Welfare-to-Work,Structural Injustice and Human Rights

This article discusses welfare-to-work schemes, places schemes with strict conditionality in the theoretical framework of structural injustice, and argues that they may violate human rights law. Welfare-to-work schemes impose obligations on individuals to seek and accept work on the basis that otherwise they will be sanctioned by losing access to social support. The schemes are often presented as the best route out of poverty. However, the system in the UK, characterised by strict conditionality, coerces the poor and disadvantaged into precarious work, and conditions of in-work poverty. Forcing people to work in these conditions creates and sustains widespread and routine structures of exploitation. The article further argues that a framework of ‘state-mediated structural injustice’ is the best way of explaining the wrong. It finally claims that this injustice violates principles that are enshrined in human rights law, which the authorities have an obligation to examine and address.     

The Density of State Interest-Communities: Do Regional Variables Matter?

To better understand state interest-group politics, this studycompares two approaches to understanding the density of theirinterest communities. The first approach—Gray and Lowery'senergy, stability, area model of density—emphasizes asmall set of political and economic variables operative withineach state in accounting for density. The second, of which thereare several examples, emphasizes a regional level of analysis.The two approaches are evaluated as both independent and complementaryaccounts of state interest-community density using 1990 statelobby-registration data. Although some evidence of modest underspecificationin the Gray and Lowery model is found, regional or spatiallybased variables only have a small impact on the density of stateinterest-communities.     

Predictor Variables in Competency to Stand Trial Decisions

Clinicians possess significant discretion in competency to stand trial assessment. Therefore, it is paramount to explore the contribution of individual variables to ensure that the decision-making process is devoid of bias and solely relates to the legal criterion. To test for the possibility of bias in clinical decision-making, we examined the predictive efficiency of clinical, criminological, and sociodemographic variables in a sample of 468 criminal defendants referred for competency evaluations. Only clinical diagnostic variables and employment status were significant predictors. This finding supports the idea that examiner decisions of competency appear to be unbiased and relate primarily to a defendant's functional ability.     

Y-chromosome STR haplotypes in two population samples: Azores Islands and Central Portugal

The Y-chromosome haplotypes defined by nine STRs (DYS19, DYS385, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392 and DYS393) were studied in 207 unrelated individuals from Central Portugal and 63 from Azores Islands. The most common haplotype in Central Portugal was shared by 3.4% of the males, while 160 haplotypes were unique. In Azores Islands the most common haplotype was shared by 6.4% of the males, while 40 haplotypes were unique. The values of haplotype diversity were 0.993 for Central Portugal and 0.976 for Azores Islands.     

Putting community risk in perspective: a look at correlations, causes and controls

Much research, but not all, appears to show that persons with severe mental illness are more dangerous and violent than others; but it is misleading and feeds the stigma cannon. This paper critically reviews reported correlations between severe mental illness and violence, examines their statistical confounds, highlights studies which seek causal mechanisms explaining the associations, points to what those causal mechanisms tell us about controlling risk in the community, and reviews legal attempts to control community risk in light of those causal mechanisms.     

PLC or TLC: is outpatient commitment the/an answer?

The lively debate over mandated community treatment in general and outpatient commitment laws (OPC) in particular has raised many issues. At its core, the debate is over how and to what extent laws should be formulated to persuade, leverage or coerce (PLC) persons with severe mental illness living in the community to comply with medications that mental health professionals believe they need. The alternative to PLC is what we call TLC (tender loving care): a strategy of using benefits - improved patient-centered treatment, entitlements and service delivery, including assertive outreach - rather than penalties or conditions on access to services, to induce compliance. We examine three aspects of the debate: (1) the empirical case for the need for OPC court orders to maintain revolving-door severely mentally ill persons in the community; (2) the normative argument over whether such orders constitute coercion, and, if so, whether that coercion is justifiable; and (3) the incentives such orders create to leverage community providers to augment resources and tailor treatment and services to entice patients to become willing participants in the management of their disorders.     

An attempt to reduce guessing behavior in children's and adults' eyewitness identifications

The effects of age of witness, gender of witness, lineup presentation, and practice on eyewitness testimony were investigated. Ninety-six elementary-school children and 96 college students viewed a slide sequence of a crime, followed by target-present or target-absent photo identification in sequentially or simultaneously presented lineups. Prior to photo identification, half the subjects received a practice lineup. Children had a higher rate of choosing than adults, resulting in more foil identification errors in both target-present and target-absent lineups. Without prior practice, sequential presentation as compared to simultaneous presentation reduced errors in target-absent lineups for adult witnesses and showed a similar but nonsignificant reduction for child witnesses. With prior practice, sequential presentation lost the advantage over simultaneous presentation in target-absent error reduction. Practice reduced target-absent errors in simultaneous-presentation lineups for both age groups.     

Juvenile diversion and the constitution

The juvenile justice system has been a product of interaction between legal and socio-medical forces since its inauguration near the end of the last century. While the socio-medical forces have, for the most part, been dominant over the years, concern for minimum legal standards has been a conspicuous part of the picture since the years 1966 to 1967. The result is serious attention to due process and fundamental fairness in court processing, and low tolerance for abridgement of such rights in the interests of attaining the social goal of rehabilitation. The question arises as to how early in the procedural chain for juveniles various due process rights should enter. Some have argued that important due process rights should be components in the process leading to probation, and even police, diversion. The central argument of this article is that broad directives regarding due process in diversion are inappropriate. Indeed, analysis of actual and potential losses of freedom associated with diversion decisions leads to the general conclusion that very few diversion programs require usual procedural rights. Moreover, a survey of case law indicates that there is little reason to expect that the procedural protections enunciated by the U.S. Supreme Court so strongly in the 1960s will be extended by the courts to police (or probation) decisions on diversion in the 1980s.     

Factors affecting perceptions of medical errors

The purpose of the study was to assess how three factors affect subjects' perceptions of a medical error made in a hypothetical scenario. The factors were (i) type of compensation system, (ii) degree of procedural “voice” present in the physician-patient relationship, and (iii) magnitude of damage sustained by the patient. Perceptions were defined to include subjects' (i) emotional reactions to the incident, (ii) causal attributions about the incident, (iii) evaluations of the faimess of the compensation systems, and (iv) compensation demands. Results indicated that damage magnitude was the only factor that affected subjects' emotional reactions to the described incident and their compensation requests. When damage was severe, subjects reacted more negatively to the event and demanded greater compensation. Subjects rated the no-fault system and greater voice conditions as more fair. In general, subjects causally analyzed the error incident in a manner that was less blameworthy of the physician when procedural justice was high, especially if this was combined with a no-fault compensation system. Results were discussed in terms of Wexler and Winick's (1991) model of therapeutic jurisprudence.