being prepared for and mitigating weather-related losses and damages. The winter storm severity index focuses on impacts to provide awareness of impending winter weather, information that is useful but not always interpreted consistently, requiring an understanding of factors influencing perspectives on impact levels and user education.

The issue of the severity of psychiatric disorders has great clinical importance. For example, severity influences decisions about level of care, and affects decisions to seek government assistance due to psychiatric disability. Controversy exists as to the efficacy of antidepressants across the spectrum of depression severity, and whether patients with severe depression should be preferentially treated with medication rather than psychotherapy. Measures of severity are used to evaluate outcome in treatment studies and may be used as meaningful endpoints in clinical practice. But, what does it mean to say that someone has a severe illness? Does severity refer to the number of symptoms a patient is experiencing? To the intensity of the symptoms? To symptom frequency or persistence? To the impact of symptoms on functioning or on quality of life? To the likelihood of the illness resulting in permanent disability or death? Putting aside the issue of how severity should be operationalized, another consideration is whether severity should be conceptualized similarly for all illnesses or be disorder specific. In this paper, we examine how severity is characterized in research and contemporary psychiatric diagnostic systems, with a special focus on depression and personality disorders. Our review shows that the DSM‐5 has defined the severity of various disorders in different ways, and that researchers have adopted a myriad of ways of defining severity for both depression and personality disorders, although the severity of the former was predominantly defined according to scores on symptom rating scales, whereas the severity of the latter was often linked with impairments in functioning. Because the functional impact of symptom‐defined disorders depends on factors extrinsic to those disorders, such as self‐efficacy, resilience, coping ability, social support, cultural and social expectations, as well as the responsibilities related to one's primary role function and the availability of others to assume those ...

For decades, meteorologists and governments have been warning communities in coastal areas for an imminent tropical cyclone (TC) using the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale (SSHWS). The SSHWS categorizes a TC based on its maximum wind speed, and is used in defining evacuation strategies and humanitarian response. However, the SSHWS considers only the wind hazard of a TC, whereas a TC can also cause severe conditions through its high storm surges and extreme rainfall, triggering coastal and inland flooding. Consequently, the SSHWS fails to mirror the TC's total severity. This becomes evident when looking at past events such as Hurricane Harvey (2017), which was classified as a Tropical Storm while it caused widespread flooding in the Houston (TX) area, with precipitation totals exceeding 1.5 m. Without including storm surge and rainfall information, adequate risk communication with the SSHWS can be challenging, as the public can (mistakenly) perceive a low-category TC as a low-risk TC. To overcome this, we propose the new Tropical Cyclone Severity Scale (TCSS) that includes all three major TC hazards in its classification. The new scale preserves the categorization as used in the SSHWS, to maintain familiarity amongst the general public. In addition, we extend the scale with a Category 6, to support communication about the most extreme TCs with multiple hazards. The TCSS is designed to be applied on a local-scale, hereby supporting local-scale risk communication efforts and evacuation strategies prior to a TC landfall. The scale can be used for risk communication on both the total TC risk and on the categories of the separate hazards, which can be valuable especially in cases when one hazard is the predominant risk factor, such as excess rainfall triggering flooding.

Obesity is well documented as a prominent risk factor of osteoarthritis (OA). When osteoarthritis extensively affects the joints, it becomes a major cause of mobility impairment creating definite psychosocial impact. The effect of obesity on the severity of the disease in terms of physical and psychosocial impact is less studied. This study tried to find the association of the severity of physical symptoms of OA with obesity and its effect on psychosocial problems associated with osteoarthritis. Patients with osteoarthritis attending the Orthopaedics outpatient department at Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, were interviewed using a structured questionnaire that included physical, emotional and social parameters. They were asked to rate the physical parameters on a scale of 1 to 5 based on severity and mention which among the psychosocial parameters were present. Their height and weight were also recorded. The scores of obese and non-obese individuals were compared using Mann-Whitney U test. The psychosocial parameters were compared using Chi-Square test with Yates'correction and Fischer's Exact test A total of 40 patients were studied. Obese patients with osteoarthritis had a significantly higher total severity score (p=0.019) and stiffness sub score (p=0.019). The social functions affected were mainly participation in leisure activities and the emotional problems were predominantly anxiety and stress. Obese participants with osteoarthritis had 10 times more chance of restricting leisure activities when compared to non-obese participants. Anxiety was also more prevalent among the obese participants and they were 15 times more stressed than their non-obese counterparts. Keywords: Obesity, Osteoarthritis, Stress, Joint Stiffness, Anxiety

