Prevalence and methods of torture claimed in the Basque Country (Spain) during 1992–1993

The use of torture against selected groups of detainees in Spain has been repeatly denounced. The testimonies of 87 citizens arrested under the ‘anti-terrorist legislation’ in the Basque Country (Spain) during 1992–1993 were collected by using the Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims (RCT/IRCT) protocol. All the detainees were kept in solitary confinement with a mean period of 4 (S.D. = 1.1) days. Torture methods were usually a combination of physical, deprivation and coercion techniques with a high presence of sexual and communication techniques. The group arrested by the military corp ‘Guardia Civil’ showed a higher prevalence of different methods of physical torture, hearing torture from others and reduction of visual input as compared with those in the group arrested by the force ‘Policía Nacional’. The results show also a preference of sexual torture on women with a high prevalence of methods such as forced undressing, verbal humiliations and touching. The study could help international experts to develop a fact-finding mission on human rights in the region.     

Intergenerational offending in Liverpool and the north-west of England, 1850–1914

Using contemporary sources from the north-west of England in the Victorian period, the authors examine the putative connections made by contemporaries which linked together ‘bad’ parenting and the transmission of criminal traits. Poor parenting practices were a prevalent explanation for juvenile (leading onto sustained) delinquency, especially in the mid to late nineteenth century. Popular narratives by Charles Dickens and media opinion-formers were very influential in depicting neglectful mothers who did not socialise their children into law-abiding, useful members of society, and criminal fathers who inducted their children into their own criminal affairs and organisations. This article examines the reality of intergenerational offending (using prison- and court-generated data) to show that there is very little convincing research that proves direct intergenerational transmission of offending practices (i.e. parent-to-child-offending transmission). The authors then examine other possible routes of intergenerational offending using case studies and archival research, and the article concludes that environmental/socio-economic conditions and wider familial/neighbourhood relationships were, in fact, the main trigger for onset of offending, and the maintenance of criminal careers, rather than direct familial transmission. The article is therefore an important marker in understanding the processes which inhibit/generate criminality in a significant number of juvenile offenders in this period.     

The Jewish population and family in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the second half of the 18th century

The sources that can be employed to examine demographic aspects of the Jewish population and family in 18th-century Poland–Lithuania are sparse and mostly fiscal in origin. Since this source material has been preserved only for some periods and regions, few generalizations can be made. First, the authors have referred to the most comprehensive census that was carried out in 1791 by household in Cracow province (województwo krakowskie). It does not allow for detailed family reconstitution, however. Although extended/multiple family households might have been fairly common, the two-generational conjugal family unit seems to have prevailed, and no more than four nuclear families lived in one house. In addition, the age at first marriage was influenced only to a limited extent by the traditional practice of early marriage.     

Maids to the city: migration patterns of female domestic servants from the province of Zeeland,the Netherlands (1850–1950)

This article deals with the migration patterns of female domestic servants from the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands during the second half of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. The main topics are rates of servant migration, major destinations, strategies behind migration, and determinants of migration across provincial boundaries. A multimethod approach is used, combining the analysis of a data set of life courses of servants with an investigation of qualitative material such as interviews, letters, autobiographies, and government reports. Migration rates of domestic servants peaked in the last decades of the 19th century. Major destinations of Zeeland servants shifted from local and regional jobs with farmers to positions outside the province, particularly in the growing Dutch cities of Rotterdam and The Hague. Family strategies of survival and possibly of risk diversification and upward mobility were behind this migration. However, qualitative sources show that the out-migration of Zeeland servants must also be understood in terms of individual strategies, such as the desire for higher wages, emancipation from the parental home, and participation in more exciting city life.     

Transitions in women's and children's work patterns and implications for the study of family income and household structure: A case study from the Catalan textile sector (1850–1925)

This article deals with the outcomes of changes in the family labor resource allocation for family incomes and household structures. During the first stage of the demographic transition, since women worked more than men due to child bearing and child rearing, and children were the main contributors to household incomes over the medium term, there was a substitution effect whereby women 's wage labor was replaced by that of the children. With the beginning of the second industrial revolution, a contrary trend can be observed whereby child labor was replaced by that of married women, even by those reported as housewives in the Municipal Census. A smaller number of children, mandatory schooling, and an improvement of women 's position within the factory with respect to men, all seem to explain this second substitution. As a result of all these transformations, household structures and family incomes do not conform to any pre-established norms and integrate what we have defined as a family economy of mutual assistance.     

