Cryptocurrencies are (smart) contracts

The functioning of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin ultimately depends on participants’ agreements to selectively disclose or conceal information. Various arguments suggest that those agreements amount to a large multilateral contract to which all participants are parties. That multilateral agreement is automatically enforced through smart contract technology. Therefore, cryptocurrency “wallet holders” are simultaneously creditors and debtors of smart contract claims vis-à-vis their cryptocurrency community.     

Characteristics of young children exposed to violence: the safe start demonstration project

The Safe Start demonstration projects, funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) under the first phase of the Safe Start initiative, are primarily designed to influence change at the systems or macrolevels to reduce the incidence of and impact of exposure to violence for children aged birth to 6 years; direct services are also provided to young children and their families who were exposed to violence. The data presented in this article come from 10 communities that submitted data regarding the characteristics of young children exposed to violence to OJJDP. These data represent families who are typically not represented in the databases of state child protective services programs but instead have been identified by domestic violence advocates, early care and education providers, family members, court personnel, police, and other social service personnel as families with young children in need of intervention due to violence exposure.The purpose of this article is to describe the characteristics of young children and their parents who seek help for psychosocial problems related to exposure to family and community violence. Results indicate that one quarter of the children and nearly half of their parents evidenced clinical levels of stress, suggesting the need to intervene at the family level as well as at the individual level when working with young children exposed to violence. The information presented, including the extent of exposure to violence, the multiple types of violence to which children are exposed, the impact of this exposure on young children and their families, and the multiple ways in which families exposed to violence come to the attention of service providers is useful for policy makers and service providers who are interested in breaking the cycle of violence by meeting the needs of the children exposed to violence and their families.     

从监管走向治理——数字货币规制的全球格局与实践共识

全球数字货币正沿着两个方向飞速发展,技术驱动下私人数字货币的自发秩序仍在不断生长,而国家规制下法定数字货币的公权扩张也日趋明显.纵观数字货币规制的全球格局,虽然各国在数字货币ICO和交易所监管思路及其最新发展各不相同,但都是在促进金融创新与防范风险之间寻求最优平衡.因地制宜,我国亦不应采取单一的监管或控制思维,而应更多...     

Police officers', social workers', teachers' and the general public's beliefs about deception in children,adolescents and adults

Purpose . The present survey examined the beliefs of different occupational groups (police officers, social workers, teachers) and members of the general public about (i) cues to deception in young children (5‐ to 6‐year‐olds), adolescents (14‐ to 15‐year‐olds) and adults, and (ii) the underlying processes (emotions, cognitive load and attempted verbal and behavioural control), which may explain why cues to deceit do occur. Method . Two hundred and six participants completed a ‘cues to deception’ and ‘processes underlying deception’ questionnaire for three different age groups (young children, adolescents and adults). Results and discussion . The survey revealed that participants believed that liars are nervous, have difficulties in formulating their lies and do not fully endorse their lies. In general, participants associated more cues with deception than seems justified on the basis of deception literature. Participants generally associated the same cues to deceit for all three age groups but, when differences between age groups did emerge, this was most likely to be amongst teachers. Although participants believed that adults control their speech and behaviour more when they lie than adolescents and young children do, this did not result in participants believing that adults exhibit fewer cues to deceit. No major occupational differences emerged, although out of the four participating groups, teachers were most likely to associate cues with deception in young children.     

Smartphone Image Acquisition During Postmortem Monocular Indirect Ophthalmoscopy

The medical usefulness of smartphones continues to evolve as third‐party applications exploit and expand on the smartphones’ interface and capabilities. This technical report describes smartphone still‐image capture techniques and video‐sequence recording capabilities during postmortem monocular indirect ophthalmoscopy. Using these devices and techniques, practitioners can create photographic documentation of fundal findings, clinically and at autopsy, without the expense of a retinal camera. Smartphone image acquisition of fundal abnormalities can promote ophthalmological telemedicine—especially in regions or countries with limited resources—and facilitate prompt, accurate, and unbiased documentation of retinal hemorrhages in infants and young children.     

Young children as regenerative tissue donors: considering the need for legal reform in light of divergent ethical approaches

In Australia, young children who lack decision-making capacity can have regenerative tissue removed to treat another person suffering from a severe or life-threatening disease. While great good can potentially result from this as the recipient's life may be saved, ethical unease remains over the "use" of young children in this way. This article examines the ethical approaches that have featured in the debate over the acceptability and limits of this practice, and how these are reflected in Australia's legal regime governing removal of tissue from young children. This analysis demonstrates a troubling dichotomy within Australia's laws that requires decision-makers to adopt inconsistent ethical approaches depending on where a donor child is situated. It is argued that this inconsistency in approach warrants legal reform of this ethically sensitive issue.     

