Predictors of length of stay in forensic psychiatry: The influence of perceived risk of violence

This study describes the prevalence of adverse events and length of stay in forensic psychiatric patients with and without a restriction order. Detailed clinical and administrative information from medical records and written court decisions was gathered retrospectively from admission until discharge for a Swedish population-based, consecutive cohort of forensic psychiatric patients (n = 125). The median length of stay for the whole cohort was 951 days, but patients with a restriction order stayed in hospital almost five times as long as patients without. Restriction orders were related to convictions for violent crime, but not for any other differences in demographic or clinical variables. The majority of the patients (60%) were involved in adverse events (violence, threats, substance abuse, or absconding) at some time during their treatment. Patients with restriction orders were overrepresented in violent and threat events. Previous contact with child and adolescence psychiatric services, current violent index crime, psychotic disorders, a history of substance, and absconding during treatment predicted longer length of stay. Being a parent, high current Global Assessment of Functioning scores, and mood disorders were all significantly related to earlier discharge. In a stepwise Cox regression analysis current violent index crime and absconding remained risk factors for a longer hospital stay, while a diagnosis of mood disorder was significantly related to a shorter length of stay.     

Complex linkages between forced labor slavery and environmental decline in marine fisheries

Recent media attention on human rights abuses in the fishing sector, precipitated by undercover investigations from nongovernmental organizations and investigative journalists (e.g., Environmental Justice Foundation [EJF] 2014 ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE FOUNDATION (EJF). (2014) Slavery at Sea: The Continued Plight of Trafficked Migrants in Thailand’s Fishing Industry (London, UK: EJF). [Google Scholar], 2015a Environmental Justice Foundation. (2015a) Thailand’s Seafood Slaves: Human Trafficking, Slavery and Murder in Kantang’s Fishing Industry (London, UK: EJF). [Google Scholar], 2015b EJF. (2015b) Pirates and Slaves: How Overfishing in Thailand Fuels Human Trafficking and the Plundering of our Oceans (London, UK: EJF). [Google Scholar]; Mendoza, McDowell, Mason, and Htusan 2016 MENDOZA, Martha, MCDOWELL, Robin, MASON, Margie, HTUSAN, Esther. (2016) Fisherman Slaves: Human Trafficking and the Seafood We Eat (New York: AP Editions). [Google Scholar]), has prompted calls from the scientific community for increased transdisciplinary and empirical research of fisheries’ social dimensions, such as labor (Kittinger et al. 2017 KITTINGER, John N., TEH, Lydia C. L., ALLISON, Edward H., BENNETT, Nathan J., CROWDER, Larry B., FINKBEINER, Elena M., HICKS, Christina, SCARTON, Cheryl G., NAKAMURA, Katrina, OTA, Yoshitaka, YOUNG, Jhana, ALIFANO, Aurora, APEL, Ashley, ARBIB, Allison, BISHOP, Lori, BOYLE, Mariah, CISNEROS-MONTEMAYOR, Andrés M., HUNTER, Philip, LE CORNU, Elodie, LEVINE, Max, JONES, Richard S., KOEHN, Zachary, MARSCHKE, Melissa, MASON, Julia G., MICHELI, Fiorenza, McCLENACHAN, Loren, OPAL, Charlotte, PEACEY, Jonathan, PECKHAM, S. Hoyt, SCHEMMEL, Eva, SOLIS-RIVERA, Vivienne, SWARTZ, Wilf, and WILHELM, T.’Aulani. (2017) Committing to socially responsible seafood. Science, 356(6341), 912–913.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Given views that social and ecological systems are interdependent (Ostrom 2009 OSTROM, Elinor. (2009) A general framework for analyzing sustainability of social-ecological systems. Science, 325(5939), 419–422. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), the need for theory development to explicate pathways for how this interdependence occurs and the potential for using policy and practices for intervention and prevention exist. Integrating ecological data and economics and human rights theory, Brashares and colleagues’ (2014) wildlife decline and social conflict framework offered a hypothesis about the negative association between fish stock declines and child slavery. Yet, more precision in terminology, pathways, and feedbacks may be warranted. With the aim of exploring empirical, conceptual, and theoretical support for Brashares et al.’s (2014 BRASHARES, Justin S., ABRAHMS, Briana, FIORELLA, Kathryn J., GOLDEN, Christopher D., HOJNOWSKI, Cheryl E., MARSH, Ryan A., McCAULEY, Douglas J., NUÑEZ, Tristan A., SETO, Katherine, and WITHEY, Lauren (2014) Wildlife decline and social conflict. Science, 345(6195), 376–378.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) pathways, the revised theory developed in this article posits how forced labor slavery and environmental decline in marine fisheries may be linked.     