Women in campaigns 1550–1850 household and homosociality in the Swedish army

The article presents the main results from my study of social conditions in the Swedish Army between 1550 and 1850. The focus is on women's involvement and importance in the military. The most strikingly result is that women for a long time played a more crucial role in the Army than many people are unaware of. As a consequence, the unisexual, masculine, compulsory, military service which existed during most of the 20th century can be treated as an historical parenthesis. Nowadays women are permitted to serve in the military as soldiers, in older times women fulfilled their military duties as soldiers' wives. In a long-time perspective, the military role of women has shifted from wife to professional: the article explores this process. Soldiers on campaigns in the 17th century built households and had families, regardless of wartime or peacetime, and their households were also a natural part of the military, simultaneous with a strong male bonding principle, homosociality. Although conflicts existed between the two principles of organization, household and homosociality, they operated together at any rate until the beginning of the 19th century. The article illustrates how this cooperation worked, but also how the rise and fall of the household system in the military may be explained. Military thought, growth of state authority, a professionalization process and changed cultural norms were crucial. However, I want to emphasize the social practice of gender relations as a promoter of change: how norms and measures connected with marriage affected the military.     

Aspects of childhood in rural Greece: Children in a mountain village (ca. 1900–1940)

This essay examines childhood in a mountain village in central mainland Greece during the early 20th century and the interwar period. It gives an overview of an analytical case study conducted by the author within the context of the project “Historical Archives of Greek Youth” at the Greek National Research Center. The article draws on various sources, although principally on oral evidence. After a brief survey of the general and local socioeconomic context, it looks at children's lives and socialization inside and outside the household, focusing on family economy and interfamilial relationships within the context of home, school, community, and play, and tracing the relations of these domains to family and household. It points to the existence of childhoods rather than childhood, defined by gender and the specific socioeconomic position of the family. It argues that rural mountain society in Greece did not see its future in agriculture and examines the extent to which school education of boys functioned as a means of family urbanization and social mobility. Children alternated between traditional social structures and urban living patterns.     

Aspects of the evolution of extra-legal protection in Bulgaria (1989–1999)

In this paper I look at the interplay between organised crime, law, and the state and argue that the evolution of organised crime organisations in Bulgaria was shaped by the dynamic transformation of the legal and economic environment during the 90s, by policies of the state, such as, for example, the regulation of the private security and insurance industries (in 1994 and 1998 respectively), which mafia-like organisations used as fronts for their activities during the 90s and by the ability of organised crime organisations to adapt to the constantly changing conditions. In the first section of the paper I look at the emergence of the private security and private protection industries in Bulgaria with an emphasis on the development of organisations using the threat of violence to settle disputes, discourage competition, retrieve stolen property and collect debts. In the second section of the paper, I follow the transformation of certain type of private security companies into insurance companies, which directed their activities at properties liable to risk, for instance cars and small shops. They enjoyed an advantage over ordinary insurance companies because they possessed greater information about the risks, which could affect the property of their clients, for example theft (car theft in particular). The concluding section discusses the development of silovi grupirovki (the Bulgarian name for organised crime organisations) after 1998 when a very strict licensing regime for insurance companies was introduced and alleged to be mafia-like organisations were removed from the insurance market.

Choices and constraints in the migration of families: The central Netherlands, 1850–1940

This study investigates the lives of the women and children who accompanied the soldiers to the British garrison at Gibraltar during the last decades of the 19th century. Marriage in the army was controversial, and officials were divided on the subject: some saw the benefits of married life and realized the large amount of unpaid labor contributed by the women of the regiments; others believed that marriage was the “serious evil of marching regiments.” This study uses a military census taken in 1878 to analyze the age and sex structure of the military population at Gibraltar. Its structure is distinctive with no elderly individuals and few children in their teens. This pattern was the result of army directives, such as those governing the age of dependents and controlling marriage among the troops.     

