Uniform Rules for Contract Disputes: Putting Activity-Related Jurisdiction on the Agenda

Netherlands International Law Review - This article addresses the need for uniform jurisdiction rules in cross-border contractual disputes and attempts to put it back on the diplomatic agenda. It...     

Evaluation and Social Impact Measurement Amongst Small to Medium Social Enterprises: Process,Purpose and Value

In recent years, the imperative to communicate organisational impacts to a variety of stakeholders has gained increasing importance within all sectors. Despite growing external demands for evaluation and social impact measurement, there has been limited critically informed analysis about the presumed importance of these activities to organisational success and the practical challenges faced by organisations in undertaking such assessment. In this paper, we present the findings from an action research study of five Australian small to medium social enterprises’ practices and use of evaluation and social impact analysis. Our findings have implications for social enterprise operators, policy makers and social investors regarding when, why and at what level these activities contribute to organisational performance and the fulfilment of mission.     

Political Cleavages in Indigenous Representation: The Case of the Norwegian and Swedish Sámediggis

Abstract

Using Lipset and Rokkan’s cleavage theory in an Indigenous context, the article compares political cleavages in internal Sámi politics in Norway and Sweden. The authors discuss the historical legacies of each country’s policies toward the Sámi and subsequent development of party systems before using survey data to analyze cleavages within the Sámi electorates. The analysis shows a prominent cleavage in Sámi politics in Norway regarding the extent of Sámi self-determination, whereas the main cleavage in Sweden can be found in the category-split between reindeer herders and other Sámi created by state policy. Contemporary cleavages in Indigenous politics may, thus, be deeply rooted in nation-building processes.     

Prevalence of alcohol in blood samples from traffic accident cases in Turkey

Alcohol is one of the main causes of traffic accidents worldwide. With a population of 70 million, 12 million vehicles, and 18 million drivers (16% women), Turkey is one of the European countries that has a high incidence of road traffic accidents.In accordance with Turkish laws, subjects were considered to be positive when alcohol blood concentration exceeded 50 mg/100 mL. The objective of the present study was to obtain reliable and comparable data about alcohol use in traffic cases in Turkey. All cases are admitted to the emergency department at Ege University Medical Faculty. The cases from police officers are described as traffic control cases. Alcohol was detected in the blood of about 54.4% of the traffic-related cases during October 2005 to March 2007. It has been observed that, in 17.4% of the traffic accident cases, the blood alcohol level was 50 mg/dL or less, which is the legal limit in Turkey for car drivers. Alcohol prevalence was 57.2% in male cases and 43.6% in female cases. In alcohol-positive cases; the ratios for males were 1.73 times more frequent in traffic-related cases. Prevalence data will help traffic safety professionals to adequately allocate resources and plan future efforts in reducing drinking-and-driving behavior and thereby reduce traffic accidents.     

Study of the correlation between psychiatric and psychological diagnoses in sample offenders

This study deals with the frequency with which expert psychiatrists and psychologists make structural or nosographic diagnoses within the context of expert assessment.Thus, the rates of concordance between psychiatrists and psychologists in both types of diagnoses will be assessed.To do so, the level of inter-observer agreement on diagnoses between 1990 and 2003 was studied retrospectively in France through psychiatric and psychological assessments of 505 male offenders. The assessment of the correlation rates was carried out using the Kappa coefficient.The results show a range of 0.55 to 0.71 in inter-observer (psychiatrists vs psychologists) agreement for structural diagnoses, and 0.51 to 0.89 for nosographic diagnoses.In addition, a marked correlation between psychiatrists and psychologists may be noted regarding abstention in both structural (k = 66) and nosographic (k = 73) diagnoses. In fact, recommendations are made for improvement in the consistency of offender assessment in the psycho-legal French context.     

