CHOOSE TO HUG,NOT HIT*

This article discusses reasonable chastisement of children as a defense by parents to assault charges. It suggests that its continued retention contravenes the rights of children and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It compares developments in various countries, such as the Scandinavian countries and New Zealand, where the defense has been abolished, as compared with the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, where it has been retained. It suggests that its continued retention encourages bullying and violence in schools and in later adult life.     

Conjunctive use of quantitative and qualitative X-ray diffraction analysis of soils and rocks for forensic analysis

This paper describes a repeatability test, comparing conventional X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses with the technique of quantitative X-ray diffraction (QXRD) as a determinant of mineral abundance. The conjunctive use of both methods allows specific mineral abundances to be matched between scene of crime (SOC) and suspects where soil or substrate mineralogy is similar. In our test, samples from potential SOC locations were taken from car tyre tracks. A car was driven to one location by an independent person and the car submitted for sampling. The tyre-tread sample showed potential correlation to two locations: one correct and the other incorrect. QXRD showed the mineral proportions of the tyre-tread sample matched only the correct location. However, QXRD did fail to discriminate two locations that XRD did show to be different. Both methods utilise the same sample and X-ray diffractogram, suggesting that their conjunctive use, preceded by standard Earth material forensic study, is recommended.     

The Race to Punish in American Schools: Class and Race Predictors of Punitive School-Crime Control

Despite the general agreement that US schools have become increasingly punitive since the 1980s, researchers are uncertain about what types of schools use tough-on-crime measures. Some assert that punitive control is concentrated in poor, predominantly ethnic minority schools. Governing-through-crime scholars argue that US schools with mostly middle-class and white students are also punitive, but in less harsh ways using soft surveillance techniques. Relying on data from large, stratified samples of middle and secondary US public schools, we found that high rates of ethnic minority enrollment predicted heavy reliance on law enforcement and security personnel. As rates of student poverty increased, use of soft surveillance techniques as well as reporting students to the police significantly increased. Implications for governing-through-crime, racial control, and reproduction of inequalities theories are discussed.