Characteristics of children with problem sexual behaviour and adolescent perpetrators of sexual abuse: a systematic review

ABSTRACT

People who commit sexual offences are a heterogeneous group, with research suggesting that children and young people commit a large proportion of all sex offences, especially those committed against other children. This systematic review provides a synthesis of literature concerning the characteristics of children and adolescents who exhibit harmful sexual behaviour. There is a particular focus in this review on studies that examine the characteristics of children and young people exhibiting these behaviours within institutional and organisational settings or which take a situational and/or developmental approach to understanding sexually abusive behaviour. Using a developmental and life-course criminology lens, this review explores implications from the literature for the prevention and response to child sexual abuse, with a particular focus on institutional contexts where the perpetrators are children and adolescents.     

传媒暴力下青少年越轨行为的对策

传媒暴力对青少年的影响巨大,吸引并劫持着青少年进行模仿,做出越轨行为。传媒暴力产生令青少年无法抗拒的越轨示范作用。在加强传媒社会责任感培养和建设的同时,应该建立专门防止传媒暴力侵害青少年的审查机制,通过＂一人审查,二人判断,三人决定＂的工作机制,从源头上查堵传媒暴力。同时建立传媒暴力举报审查和追究机制并从技术上避免传媒暴力的出现。用严格的制度减弱传媒暴力产生的可能,避免传媒暴力侵害对青少年受众,减少青少年越轨行为的发生。     

Finding audiences, changing beliefs: the structure of research use in Canadian health policy

The impact of research information depends on its ability to change beliefs or policy assumptions within the relevant audiences. As a hybrid of American and British systems, Canada's chosen decision-making structure for policy-making and its legislative framework for health insurance make these audiences unclear and not readily accessible. This factor and historical characteristics of the research community which made them only partially responsive to the values of decisionmakers provide an explanation for the limited past use of research information in Canadian health policy. More recently, improved responsiveness by researchers and an emerging definition of the audiences by legislative policymakers are bringing about a gradual increase in the potential impact of research at the levels of administrative and clinical policy. Because of continuing decision-making constraints on legislative policy, however, impact at this level is predicted to remain diffuse, with only cautious acceptance of the changes in beliefs implied by research.     

Television Food Marketing to Children Revisited: The Federal Trade Commission Has the Constitutional and Statutory Authority to Regulate

The evidence reveals that young children are targeted by food and beverage advertisers but are unable to comprehend the commercial context and persuasive intent of marketing. Although the First Amendment protects commercial speech, it does not protect deceptive and misleading speech for profit. Marketing directed at children may fall into this category of unprotected speech. Further, children do not have the same First Amendment right to receive speech as adults. For the first time since the Federal Trade Commission's original attempt to regulate marketing to children in the 1970s (termed KidVid), the political, scientific, and legal climate coalesce to make the time well-suited to reevaluate the FTC's authority for action. This paper analyzes the constitutional authority for the FTC to regulate television food marketing directed at children as deceptive in light of the most robust public health evidence on the subject.     

Age and meanings of violence: women's experiences of partner violence in Finland

The first survey carried out in Finland specifically to study men's violence against women showed that partner violence is quite common in Finland and it is directed especially toward young women. The statistical findings don't support the idea that violence has become more widespread in Finland. Life situation factors that are usually viewed as making women vulnerable to spousal violence, such as having children, cohabiting, low educational level, and financial dependency on the male partner, failed to explain partnership violence against women in Finland as such, too. The author's objective is to find out whether meanings of violence have changed and whether this could be one reason why young women report in a survey such cases of violence that other women would not. This could explain why violence in partnerships is so common among young women in Finland.     

Online Sexual Grooming in Sweden—Online and Offline Sex Offences against Children as Described in Swedish Police Data

The expansion in Internet use since the mid‐1990s has created a completely new and largely unmonitored forum for contacts between adults and children. The anonymity provided by Internet communications has been viewed as creating favourable conditions for adults wishing to develop manipulative relationships with children, and there has been a growing concern about the way the Internet may be used by adults intent on sexually exploiting and abusing young people. Much of the focus of this concern has been directed at adults using the Internet to create opportunities for the commission of offline sex offences. Based on police data from Sweden, this article describes the range of Internet‐related sexual offences against children currently being brought to the attention of the Swedish justice system. It focuses not only on the range of strategies employed by adults to persuade children to meet them offline for the purposes of sexual exploitation and abuse but also on the different types of online sexual offences that children in Sweden are currently being subjected to.     

Court evaluations of young children's testimony in child sexual abuse cases

Purpose

Prosecutors working with child sexual abuse (CSA) cases involving young children have raised concerns that reliability criteria from the Supreme Court of Sweden are holding children's testimony to impossible standards (e.g., expecting the child's testimony to be long, rich in detail and spontaneous). This study aimed to address these concerns by investigating how District Courts and Courts of Appeal employ said criteria in their testimonial assessments of young child complainants.

Methods

Court documents from District Courts (n = 100) and Courts of Appeal (n = 45) in CSA cases involving 100 children age 7 years and under were analysed with respect to the courts’ testimonial assessments.

