Occupational hazard: Predictors of stress among jail correctional officers

The plethora of literature on correctional officers and the work environment, more specifically occupational stress, has focused almost exclusively on officers working in prison facilities. The primary purpose of the current study was to examine the predictors of occupational stress and general stress among 373 jail correctional officers in one state in the Northeast, using the Stressors identified in the previous literature on prison correctional officers and occupational stress. The results indicated that organizational strengths, perceived danger, role problems, and job satisfaction were significant predictors of both occupational and general stress. In addition, gender and salary predicted occupational stress while correctional experience and training predicted general stress. Suggestions are made for administrators, as well as future research on the workplace experiences of correctional officers.     

Quality of Maternal Parenting among Intimate-Partner Violence Victims Involved with the Child Welfare System

Children are overrepresented in households with intimate-partner violence (IPV), and many suffer the double burden of being the subject of maltreatment and bearing the consequences of abuse to their mothers. Despite this situation, little information exists concerning parenting by women who have been abused by an intimate partner. We examine the relationship between women’s experiences with IPV and the quality of maternal parenting using data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being. The sample consisted of 1,943 female caregivers of children younger than 10 years investigated for child maltreatment. Women who had experienced IPV in the past but were no longer victims of IPV had significantly better parenting scores than women who were currently experiencing IPV, when other risk factors were controlled. This study adds to the evidence that IPV does not necessarily impair maternal parenting. Women abused by an intimate partner deserve a thorough assessment of what services they need: parenting services should be offered as warranted on a case-by-case evaluation of the particular woman’s parenting skills.     

One step forward,one step back: Quebec's 2003–04 health and social services regionalization policy

Abstract: This article focuses on Quebec's most recent reform in the regionalization of health care to understand why the government chose to transform the regional boards into agencies. This case study used interviews and documentary analysis. Rooted in a political science perspective, the conceptual framework is inspired by the work of John Kingdon (1995) and draws on the four variables that influence the choice of policy: ideas, interests, institutions and events. Results of the case study suggest that Quebec's Commission of Study for Health and Social Services (the Clair Commission) in 2000 and the 2002 pre-electoral environment put the issue on the agenda. In 2003, the newly elected Liberal government passed Bill 25 – An Act Respecting Local Health and Social Services Network Development Agencies, which represented a political compromise: originally slated for eradication, the regional tier survived but in a new form. The element that sparked reform was the change in government following the elections. Different inquiry reports spread the reform's ideas, while interest groups articulated contrasting visions on the transformation. Above all, regional institutions showed great resilience in the face of change. From a historical perspective, this regionalization policy is a step backward: the regional tier is now stronger from a managerial and technocratic point of view, but it is politically and democratically weakened. This suggests a government intention, at that time, to maintain the regional level as a means of retaining centralized control over Quebec's health-care system.     

Sind Regierungsvorlagen der Staatsfunktion Gesetzgebung oder der Staatsfunktion Vollziehung zuzurechnen?

Der hier vorliegende Aufsatz setzt sich nicht nur mit der Frage auseinander, ob das Erstellen eines Gesetzesentwurfes der Staatsfunktion Gesetzgebung oder Vollziehung zuzurechnen ist, sondern es werden auch die im Gesetzgebungsverfahren zu setzenden Teilakte (Haupt-, Mitwirkungs- und Hilfsfunktionen) einer näheren Analyse unterzogen. Anlass der Untersuchung war die Entscheidung des OGH vom 29. Jänner 2008, mit welcher dieser gemeint hatte, dass ein gemeinschaftswidriger Gesetzesentwurf, der nie Gesetz geworden sei, nicht in das eigentliche Gesetzgebungsverfahren vorgedrungen sei, und daher die Zulässigkeit des Rechtsweges für den geltend gemachten Staatshaftungsanspruch bejaht hatte. Hier wird jedoch die Ansicht vertreten, dass auch schon das Erstellen eines Gesetzesentwurfes der Staatsfunktion Gesetzgebung zugerechnet werden muss und daher iSd Rechtsprechung des VfGH objektiv eine Zurechnung der Gemeinschaftswidrigkeit zur Staatsfunktion Vollziehung nicht möglich ist. Daraus folgt einerseits, dass ausschließlich der VfGH für einen geltend gemachten Staatshaftungsanspruch, der mit einer gemeinschaftswidrigen Regierungsvorlage, welche kein Gesetz wurde, begründet wird, zuständig ist, andererseits, dass in diesem Zusammenhang auch keine Amtshaftungsansprüche gestellt werden können, weil eine Haftung für Fehlverhalten im Bereich der Gesetzgebung nach dem AHG jedenfalls ausgeschlossen ist.     

Ehewohnung und Ehescheidung

Das FamR?G 2009 bringt einerseits vielf?ltige Gestaltungsm?glichkeiten für das Schicksal der Ehewohnung im Fall einer Scheidung und andererseits vielf?ltige rechtliche Schwierigkeiten, was die Grenzen der privatautonomen Rechtsgestaltung betrifft. Die Autoren kommen zu Ergebnissen, die von den bisherigen Stellungnahmen teilweise erheblich abweichen, aber mit dem Gesetz besser in Einklang zu bringen sind.     

Jury on stage: a common law play

Legal processes have a theatrical component to them. They offer an audience (the spectators) and actors (the legal parties, lawyers, as well as the jury and judge) who perform a play on the stage of the courtroom. In this paper we focus on the role of the jury, which appears to be simultaneously audience and actor. As audience, it assures that the power of the judge is limited. As actor, the jury is able to play its role in such a way as to incorporate social attitudes into the verdict. Exploring this theatrical component may shed new light on the debate whether juries are a “good” way of finding legal settlements. Further, it could indicate how legal processes are perceived by the public. As our line of argument builds on Adam Smith’s moral and legal philosophy, the analysis may also contribute to the understanding of one of the building blocks of Smith’s philosophy, namely the impartial spectator.     

Flaws in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's rationale for supporting the development and approval of BiDil as a treatment for heart failure only in black patients

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) rationale for supporting the development and approval of BiDil (a combination of hydralazine hydrochloride and isosorbide dinitrate; H-I) for heart failure specifically in black patients was based on under-powered, post hoc subgroup analyses of two relatively old trials (V-HeFT I and II), which were further complicated by substantial covariate imbalances between racial groups. Indeed, the only statistically significant difference observed between black and white patients was found without any adjustment for potential confounders in samples that were unlikely to have been adequately randomized. Meanwhile, because the accepted baseline therapy for heart failure has substantially improved since these trials took place, their results cannot be combined with data from the more recent trial (A-HeFT) amongst black patients alone. There is therefore little scientific evidence to support the approval of BiDil only for use in black patients, and the FDA's rationale fails to consider the ethical consequences of recognizing racial categories as valid markers of innate biological difference, and permitting the development of group-specific therapies that are subject to commercial incentives rather than scientific evidence or therapeutic imperatives. This paper reviews the limitations in the scientific evidence used to support the approval of BiDil only for use in black patients; calls for further analysis of the V-HeFT I and II data which might clarify whether responses to H-I vary by race; and evaluates the consequences of commercial incentives to develop racialized medicines. We recommend that the FDA revise the procedures they use to examine applications for race-based therapies to ensure that these are based on robust scientific claims and do not undermine the aims of the 1992 Revitalization Act.