Mental health in violent crime victims: Does sexual orientation matter?

The present study investigates victim sexual orientation in a sample of 641 violent crime victims seeking emergency medical treatment at a public-sector hospital. Victim sexual orientation was examined as it: (a) varies by type of violent crime and demographic characteristics, (b) directly relates to psychological symptoms, and (c) moderates the relationship between victim and crime characteristics (i.e., victim gender, victim trauma history, and type of crime) and psychological symptoms (i.e., symptoms of acute stress, depression, panic, and general anxiety). Results showed that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) victims were more likely to be victims of sexual assault. Heterosexual victims were more likely to be victims of general assault and shootings. LGBT victims demonstrated significantly higher levels of acute stress and general anxiety. Moreover, victim sexual orientation moderated the association of type of crime with experience of panic symptoms. Also, victim sexual orientation moderated the relation of victim trauma history and general anxiety symptoms. Results are discussed in relation to victimization prevalence rates, sexual prejudice theory, and assessment and treatment of violent crime victims.     

Validation of the Seratec® SeraQuant™ for the quantitation of prostate-specific antigen levels on immunochromatographic membranes

Abstract: Use of immunochromatographic membranes for the detection of prostate‐specific antigen (PSA) has become commonplace in forensic laboratories. Experiments were designed to test the newly developed Seratec^® SeraQuant? for accuracy, precision, and consistency in the quantitation of PSA. PSA standards were diluted with buffers and run on the instruments. Values obtained were examined for accuracy (was the correct value obtained?) and precision (were multiple sample values consistent?). To test for variation between instruments, large volumes of diluted PSA standard were run repeatedly on six units and the values obtained were plotted against the known PSA values to obtain a standard curve for each instrument. Fifty membranes having negative or weak positive results were then run on the six units, and the adjusted values were recorded and compared. Results of these experiments indicate that the instruments are accurate and precise in the quantitation of low levels of PSA.     

The Aftermath of the Macondo Discovery Well Spill: The Interplay of Claims to the Gulf Coast Claims Facility and Insurance Claims

The processing of claims for compensation arising from the April 20, 2010, explosion of the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig and its environmental and economic aftermath has proceeded simultaneously before the Gulf Coast Claims Facility and insurers. The criteria for recovery between these two recipients of claims differ significantly. Compensation from the facility has included claims for purely economic injury, whereas compensation from insurance generally requires, inter alia, a closer geographic or causal nexus to property damage. The resolution of compensation issues both by the facility and insurers will impact whether further disputes arise in the courts. Based upon similar experiences from September 11 and Hurricane Katrina, these issues are likely to continue for several years before they are fully resolved.     

Informing Police Response to Intimate Partner Violence: Predictors of Perceived Usefulness of Risk Assessment Screening

Substantial research has demonstrated the value of using risk assessment tools for the prediction and management of violence risk, including for intimate partner violence (IPV) (Mills, Kroner, and Morgan 2011). Such tools have been advocated for use by police officers (Hilton, Grant, and Rice 2010), but little is known about police officers’ perceptions of using these tools to inform their decision-making. Using a sample of 159 Canadian police officers (73% male, M age =?41.8 years, SD?=?8.9), the current study examined police officer’s experiences with IPV risk tools, their attitudes about using such tools, and identified predictors of these attitudes using an online survey. Most of this sample had previously used an IPV risk tool, which was most commonly the Brief Spousal Assault Form for the Evaluation of Risk (64.1%). Most police officers rated use of risk tools as at least somewhat to extremely helpful (73.5%), and 67.4% indicated that they would use a risk tool with sufficient training on it. Regression analyses indicated that police officers’ perceived IPV risk tool usefulness was significantly predicted by older respondent age and greater perceived need for guidance in responding to IPV calls. In conclusion, most police officers view IPV risk screening as valuable for informing their responses to such calls for service and are likely to embrace such decision-aids with sufficient training on their potential impact for enhancing safety.     

Restoring Faith: Resolving the Roman Catholic Church’s Sexual Scandals Through Restorative Justice (Working Paper I)

Two years ago, Independent Academic Research Studies, a UK based international network, started a research and implementation project to explore the potential of restorative justice to help resolve sexual offending cases involving children and young people. One aspect of this project is the use of restorative justice with sexual offending cases that occurred within the Catholic Church. The purpose of this article is to report on the main findings of the first stage of the project, based on desk research into existing or past international projects dealing with the matter. The aim, however, is not to provide a literature review of the main arguments surrounding the topic, but rather a critical overview of the restorative programs and research projects that have been implemented to test the notion’s application in sexual offending cases. The results of these programs will be contrasted with notorious cases that have been processed through the traditional criminal justice system. Therefore, this article is the first in a series on how restorative justice could be applied to help resolve the sexual scandals in the Catholic Church.     

Europe: Past,present, future

Jean Monnet: The First Statesman of Interdependence. By FRANÇOIS DUCHÊNE. New York, Norton, 1994. Pp.458, notes, sources, publications, index. £22 (cloth), £10.95 (paper) ISBN 0–393–03497–6 and ‐393–31490–1.

Elusive Union: The Process of Economic and Monetary Union in Europe. By KENNETH DYSON. London, Longman, 1994. Pp.xiii + 361, index. £40 (cloth), £17.99 (paper). ISBN 0–582–225132‐X and 0–582–25131–1.

