Importance of radiological diagnosis applied to necroscopy

The authors evaluate the consequences of incomplete necroscopic examinations wherein it was impossible to apply radiological resources to locate firearm projectiles. The study includes 8185 reports from the Instituto Médico-Legal Afranio Peixoto in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, representing the totality of corpses processed from January to December 2001; of these, 3122 were gunshot victims, 309 of which were buried with unremoved projectiles, being liable to future judicial reappraisal. During the same period, there were 23 exhumation requests by police authorities, 12 of them querying the existence of projectiles. The authors looked into the formal reasons assumed by the medico legal experts to conclude their reports from incomplete examinations, and suggest that gunshot necroscopic examinations should follow specific protocols, as incomplete autopsies will require further exhumations, at unnecessary additional costs.     

Violence, bribery, and fraud: the political economy of?elections in Sub-Saharan Africa

Post-Soviet African democratization has introduced elections into contexts that often lack restraints upon the behavior of candidates, resulting in the emergence of voter intimidation, vote-buying, and ballot fraud. We propose a model of electoral competition where, although some voters oppose violence, it is effective in intimidating swing voters. We show that in equilibrium a weak challenger will use violence, which corresponds to a terrorism strategy. Similarly, a nationally weak incumbent will use repression. However, a stronger incumbent facing local competition will prefer to use bribery or ballot fraud. We discuss the applicability of the model to several African elections.     

Morphologic patterns of lip prints in a portuguese population: a preliminary analysis

Lip prints are thought to have the ability to distinguish individuals and, hence, have a potential use in human identification purposes. However, questions remain regarding their utility for sex determination. This study aimed to classify lip prints for different individuals in a Portuguese population and to determine whether sex differences exist. Lip prints of 25 females and 25 males were obtained using dark-colored lipstick and cellophane tape. Lip prints were analyzed using a magnifying lens and classified according to the Suzuki and Tsuchihashi classification. A Type II pattern was found to be most common. A comparison of lip-print patterns between males and females showed results with a statistically significant difference: Type III pattern was most common in males, and a Type II pattern in females. This study corroborates the hypothesis that lip prints are able to distinguish individuals and may be useful in sex determination.     

Quest for the Holy Grail—Is a Unified Approach to the Market Freedoms and European Citizenship Justified?

The case law of the CJEU on the economic free movement of people has departed from the traditional requirement that a nexus must be established between individual free movement and cross‐border economic activity, which has led to an extension of its scope. It is submitted that concerns with the protection of fundamental rights of European citizens are driving this process, and that the CJEU has sought to protect these fundamental rights through the market freedoms in two ways: by arguing that market freedoms are fundamental right themselves, and/or that European Citizenship has changed their normative underpinnings and status. This Article criticises both lines of argument, and defends a third: that the protection of these fundamental rights must be achieved at European level, if at all, through a conception of European Citizenship able to stand on its own.     

Politicization,banking experience and risk in savings banks

During the global financial crisis, criticism of the politicization and lack of professionalization of the savings banks has taken a central position in the political debate. The aim of this article is to analyze if the political presence of governing bodies in Spanish savings banks has been reflected in their various risk-taking behaviors before and during the financial crisis. We will also analyze whether the influence of the chairman’s banking experience matters. The results do not provide evidence that the composition of the boards of savings bank, or even their politicization, have played a role. However we show that savings banks run by a chairman with previous banking experience are likely to be significantly more solvent and less volatile.     

Early maladaptive schemas in convicted sexual offenders: Preliminary findings

Core cognitive schemas may play a role in the vulnerability for sexual offending. Identifying these schemas could help to conceptualize sexual crimes and rehabilitate convicted sexual offenders. The aim of this preliminary study was to explore the relationship between early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) and sexual offending, as well as how rapists and child sex molesters differ in terms of these schemas. Thirty-two men convicted for rape, 33 convicted for child sexual abuse, and 30 non-offenders were evaluated using the Young Schema Questionnaire (YSQ-S3) and the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). Results showed that participants convicted for child sexual abuse presented significantly more schemas from the disconnection/rejection, impaired autonomy/performance, other directness, and over vigilance/inhibition domains than non-offenders, whereas rapists presented more schemas from the impaired autonomy/performance domain than non-offenders. Differences between sex offenders showed that child molesters presented more schemas of pessimism than rapists. Preliminary findings suggested that EMSs may impact sex offender's perceptions about themselves and about the world. Schema-focused therapy (Young, 1990, 1999) may thus be an acceptable approach to sex offender's psychological assessment and intervention.     

An Ever-Shadowed Past? Citizens’ Attitudes towards the Dictatorship in Twenty-First Century Portugal

Abstract

Several years after the transition to democracy, positive attitudes towards the authoritarian past are still observable in Portugal: the belief that the previous regime had more good things than bad things is expressed by about one-fifth of the Portuguese. What explains this nostalgic sentiment? Are factors such as socialisation under the regime, party identification or religiosity more important than satisfaction with democracy and the state of the economy? The empirical analysis suggests that the relevance of these factors varies considerably, but socialisation phases lead to different stances on the past both in routine times and in times of economic crisis.     

The EU against the New Normal: Avoiding the Banalization of the Israeli‒Palestinian Dispute

This article assesses the European Union (EU)’s engagement with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and highlights the unintended consequences of the policies pursued by Brussels on this matter. While stressing that Palestinians and Israelis interested in peace face the danger of the banalization of the conflict, the article argues that the current status quo is unacceptable and unstainable in the long run, and this demands new policies from the actors involved with the conflict or its resolution. The EU policies’ overall rationale must be to treat the Israeli?Palestinian dispute as a normal, non-exceptional conflict, in which economic and legal tools can be employed to create new legal facts on the ground. An alternative EU approach to the conflict must recognize the insufficiency of recent initiatives and should be built upon two pillars: the legalization of the main contending issues and the empowerment of the civil society actors and initiatives that foster dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis.     

Portuguese Democratisation 40 Years on: Its Meaning and Enduring Legacies

Abstract

On the fortieth anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, it is pertinent to ask how Portuguese citizens understand their transition to democracy. In this article, some of the main findings concerning the meanings and legacies of 25 April 1974 are presented, drawing on the findings of two surveys focusing on Portuguese attitudes towards 25 April and fielded in 2004 and 2014, respectively, to a representative sample of the Portuguese population. Here we focus on the degree to which the transition is viewed positively and its social and economic legacies. In the final sections, the main findings of the articles in this special issue are discussed through a presentation of the main questions they answer and the new ones they raise.