The Danish peasant village

Danish folklorists in the nineteenth century, in the interests of nationalism and cultural chauvinism, made extensive investigations of the culture of the peasant population. At first this was literary only — ballads, myths, tales and proverbs — but was presently extended (especially by Evald Tang Kristensen) to include all aspects of peasant life. From this interview material it has been possible to retrieve a coherent picture of the morphology and dynamics of the village: the economic, political and social structures; the characteristics of a ‘peasant cosmology; relationships with other groups — other villages, the manor, a caste of ‘untouchables'; and to obtain some hints as to the etiology of these social phenomena.     

Sustainable economic development: A criminal justice challenge for the 21st century

The environmental challenges of the 21^st century require co-operation between criminal justice experts and economists. Three different economics perspectives are relevant for the discipline of criminal justice in general and for adressing environmental problems in particular: neo-classical econoics, political economics and the economics of sustainable development. Criminal justice pays a role in the effort to attain sustainable development because the limitations of market based decision making necessitate a role for law and regulation in addressing environmental degradation. Sustainable development itself is relevant to the general discussion of crime. Issues of sustainable development are already discussed in criminal justice literature. While criminal law has limitations as a tool against environmental crime, it will necessarily suplement the tools of the market and civil regulation in coping with environmental problems. The inherently multidisciplinary undertaking of sustainable development will be most effectively met if experts in both economics and criminal justice understand more of one another's fields. Suggestions for including the three perspectives of economics in the criminal justice curriculum are provided.     

Triangulation of Salient Studies to Date on Trust-Building in Mediation

Many studies have empirically demonstrated the importance of trust-building between mediators and parties to a dispute. We wrote this article in response to a call by Stephen Goldberg and Margaret Shaw for studies conducted in North America to be triangulated in other countries where mediation is taking off as an alternative tool in the resolution of disputes. Our objective was to test theories on the factors that increase trust-building in mediation. With this in mind, the study conducted by Jean Poitras in Montreal (Canada) was triangulated in the Balearic Islands (Spain) and an analysis was made of the similarities and differences between both studies using different methods.     

Exclusion of forensically important flies due to burying behavior by the red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) in southeast Texas

Very-long-chain acyl-coenzyme A (CoA) dehydrogenase deficiency (VLCADD) (OMIM #201475) is an autosomal recessive disorder of fatty acid oxidation. Major phenotypic expressions are hypoketotic hypoglycemia, hepatomegaly, cardiomyopathy, myopathy, rhabdomyolysis, elevated creatinine kinase, and lipid infiltration of liver and muscle. At the same time, it is a rare cause of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) or unexplained death in the neonatal period [1-4]. We report a patient with VLCADD whose parents were investigated for infanticide because her three previous siblings had suddenly died after normal deliveries.     

Beyond Good and Evil: The Black–White Divide in Critical Race Theory

Derrick Bell’s work challenges the dichotomy that separates legitimate legal reasoning from “mere” fiction through hybrids that play across science fiction, Platonic dialogue, and autobiography. Despite its merits, I argue that Bell’s position reifies and strengthens, rather than deconstructs, structures of tyranny; it maintains the problematic rhetorical construction of United States race relations in terms of the black–white divide, either alienating, or leaving little or no room for other racial groups constructively to revise power and identity. In contrast, bell hooks’, Mari Matsuda’s and Robert Chang’s work, though tentatively sketched, construes current race and gender relations in terms of a chiaroscuro of power, rather than a simple dichotomy.

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