Analysis of ancient human DNA and primer contamination: one step backward one step forward

The analysis of DNA from archaeological human remains is plagued by a unique set of methodological problems concerning contamination with modern exogenous DNA. Through an original approach, we propose complementary methods to identify all potential sources of contamination and complete guidelines for the validation of ancient human sequences. The study presented was conducted on non-European human samples (Polynesian and Amerindian) which were collected with all precautions during excavation. This permitted us to distinguish without ambiguity authentic and contaminant sequences. The samples' origins and histories were perfectly known, allowing us to trace all potential contamination sources and to determine the efficiency of precautions followed during all steps of the study. The data obtained confirm that precautions taken during sampling effectively prevent contamination. However, we demonstrate that human contamination can also be introduced during genetic analyses even if all precautions are strictly followed. Indeed, numerous human contaminations were detected in template-PCR products and negative controls, resulting in a striking diversity of contaminant mitochondrial DNA sequences. We argue that this contamination partly derives from the primers. To our knowledge, no previous experiment has been performed to investigate primers as a possible source of human contamination despite the fact that this specific type of contamination poses a real problem in terms of validating ancient human DNA studies. Finally, we confirm that the detection of contaminants in negative controls is clearly related to the number of PCR cycles used. This study enhances our understanding of contamination processes and confirms that, in reality, an absolutely contamination-free situation cannot be obtained. As a consequence, we propose improvements to the guidelines usually followed in the field in order to take the highly probable contamination of PCR reagents, including primers, into account.     

The Goods Transport Network’s Vulnerability to Crime: Opportunities and Control Weaknesses

This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study into the goods transport sector and its vulnerability to crime. Based on 33 interviews with professionals and law enforcement agents, four interviews with convicted criminals, 26 case files from the Belgian Federal Police and the customs services and 9 informal conversations with law enforcement agency personnel, academics and professionals, the paper analyses what structures, mechanisms, conditions and interdependencies make the goods transport network susceptible to criminal activity. It is suggested that vulnerability to crime is twofold, consisting of opportunities based on weak sector conditions and weak regulation. It will be demonstrated that small and medium enterprises present particular opportunities for criminal exploitation due to their weaker financial position and the lack of crime prevention measures in place. The study found no criminal ‘front’ structures that are transport businesses alone, because of the high start-up costs within the industry; rather, non-transport companies are exploited to connect to the legal transport sector. Finally, the paper identifies key weaknesses in the sector, asking whether there should be due diligence or regulatory duties for certain roles in the supply chain like shipping agents.     

Examining the Influence of Family Environments on Youth Violence: A Comparison of Mexican,Puerto Rican,Cuban, Non-Latino Black,and Non-Latino White Adolescents

Existing research rarely considers important ethnic subgroup variations in violent behaviors among Latino youth. Thus, their risk for severe violent behaviors is not well understood in light of the immense ethnic and generational diversity of the Latino population in the United States. Grounded in social control theory and cultural analyses of familism, we examine differences in the risk for severe youth violence, as well its associations with family cohesion, parental engagement, adolescent autonomy, household composition, and immigrant generation among Mexican (n = 1,594), Puerto Rican (n = 586), Cuban (n = 488), and non-Latino Black (n = 4,053), and White (n = 9,921) adolescents with data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Results indicate a gradient of risk; White youth had the lowest risk for severe violence and Puerto Rican youth had the highest risk compared to all other racial/ethnic subgroups. Within-group analysis indicates that family factors are not universally protective or risk-inducing. While family cohesion decreased the risk of severe violence among all groups, parental engagement was associated with increased risk among Blacks and Whites, and adolescent autonomy was associated with increased risk among Puerto Ricans and Cubans. In addition, Cuban and White adolescents who lived in single parent households or who did not live with their parents, had higher risk for severe violent behaviors than their counterparts who lived in two parent households. Among Latinos, the association of immigrant generation was in opposite directions among Mexicans and Cubans. We conclude that family and immigration factors differentially influence risk for violence among Latino subgroups and highlight the significance of examining subgroup differences and developing intervention strategies that are tailored to the needs of each ethnic subgroup.