Limits on CPP survivor benefits for same-sex couples unconstitutional

On 19 December 2003, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice declared the federal government's Canada Pension Plan (CPP) survivor benefits regime as it applied to same-sex couples unconstitutional. Under the law, survivors in same-sex relationships could not receive benefits if their partner had died prior to 1 January 1998, while no similar restriction was imposed on opposite sex-relationship survivors. In Hislop v Canada, Justice Macdonald found this cut-off date to be unconstitutional because it denied gay and lesbian survivors equality of the law.     

An introduction to the law and economics of class action litigation

The consolidation of similar claims for compensation into a single large class of plaintiffs is referred to as “class action litigation.” This practice can have both social costs and social benefits. For an example of the social benefits of consolidating separate claims, if the facts giving rise to the claims are substantially similar, then there may be significant savings in litigation and court administrative costs from presenting those facts once rather a multitude of times. There may, however, be significant social costs to creating a class of litigants and consolidating their claims. For example, this practice may empower those with frivolous negative expected-value claims to wring an unwarranted settlement from the defendant or defendants. The article surveys other sources of social cost and benefit from class-action litigation, reviews the empirical literature on these actions, and examines recent U.S. policy debates about reforming class-action litigation. The article concludes that class-action litigation can have substantial net social benefits but only if courts assiduously oversee the class certification process so as to identify and forestall the social-cost-generating aspects of class-action litigation.     

Time for a national approach to donor conception in Australia

There is a growing recognition of the interests and rights of individuals conceived using donated gametes in assisted reproductive technology to information about their biological parentage. In Australia these rights vary between jurisdictions according to differing statutory provisions. In February 2011 the Senate's Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee published its report on Donor Conception Practices in Australia. The report recommended the development of a nationally consistent approach to donor conception and recommended the enactment of legislation in those Australian jurisdictions without legislation regulating donor conception. This editorial reviews the Senate Committee report and its recommendations and supports calls for a nationally harmonised approach to donor conception in Australia.     

Evidence for a heritable brain basis to deviance-promoting deficits in self-control

Purpose

Classic criminological theories emphasize the role of impaired self-control in behavioral deviancy. Reduced amplitude of the P300 brain response is reliably observed in individuals with antisocial and substance-related problems, suggesting it may serve as a neurophysiological indicator of deficiencies in self-control that confer liability to deviancy.

Methods

The current study evaluated the role of self-control capacity—operationalized by scores on a scale measure of trait disinhibition—in mediating the relationship between P300 brain response and behavioral deviancy in a sample of adult twins (N = 419) assessed for symptoms of antisocial/addictive disorders and P300 brain response.

Results

As predicted, greater disorder symptoms and higher trait disinhibition scores each predicted smaller P300 amplitude, and trait disinhibition mediated observed relations between antisocial/addictive disorders and P300 response. Further, twin modeling analyses revealed that trait disinhibition scores and disorder symptoms reflected a common genetic liability, and this genetic liability largely accounted for the observed phenotypic relationship between antisocial-addictive problems and P300 brain response.

Conclusions

These results provide further evidence that heritable weaknesses in self-control capacity confer liability to antisocial/addictive outcomes and that P300 brain response indexes this dispositional liability.     

Exposure to interpersonal violence as a predictor of PTSD symptomatology in domestic violence survivors

This study examines the interrelationships between childhood abuse, exposure to maternal domestic violence, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology in a multiethnic sample of 111 adult female residents of a domestic violence (DV) shelter. Participants completed structured interviews about the DV and their prior violence exposure, as well as the Impact of Event Scale-Revised. As hypothesized, there was high co-occurrence between exposure to maternal DV and childhood physical and sexual abuse, and the frequency of lifetime violence exposure predicted PTSD symptomatology. A series of multiple regressions indicated a more complex pattern of relationships, in which specific forms of prior violence exposure predicted different PTSD symptom dimensions. A history of witnessing maternal DV predicted intrusion symptoms, and a history of childhood sexual abuse predicted hyperarousal symptoms. Ethnicity was not related to levels of violence exposure or to PTSD symptoms. Clinical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Hans Gross and the beginning of criminology on a scientific basis

Modern criminology--if one wants to consider it a separate scientific discipline at all--is usually perceived as being mainly influenced by the methods of natural sciences supplemented by components from the field of psychology, which, at least in some of its conceptions, tends to define itself as a natural science, too. If we take a look at the history of science, we will see development of criminology in this direction was not necessarily inevitable. The scientific work of the Austrian Hans Gross (1847-1915), one of the founding fathers of scientific criminology, serves as an example of the way how natural sciences and their exact methods became established in the methodological apparatus of modern criminology, although in praxi his claim for the application of exact methods was all too often replaced by irrational and intuitive ways of working. Still, Hans Gross' fundamental decision for the exact methods derived from the natural sciences is an important step towards a criminology that can be understood as a part of natural sciences, largely superseding the methods of cultural sciences and anthropological philosophy. This approach made the (criminal) human being an object of measurement and can result in the concept of man as a mere phenomenon of quantity. This is, on the one hand, ethically questionable; on the other hand, it made modern criminology more efficient and successful.     

Providing services to survivors of domestic violence: a comparison of rural and urban service provider perceptions

Although there is a considerable body of knowledge about domestic violence, a limited proportion focuses on domestic violence in rural settings. Using a nonprobability purposive sampling technique, 93 providers of domestic violence services from rural and urban localities in North Carolina and Virginia were located and asked to complete a self-administered survey soliciting provider perceptions about service consumers, the general public, themselves, and inter- and intra-agency issues. Significant differences were observed between rural and urban providers about service consumer needs and experiences, perceptions about the general public, area resource availability, agency funding, provider training, and worker safety. Implications of these differences are discussed.     

Effects of childhood adversity on bullying and cruelty to animals in the United States: findings from a national sample

This study examined effects of type of and cumulative burden of childhood adversities on bullying and cruelty to animals in the United States. Data were derived from Waves I and II of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults. Structured psychiatric interviews were completed by trained lay interviewers between 2001-2002 and 2003-2004. Although the effects of childhood adversity diminished with the inclusion of confounding variables, several adversities remained significant. For bullying, these included being made to do chores that were too difficult or dangerous, threatening to hit or throw something, pushing, shoving, slapping, or hitting, and hitting that left bruises, marks, or injuries. With respect to cruelty to animals, swearing and saying hurtful things, having a parent or other adult living within the home that went to jail or prison, and adult/other person fondling/touching in a sexual way were significant. The final models indicated that the cumulative burden of childhood adversities had strong effects on the increased likelihood of bullying behavior but not cruelty to animals.     

Canada: national summit on "Global health is a human right"!

Held in Ottawa on 21-22 May 2003, a national summit on "Global Health is a Human Right!" brought together 86 people representing over 60 Canadian civil society groups interested in joint advocacy on realizing the human right to health in developing countries. The summit focused particularly on addressing the global crises of communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.