The Road to Monetary Union in Europe: The Emperor, the Kings, and the Genies. By TOMMASO PADOA‐SCHIOPPA, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1994. Pp.286, index. £30 (cloth). ISBN 0–19–828843–3.

The Rotten Heart of Europe, The Dirty War for Europe's Money. By BERNARD CONNALLY. London: Faber, 1995. Pp.xvii + 427, references, index. £17.50 (cloth). ISBN 0–571–17520–1.

Europe: The Strange Superpower. By DAVID BUCHAN. Aldershot: Dartmouth, 1993. Pp.181 index. £35 (cloth); £17.50 (paper). ISBN 1–85521–441–5 and ‐439–3.

The European Sisyphus: Essays on Europe, 1964–1994. By STANLEY HOFFMANN, Boulder, Westview Press, 1995. Pp.x + 313, index. £58.50 (cloth); £13.50 (paper). ISBN 0–81–332–3200 and ‐2381–9.

Redefining Europe, New Patterns of Conflict and Cooperation. Edited by HUGH MIALL. London: Pinter. The Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1994. Pp.293. Index. £45 (cloth); £14.99 (paper). ISBN 1–85567–257‐X and ‐258–8.

Governing the New Europe. Edited by JACKHAYWARD and EDWARD C. PAGE. Oxford: Polity, 1995. Pp.418, index. £45 (cloth); £14.99 (paper). ISBN 0–7456–1219–9 and ‐1220–2.     

Karl Polanyi's The Great Transformation: perverse effects,protectionism and Gemeinschaft

Abstract

Drawing upon Karl Polanyi's journalistic writings and unpublished lectures from the 1920s and 1930s, this article reconstructs the lineaments of his research programme that was to assume its finished form in The Great Transformation. It identifies and corrects a common misinterpretation of the thesis of that book, and argues that Polanyi's basic theoretical framework is best conceived as Tönniesian: market society is Gesellschaft, while the ‘protective counter-movement’ of The Great Transformation is Gemeinschaft, understood dynamically. It examines the two central mechanisms by which, in Polanyi's understanding, Gesellschaft broke down in the mid-twentieth century: the ‘clash between democracy and capitalism’ and the ‘perverse effects’ whereby political intervention in markets impairs profitability and saps the vitality of the market system.     

Speaking for Themselves: Hope for Children Caught in High Conflict Custody and Access Disputes Involving Domestic Violence

The Speaking for Themselves (SFT) project sought to enhance the physical, emotional, and psychological safety of children exposed to domestic violence and high conflict custody and access disputes. Children were provided with both a trauma therapist and a lawyer, in an attempt to ensure their well-being while providing decision-makers with reliable and authentic information about these children’s circumstances. This project was an attempt to balance the “best interests” approach applied in family law decision-making with the value placed on a child’s right to be heard, an approach espoused by children’s rights advocates. This article presents the SFT philosophy, model program, and evaluation results.     

The iron law of democratic socialism: British and Austrian influences on the young Karl Polanyi

Abstract

A central thesis of Karl Polanyi's The great transformation concerns the tensions between capitalism and democracy: the former embodies the principle of inequality, while democracy represents that of equality. This paper explores the intellectual heritage of this thesis, in the ‘functional theory’ of G.D.H. Cole and Otto Bauer and in the writings of Eduard Bernstein. It scrutinizes Polanyi's relationship with Bernstein's ‘evolutionary socialism’ and charts his ‘double movement’ vis-à-vis Marxist philosophy: in the 1910s he reacted sharply against Marxism's deterministic excesses, but he then, in the 1920s, engaged in sympathetic dialogue with Austro-Marxist thinkers. The latter, like Bernstein, disavowed economic determinism and insisted upon the importance and autonomy of ethics. Yet they simultaneously predicted a law-like expansion of democracy from the political to the economic arena. Analysis of this contradiction provides the basis for a concluding discussion that reconsiders the deterministic threads in Polanyi's oeuvre. Whereas for some Polanyi scholars these attest to his residual attraction to Marxism, I argue that matters are more complex. While Polanyi did repudiate the more rigidly deterministic of currents in Marxist philosophy, those to which he was attracted, notably Bernstein's ‘revision’ and Austro-Marxism, incorporated a deterministic fatalism of their own, in respect of democratization. Herein lies a more convincing explanation of Polanyi's incomplete escape from a deterministic philosophy of history, as exemplified in his masterwork, The great transformation.     

The Rule of Law and EU Expansion

The article seeks to further discussion about the European Union's identification of the rule of law as a fundamental principle and pre-requisite for EU membership by prospective member states, despite the lack of a uniform Community-wide understanding of this concept. In this article, three points will be explored. Firstly, it will briefly examine the rule of law principle within the EU, as a contested concept, despite its pre-eminence as a fundamental principle upon which EU membership is based. Because of its contested nature, there exists across the EU, conceptual variations, leading to the problem of an apparent absence of a uniform conception of the rule of law. Secondly, the article will identify some of the main conflicts between the EU making this rule of law a pre-requisite for membership and the lack of a uniform conception for this fundamental principle. Thirdly, the article explores how these conflicts affect the development of legal cultures of prospective member states and what potential problems these conflicts imply. The article focuses on the European Union's lack of a uniform understanding of the rule of law and how this affects prospective member states from Central and Eastern Europe. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.