Chrystal Macmillan,Scottish campaigner for women’s equality through law reform

ABSTRACT

This article will explore the work of Chrystal Macmillan, who used her knowledge of the law to further the cause of women’s equality through her committee work with several voluntary organisations, and her presentations to the British Government, the League of Nations, and the International Labour Office. Using archival material, both from committee minutes and family anecdotes, we will show the substantial amount of voluntary work undertaken by Chrystal Macmillan both before and after she became a practising lawyer in 1924. The article will also try to capture something of the woman’s character through the comments of her friends and colleagues.     

User Requirements Elicitation in Security and Counter-Terrorism: A Human Factors Approach

This paper presents work conducted as part the ‘Shades of Grey’ (EP/H02302X/1) research project that aims to develop scientific interventions for the detection of suspicious behaviors in public spaces. To provide an understanding of security and counter-terrorism work in different contexts the project adopted a human factors approach as part of a program of user requirements gathering exercises. These activities focussed on the needs of different end-users and stakeholders, ranging from frontline security personnel, managers and strategic security policy makers. By taking a user-centred approach, the discipline of human factors can be integrated into the security/counter-terrorism domain to support the design of practical security solutions. This paper presents a case study investigation using data collected from three security agencies. Common themes are explored, ranging from ‘the importance of temporal measures’ to ‘enhancing positive user experiences’. These factors are discussed in relation to the practical application of human factors methods within security research.     

The impact of abuse allegations in perceiving parricide in the courtroom

One hundred and seventy five undergraduates (105 females) read a fictional criminal trial summary of a parricide case in which the juvenile defendant alleged sexual abuse or physical abuse or did not allege abuse. An allegation of either type of abuse led to a greater likelihood of a manslaughter conviction than a murder conviction and greater pro-child ratings (e.g., sympathy toward the defendant) compared to no abuse allegations. Specific evaluations of the defendant mediated the verdict results. In addition, there was no support for the claim that perceptions are more heinous for sexual abuse than physical abuse allegations and only limited support that perceptions for this type of case result in women being more pro-child defendant than men. The discussion focuses on how abuse allegations impact jurors' decision-making processes in parricide cases.     

Studying the Past: the Nature and Development of Legal History as an Academic Discipline

This article pursues two themes. First, it argues that there is a commonality between the general interest in the past, the interest of historians, and the interest of legal historians. Second, it shows that several ideas about the past commonly appear in all three contexts. In pursuing these themes, the article begins by reviewing the initial study of the past and the emergence of history and legal history in academia. It explores the various reasons why the early historians and later academic historians and legal historians studied the past and the different ways in which they used it. The article then pursues in more detail the development of Anglo-American legal history as a scholarly tradition. It identifies three types of academic legal history: classical, liberal, and critical, and discusses their natures and different uses of the past. Finally, the article explores the substantial legal history scholarship and its relevance to scholars who are not legal historians. The article concludes by stressing the importance of studying the legal past.     

M. Boersma,Corruption: A Violation of Human Rights and a Crime under International Law?, Intersentia,Antwerp 2012, xxiii + 490 pp. ISBN 978-1-78068-105-4.

Netherlands International Law Review -     

Reducing child support debt and its consequences: Can forgiveness benefit all?

As child support debt owed nationally persists at enormous levels, both noncustodial parents and the custodial families who are not receiving support suffer significant hardships, and states are forced to expend greater resources on collection and enforcement efforts. This paper presents findings from an evaluation of a demonstration program developed to help noncustodial parents with large child support debts reduce their debt while simultaneously increasing child support paid to families, through gradual forgiveness of arrears conditional on payment of current child support obligations. The evaluation employs a randomized experimental design, nonexperimental analyses using propensity score matching and multilevel modeling techniques, and focus groups and follow‐up interviews. Results show a pattern of effects that suggests individuals responded to the program as intended. State‐ and family‐owed child support debt balances decreased for program participants, and participants paid more toward their child support obligations and arrears and made more frequent child support payments. The study findings suggest promise for the effectiveness of this program model in reducing child support debt burdens and in increasing families' receipt of child support, and they also point to ways in which the implementation of the program might be improved. © 2011 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Mental Health and Educational Experiences Among Black Youth: A Latent Class Analysis

Disproportionately lower educational achievement, coupled with higher grade retention, suspensions, expulsions, and lower school bonding make educational success among Black adolescents a major public health concern. Mental health is a key developmental factor related to educational outcomes among adolescents; however, traditional models of mental health focus on absence of dysfunction as a way to conceptualize mental health. The dual-factor model of mental health incorporates indicators of both subjective wellbeing and psychopathology, supporting more recent research that both are needed to comprehensively assess mental health. This study applied the dual-factor model to measure mental health using the National Survey of American Life—Adolescent Supplement (NSAL-A), a representative cross-sectional survey. The sample included 1170 Black adolescents (52% female; mean age 15). Latent class analysis was conducted with positive indicators of subjective wellbeing (emotional, psychological, and social) as well as measures of psychopathology. Four mental health groups were identified, based on having high or low subjective wellbeing and high or low psychopathology. Accordingly, associations between mental health groups and educational outcomes were investigated. Significant associations were observed in school bonding, suspensions, and grade retention, with the positive mental health group (high subjective wellbeing, low psychopathology) experiencing more beneficial outcomes. The results support a strong association between school bonding and better mental health and have implications for a more comprehensive view of mental health in interventions targeting improved educational experiences and mental health among Black adolescents.