3起耳毒性药物致聋诉讼案例医法分析

本文报告3例6岁以下儿童使用丁胺卡那霉素后致聋引发医疗纠纷的鉴定. [例1] 某女婴,出生后4个月.1995年2月20日因腹泻伴发热在某市级医院肌注丁胺卡那霉素(当时体重6公斤),同月23日腹泻好转出院.1997年2月(2年后)家属发现该患儿与同龄幼儿有差异,经上级多家医院检查后诊断为药物中毒性耳聋,且不可逆转.原告遂以医疗不当为由,向法院起诉要求该医院赔偿四十余万元.     

3起耳毒性药物致聋诉讼案例医法分析

本文报告 3例 6岁以下儿童使用丁胺卡那霉素后致聋引发医疗纠纷的鉴定。【例 1】　某女婴 ,出生后 4个月。 1995年 2月 2 0日因腹泻伴发热在某市级医院肌注丁胺卡那霉素 (当时体重 6公斤 ) ,同月 2 3日腹泻好转出院。 1997年 2月 (2年后 )家属发现该患儿与同龄幼儿有差异 ,经上级多家医院检查后诊断为药物中毒性耳聋 ,且不可逆转。原告遂以医疗不当为由 ,向法院起诉要求该医院赔偿四十余万元。而医院方认为其医疗行为并未违反有关规定 ,且尚难以确认医疗行为是致其耳聋的惟一原因。本例经医疗事故技术鉴定结论为不构成医疗事故。该例一审判…     

The incidence of alleged sexual abuse in 603 family court cases

The conflict and animosity that sometimes accompanies child custody disputes can give rise to the propagation of allegations of child sexual abuse. To characterize the magnitude of the problem, the present study attempted to determine whether and to what extent child sexual abuse allegations predominate in family court litigation. The entire one-year caseload of a county family court docket was systematically reviewed and coded. Methodical evaluation of 603 family court files yielded base rates of pertinent allegations and other information profiling the cases. The findings did not support the contention that sexual abuse allegations are commonplace in child custody disputes. Sexual abuse allegations were made in 2% of cases in which custody or access was contested and in only 0.8% of the cases overal. Implications of the findings for future research were discussed.The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the Honorable William R. Campbell and Barbara Scott, Clerk of Court for the South Carolina Fifth Judicial Circuit, as well as the contributions of Angie Newton, Frank Robinson, and Kimberly Ellis in the data collection process.     

Punishment justifications in rape cases: a community study

Norway is one of the countries with the most progressive criminal justice systems in the Western world. Traditionally, the Norwegian criminal justice system has been mainly based on treatment and deterrence perspectives. While it is believed that criminal justice practices should be in accordance with public attitudes, few studies in Scandinavia have investigated public attitudes towards criminal justice sanctions in a methodologically sound manner. The current study is the first to investigate the attitudes of the Norwegian public towards punishment of rapists. In a Norwegian community sample (N = 475) from 2005, participants found the typical sentencing severity of a convicted rapist too lenient. The participants did report that as a global sentencing orientation, they preferred incapacitation. When presented with a specific rape case, their sentencing judgements were oriented towards both incapacitation and retribution, but their global orientation were not related to their specific judgements. Aggravating circumstances (e.g. violence was used) were found to influence the participants’ judgements more than when no aggravating circumstances were present (e.g. no violence was used). Few gender or educational differences were found, which indicates that these attitudes towards punishment of rapists are quite consistent across demographical groups.     

Implicit judgments of rape cases: an experiment on the determinants and consequences of implicit evaluations in a rape case

Implicit evaluations reflect people’s gut response toward an attitude object and are based on associative processes. They are the starting ground for more reflective processes and subsequent explicit evaluations. The present research examined determinants and consequences of implicit evaluations in a rape case. Situational (i.e. specifics of the rape case) and personal factors (i.e. rape myth acceptance) were demonstrated to influence both explicit and implicit judgments of the rape case. Moreover, sex of participant influenced participants’ implicit evaluations but affected explicit judgments only indirectly via the implicit evaluation. People’s gut response was shown to affect their explicit judgment of the case, and this effect was particularly pronounced for people with a low need for cognition (i.e. people who do not like to engage in effortful processing). The discussion focuses on the role of implicit cognition and implicit biases in judicial decision-making.     

强奸案件的加害与被害——71个强奸案例的法律实证分析

强奸犯罪是以女性为加害对象的一种野蛮的暴力犯罪.我国对强奸犯罪的研究多局限于探讨犯罪的主客体、主观客观要件以及刑事责任理论等内容,而缺乏从犯罪学角度对强奸案件规律的大规模实证研究.本文在对北京大学法意实证案例库中来自全国26个省级行政区的71个强奸案例中的149个被害人和108个加害人,运用SPSS进行统计分析后,试图揭示强奸案件中存在的一些内在的规律.     