Results

Testimonial assessments were more frequently referenced in acquitting verdicts and in cases with evidence of low corroborative value. Richness in detail was the most frequently used reliability criterion, followed by spontaneity. Most criteria were used in favour of the children's testimony. However, the length criterion was typically used against the reliability of the children's testimony.

Conclusions

Our findings confirm prosecutors’ concerns that criteria from the Supreme Court are frequently used in evaluations of young children's testimony. This is troublesome, as some criteria do not correspond to current research on young children's witness abilities. For example, compared to testimony given by older children or adults, testimony provided by a young child is typically not long or rich in detail. We encourage prosecutors to extend their own knowledge on young children's capability as witnesses and present this to the court.     

CRITICAL ASPECTS OF PARENTING PLANS FOR YOUNG CHILDREN

The debate about the benefits and drawbacks of overnight schedules for young children is hotly contested in family law. This study investigated connections between occurrence of overnights, schedule consistency, number of caregivers, and young children's adjustment to parental separation and divorce. Families ( N = 161) with children aged 6 years or younger were recruited at the time of filing for divorce or child custody (if unmarried); follow-up data were obtained from 132 families 15 to 18 months later. Results indicated that parenting plan variables are related to children's social, cognitive, and emotional behavior, with caregivers and schedule consistency more salient than overnights. Girls benefited from overnights and more caregivers, whereas boys did not. Overnighting children aged 4 to 6 years when their parents filed manifested fewer problems 1.5 years later than did younger children. Even when controlling for parental conflict and parent-child relationship variable, the constellation of parenting plan variables contributed to young children's adaptation.     

NEVER PAINT BY THE NUMBERS

As the debate continues on ways of thinking about access between separated and never-married parents and their very young children, the authors suggest a way that child custody evaluators can integrate this discussion into their evaluations. They conclude that evaluators must pay attention to family dynamics and all of the research when making specific recommendations to parents and the courts regarding the access and residential arrangements of very young children.     

Child witness research and forensic interviews of young children: A review

In this article, we provide an introduction to child eyewitness memory issues that are frequently discussed and debated, both within the research and practice communities. We review several of the central areas of research on child eyewitness memory and some of the most promising protocols aimed at standardizing and improving child forensic interviews. We focus primarily on memory in young children, because they pose particular challenges. Research on the use of props and external cues to prompt young children's memory is discussed. We also review research on professionals' knowledge and attitudes about children as witnesses. It is concluded that we must guard against overly negative or overly optimistic views of children's abilities.     

A Retrospective Study of the Investigation of Homicidal Childhood Asphyxial Deaths

As one of the leading causes of traumatic deaths in newborns, infants, and young children, there is no anatomic or microscopic feature that is pathognomonic for asphyxial deaths. Instead, pathologists rely on investigation information, including confessions and/or witness statements, and potential evidence at the scene. Twenty cases of homicidal newborn, infant, and young children asphyxial deaths were reviewed, which included death and police investigation reports and autopsy reports, as well as histology slides of lung sections. This series of homicidal asphyxial deaths highlight that, in a vast majority of such cases, the final cause and manner of death rulings are dependent on confession by the perpetrator. Furthermore, this series highlights the possible role of histology to help forensic pathologists better certify asphyxial deaths. Finally, this series emphasizes important investigation points and considerations at autopsy during the investigation of asphyxial deaths in newborns, infants, and young children.     

JOINT CUSTODY AND THE PRESCHOOL CHILD

A longitudinal study of 25 families, with children aged 14 months—5 years, in joint custody, is reported. Varying motivations that lead divorcing parents to undertake and sustain joint custody are discussed, together with the stresses and gratifications of these arrangements for the parents and children. Findings are that where both parents are motivated primarily by interest in the child, where the parenting is sensitive and where the child is shielded from interparental conflict, young children do well. Such families were not the majority in this study. Significant differences emerged in the adjustment of the 1–3 age group as compared with the 3–5 age group which point to greater difficulties for the 3–5 year-olds.     

‘An Unsolvable Justice Problem’? Punishing Young People's Sexual Violence

This article addresses the paradox that whilst young offenders in general are increasingly diverted from formal justice, there continues to be resistance to the idea of diversion for those young people who commit sexual offences. It explores the ways in which tensions arising from this paradox are currently being played out within criminal justice systems in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Building on published and new research on criminal justice responses to young sexual offenders, the article highlights the problems of responding within any one justice framework to the – at times – competing concerns about risk, welfare, and control that these young offenders provoke. Drawing on criminological, psychological, and sociological work, the article argues that these concerns are accentuated in relation to young sexual offenders because of interrelated fears about the progressive nature of sexual offending; the ability of 'newer' justice practices to meet the need for 'affective' and 'effective' justice in relation to sexual crimes; and because of wider societal anxieties about sexual crimes, particularly where the victims and the offenders are children or young people.