“Not Gods But Animals”: Human Dignity and Vulnerable Subjecthood

Drawing on earlier work on the conceptual structure of dignity, this paper will suggest a particular type of connectedness between vulnerability and human dignity; namely, that the “organizing idea” of human dignity is the idea of a particular sort of ethical response to universal human vulnerability. It is common ground among many, if not all, approaches to ethics that vulnerability requires us to respond ethically. Here, I argue that human dignity is distinctive among ethical values in that it values us because of, rather than in spite of, or regardless of, our universal vulnerability. The term “dignity” is used synonymously with “human dignity” here, since an investigation of the dignity of non-human entities forms no part of the present examination.     

Fear of crime and vulnerability: Using a national sample of Americans to examine two competing paradigms

Purpose

A prominent explanation of why certain groups of people fear crime more than others focuses on physical and social vulnerability. Some researchers have argued that physical vulnerability characteristics (e.g., gender, age, health) are more important in determining one's fear of crime while others have argued that social vulnerability characteristics (e.g., race and socioeconomic status) are more important.

Methods

We test the independence of the physical and social vulnerability characteristics through a nationally representative sample of Americans. Using a multilevel path modeling approach, we examine whether the physical or the social vulnerability explanation is more powerful in its explanation, or whether a combination of both vulnerabilities explains fear of crime.

Results

Results suggest that the two explanations are interdependent to some degree; with the direct effects of social vulnerability being most tied to physical indicators of vulnerability through indirect effects. To a lesser degree, the direct effects of physical vulnerability are also tied to fear of crime indirectly through indicators of social vulnerability.

Conclusions

The implications of these results are discussed.     

The Influence of Victim Vulnerability and Gender on Police Officers’ Assessment of Intimate Partner Violence Risk

This study investigated the influence of victim vulnerability factors and gender on risk assessment for intimate partner violence (IPV). 867 cases of male and female perpetrated IPV investigated by Swedish police officers using the Brief Spousal Assault Form for the Evaluation of Risk (B-SAFER) were examined. For male-to-female IPV, victim vulnerability factors were associated with summary risk judgments and risk management recommendations. For female-to-male IPV, vulnerability factors were more often omitted, and consistent associations were not found between vulnerability factors, summary risk judgments, and risk management. Results indicate that B-SAFER victim vulnerability factors can assist in assessing male-to-female IPV risk. Further research is necessary to examine the use of B-SAFER victim vulnerability factors for female-to-male IPV, as results showed victim vulnerability factors to be less relevant to officers’ decision making, particularly their management recommendations. However, several variables external to the B-SAFER, such as the availability of management strategies may account for these findings.     

The Semiotic Fractures of Vulnerable Bodies: Resistance to the Gendering of Legal Subjects

While the turn to vulnerability in law responds to a recurrent critique by feminist scholars on the disembodiment of legal personhood, this article suggests that the mobilization of vulnerability in the criminal courts does not necessarily offer female drug mules a direct path to justice. Through an analysis of sentencing appeals of female drug mules in England and Wales, this article presents a feminist critique of the dispositif of the person and its relation to vulnerability. Discourses on drug mules’ vulnerability mobilize the trope of the colonial victim in need of protection, which is often translated into legal mercy. But mercy is rather an expression of biopower which inscribes not only fragility onto the bodies of drug mules by figuring them as exemplar paradigms of colonial subjectivity, but also reinvigorates the dispositif of gender implicit in the legal person. In this set-up, it would appear as if law and politics totalize the registers of life, in this case the contours of vulnerable body. The article suggests we must revisit the image of the wounded body in order to carve out a space for resistance. Drawing on Elaine Scarry and Judith Butler, it suggests vulnerable bodies are marked by a semiotic openness, which renders them subject to appropriation but also able to signify the precarity produced by the law through their resistance to representation.     

Using rights and the law to reduce women's vulnerability to HIV

Cathi Albertyn's paper, an edited and updated version of her presentation at "Putting Third First," argues that both human rights and the law can play an important, if limited, role within a wider set of national and international strategies to reduce women's vulnerability to HIV. It analyzes the nature of women's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, and highlights some of the issues and lessons in using rights and the law to advance gender equality and reduce women's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS.     

Toward a social geography of baby farming

This paper uses a range of archival sources to undertake a case study of the people and practices encompassed by the term “baby farming” in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It argues that baby farming needs to be located in space and time in order to reach some accommodation between its materiality and the discursive construction that continues to distort historical debate. Neither a criminal nor a compassionate practice, baby farming emerges as an economic exchange predicated on the vulnerability of single mothers, the disposability of their children, and in many cases, the desperation of poor women who see taking infants to nurse as a way of earning an income.     

