Police–victim engagement in building a victim empowerment approach to intimate partner violence cases

Intimate partner violence (IPV) has been highlighted as a priority for UK governments and criminal justice agencies since the 1990s. However, whilst generating significant policy and procedural responses, the overall impact continues to be criticised. This paper examines contemporary approaches to IPV identification and response, highlighting the limitations within victim engagement and empowerment. It then moves on to specific developments and theories in victimology, demonstrating how research into victim engagement is emerging and could be utilised in practice to enhance victim empowerment. It argues that policy and procedure based upon an enhanced victim empowerment approach would be necessary in striving for positive criminal justice outcomes and for increasing victim satisfaction.     

Accidental sharp force injury fatalities.

The authors review all accidental sharp force injury deaths investigated at the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences from 1990 to 1999. Twenty-two cases of accidental sharp force injury were identified, accounting for 0.29% of all accidental deaths (9,562) during the 10-year study period. Included in this series are 5 incised wounds, 11 stab wounds, 4 chop wounds, and 2 deaths caused by dog attacks. About half of the cases involved some type of motorized machinery. The victims' ages ranged from 2 years to 71 years, with most deaths occurring in older teenagers and younger adults. Male subjects (17) were involved much more frequently than female subjects (5). In 50% of the cases, ethanol or other drug use was a possible underlying contributing factor in the accident. The cases are briefly reviewed, and the importance of detailed investigation in manner-of-death certification is emphasized.     

Lessons from the Wolfenden Report

The article traces the recent history of homosexual law reform in the UK and the countries of the Commonwealth of Nations, using as its point of departure the Report of the Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution, 1957 (‘Wolfenden Report’). In light of the Wolfenden principle – that certain matters of private morality are not the law's business and especially not the proper business of punishment under the criminal law – the article proposes a methodology for law reform in those countries of the Commonwealth that inherited the penal offences but have not yet acted to repeal them.     

Models for commercialization of technology from universities and research laboratories

One of the most admired aspects of U.S. technology has been the ability to assimilate and commercialize new science and technology. In light of the rising international competition, there has been new emphasis placed on the commercialization of U.S. science and technology developed in the federal laboratories. While research and development remains the focus of these laboratories, passage of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Act of 1980 and the Technology Transfer Act of 1986 has resulted in a means to further the exploitation of discoveries, patents, and copyrights developed within the laboratories. The transfer of technology to industrial partners and users is a complex task for a federal laboratory. Since the interaction with industry, as well as market knowledge and assessment of the needs of business users are beyond the charter of a federal laboratory, new organizational mechanisms are required in order to obtain full commercial value from the laboratories' efforts. A study was instituted to examine selected organizational and policy arrangements for achieving the optimum commercial value from the science and technology research at the research and development laboratories sponsored and funded by the U.S. government.