22例旅途精神病司法鉴定分析

对22例旅途精神病的司法鉴定资料进行分析．结果显示：全部为凶杀伤害案例，男性20例，女性2例，平均年龄31±9岁，农民打工者占 72．7％．均因幻觉、妄想的直接影响或意识障碍作案，缺乏预谋和自我保护能力，攻击的对象多为陌生的旅客及路人，全部评定为无责任能力．提示本病多出现凶杀行为，并具有突发性、冲动性，对社会治安危害极大．并对本病的临床特点及诊断归属也作了讨论．     

Novel recovery methods for biological materials in cases of alleged sexual assault: A word of caution

Many believe that an increase in the public confidence in the investigation of sexual crimes, and in conviction rates, will lead to an increase in the reporting of these crimes. Consequently, Forensic Science Providers are continually striving to make improvements in evidence recovery and examination and the subsequent interpretation of evidence. One development is in methods that enable an individual to self-sample. However, in cases where a complainant has self-sampled, questions of when the samples were taken, how they were stored and so on, can be legitimately raised. Additionally the continuity and integrity of evidential samples may be questioned resulting in them not being acceptable to the courts and potential evidence could therefore be lost. There is a large emotional and psychological impact of sexual assault and rape and no complainant who reports a sexual assault and recovers material should have that evidence inadmissible to a court. Specialised units for victims of alleged sexual violence are available and offer far more than the recovery of evidential samples. This commentary on behalf of the Faculty of Forensic & Legal Medicine (FFLM) and the Association of Forensic Science Providers Body Fluid Forum (AFSP BFF) highlights the need for after care for the victims of sexual assault and why all evidence recovered in cases of alleged sexual assault and sexual violence should be obtained in line with best practice protocols.     

Taking the stand: defendant statements in court cases of alleged sexual abuse against infants,toddlers and preschoolers

Investigating and adjudicating allegations of child sexual abuse are challenging tasks. In the present study, we examined defendant statements concerning charges of sexual abuse against young children in Swedish district court cases (87 defendants, 140 child complainants, tried between January 2010 to December 2015). A main objective was to test predictive factors for admissions of guilt using inferential statistical analyses. Furthermore, using qualitative thematical analysis, we sought to identify common patterns in the defendants’ explanations to the allegation. Approximately one-third of the defendants (31%) pleaded guilty during trial. Admissions of guilt were more likely if the defendant was young, if the child was young at the onset of abuse, if the child and perpetrator had an extrafamilial relationship, and if the defendant possessed child pornography. A conflict with the person who made the report (e.g. a custody dispute), a testimony from the child, a direct eyewitness, or an informal disclosure recipient were significantly more common in cases of denials. In the qualitative analysis, a range of alternative explanations behind the abuse allegations were identified. Legal professionals and investigators may benefit from considering these alternative hypotheses during their investigative and judicial work.     

Few convictions in rape cases: Empirical evidence concerning some alternative explanations

This paper examines several explanations for the low rate of conviction for rape arrests made in the District of Columbia from 1971 to 1976. Discrimination against female victims does not appear to be a major cause of the problem, nor do rape victims appear more likely than victims of other serious crimes to cause case attrition due to their own unwillingness to continue. Questioning of the victim's credibility, on the other hand, does seem to be more of a reason for case dismissal for rape cases than for other serious crimes. A multivariate analysis of the types of rape cases that do result in conviction yielded eight statistically significant variables. A new perspective on rape cases emphasizing the issues of consent and credibility is presented.     

Empathy,distance, and blame: juror perceptions of black male homicide victims in capital cases

The courts have consistently struggled with the discriminatory imposition of the death penalty. This research employs data from the Capital Jury Project which seeks to identify arbitrariness in jurors’ decision-making. Results indicate that Black male victims are perceived to be the most likely to have a problem with drugs/alcohol and come from poor/deprived backgrounds and the least likely to be respected in the community and be perceived as innocent. Black male victims and their families also receive the least empathy from jurors, whom jurors feel the most distance from, and who are most to blame for their victimization. Results suggest the enduring racialization of violent crime and the continuing devaluation of the lives of Black males in American society.     

Child abduction: aged-based analyses of offender, victim, and offense characteristics in 550 cases of alleged child disappearance.

Crimes against children, particularly cases involving abduction and/or homicide, continue to be problematic as both a social phenomenon and judicial responsibility. Such cases routinely receive immense community and media attention and rapidly overwhelm investigative resources. Research in the area of childhood victimization, however, has only recently gained national prominence. While numerous studies on child abuse and neglect have been conducted, research on child abduction and homicide remains scant. Previous studies examining child abduction suffer from limited geographical scope or fail to base predictive analyses on victim characteristics. The current study reports the results of a nationally representative sample (47 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico) of 550 cases of alleged child abduction obtained from Federal Bureau of Investigation files for the period 1985 through 1995. Study results demonstrate that both offender and offense characteristics vary significantly according to victim age, gender, and race. Such differences appear critical to crime reconstruction, criminal profiling, and investigative resolution. Additionally, these data suggest that current child abduction prevention programs may emphasize inaccurate offender traits.     

DNA evidence in rape cases and the Debbie Smith Act: forensic practice and criminal justice implications

The Debbie Smith or "Justice for All" Act was passed on November 1, 2004. The act addresses the problem of collecting and analyzing DNA evidence from backlogged rape kits sitting in crime laboratories around the country. Presently, no empirical data exist by which to assess the soundness of the legislation. However, the act clearly affects discrete operations within the forensic and criminal justice systems. This article explores the relative merits of the Debbie Smith law, highlighting changes in Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) programs, law enforcement, court administration, correctional treatment, and juvenile justice practices. Concerns linked to the likely impact of the "Justice for All" Act raise significant questions about its overall programmatic utility and treatment efficacy.     

Identification of atractyloside by LC-ESI-MS in alleged herbal poisonings

An LC-MS screening method was developed to detect the presence of atractyloside (ATR), the toxic principle of a commonly used medicinal plant in South Africa, Callilepis laureola, in biological matrices such as body fluids and human viscera.