Sexual violence perpetrated against women in India: the role of forensic evidence

ABSTRACT

In response to the upsurge in acts of sexual violence against women in India, Parliament passed the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act of 2013, amending existing statutes and rules of evidence relating to crimes of sexual violence and the practices of forensic professionals in the country. While a step in the right direction, this law paid little attention to forensic evidence in sexual violence cases, which can provide a more objective, scientific account of events, aid in the reconstruction of crimes, and help strengthen cases against perpetrators. The objectives of this article are twofold: to raise awareness for the need for a more prominent role of forensic evidence in sexual violence cases and to recommend ways to establish uniform and comprehensive policies and procedures on the collection and preservation of forensic evidence in order to ensure that cases of sexual violence against women are heard in Indian courts.     

行政问责制的法制构建

行政问责制是政府官员向社会公众和民意机关承担政治责任的一种政治法律制度。我国现行的行政问责制存在问责事由狭窄、对象不清、主体越位与缺位并存,责任不明、落实不力和程序不规范等问题。为此,我们需要明确行政问责制的要素构造与运行机制,加强人大的问责职能,完善政府绩效评估、行政公开、新闻监督等配套制度,同时要壮大第三部门,强化社会监督。     

Global Environment Threats and a Divided Northern Community

The EU, Japan, and the US now share many environmental norms, laws, and institutions and cooperate on international environmental matters through numerous bilateral and multilateral channels. They disagree, however, on how to deal with some of the most serious issues facing the global environment and the quality of human life including wide-scale biodiversity loss, climate change, the use of genetically modified (GM) organisms; the trans-boundary movement of hazardous wastes, and chemical safety. As these are all issues that require the involvement of developing countries if global environmental protection efforts are to be effective, the discord that exists among the Northern states is of tremendous significance. The US has pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol arguing that the treaty is poorly designed and would be detrimental to the US economy. Japan and the EU have had to try to find a way to bring the treaty into force without the participation of the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases and to convince participating countries to meet their targets even though this may put them at a competitive disadvantage. In the case of biodiversity loss, although the US initiated international negotiations on biodiversity preservation, it has refused to join the EU and Japan in ratifying the Convention on Biological Diversity. There are also differences between the US, on the one side, and Japan and the EU on the other, regarding the use of GM organisms. This article analyses the reasons for the differences that have emerged among northern states in their international environmental policy positions and what the implications of this northern policy divide are for the effectiveness and legitimacy of international environmental protection efforts.     

我国基因专利保护范围界定的思考

基因专利保护范围边界的确定是当前生物科技专利领域中争论的焦点之一。专利保护范围决定着专利垄断权的实际价值，基因专利保护范围直接影响着生物技术产业的发展。主要梳理美国、德国、瑞士和日本在基因专利保护范围上的发展变迁趋势，同时初步探讨对我国基因专利保护范围界定方面给予的启示。     

Preventing juvenile sexual offending through parental monitoring: a comparison study of youth’s experiences of supervision

ABSTRACT

The parental monitoring literature has long observed a link between parental monitoring and juvenile antisocial behaviour. This study extends this line of research to juveniles who commit sexual abuse. The present study investigates whether juvenile reports of parental monitoring differ between juvenile sexual offenders (n?=?338), juvenile delinquents (n?=?346), and non-incarcerated juvenile controls (n?=?256). Results indicate that both incarcerated groups reported significantly less parental knowledge compared to juvenile controls. Further, both juvenile sexual offenders and juvenile controls reported significantly more parental control compared to juvenile delinquents. With regard to parental solicitation, the results were mixed for sexual offenders. They reported high levels of solicitation for some items (e.g. what the youth was doing, who they were with), and lower levels for other items (e.g. where the youth was, whether an adult would be present). When repeating these analyses with the exclusion of non-parent caregivers, a similar pattern of results emerged; however, item-level analyses revealed that parents of juvenile delinquents reported certain types of solicitation and control behaviours more frequently (e.g. asked where the youth was going, made sure the rules were followed) compared to findings from the main sample. Potential explanations for these findings as well as practical implications for prevention are discussed.     

Arts Marketing Performance: An Artistic-Mission-Led Approach to Evaluation

Marketing in the arts sector has evolved during the past decades from a functional tool to a business philosophy. At the same time, a relational view of art as experience has emerged in contemporary arts philosophy, highlighting the role of arts consumers in the creation and reception of arts. As a consequence, arts consumers have gained a central position within the artistic mission of arts organizations, posing new challenges to the role of arts marketing both as a practice and as an academic discipline. Against this background, financial figures and audience numbers are insufficient indicators of the contribution that arts marketing makes to the functioning of arts organizations. This article suggests evaluating the performance of arts marketing based on the contribution made to the achievement of the arts organization's artistic mission and proposes a model based on Kaplan and Norton's Balanced Scorecard to guide the artistic-mission-led evaluation of arts marketing performance. By paying attention to the new strategic role of arts marketing within the emerging relational view of the arts and by integrating recent literature on performance management in nonprofit organizations, we make a theoretical contribution to the body of knowledge on arts marketing performance evaluation.     

Enhancing Education and Career Pathways Through Peer and Near-Peer Social Capital

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Social capital strengthens emerging adults’ ability to reach life goals, but little is known about how peers and near-peers (slightly older and/or more...