The right to counsel in juvenile court

Research Summary The U.S. Supreme Court in In re Gault granted delinquents the right to counsel in juvenile courts. Decades after Gault, efforts to provide adequate defense representation in juvenile courts have failed in most states. Moreover, juvenile justice administration varies with structural context and produces justice-by-geography. In 1995, Minnesota enacted juvenile law reforms, which include mandatory appointment of counsel. This pre- and post-reform legal impact study compares how juvenile courts processed youths before and after the statutory changes. We assess how legal changes affected the delivery of defense services and how implementation varied with urban, suburban, and rural context. Policy Implications We report inconsistent judicial compliance with the mandate to appoint counsel. Despite unambiguous legislative intent, rates of representation improved for only one category of offenders. However, we find a positive reduction in justice by geography, especially in rural courts. Given judicial resistance to procedural reforms, states must find additional strategies to provide counsel in juvenile courts.     

Politics and the Public in Rawls' Political Liberalism

This paper is a critical discussion of a number of related themes in John Rawls' Political Liberalism. First, it considers whether Rawls' recent statement of his position proceeds from an adequate methodology for political theory. In particular, it questions whether Rawls has succeeded in accommodating both universalist, analytic and particularist, interpretive aspects of the political theoretical enterprise. Second, it engages in critical analysis of the conceptions of the political and the public which lie at the core of Rawls' theory. In this part of the paper, an important though not exclusive focus will be certain questions raised by Susan Moller Okin and other feminist critics of Rawls about the internal consistency of his conception of justice. It is argued that Political Liberalism neither addresses these questions explicitly nor, contrary to Okin's view, provides implicit conceptual tools which could allow a sympathetic interpreter of Rawls to do so. The direction of the argument will suggest certain preconditions for the development of a more substantively and methodologically adequate approach to political theory.     

When Is It Enough for Me to Leave?:Black and Hispanic Women’s Response to Violent Relationships

Based upon a subsample from the National Violence Against Women Survey (NVAWS) this article examines the role of socioeconomic status, relationship investment and psychological abuse in Black and Hispanic women’s decisions to leave or stay in violent relationships. Racial and ethnic differences and similarities were found in the factors related to staying or leaving violent relationships. Black women stayed in violent relationships at a slightly higher rate than Hispanic women. Marital status, presence of other adults in the household, and psychological abuse influenced Black women’s staying/leaving decision. Household income and psychological abuse were factors in whether Hispanic women remained in or exited violent relationships. Recommendations for possible interventions are discussed.     

Companions on a Serendipitous Journey

This article is a contribution to the occasional series dealing with major books that have influenced the authors. Previous contributors include Stewart Macaulay, John Griffith, William Twining, Carol Harlow, Geoffrey Bindman, Harry Arthurs, André‐Jean Arnaud, Alan Hunt, Michael Adler, Lawrence O. Gostin, John P. Heinz, Roger Brownsword, and Roger Cotterrell.     

Effect of ethanol on cardiac single sodium channel gating

Alcohol in modest and higher doses has the potential to induce cardiac arrhythmias. The most famous alcohol-related arrhythmia is the "holiday heart syndrome". Furthermore, there is a clear association between excessive alcohol consumption and the risk of sudden cardiac death. However, the acute effects of ethanol on arrhythmia induction are not well understood. The effect of ethanol on single cardiac sodium channels has not been studied yet. To elucidate the effect of ethanol on human cardiac sodium channels we performed a patch clamp study in HEK-293 cells overexpressing the human cardiac sodium channel. We used HEK-293 cells overexpressing the human cardiac sodium channel (Na(1.5)). Single channel gating was investigated by the cell-attached patch clamp technique. Sodium channel currents were elicited by depolarizing pulses from -120 to -20mV for a duration of 150ms. Single channel availability, open probability and peak average current were assessed baseline and after addition of ethanol in increasing concentrations (0.50 per thousand (10.9mM), 1.00 per thousand (21.7mM), 2.00 per thousand (43.5mM) and 4.00 per thousand (87.0mM)). We found a concentration-dependent reduction of open probability which was statistically significant at 2.00 per thousand ethanol (66.5+/-14% of control). At higher concentrations (4.00 per thousand) also availability decreased to 66.5+/-11.0% of control. This resulted in a significant decrease of peak average current at 2.00 per thousand and at 4.00 per thousand ethanol (61.8+/-7.4 and 53.0+/-8.2% of control). For the first time the present study demonstrates acute inhibitory effects of ethanol on single cardiac sodium channel gating and provides one potential mechanism for the well known clinical observation that ethanol triggers supraventricular and ventricular arrhythmias.