Al Qaeda in Mali: The Defection Connections

The control of northern Mali in 2012 by Tuareg rebels and Islamist fighters aligned with al Qaeda proved a serious challenge to Western counterterrorism policies. This article looks at several aspects often overlooked in discussions of the internal dynamics of al Qaeda-linked groups. Using defections related to the al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) offshoot group, the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), in Mali as a case study, this article considers the issues of race and legitimacy connected to the group and the threat and policy implications that flow from this analysis.     

Gendered ‘Objective’ Patent Law: Of Binaries and a Singularity

Patent law protects the technical. It is seemingly objective in terminology and application. Yet studies show that males are significantly more likely than females to be the inventors of patented inventions. Patenting is not objective, it is gendered. The reasons for this are multiple and include the fact that patent law itself, including its presumptions and interpretation, is gendered. This article examines how patent law reflects multiple gendered binaries, despite being drafted in ostensibly neutral terms. These serve to favour masculine modes and fields of creation, while ignoring and devaluing feminine knowledge and ways of knowing. We should be concerned that patent law is gendered because patents affect wealth distribution, what is invented and commercialized, and what information and knowledge is disseminated, built upon, and viewed as valuable. Thus, instead of embodying gendered binaries, the law should reflect a singularity – a unique point, where the system degenerates or diverges to recognize and encourage the multiplicity of ways in which invention and innovation can and do occur, beyond socially constructed binaries.     

A Separate Peace? The Politics of Localized Law in the Post‐Revolutionary Era

Law is often seen as peripheral to Southern life before the Civil War, and the South as an outlier in the American legal history of that era. In The People and Their Peace (2009), Laura Edwards demonstrates the profoundly legal nature of Southern society and takes an important step toward integrating the legal history of the South with that of the nation. Edwards identifies two dueling legal cultures in North and South Carolina between 1787 and 1840—the law of local courts, which she terms localized law, and the state law of professionalized lawyers and reformers. She argues that white women, slaves, and the poor fared better in localized law—which was based on notions of popular sovereignty and the flexible rubric of restoring “the peace”—than in state courts, which were steeped in a national culture of individual rights that led to more restrictive results. This essay questions Edwards's dichotomy between local law and state law and her depiction of the popular content of localized law, while building on Edwards's innovations to suggest a new direction for Southern legal history.     

Responses of Lucilia sericata Meigen (Diptera: Calliphoridae) to cadaveric volatile organic compounds

Flies of the Calliphoridae Family are the most forensically important insects because of their abundance on the decedent during the first minutes following death. Necrophagous insects are attracted at a distance by a decomposing body, through the use of volatile chemical cues. We tested the possible attractive role of some volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) released by decaying cadavers, on male and female of Lucilia sericata Meigen (Diptera: Calliphoridae). Two complementary approaches were used. Electroantennography (EAG) allowed identifying the semiochemicals that are detected by the olfactory system of L. sericata. Dose-response tests with EAG showed that dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) and butan-1-ol elicited the highest responses. Behavioral assays showed that, among the VOCs tested, DMDS and butan-1-ol are attractive for L. sericata, while the other VOCs are repulsive or do not cause any behavior. Our results may have potential implications in a better understanding of attractiveness of blowflies toward a corpse.     

Representative misconduct,voter perceptions and accountability: Evidence from the 2009 House of Commons expenses scandal

This paper examines electoral accountability after the 2009–10 UK expenses scandal. Existing research shows that Members of Parliament (MPs) implicated in the scandal fared only marginally worse in the election than non-implicated colleagues. This lack of electoral accountability for misconduct could have arisen either because voters did not know about their representative's wrongdoing or because they chose not to electorally sanction them. We combine panel survey data with new measures of MP implication in the expenses scandal to test where electoral accountability failed. We find that MP implication influenced voter perceptions of wrongdoing more than expected. In contrast, constituents were only marginally less likely to vote for MPs who were implicated in the scandal. Electoral accountability may therefore be constrained even when information about representative misconduct is easily available and clearly influences voter perceptions.