Law representing life — Reflections on Darwinian jurisprudence

A living organism is a model of the world in which it lives ... if you present an animal's body, even a new species previously unknown to science, to a knowledgeable zoologist, she should be able to read its body and tell you what kind of environment it inhabited: desert, rain forest, arctic tundra, temperate woodland or coral reef. She should be able to tell you, by reading its teeth and its guts, what it fed on. Flat, millstone teeth indicate that it was a herbivore; sharp, shearing teeth that it was a carnivore. Long intestines with complicated blind alleys indicate that it was a herbivore; short, simple guts suggest a carnivore. By reading the animal's feet, and its eyes and other sense organs, the zoologist should be able to tell how it found its food. By reading its stripes or flashes, its horns, antlers or crests, she should be able to tell something about its social and sex life.¹ My thanks to Bobbi Low who put me on to the step-parenting material, and Richard Dawkins who put me right on the science.     

Pregnancy in prison,Mother and Baby Unit admission and impacts on perinatal depression and ‘quality of life’

Limited research exists on the impact of prison mother and baby unit (MBU) residence. Research in the UK suggests women in MBUs have lower prevalence of mental disorder. Higher rates of mother-child attachment for women in prison nurseries in the US have been reported. Eighty-five pregnant women were interviewed at baseline and 62 followed up in nine different prisons. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) was used to measure perinatal depression; the World Health Organisation Quality of Life (WHOQOL – BREF), for quality of life; and the Mother-to-Infant Bonding Scale (MIBS) for mother-child bonding. EPDS scores were higher at baseline than follow-up. Women admitted to MBUs had lower EPDS scores at baseline and follow-up, and this reduction was greater than for women not admitted to MBUs. WHO-QOL scores were higher at follow-up than baseline on all domains, except the social domain for those not admitted to MBUs. Findings suggest women with perinatal depression are less likely to be admitted to MBUs, and MBU placement may contribute to a reduction in perinatal depression. Increased QOL-BREF scores at follow-up suggest improved quality of life for all participants. Reduced support post-separation may contribute to lower social domain scores for women not admitted to MBUs.     

A test of Sprinzak’s split delegitimization’s theory of the life course of far-right organizational behavior

This article applies Sprinzak’s theory of split delegitimization to the American far-right. We examine a sample of 30 violent and 30 nonviolent far-right groups for each year of their existence, drawn from the Extremist Crime Database, and explore the violent and legal behavioral patterns over their lifecycle. Sprinzak hypothesized that far-right groups undergo a radicalization process through three stages, conflict of legitimacy, crisis of confidence, and crisis of legitimacy. He predicted that terrorism would occur at the peak of group radicalization or during the third stage. Results supported Sprinzak’s conceptualization of conflict of legitimacy and crisis of confidence stages. Groups initially selected nongovernment targets, but after experiencing disillusionment with the ruling regime, they equally attacked government and nongovernment targets. Importantly, prolonged and increasingly violent acts against government targets were not observed.     

Reform on Mediation System of Arbitration Commissions

Looking back at the development of China's arbitration, from the administrative intervention to real arbitration, from issuing of Arbitration Law to the latest judicial interpretation, from the rise of institutional arbitration commission to gradually converge with international     

Some comments on Antonelli and Quatraro’s paper of measuring effect of biased technology on TFP

The paper is a response to Antonelli and Quatraro’s paper named “The effects of biased technological change on total factor productivity: empirical evidence from a sample of OECD”. We point out that “so-called novel method” which is used to identify and disentangle the effects of the direction of technological change on total factor productivity (TFP) in the article is wrongly implemented. Antonelli and Quatraro introduce Solow’s methodology as part of his basic model to represent the effect of neutral technical change, ignoring the intrinsic consequence of Solow’s calculating which called technical progress productivity is far from neutral. Hence, his methodology has little significance, neither the empirical analysis. Lastly, we give a new method measuring whether the technology is appropriate to the factor endowments’ changing. That’s the effect of biased technology on TFP.     

End of life decisions and pregnant women: do pregnant women have the right to refuse life preserving medical treatment? A comparative study

In this article the practice of end of life decisions is applied to pregnant women. This is not an easy task as shown by the extensive case law and literature on the subject. The main conclusion of the article is that the pregnant woman's wishes should always be respected whatever the consequences for the foetus may be. Another position would unjustly sacrifice the woman's fundamental rights to bodily integrity and self-determination for the benefit of a non-person. The result is repeated in the situation where the woman is found to be incompetent or brain dead.     

A life sentence really? The resettlement of ex-prisoners with convictions for sexual offences

About a year ago I was due to carry out in-depth research interviews with men who had committed sexual offences and who, having served their prison sentence, had been released into the community. When I spoke about this upcoming work with others the usual response was a version of ‘rather you than me’, or inquisitiveness about the arrangements for speaking with this group. As one friend said, ‘You'll be talking to them from behind some glass won't you?’.     

Commodifying life? A pilot study of opinions regarding financial incentives for organ donation

In recent years many policy proposals have been put forward to create financial incentives to encourage families to allow the harvesting of organs from their deceased relatives. While research has focused on whether these policies would actually increase the supply of organs, no research has focused on testing the ethical concerns about such policies. This article presents the findings of a pilot study conducted to determine whether people think that families should end life support of a family member in order to harvest organs if various incentive policies are in place. While the findings do not suggest a direct effect of these inducements, they do indicate that the amount of money received from organ donation is a consideration in making the decision whether to end life support. The implications of this finding for ethical debates and health policy are reviewed.     

The influence of personality on violent victimization – a study on police officers

The current study aims to examine the influence of police officer characteristics, civilian characteristics, and possible interactions between both on violent victimization of police officers. Based on literature distinguishing between ‘provocative’ and ‘submissive’ victims, focus is given on effects of police officers’ personality in terms of the five-factor model plus risk-taking. Patrol police officers (n?=?1813) from Lower Saxony, Germany, completed a paper-and-pencil survey including personality assessments as well as questions about their last three police encounters. Binary logistic multilevel regression analyses demonstrate that police officers with higher scores on neuroticism and openness to experience were more likely to be violently attacked. Furthermore, agreeableness reduced police officers’ risk of violent victimization, while risk-taking and neuroticism increased their risk when confronted with a violent civilian. The study indicates that personality and especially traits that are assumed to provoke potential perpetrators were linked with violent victimization. It further stresses the need to include perpetrator attributes in victim studies in order to identify relevant interaction effects between both parties.     

The Differential Role of Stress on Police Officers’ Perceptions of Misconduct

Asian Journal of Criminology - This study examines the influence of stress, by way of subdimensions of anxiety, and depression, on police officers’ perceptions of the seriousness of various...     

The magic kingdom syndrome: trials and tribulations of life in Disney’s celebration

This paper critically analyzes the political elements of the new town planning trend, New Urbanism, through a study of the Disney Company’s development of Celebration, Florida. Celebration, as both a high‐profile example of the New Urbanism and as a product of Disney’s skill at “Imagineering,” provides an important example of utopian thinking and planning within the context of the political economy of consumption. Through interviews and archival research, this paper looks at the political and social implications of commodity utopianism as planned communities and the ethic of consumption continue to occupy prominent places within the popular American psyche.