Peer influences on the dating aggression process among Brazilian street youth: a brief report

This study explored risk factors for adolescent dating aggression (ADA) among Brazilian street youth. Forty-three adolescents, between the ages of 13 and 17 years, were recruited at services centers in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Simultaneous multiple regression revealed that ADA was significantly predicted by adolescent dating victimization (ADV), and that this relationship was moderated by peer involvement in dating aggression. Results also revealed that peer involvement in dating aggression did not significantly predict ADA. These findings suggested that having peers who are involved in dating aggression exacerbates the effects of dating victimization on ADA among Brazilian street youth. However, ADV might be a stronger risk factor for dating aggression in this population, because when controlling for the effects of victimization in dating conflicts peer abuse toward romantic partners did not uniquely contribute to ADA.     

Distress resulting from perceivers' own intimate partner violence experiences predicts culpability attributions toward a battered woman on trial for killing her abuser: a path model

Intimate partner violence (IPV) constitutes the majority of assaults against women in the United States, and greater than one third of female homicide victims are murdered by an intimate partner. In a small percentage of cases, battered women kill their abusers, and evidence of battering and its effects may be used to support a plea of self-defense in these cases. Prior research has shown that culpability attributions toward battered women who have killed their abusers are influenced by perceiver variables, including gender. The present study expands on this research by examining the influence of psychological distress resulting from perceivers' own IPV experiences--and the mechanisms of this influence--on their culpability attributions toward a battered woman defendant. Female undergraduates in the present sample (N = 154) read a vignette, adapted from an actual criminal case about a battered woman who had killed her abuser. Data supported a hypothesized path model, wherein participants reporting greater psychological distress resulting from IPV perpetrated against them perceived themselves more similar to the defendant, in turn empathized with her to a greater extent, and, in turn, attributed less legal culpability to her. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Evaluating essential health packages from a human rights perspective

Many countries at all levels of development have formulated an essential health package, sometimes also referred to as a health benefit plan or a health benefit basket. As defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), essential health packages (EHPs) are “health service interventions that are considered important and that society decides should be provided to everyone.” Although EHPs are not often formulated from an explicitly human rights perspective, since they are conceptualized as a guaranteed minimum of health services, much like core health obligations, they have obvious human rights import. This article evaluates the principles from which the plans are developed, the content of the packages, and the experience of countries seeking to implement them from a human rights perspective. In the process, it seeks to gain greater clarity about the health service requirements of the right to health.     

The Human Transplantation (Wales) Act 2013: an Act of Encouragement,not Enforcement

The Human Transplantation (Wales) Act became law in Wales in September 2013. The Act aims to increase deceased donor organ and tissue donation in Wales by introducing a ‘soft opt‐out’ system to replace the previous requirement of express ‘appropriate’ consent under the Human Tissue Act 2004. Adults dying in Wales (with certain exceptions) will be ‘deemed’ to consent to donation, unless evidence of their objection is produced, and a duty is imposed on Ministers to promote transplantation and inform the public through awareness campaigns about how to choose the deemed status or opt out. Although a welcome development, these campaigns may obscure the effects of deemed consent, especially in the context of generally rising UK donation rates. There may also be problems of legal interpretation and of integration with the ‘opt‐in’ laws in the rest of the UK. In the absence of any statutory duty to retrieve all lawfully donated organs, the apparently restricted influence of donor relatives is likely to remain effectively dominant.     

Assessing Data Completeness,Quality, and Representativeness of Justifiable Homicides in the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Reports: A Research Note

Journal of Quantitative Criminology - The most widely used data set for studying police homicides—the Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR) kept by the Federal Bureau of Investigation—is...     

Humanitarian Intervention After Iraq: Legal Ideals vs. Military Realities

The theory of humanitarian intervention has received new attention since the humanitarian crises of the 1990s and the United States’ becoming the world's sole superpower. The actual practice of humanitarian intervention, however, has declined. It is difficult to forge the political will for it when the countries composing the global organizations that could provide the political legitimacy disagree on an intervention, and with so few countries—mainly the United States and Great Britain—capable of providing the required expeditionary forces. Moreover, the Afghanistan and Iraq wars have diminished the United States’ political will, military capability, and diplomatic credibility to conduct future humanitarian interventions. In particular, those wars precluded its intervention in the current genocide in Darfur. Regional bodies such as the African Union may be the only entities that can, with aid and training, undertake effective interventions.     

U.S. Grand Strategy and Counterterrorism

Ten years into a trillion dollar effort to answer the attacks of September 11, 2001, it is difficult to tell whether U.S. counterterrorism is achieving its intended effects, much less explain how it fits within a viable American grand strategy. As dramatic changes unfold in the Arab world, experts still debate whether or not the United States is winning the fight against al Qaeda.