The Effect of Family Violence on Sexual Victimization among Young Women

Young people who grow up in a violent family context are more vulnerable to become victims of sexual aggression outside the family context. The present study contributes to the understanding of the mechanisms that explain this link among young women by looking at the mediating role of sexual exposure behavior and target vulnerability. Data were used from an online survey among 237 young women aged 16 to 26 (M?=?21.0 years, SD?=?2.75). Experiencing violence from (one of) the parents and to a lesser extent witnessing interparental violence were related to an elevated risk for sexual victimization. Witnessing interparental violence was related to increased target vulnerability but this factor did not mediate the link with sexual victimization. Experiencing parental violence was related to both increased sexual exposure behavior and increased target vulnerability and these factors did mediate the link with sexual victimization.     

Social meanings of terrorism: Reification,violence, and social control

Conclusion Terrorism as a force in social and international relations appears to some as a relapse into barbarism, a peculiar and dismal aberration of civilized life, and a step backward in the conduct of war. Whether terrorism as a way of settling disputes is better or worse than what preceded it is a value question that cannot be adequately addressed here. Most changes or innovations in war tactics have been regarded as unfair, sneaky, or unsporting upon their introduction, but circumstances usually force their acceptance and the sophistication of violence escalates. When set against the tapestry of a thousand years of military history, terrorism can be seen as a tactic frequently employed by both governments and individuals. It is modern industrial society's increased vulnerability to this form of violence which makes it appear so horrendous, and subjects it to moral indignation [27].In a behavioral sense, official and individual terrorism achieve similar results, although governments usually have greater resources on hand. It is above all a reified conception of governments, nation-states, and the legitimacy of official terrorism that permits the social meaning process to function as it does, i.e. individual terrorism is condemned as morally repugnant, while official terror is accepted as severe but necessary. With this bifurcation in mind, the sociologist has a choice — banish the term,terrorism altogether since it amounts to little more than moralized name-calling, or save the concept since it does in fact make an important distinction between types of violence, and apply the term even-handedly to both governments and individuals.I wish to thank Deirdre Daly for her editorial assistance     

Strategic Retirements: The Influence of Public Preferences On Voluntary Departures from Congress

Are members of Congress responsive to public preferences in their decisions to seek reelection or retire, or do members simply rely on the advantages of incumbency to secure reelection? I argue that members of Congress consider their electoral vulnerability when deciding whether or not to seek reelection, informing their reelection odds with the same short‐term electoral forces that influence election outcomes: partisan preferences, economic evaluations, and congressional approval. Considering aggregate rates of voluntary departures from the House and Senate from 1954 to 2004, I show that rates of retirement reflect, not only institutional environments within Congress, but also the mood of the electorate.     

The significance of the legal term "corpse" in forensic medicine

The definition of the term "corpse" is relevant for medicine in general and most particularly so for forensic medicine, as it has direct consequences on practical work: legally, postmortems and autopsies may only be performed on corpses. With this in mind, the legal term "corpse" was examined on the basis of German State Law regulations and provisions. Approximately half the burial acts include a definition of "corpse", but even here there are certain variations. The definitions for "corpse" can be divided into four categories: 1) according to the lack of vital signs or sure signs of death 2) according to the degree of decomposition and/or cohesion of body parts 3) on the basis of severed body parts, and 4) terminological differentiation of stillbirths and neonatal fatalities from miscarriages. Laws vary greatly in their definition of the term "corpse". Therefore, the decision whether or not human remains or parts thereof qualify as a "corpse" should be left to medical discretion.     

溯源求本道“权利”

“权利”一词,一直为我国民法学界误解为来自日本。其实,即使现代意义上的“权利”,也是我国首创,尔后为日本发扬广大,又为我们所引进的“回归词”。对于权利的本质,学说史上虽有富有洞见的各种学说,但均持抽象论。其实权利乃是法律人用以描述这个世界、认识这个世界、表达这个世界、改造这个世界的法律技术工具。     

The use of the term "obesity" in deaths reported to coroners in Australia

There is growing government awareness of the increasing incidence of obesity in the Australian community and its potential impact on health policy issues. This column considers the appropriateness of the WHO definition of the term "obesity" and analyses its use by Australian forensic pathologists and coroners as a cause of death in "medical cause of death" statements. While families may have concerns about the use of this term in reference to a deceased family member, the use of "obesity" in medical cause of death statements could have considerable influence on coroners' recommendations with regard to health policy in this area.     

