Police referral to victim support: the predictive and diagnostic value of the RISK (10) screening instrument

One of the basic rights of crime victims granted under victim-orientated legislation introduced during the last 20 years in more than 100 countries worldwide is the right to be referred to victim support by the police. The under-utilization of psychological services by crime victims who are objectively in need of external support is substantial. Current legal procedures tend to perpetuate this unwanted condition. Programs aimed at the early detection and prevention of persistent postvictimization distress are more in line with the ideals of therapeutic jurisprudence. The RISK (10) screening instrument, which was specifically developed to be administered by police officers, may provide a basis for early detection. RISK (10) consists of a selection of 10 Risk factors with prior empirical evidence and theoretical significance. The focus of the present study was to examine the predictive and diagnostic power of RISK (10) components to detect persistent future psychological distress, among other things, in terms of Adjustment Disorder. Analyses were based on a sample of 93 crime victims who participated in the police and (3 months) follow-up parts of the study. Findings provided initial validation for the predictive accuracy of most RISK (10) components, and confirm the diagnostic value (in terms of specificity, sensitivity, positive and negative predictive power) of risk factors, such as engaging in character attributions, upward comparison processes, fatalistic appraisals of the episode, and the initial reporting of expected deficiencies in social support. The clinical utility of RISK (10) for early detection in police stations is confirmed.     

Originality in software law: Belgian doctrine and jurisprudence remain divided

Legal context: Article 1.3 of the Software Directive stipulates that ‘acomputer program shall be protected if it is original in thesense that it is the author's own intellectual creation’.The same condition is formulated in Article 2, part 1 of theBelgian Software Act. Key points: Belgian doctrine and jurisprudence remain divided regardingthe question whether the romantic (continental European) originalitycriterion applies so that a computer program should bear thepersonal mark of the author, or whether a lower (Anglo-Saxon)threshold level is applicable. This threshold means that a computerprogram is already protected the moment it is not a copy ofanother program. The rulings of the Ghent Court of Appeal of13 April 2006 and the Antwerp Court of Appeal of 19 December2005 reflect this division. Practical significance: There can be no doubt that legal security is under serious threat,both from the developers of software and from potential infringers.The time is right to put a preliminary question to the EuropeanCourt of Justice on this matter.     

Parody exception again denied in Belgium

The Antwerp Court of Appeal confirms the tendency in Belgianjurisprudence to be very cautious in its application of theparody exception to copyright infringement. The alleged ‘Miffy’parody on the cover of the magazine Deng is, according to thecourt, too slavish a copy of the original, and thus in itselfinsufficiently original. Moreover the moral rights of artistDick Bruna were infringed. A freedom of expression appeal wasalso rejected, this fundamental right being already encapsulatedin the existing exceptions to copyright.     

‘Empty,Swept and Garnished’: the Public Finance Initiative case of Throckley Middle School

As spaces of complex layering of multiple relations, each with their own space–time dynamics and reach, policies of urban governance and their tangible outcomes can be materially experienced as conjunctions of multiple meshworks of assemblages with different scopes and different systems of values. This paper investigates a case example of a Private Finance Initiative for the construction of Throckley Middle School in Newcastle upon Tyne. Completed in 2003, Throckley school closed in 2005. A Deleuzean-inspired tracing of several Throckley assemblages is presented and the paper concludes by discussing the challenges of adopting a Deleuzean perspective for analysis of urban governance and infrastructure development.     

Enhancing the Visibility of Injuries with Narrow‐Banded Beams of Light within the Visible Light Spectrum

The use of narrow‐banded visible light sources in improving the visibility of injuries has been hardly investigated, and studies examining the extent of this improvement are lacking. In this study, narrow‐banded beams of light within the visible light spectrum were used to explore their ability in improving the visibility of external injuries. The beams of light were induced by four crime‐lites^® providing narrow‐banded beams of light between 400 and 550 nm. The visibility of the injuries was assessed through specific long‐pass filters supplied with the set of crime‐lites^®. Forty‐three percent of the examined injuries improved in visibility by using the narrow‐banded visible light. In addition, injuries were visualized that were not visible or just barely visible to the naked eye. The improvements in visibility were particularly marked with the use of crime‐lites^® “violet” and “blue” covering the spectrum between 400–430 and 430–470 nm. The simple noninvasive method showed a great potential contribution in injury examination.     

Contextualising City-regional Issues,Strategies and their Use: the Flemish Story

This paper presents a contextualised analysis of what might be called the city-regional debate. The debate is unfolded in terms of four types of city-regional issues, eight common strategies to tackle the latter and the use thereof in Flanders. It is concluded that the way in which city-regional issues are dealt with in Flanders can be explained by its regime, consisting of an administrative, political and cultural dimension, in terms of a centralistic policy style combined with a weak institutional position of local governments, by a ‘localisation’ of regional politics and policies, both dominated by an anti-urban bias.     

The effect of political sophistication and party identification on voter–party congruence. A comparative analysis of 30 countries

Partisanship and cognitive mobilization are generally seen as independent and counter-balancing influences on vote choice. While the former is typically regarded as a shortcut, reducing the need for close ideological congruence with one’s preferred party, the latter is associated with increasing levels of political sophistication and the importance of ideological proximity in voter decision-making. This paper tests the strength of these arguments in comparative perspective using data from Wave 3 of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES). Our results show that in general higher levels of political sophistication are associated with higher levels of voter–party ideological congruence and that a strong party identification reduces this proximity. For voters with both high levels of sophistication and strong partisanship, however, congruence remains high. In a second step we examine whether these relationships are affected by the complexity of the party environment. Our findings show that party system size has no effect on levels of ideological congruence at the individual level, and this holds for different levels of voter sophistication. We conclude that for the most part voter sophistication and party identification are best seen as counter-weights in determining vote choice.     

Contested hybridization of regulation: Failure of the Dutch regulatory system to protect minors from harmful media

The hybridization of regulatory modes and instruments is currently a popular way to improve public regulation. However, it is still unclear whether combinations of hard law and soft law, co-regulation, and legally enforced self-regulation really make regulation more effective. Using the analytical framework of the “really responsive regulation” approach, in this article we explore effectiveness problems in a hybrid regulatory system that tries to protect minors from harmful media. In our analysis of low compliance rates in the context of system failures, we argue that effectiveness problems seem to arise from poorly informed staff members, lack of internal and external controls, low rule enforcement, insufficient overlap between public and private interests, poor social responsibility in the Dutch media sector, deficiencies in the institutional framework, an inconsistent regulatory strategy, and inadequate responses from responsible regulators. Furthermore, based on our case study we argue that institutional dynamics of standard-setting activities can be detrimental to regulatory goal achievement if there is no compensation at the systemic level. Ongoing “regulatory care” through control, corrective responses, and rule enforcement seems to be crucial for a hybrid regulatory system to perform well.