Vaginorectal impalement injury in a 2-year-old child--caused by sexual abuse or an accident?

Anogenital impalement injuries are rarely encountered in clinical or forensic practice. If seen in children and if incurred under suspect circumstances, sexual abuse must be considered in the differential diagnosis. Here we describe the case of a 2-year-old girl admitted to hospital with a vaginorectal impalement injury. According to the girl's parents, she had slipped in the bathroom and fallen onto the handle of an upright toilet bowl brush. Since a second slight anal injury was present, the parents' account appeared inconsistent. Therefore, physicians from the Institute of Legal Medicine were consulted to investigate the possibility of underlying sexual abuse. Because they could not rule out that the injuries could have been caused by sexual abuse, they recommended having the police immediately examine the site of the purported accident for evidence. The police and forensic investigations, however, verified the parents' account of an accidental injury. Thus, in this case, the initiation of a police inquiry, which is not compulsory in Germany even when sexual abuse is strongly suspected, led to the exoneration of the father.     

Artenschutz durch handelbare Zertifikate?

Handelbare Zertifikate gelten seit einiger Zeit als erfolgreiches Instrument, um Umweltschutzziele m?glichst effektiv und kosteneffizient zu erreichen. Der vorliegende Beitrag besch?ftigt sich mit der Frage, ob dieses Instrument auch im Artenschutz angewandt werden k?nnte. Dabei beschr?nken wir uns darauf, den Grundgedanken des Konzepts aus umwelt?konomischer Sicht darzulegen, potentielle Anwendungsfelder eines Zertifikatehandels im deutschen Recht zu identifizieren und zu umrei?en, wo weiterer Forschungsbedarf besteht. Bei der Identifikation potentieller Anwendungsfelder fragen wir, ob und inwieweit unter den geltenden rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen beeintr?chtigte Habitate geschützter Arten durch neu geschaffene Habitate ersetzt werden k?nnen. Der Schwerpunkt der Betrachtungen liegt auf den Kompensationspflichten der Eingriffsregelung, den Zugriffsverboten des Artenschutzrechts und dem Koh?renzausgleich der FFH-Richtlinie.     

Gender and Corruption: The Mediating Power of Institutional Logics

Scholars have argued that recruiting more women to office is an effective way to curb corruption; however, the more precise mechanisms underlying why this may be the case have remained unclear. We use meso‐level theories to elaborate on the relationship and suggest that institutional logics mediate the effect of gendered experiences on corruption. We make two propositions: First, we suggest that the relationship between more women and lower levels of corruption is weaker in the state administration than in the legislative arena, because the bureaucratic administrative logic absorbs actors’ personal characteristics. Second, we refine our institutional argument by claiming that the stronger the bureaucratic principles are in the administration, the less gender matters. We validate our theory using data provided by the European Commission (EC) covering the EC countries and original data from the Quality of Government Institute Expert Surveys, covering a larger set of countries on a worldwide scale.     

Techno-festival mit fatal outcome

The authors report on a 21-year old female who died suddenly during a techno-festival. The autopsy findings and the results of chemical-toxicological analyses were not able to clear up the cause of death. Pathophysiological and toxicological considerations demonstrate that only a combination of facts are sufficient to explain the sudden death of this young woman.