Child-to-Parent Violence in Adolescents: The Perspectives of the Parents,Children, and Professionals in a Sample of Spanish Focus Group Participants

This study explored the characteristics of child-to-parent violence (CPV) in Spain based on the narrations of adolescents who perpetrate this kind of violence, their parents, and the professionals who work in this area. A qualitative design was used. Focus groups were asked about the risk factors associated with CPV, such as exposure to family violence, discipline, and psychological characteristics of the adolescents. Interviews were videotaped, transcribed, and reviewed independently by each investigator to identify and group distinct comments into categories with specific themes. Results suggest that CPV is mainly linked to exposure to marital conflict and family violence, permissive discipline, emotional disengagement in the father-child relationship, and symptoms of emotional stress and substance consumption in the children. Lastly, acts of CPV seem to be an attempt by the children to gain power in the context of family relations in which the parents display their incapacity to establish control. As several family and personal characteristics appear to be involved in CPV, it is recommended that family and individual approaches be considered for treatment.     

Civil Society and the Responsibility to Protect

While a vast and growing literature on various aspects of responsibility to protect (R2P) exists, little attention has yet been given to the role played by civil society in the development and implementation of this doctrine. This paper aims to fill this gap. After providing a typology of civil society organisations—categorising this amorphous sphere into advocacy, operational and indigenous groups—this paper examines the contribution of civil society to the discussion surrounding the development of R2P. In particular, civil society has debated three main issues: the pros and cons of building an international coalition to promote R2P, the possibility that great powers could hijack the doctrine and the opportunity of using force during R2P implementation. As a whole, this paper argues that not only advocacy, operational and indigenous civil society organisations hold different ideas about R2P and have different strategies for its implementation but, more importantly, their approaches, strategies and actions may end up undercutting one another. This argument is explored in the case of Darfur—the first crisis many analysts have described as an R2P situation.     

A Novel,If Awkward,Exercise in International Law-Making: Security Council Resolution 1540 (2004)

Netherlands International Law Review -     

Omens of an early winter: the proportional vote and the changing italian party system

The proportional arena has been designed as a buffer and corrective for the hard verdicts of the new Italian plurality system. However, the political impact of this arena is much deeper than its purely electoral role. It measures the loadings of single parties within coalitions and, subsequently, influences their interactions and bargaining tactics. The elections of April 1996 clearly show the effects of institutional learning by the different actors involved: voters, coalitions, candidates, etc. The analysis of electoral data shows the following main findings: (a) the remarkable equilibrium between left–wing and right–wing coalitions; (b) the gains made by the left thanks to its better ability to manage alliances with the centre and extreme left; (c) surprisingly little change in voter behaviour between 1994 and 1996, and most of what change there is deriving from vote nationalization. The main features of Italian electoral geography are also confirmed.     

The market of human experimentation

How should experiments on humans be regulated and controlled? Is it possible to create an equilibrium between the optimal protection of patients’ rights and all the other interests involved? This paper analyzes the problem from a Law and Economics point of view and tries to develop a theoretical model that would provide a way to achieve that equilibrium, both in terms of effectiveness and efficiency, a model in which the interaction between different parties can lead to a market where information is exchanged for innovation. This paper is based on work that has been done up to now by other sciences, like medicine and bioethics, treating the issue with an alternative approach in order to propose an oversight system able to give an answer to this unsolved problem. This work is mainly aimed at defining the rules of the market in Europe, including its actors and their interactions using both a normative and a positive approach. Both the behavior of rational people and that of bounded ones are analyzed, as well as the strategies that can be applied against the latter by stronger parties. Finally, the public stakeholder’s role in preventing this from happening is analyzed.