For decades, meteorologists and governments have been warning communities in coastal areas for an imminent tropical cyclone (TC) using the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale (SSHWS). The SSHWS categorizes a TC based on its maximum wind speed, and is used in defining evacuation strategies and humanitarian response. However, the SSHWS considers only the wind hazard of a TC, whereas a TC can also cause severe conditions through its high storm surges and extreme rainfall, triggering coastal and inland flooding. Consequently, the SSHWS fails to mirror the TC's total severity. This becomes evident when looking at past events such as Hurricane Harvey (2017), which was classified as a Tropical Storm while it caused widespread flooding in the Houston (TX) area, with precipitation totals exceeding 1.5 m. Without including storm surge and rainfall information, adequate risk communication with the SSHWS can be challenging, as the public can (mistakenly) perceive a low-category TC as a low-risk TC. To overcome this, we propose the new Tropical Cyclone Severity Scale (TCSS) that includes all three major TC hazards in its classification. The new scale preserves the categorization as used in the SSHWS, to maintain familiarity amongst the general public. In addition, we extend the scale with a Category 6, to support communication about the most extreme TCs with multiple hazards. The TCSS is designed to be applied on a local-scale, hereby supporting local-scale risk communication efforts and evacuation strategies prior to a TC landfall. The scale can be used for risk communication on both the total TC risk and on the categories of the separate hazards, which can be valuable especially in cases when one hazard is the predominant risk factor, such as excess rainfall triggering flooding.

For decades, meteorologists and governments have been warning communities in coastal areas for an imminent tropical cyclone (TC) using the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale (SSHWS). The SSHWS categorizes a TC based on its maximum wind speed, and is used in defining evacuation strategies and humanitarian response. However, the SSHWS considers only the wind hazard of a TC, whereas a TC can also cause severe conditions through its high storm surges and extreme rainfall, triggering coastal and inland flooding. Consequently, the SSHWS fails to mirror the TC's total severity. This becomes evident when looking at past events such as Hurricane Harvey (2017), which was classified as a Tropical Storm while it caused widespread flooding in the Houston (TX) area, with precipitation totals exceeding 1.5 m. Without including storm surge and rainfall information, adequate risk communication with the SSHWS can be challenging, as the public can (mistakenly) perceive a low-category TC as a low-risk TC. To overcome this, we propose the new Tropical Cyclone Severity Scale (TCSS) that includes all three major TC hazards in its classification. The new scale preserves the categorization as used in the SSHWS, to maintain familiarity amongst the general public. In addition, we extend the scale with a Category 6, to support communication about the most extreme TCs with multiple hazards. The TCSS is designed to be applied on a local-scale, hereby supporting local-scale risk communication efforts and evacuation strategies prior to a TC landfall. The scale can be used for risk communication on both the total TC risk and on the categories of the separate hazards, which can be valuable especially in cases when one hazard is the predominant risk factor, such as excess rainfall triggering flooding.

This paper focuses on the recent history and current operation of a well‐established multi‐agency diversion and crime prevention unit in Northamptonshire in Britain. Four themes are addressed specifically. First, we examine the place of diversionary initiatives in the context of a central government‐driven 'get tough on crime' agenda. Second, the local conditions and struggles over the fate of multi‐agency diversion in Northamptonshire are outlined. Third, we present an empirical overview of the current rationale and routine work of the Diversion Unit. Fourth, we examine the nature of multi‐agency practices on the ground and, in passing, test the claims of the influential academic 'net‐widening' and 'denial of justice'theses on multi‐agency diversion. In conclusion, we argue that a multi‐agency case‐driven approach to diversion has emerged in response to the renewed 'culture of severity'around crime control issues.

The burgeoning literature on civil conflicts seldom considers why some civil wars are so much deadlier than others. This article investigates that question using a new data set of the number of combat deaths in internal conflicts from 1946 to 2002. The first section presents descriptive statistics on battle deaths by era, conflict type, and region. The article then tests state strength, regime type, and cultural characteristics as predictors of the number of combat deaths in civil war. The determinants of conflict severity seem to be quite different from those for conflict onset. Democracy, rather than economic development or state military strength, is most strongly correlated with fewer deaths; wars have also been less deadly on average since the end of the cold war. Religious heterogeneity does not explain the military severity of internal violence, and surprisingly, ethnic homogeneity may be related to more deadly conflicts.