The Review of the Development of Legal Science in China (1949–2009)

The legal science of the People’s Republic of China has experienced the stages of formation, reinstating and innovation over the past 60 years. Today, the legal field is flourishing. While the construction of different branches of law has been accomplished, there is still a long way to go in realizing democracy and rule of law in China. Jurists need to develop a heightened awareness of their social responsibility and the urgency with which to adapt the development of law to Chinese societies. Only under these circumstances can we effectively promote democracy and rule of law in China.     

What is the Place of Christian Wolff in the History of the Social Sciences?

This paper explores the place of Christian Wolff in the history of social science in English. The "Introduction" places Wolff in the context of the pre-history of modern social science. Samples are given of the great range of subjects on which he wrote. The importance of the German context is stressed. The second part is devoted to a sample of what the literature contains by and about Wolff. It emphasizes philosophy and science. Part three is a survey of works in the history of the social sciences that mention Wolff. He has a substantial place in political science and psychology, a much smaller place in economics and history, virtually none in anthropology, geography, and sociology. In the applied social sciences, he is found in the history of education. Possible reasons are given. Part four is devoted to the relationships of philosophy and philosophers in the pre-history of the social sciences. They were important in several different ways because they both shaped and reflected how many people thought about science and social problems. The Summary and Conclusion describes the present status. His contributions are summarized. He was a pivotal figure in the making of the German conception of social science. This is a preliminary study emphasizing the issues and problems that a more detailed examination would require. Several conventional judgments are challenged and possibilities for further research suggested.     

The parliamentary activity of the head of government in Ireland (1923–2000) in comparative perspective

This article examines the parliamentary activity of the head of government in Ireland in selected years from 1923 to 2000 and compares the findings with previous studies of the British and Canadian systems. The results show that, similar to the UK and Canada, there is variation in the level of parliamentary activity in Ireland from one head of government to another. However, contrary to the British and Canadian experience, in the Irish case the data show that the head of government's overall level of parliamentary activity has generally increased over time. In short, Irish heads of government are not necessarily more active than their contemporary British and Canadian counterparts. However, in a number of respects they are certainly more active than their Irish predecessors used to be. These findings suggest that there is now a greater degree of indirect accountability in the Irish system than was previously the case.     

Structure and strategy. Two rural communities in the Kempen region of Belgium, 1850–1910

This article starts with a methodological question: By carrying out a structural analysis of a local community, is it possible to gain insight into the labor strategies of the families within that community? This structural analysis is based on the reconstruction and integration of population, labor, and income data of individual households within two villages in 19th century Belgium. Basically, this exercise is to understand two sets of correlations: (a) between social differentiation and the family cycle and (b) between shifts in the social relationship between families and generations and the survival strategies of those families. This article shows that a structural approach to labor and income strategies can reveal how and why former strategies can lose their relevance and new choices are made relating to new networks of solidarity.     

Equity in English Contract Law: the Impact of the Judicature Acts (1873–75)

Just before the Judicature Acts came into force, the equity bar objected that the new court would be dominated by common law judges, whose ignorance of equity would ‘endanger the very existence of Equity jurisprudence’. This objection, though ridiculed at the time, can be seen in retrospect to have had some substance. In respect of several important aspects of contract law, notably unfairness, mistake, and privity, former equitable approaches were, after 1875, effectively marginalized both by the courts and by the writers of treatises on English contract law.     

Lord Cooke of Thorndon (1926–2006): 51 Years in the Law

This article provides an in‐depth analysis of the landmark ‘cash for query’ judgment of the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court of India. The scope of parliamentary privileges in India, as well as in England and America, is examined, particularly with respect to the jurisdiction of the courts. The present position in the law of parliamentary privileges in India was laid down in the case of Raja Ram Pal v The Hon’ble Speaker, Lok Sabha, &; Ors. The Supreme Court of India has extensively dwelled on the matter and has delivered a judgment, which is by far the most comprehensive decision in this field of law. The author notes in the analysis that the difference between the English and Indian constitutional systems is of crucial significance. The conflicts between the judiciary and parliament in England arose because of the sovereignty of parliament, and the judiciary had to fight for every inch of its jurisdiction in England. The judiciary had to contend with Parliament not only as a legislative body, but also by virtue of being the ‘High Court of Parliament’, as a superior court. Because of these reasons, the case law from British constitutional history does not have strict applicability in India. The decision of the Supreme Court of India in Raja Ram Pal v The Hon’ble Speaker, Lok Sabha, &; Ors, is a clear expression of a very basic feature of the Indian constitutional mechanism: where the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and all governmental organs, which owe their origin to the Constitution and derive their powers from its provisions, must function within its framework.     

