Some reflections on Undercover: recent developments and enduring issues

She [jury member] was extremely liberal. She was a sociologist, and I don't like sociologists. They try to reason things out too much. (Florida Prosecutor [after losing case involving the undercover purchase of a 2 Live Crew album])I have no sympathy for those who are crybabies about the fact that police officers are selling to those who want to buy drugs. We use every legal means that we can. We want everybody to know that the next drug buy may be from a police officer. (Mayor Marion Barry, News Conference 1988)This paper expands on remarks delivered at the American Society of Criminology meetings, Reno, 1989. Some of these ideas were initially presented in 1988 to the qualitative methods discussion group at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, with the support of NSF grant no. BNS 8700864. I am particularly indebted to Elliot Eisner and Barry Schwartz for their critical comments and friendship.     

Urban homicide: Still the same

We use 1984–1986 data to estimate lifetime risks of being murdered in each of 50 large American cities and then compare these projections to others made earlier from 1971–1972 and 1976–1977 data. We find strong constancy over time in the average urban resident's murder risk (essentially a 1 in 68 chance of eventually being slain). Moreover, we find a high stability in the dispersion of risk by region, race, and city size and in the relative rankings of the 50 cities by murder risk. We comment briefly about such recent phenomena as the proliferation of crack and the resumption of capital punishment.Throughout this paper, we use the words murder, homicide, killing, and slaying interchangeably, meaning in all cases murder and nonnegligent manslaughter as defined by the FBI.     

Some recent developments in the legal relationship between parent and child

This article is based on a paper read at the Oxford Round Table Sir William Blackstone Colloquium on Public School Law in Oxford in 2000. Living and working in the 18th century, Sir William Blackstone was one of the most prominent English lawyers of all time, his influence still enduring in England and in many other countries with historical links with England. Because Blackstone regarded the relationship between parent and child as very important, the author therefore traced it through three broad periods: Blackstone's own times, South Africa before 1994 and South Africa after 1994. In preparing the paper, the author realised that many changes had taken place in the legal relationship between parent and child in South Africa since 1994 and that their implications for education management need to be explored. Education law literature in South Africa is certainly still largely dominated by the law as it was before 1994; so are the management implications drawn from it. The article has four sections: first, aspects of the parent-child relationship in South African law before the new Constitutional dispensation; second, relevant developments in South African under the new Constitution(s) and finally, a conclusion.     

HIV/AIDS in prisons: recent developments

In a report released on 20 November 2002, entitled Action on HIV/AIDS in Prisons: Too Little, Too Late--A Report Card, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network concluded that despite repeated studies and nearly ten years of recommendations for urgent and pragmatic action, the response of Canadian governments to HIV/AIDS, HCV, and injection drug use in prisons remains inadequate. Only a few weeks later, the House of Commons Special Committee on Non-Medical Use of Drugs released its report, which contained a number of recommendations to the Correctional Service of Canada. Although the Committee avoided talking about needle exchange programs in prisons, it did recommend them! Meanwhile, in Ireland, not even condoms or bleach are provided.     

Aggression homicide and rejection homicide: a communicative classification of homicide

Based on a 10-year sample of homicides (n = 50), the hypothesis was tested that it is possible to differentiate between aggression and rejection homicide. The aggression homicide results from the offender/victim relationship, which is no longer accepted for some reason. In contrast, in the rejection homicide the offender radically strives for a goal which can only be reached if the victim is eliminated. Based on forensic-psychiatric expert opinions (n = 50), the case analyses yielded 31 aggression homicides and 18 rejection homicides, one case could not be classified. Aggression homicides differed significantly from the rejection homicides with regard to their main motives. Hate in quarrel (n = 8), violent occupation of the victim (n = 7), delusions (n = 5), revenge (n = 3), self-defence (n = 2), and jealousy (n = 1) characterized the aggression homicides, whereas rejection homicides were dominated by economic motives (n = 14). Two offenders intended to get rid of the victim and one offender wanted to rescue a third person. From a forensic-psychiatric point of view, the pertinent statistical data (social data, diagnosis, criminal responsibility) are reported and the significance of the differentiation between aggression homicide and rejection homicide for medico-legal or criminological case profiling and for the prognosis of the risk potential is discussed.     

Human trafficking in the Netherlands: trends and recent developments

Notwithstanding the lift on the ban of brothels in the Netherlands during 2000, the introduction of the integral approach and other efforts to fight human trafficking; this trade still continues to exist within the licensed sector. Simultaneously, prostitution increasingly moved to Dutch cities with less strict regulations or control, and also to more invisible realms (escort services, internet). ICT facilitate this backstage informal sex work by offering a fluid, flexible, dynamic podium that is difficult to control. The internet is increasingly used by traffickers in order to recruit potential victims, to blackmail victims with images or by exploiting victims through webcam exposure. In 2005, human trafficking was extended in law towards exploitation in all labor sectors and, in 2011, illegal stay was criminalized in the Netherlands. This criminalization could hinder the fight against human traffickers.     

New guidance/old problems: recent developments in sex education

Sex education is a controversial area of public policy and over the last 20 years it has also been highly politicized. The election of the Labour government in 1997 raised the hopes of children's rights and health campaigners for a move away from the traditional moralistic approach adopted by the previous administration in favour of a more progressive and pragmatic approach. To date the government has attempted, unsuccessfully, to repeal Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988, has amended the statutory framework for sex education in the Learning and Skills Act 2000 and in July 2000 issued new guidance on sex and relationship education. This article examines how these recent developments attempt to reconcile parental and local control with the need for a more uniform provision and how they attempt to pragmatically acknowledge the sexual activity of young people and at the same time deny young people autonomy and uphold the norm of children as ideally non-sexual.     

Males,medical mutilation and the law: some recent developments

Two recent decisions of the English Court of Appeal--Re J (Specific Issue Orders: Child's Religious Upbringing and Circumcision) [2000] 1 FLR 571 and Re A (Male Sterilisation) [2000] 1 FLR 549--raise serious issues relating to controversial matters involving law and medicine and deserve wider consideration than in their jurisdiction of origin. This article discusses the practical and policy implications of these cases and places them in the appropriate context.     

HALT: early prevention and repression; recent developments and research

In this article an account is given of the Halt working method in the Netherlands, which is used by 63 Halt Bureaus and is directed at combating and preventing juvenile delinquency. This working method has been successful. Recent developments and experiments directed at further extending the effects of the Halt approach and executing an even earlier reaction to criminal behaviour are considered, and the results of recent research are discussed. Finally, the pros and cons of this method of early reaction are revealed, the conclusion being that the advantages and positive effects are great, and any possible disadvantages can be further offset.     

A review of recent developments affecting COBRA rights

Due to the high cost of health care claims and COBRA's status as remedial legislation, COBRA has generated a significant amount of litigation in recent years. While the early COBRA decisions tended to broaden the law in order to provide a remedy to an otherwise uninsured qualified beneficiary, the recent trend in the case law has been to limit the expansion of COBRA rights based on a narrower construction of the statute. Even so, COBRA still represents a legal minefield for employers. As a result, a careful employer will minimize its exposure by monitoring changes in the law and its interpretation and making appropriate modifications to its COBRA documentation and administration. This article discusses some of the more significant recent changes in the law affecting qualified beneficiaries' COBRA rights--and therefore, employers' exposure.