A Multilevel Analysis of the Vulnerability,Disorder, and Social Integration Models of Fear of Crime

The current research tests three conceptual models designed to explain citizens’ fear of crime—vulnerability, disorder, and social integration. These models are assessed for differential impact across the cognitive and affective dimensions of fear of crime. The analysis reported here considers the consecutive and simultaneous influence of individual- and city-level factors using multilevel modeling techniques. Recently collected survey data for 2,599 citizens nested within 21 cities across Washington State provide the empirical evidence for the analysis. Results indicate that the disorder model is best able to explain variation in both the cognitive and affective dimensions of citizens’ fear of crime across cities. The vulnerability and social integration models explain significantly less variation. Further, the vulnerability model lacks directional consistency across the observed dimensions of fear. Societal implications of the research findings are discussed.

Predicting and Preventing the Theft of Electronic Products

The research presented within this paper was conducted as part of a 2-year project (Project MARC) to develop and render operational a mechanism to assess the risk of theft of electronic products. Clarke and Newman (Secured goods by design - a plan for security coding of electronic products. London: Department of Trade and Industry, 2002) proposed the use of two checklists—one to measure vulnerability, the other to measure security—as a means of categorising products according to their vulnerability to theft. Consultation with key stakeholders yielded the common view that such a mechanism was worth pursuing, but that it must reflect the language of those who would use it. An extensive consultation with stakeholders from ten European member states ensued. Participants were asked to rate a range of electronic products in terms of vulnerability and security, and to explain their ratings. Their responses were used to develop two checklists that incorporate a variety of factors, weighted according to the frequency with which they were expressed. The crime vulnerability checklist developed within this paper is judged fit-for-purpose as a provisional measurement but we urge caution in relation to the security checklist.

著作权保护期限标准的审视与重构

著作权的两类权利主体(自然人和非自然人)获得保护的正当性理由不同,相应的保护期限也应根据不同的标准确立。回顾著作权法的发展历史,二者没有被清晰区分。以自然人作者保护为前提发展而来的"照顾理论"是大部分国家现行时间标准的正当性理由。信息社会著作权法的保护范围和制度设计都有了深刻变革,要实现公平正义目标,著作财产权的保护期限应当重构:一方面,非自然人权利主体作品不应也不宜直接适用原有根据自然人作者设计的保护期限,而应根据"激励理论"参考专利法确定固定保护期;另一方面,应当审视"照顾理论"在现有背景下的合理性,对自然人作品建议采用原则上以作者生命为限结合最低保护期限的标准。现有保护期限都应缩短,在受国际条约所限该目标短期难以达成的现状下,可以调整著作权保护宽度,采用相对宽松的合理使用制度。     

我国新合同法中的表见代表制度评析

表见代理制度在我国新合同法上的确立 ,反映了我国市场经济体制运行过程中对交易安全保护的重视。有关表见代理构成要件的理论纷争 ,是对这一制度作用于实际生活所应当发生的具体效果以及立法选择之合理性的不同角度的观察结果。     

Fetal protection and potential liability: judicial application of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and the disparate impact theory

"Fetal vulnerability programs," which are employer attempts to protect employees' unborn fetuses from harm caused by the mothers' exposure to hazardous material in the workplace, have been challenged as a form of employment discrimination. This Note analyzes the recent judicial application of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) and the disparate impact theory to fetal vulnerability cases. The Note also examines the business necessity defense's accommodation of legitimate employer interests. The Note concludes that a more potent business necessity defense, a stricter standard for evaluating alternative protective measures, and a judicial interpretation of the PDA which is more consistent with congressional intent are necessary for fair and reasonable resolution of these cases.     

Medicare program; continuous use of durable medical equipment--HCFA. Final rule

This final rule responds to public comments on the October 9, 1991 interim final rule with comment period that set forth the Secretary's determination, required under section 1834(a)(7)(A) of the Social Security Act, of the meaning of the term "continuous" as that term is used in defining a period of continuous use for which we make payments for durable medical equipment.     

DISCRETE TASK REPRESENTATION, ETHICS, AND THE BIG PICTURE

This paper discusses the long term implications of the "unbundled legal services movement" with particular focus on overcoming perceived "ethical" barriers to unbundling and on the possibility of laying a foundation for the creation of a right to counsel in civil cases for those who cannot afford a lawyer.     

Why public opinion changes: the implications for health and health policy

Research on stasis or change in public opinion toward health, health policy, and medical care tends to focus on short-term dynamics and to emphasize the impact of discrete messages communicated by individual speakers in particular situations. This focus on what we term "situational framing," though valuable in some respects, is poorly equipped to assess changes that may occur over the longer term. We focus, instead, on "structural framing" to understand how institutionalized public health and health care policies impact public opinion and behavior over time. Understanding the dynamics of public opinion over time is especially helpful in tracking the political effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 as it moves from the debate over its passage to its implementation and operation.