Homicide Trends in Finland and Estonia in 1880–1940: Consequences of the Demographic,Social and Political Effects of Industrialization

While in western Europe and Scandinavia homicide rates reached their all time low during the period of industrialization, in Finland and Estonia they increased considerably. The rapid growth of criminal violence during the late 1800s and first half of the 1900s in these two countries seems to have been the result of interaction of several factors, partly non-simultaneous and unrelated. They do not seem to have been identical either, although the underlying equation was the same: the quick social and economic change following industrialization, and the modernisation of agriculture, the pressures it put especially on the youth in the form of uncertain prospects for the future and a new competition-oriented set of values, connected with the authoritarian political system of Russian Empire, which prevented necessary political reforms and left behind a legacy of social thinking idealizing violence as a political and social instrument. A legacy, which affected large parts of Finnish and Estonian population still for years after the czarist system itself already passed into history. The criminal violence arisen from the equation, however, had quite a different face on the northern coast of the Gulf of Finland from that on the southern one. In Finland the violence was centered in the new forest industrial communities, in Estonia again among the landless population of the countryside.     

On the Justiciability of the China's Social Security Rights in Contemporary——Based on the text analysis of Anthology of People's Court Case(1992-2010)

国家义务是实现社会保障权的法定义务.探讨社会保障权的可诉性,对全面把握和评判社会保障权之国家义务履行状况,具有决定性意义.以《人民法院案例选》(1992-2010)为参照系,当前中国对社会保障权的维护主要体现在社会保险权之工伤保险领域,在内容上主要表现为国家的尊重和保护义务.在明显具有给付性质或特征的社会保险权之养老保险、社会救助权、社会福利权等领域,国家对其法定义务的履行还任重而道远.在工伤认定案件中,法院对劳动者权利诉求的支持;以及在社会优抚权案件中,法院对《行政诉讼法》的扩张性解释,这些人性化举措都将如星星之火,可以燎原.     

Psychiatrists,criminals, and the law: Forensic psychiatry in Switzerland 1850–1950

Between 1880 and 1950, Swiss psychiatrists established themselves as experts in criminal courts. In this period, the judicial authorities required psychiatric testimonies in a rising number of cases. As a result, more offenders than ever before were declared mentally deficient and, eventually, sent to psychiatric asylums. Psychiatrists also enhanced their authority as experts at the political level. From the very beginning, they got involved in the preparatory works for a nationwide criminal code. In this article, I argue that these trends toward medicalization of crime were due to incremental processes, rather than spectacular institutional changes. In fact, Swiss psychiatrists gained recognition as experts due to their daily interactions with judges, public prosecutors, and legal counsels. At the same time, the spread of medical expertise had serious repercussions on psychiatric institutions. From 1942 onwards, asylums had to deal with a growing number of “criminal psychopaths,” which affected ward discipline and put psychiatry's therapeutic efficiency into question. The defensive way in which Swiss psychiatrists reacted to this predicament was crucial to the further development of forensic psychiatry. For the most part, it accounts for the subdiscipline's remarkable lack of specialization until the 1990s.     

Is breast best? Evaluating breastfeeding patterns and causes of infant death in a Dutch province in the period 1875–1900

In the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant, infants experienced extremely high mortality risks towards the final decades of the nineteenth century. It has been stated that infant survival in the past highly depended upon the fact whether a child was breastfed or not. In this article we will reflect on this perceived importance of infant diet in order to explain the high mortality risks of Brabant infants in the period 1875–1900. Using local aggregated cause of death data, a change in breastfeeding practices can indeed be detected. Between 1875/79 and 1895/99 there was an increase in the relative and absolute number of infants deaths as a result of diarrhoea and other digestive disorders indicating deficient hygiene and that fewer infants were breastfed frequently. By discussing differences between urban and rural settings, and between Catholic and Protestant regions, we will shed more light on possible mechanisms for this change in breastfeeding practices.