Inside or outside control of banks? Evidence from the composition of supervisory boards

This paper examines the composition of supervisory boards of 41 large German banks in 1999–2010. We find that the supervisory board structure reflects both outside control by major shareholders and inside control by other stakeholders. The largest group among non-employee board members is made up of bank managers. The high proportion of former executives and German board representation indicates significant inside control. The chairpersons of banks controlled by banks are less likely to be former executives of the same bank than are the chairpersons of banks controlled by non-banks. Over time, representation of industrial and insurance companies on banks’ supervisory boards has decreased and the representation of banks and foreign shareholders has increased.     

Fatal unintentional intoxications with tramadol during 1995-2005

Tramadol is an extensively used centrally acting analgesic and is considered a safe drug devoid of many serious adverse effects of traditional opioids. However, recently, toxicity and an abuse potential of tramadol have been reported. This study examined fatal unintentional tramadol intoxications among Swedish forensic autopsy cases between 1995 and 2005. All fatal intoxications were selected, in which toxic concentrations of tramadol (>1 microg/g femoral blood) had been detected, and where the forensic pathologist considered the intoxication unintentional and the fatal outcome at least partly explained by tramadol. Toxicology analyses, police reports, autopsy protocols and medical records were scrutinized. A total of 17 cases (eleven men and six women) of fatal unintentional tramadol intoxications were identified. For these cases the median age was 44 years (range 18-78 years) and the median tramadol concentration was 2.0 microg/g (range 1.1-12.0 microg/g). Other pharmaceutical substances, illicit drugs or ethanol were detected in addition to tramadol in all of these cases. In fact, intoxication with multiple drugs was considered the cause of death in 10 (59%) cases. However, in seven cases tramadol was the only substance present in toxic concentrations. A history of substance abuse was identified in 14 (82%) subjects and a present tramadol abuse in 8 (47%). These results suggest that fatal intoxications with tramadol may occur unintentionally and that subjects with a history of substance abuse may be at certain risk. Precaution is therefore warranted when prescribing tramadol in such patients.     

Pharmacogenetics in medico-legal context

Medico-legal autopsy is the primary method in determining the cause and manner of death when the death is suspected to be unnatural. In some of these autopsies, the death remains ambiguous, even after a complete autopsy including histological investigation and toxicological screenings. In cases where there are no morphological abnormalities, medico-legal genetics may offer additional means to provide knowledge of possible genetic mutations, which may have initiated the process or predisposed the individual to stress risk conditions leading to death. One class of ambiguous deaths consists of drug-related deaths where the interpretation of the toxicological results are not clear. In such situations post mortem genotyping and the analysis of metabolite rations may provide an insight to the findings. A few cases demonstrating the potential strength of pharmacogenetics in medico-legal context has been published. However, there is a paramount need for serious scientific studies before the field of post mortem pharmacogenetics can be utilized in routine medico-legal analyses casework and brought routinely into courtroom.     

Repositioning the corporate criminal: comparing and contrasting corporate criminal liability in Canada and Finland

ABSTRACT

Over the past two decades, a number of states in the Global North have introduced laws aimed at holding corporations criminally liable. While there is an important literature examining these legal regimes there is a paucity of comparative work interrogating the different political struggles and processes leading to corporate criminal liability (CCL) legislation. This paper addresses this lacuna by comparing and contrasting the development of CCL in Canada and Finland. By scrutinizing the law reform processes in each jurisdiction, the paper documents how CCL emerged under different conjunctures in each country, yet were shaped similarly by hegemonic beliefs in the non-criminal status of corporation, the importance of advancing private enterprise and established jurisprudence. Of particular note are the ways in which dominant notions of legal individualism and the universal legal subject constrained legislative efforts to hold corporations criminally to account therein preventing corporate misconduct from being processed as “real” crimes.     

Is the Public Willing to Help the Nigerian Police During the Boko Haram Crisis? A Look at Moderating Factors

This paper sought the opinion of 200 Nigerians on their willingness to cooperate with the police during the Boko Haram crisis. Public perceptions of police effectiveness during the crisis, residence location, gender and religious affiliation were used as moderators. Data was analysed using an explanatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. Results indicated a strong association between perceived effectiveness and willingness to report to the police with respondents who question the effectiveness of the police being less likely to be willing to report criminal activity about Boko Haram. Further to this, the impact of religion on willingness to report was at least partially mediated by perceived effectiveness of the police with the results showing that Christian respondents perceived the police as less effective. Females and those living in the north were significantly less willing to report criminal activity to the police. The findings are discussed in relation to the BH crises and directions for future research are given.     

Attitudes and public punishment preferences: Finnish results of Scandinavian sense of justice research

Opinion polls have repeatedly shown that populations favour severe penalties for offenders. However, surveys using a case vignette method, where the attributes of the case described to the respondents are varied, produce more versatile results. Such research gives a nuanced picture of punitive attitudes. In this study, the sentence decisions of laypeople who are informed about the offender’s criminal history, ethnic background, gender, social issues and substance abuse were examined.

A representative mail survey collected in Finland as part of Scandinavian sense of justice research was used as empirical data. Respondents were presented with six criminal cases and asked to determine sentences for them. All respondents received the same vignettes, but the background attributes of the offenders varied randomly.

This study showed that all the background attributes had a clear connection to the sentence decisions. Considering these results, the idea of a ‘general punitive attitude’, which is commonly used in academic literature, appears to be too simple of a way to look at the relationship between attitudes and punishment decisions.