The sick accused: forensic and emergency aspects in the courtroom

Evaluation of the fitness of an accused person to participate in legal proceedings is a classic forensic activity. Before the trial, the forensic expert will already assess any preexisting somatic and psychological illnesses and give a written expert opinion describing the condition of the accused at the time of the examination and assessing whether he is fit to stand trial. Nevertheless, decompensation or aggravation of a disease may occur--especially in stress situations as they are to be expected for an accused in the courtroom--so that apart from the current evaluation of the state of health of the accused, emergency treatment may occasionally become necessary in the courtroom. The article tries to answer the question how the expert can meet this challenge.     

What can Southern Criminology Contribute to a Post-Race Agenda?

Drawing on Raewyn Connell’s Southern Theory (2007), Carrington et al. (British Journal of Criminology, 56(1), 1–20, 2015) have called for a de-colonization and democratization of criminological knowledge, which, they argue, has privileged the epistemologies of the global North. Taking up the challenge of “southern criminology,” in this paper we examine the concept of race as a political artifact of northern thinking. The idea of race is durable in criminology. To illustrate this, we examine the racialization of Aboriginal Australians. Given the relationship between processes of racialization and criminalization, criminology should avoid engaging in practices which produce or reinforce racial schema. Further, with reference to southern epistemologies, we offer an alternative construct of human difference and diversity grounded in discourses of belonging specific to Australasian cultures.     

Corporations,Sovereignty and the Religion of Neoliberalism

This article seeks to contribute to the thinking of forms of corporateness, sociality and authority in the context of, but also beyond, neoliberalism, the neoliberal state and neoliberal accounts of the corporation. It considers neoliberalism in relation to the theological genealogies of modernity, politics and economy, and the way in which neoliberalism itself functions as a secular religion—one which intensifies liberal individualism and involves a blind faith in the market redefining all social interactions in terms of contract. I turn to the theological genealogies of sovereignty and economy, and of the corporation, as a way of grounding a radical consideration of collectivity and sociality. For, while the rise of neoliberalism is associated with the growth of multi-national or trans-national corporations, the privatisation of state assets and the corporatisation of public institutions, each of these involve not a diminishing of the state or the project of state sovereignty but rather its reformulation, reaffirmation and intensification. The corporation, despite being redefined as the interaction of fundamentally self-willing and contracting individuals operating in the market, is still fundamentally intertwined with state sovereignty. Attempts to address or respond to corporate power need to go beyond calls for greater regulation of corporations, increased corporate social responsibility or even the desire to eliminate corporate personhood. Rather, what is required is a greater emphasis on the notion of corporateness that undergirds the theological genealogy of the corporation—for if neoliberalism functions as a religion then part of the solution may be a theological one.     

Extent and characteristics of woman batterers among federal inmates

Efforts to identify men who batter women in clinical settings have increased in recent years, but batterer research in United States federal prisons is lacking; low security federal prisons are logical places to consider batterer screening and treatment given the number of men, the domestic violence "risk markers" associated with these men and the likelihood they will be released and return to female partners. This study examined intake assessment data for 115 low security federal inmates. The inmates evidenced high levels of risk markers for woman battering, one in three (33%) acknowledged recent physical violence against women partners, 1 in 10 (13%) admitted severe violence, and the self-identified batterers showed more substance use and personality problems than other inmates. The findings suggest that batterer screening and treatment may be needed in federal prisons and that more research is warranted with a burgeoning male population that ultimately returns to society.     

INTERGOVERNMENTAL ROLES IN LOCAL ENERGY CONSERVATION: A RESEARCH FRONTIER

This article examines a frontier research area: local energy conservation and intergovernmental relations. The vast potential for financial and energy savings by local governments through energy conservation is contrasted to a significant lack of meaningful programs by reviewing current local programs through examination of research efforts, intergovernmental trends in assistance and the legal foundation for local energy roles. Several items for the energy conservation research agenda are offered, especially a call for more research on the relationship between rising energy prices and development of energy programs. Other research foci are the impacts of intergovernmental technical assistance, organizational structures for incorporating energy conservation concerns into local government, state-local program coordination, citizen demand for conservation programs and the information dissemination networks in energy policy.     

