Childhood Sibling Aggression and Emotional Difficulties and Aggressive Behavior in Adulthood

Preliminary evidence indicates that childhood sibling aggression, the most common form of family violence, might be associated with aggression and emotional difficulties in adulthood. Three hundred twenty-two adult participants, recruited from various sources, completed an online survey retrospectively examining this relationship further. Levels of childhood sibling aggression perpetration and victimization were highly correlated, precluding separate analyses. Significant associations between childhood sibling aggression and adult emotional difficulties and aggression were found, even after controlling for exposure to other forms of family violence and other demographic variables. Neither gender nor reported sibling relationship moderated the childhood sibling aggression and adult difficulties effects. These findings, while mostly exploratory, suggest that greater attention should be paid to childhood sibling aggression.     

The Bureaucrat Who Fell Under a Bus: Ministerial Responsibility, Executive Agencies and The Derek Lewis Affair in Britain

Various concerns have been raised about the practicability of Next Steps and the adequacy of accountability mechanisms in Britain, particularly after the dismissal of Derek Lewis as chief executive of the Prison Service. This article critically reviews these concerns. It argues that the agency model is viable notwithstanding doubts about the practicability of the policy–operations distinction; that Next Steps is not the cause of defective accountability or the scapegoating of bureaucrats by ministers; and that a commonly proposed solution—making agency heads accountable to parliamentary select committees—has fundamental drawbacks of its own. The "conventional wisdom" that Next Steps cannot work ignores important evidence and badly needs reassessment.     

Personal Jurisdiction in Online Expression Cases: Rejecting Minimum Contacts in Favor of Affirmative Acts

When a speaker injures a party through online communication, the initial inquiry becomes how and where the injured party may recover damages from the internet speaker within the constitutional limits established by the 'Due Process Clause' of the constitution on the places where a plaintiff may choose to sue a defendant. The due process limits were created to prevent a plaintiff from suing a non-resident defendant in a resident's court system unless the defendant had enough contact with the state to reasonably anticipate being sued there. As cyberspace renders moot much of the geographical principles upon which jurisdictions rely, the issue of personal jurisdiction-the involuntary imposition of a forum state's legal power-emerges as a threshold issue in the law of online expression. The following paper addresses the jurisprudence of American courts in the area of personal jurisdiction, illustrating the need for clarity in this critical area of the law.