A New Paradigm for the Labor Movement: New Federalism's Unintended Consequences

In this article I review the history of New Federalism; examine the impact of the new economy on local economies and on the demand for development strategies that give workers the skills necessary for a rapidly changing service economy; and describe the new unionism that emerged at the time of John Sweeney's election to the presidency of the AFL-CIO. I explain why the New Deal view of the labor movement, which holds that the preeminent requirement for labor's success is a strong pro-labor national regime, is no longer valid, and I offer an alternative paradigm.     

Public pensions and voting on immigration

In a recent paper, Scholten and Thum (1996) analyze the impact of a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) pension system with a fixed replacement ratio on the immigration policy in a democracy. We extend the analysis of median voter's choice in two respects. First, in contrast to Scholten and Thum (1996) who assume myopic voting behavior, our paper considers fully rational agents and provides a solution under this more complex behavioral assumption. Voting with rational agents yields a more liberal immigration policy than with myopic voters. Second, we examine a different decision structure with a fixed contribution rate to the pension system. In this case the majority rule leads to a completely different solution.     

Beyond “financial incentives”: how stakeholders interpret Ontario's funding structure for midwifery

Abstract: The 1994 introduction of midwifery as a publicly paid service in Ontario created new incentives in the health-care system. Traditional economic models of financial incentives explain stakeholder responses in terms of the pursuit of financial gains and avoidance of financial losses. To explore and explain more social and political responses by stakeholders, we conducted a qualitative case study. We applied an alternative model of financial incentives to analyze funding arrangements as policy messages and to investigate how stakeholders interpret them. Interpretations of the midwifery funding structure follow three broad themes. First, payment structures make a policy statement about the legitimacy and autonomy of the midwifery profession and its status relative to other professions such as medicine and nursing. Second, funding mechanisms imply how midwifery's services will fit in with other health services (specifically, substituting for, adding to, or competing with traditional obstetrics). Finally, stakeholders caricaturize midwifery clients to illustrate whether public funding creates more or less equitable access to care. Ontario's experience with midwifery offers insights for understanding the social dimensions of financial incentives, as well as for anticipating issues that arise when using funding policies as instruments of health-care reform. Sommaire: L'introduction en 1994 des services de sage-femme déefrayés a même les deniers publics en Ontario a Créeée de nouveaux incitatifs au sein du systéme de soins de santé. Selon les modèles économiques d'incitatifs financiers classiques, les réactions des intervenants s'expliquent par la recherche de gains financiers ou l'effort d'éviter les pertes. Nous avons entrepris une étude de cas qualitative pour explorer et expliquer d'autres réactions sociales et politiques de la part des intervenants. Nous avons fait appel à un modèle d'incitatifs financiers alternatif pour analyser les schémas de financement en tant que messages politiques et pour vérifier la manière dont les intervenants les interprètent. Les interprétations de la structure de financement des services de sage-femme se rangent dans trois grandes catégories. Premièrement, les structures de paiement équivalent à une déclaration sur la légitimité et l'autonomie de la professon de sage-femme et sur son statut relativement à d'autres professions, telles que la médecine et l'infirmerie. Deuxièmement, les mécanismes de financement indiquent comment les services de sage-femme se rapportent aux autres services de santé (plus précisément s'agit-il là d'un substitut, d'un complément ou d'un concurrent des services obstétriques classiques?). Enfin, les intervenants tracent les portraits types de la clieritèle des sages-femmes pour déterminer si le financement public permet d'accéder aux soins voulus de manière plus ou moins équitable. L'expérience ontarienne dans le domaine des services de sage-femme aide à cerner les dimensions sociales des incitatifs financiers ainsi qu'à prévoir les questions qui se posent lorsqu'on utilise des politiques de financement comme instruments de réforme des soins de santé.