Competing Climate Change Responses: Reflections on EU Unilateral Regulation of International Transport Emissions in Light of Multilateral Developments

Netherlands International Law Review - In 2016, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and International Maritime Organization (IMO) made important strides towards the regulation of...     

Legal protection of the genetic heritage in Brazil (comments on the new "Biosafety Law" of March 24, 2005)]

The purpose of the current article is to outline and comment the most important aspects of the regulation of Brazil's criminal legislation about the protection of the human genome, which establishes crimes related to genetic manipulation and to the dissemination of transgenics in the environment. It also refers to the problems related to the application of the old legal text (Law 8.974/1995), which punished conducts that stayed without the enough development. These gaps complicated so much the application of those rules that the Brazilian Parliament has recently proposed the complete modification of the present legislation by a new Biosecurity Law (Law 11.105/2005). This law for the first time authorizes research with human embrionyc stem cells in Brazil, trying thus to solve in this way the problem of cryoconserved human embryos produced by in vitro fertilization programmes. The new law is analyzed here from a legal and ethical view point.     

The distribution of police use of force across patrol and specialty units: a case study in BWC impact

Journal of Experimental Criminology - To examine differences in use of force by police patrol and specialized units, and the impact of body-worn cameras (BWCs) on use of force in these groups. We...     

Intersections,Immigration, and Partner Violence: A View From a New Gateway—Baltimore,Maryland

This article reports on the results of exploratory surveys with immigrant women regarding their observations of intimate partner violence and criminal justice practices in their communities in the emerging immigrant gateway of Baltimore, Maryland. Using an intersectional/interlocking theoretical framework, it asks how nativity interacts with other social locations in the experiences of partner violence through surveys of women representing 5 language groups. The study found high levels of awareness of the problem of partner violence in immigrant communities and strong awareness of many U.S. criminal justice approaches to the problem. Although the women preferred informal sources of support in a situation of abuse, they strongly supported government intervention. We found low levels of awareness of the Violence Against Women Act as well as little support for the higher levels of prosecution for batterers, even though arrest was sometimes approved. The article calls for sensitive policies and practices that take into account the particular vulnerabilities of the foreign-born, especially in localities where national diversity is relatively novel.     

College programs in prison and upon reentry for men and women: a literature review

People in prison participating in college education are least likely to recidivate and most likely to be employed after incarceration. Almost no research exists on the collateral – negative and often unanticipated – consequences of a criminal conviction on access to college upon community re-entry. We review these few studies, the existing research on college in prison – with special attention to women’s needs; some new ‘hybrid’ programs with 2 years of college in prison plus 2 years in the community; and the rare studies that interview people applying to college upon re-entry. Their struggles can be overwhelming and require more research and activism.     

Psychometric Proprieties and Construct Validity of the Brother-Sister Questionnaire in a Sample of Portuguese Adolescents

The Brother-Sister Questionnaire (BSQ; Graham-Bermann and Cutler 1994) is an instrument designed to measure qualities of sibling relationships. Aim: In the present study the main objective was to examine the psychometric properties and validity construct of BSQ - Portuguese version. Data were collected among 197 adolescents. The Cronbach’s alpha of the four domains ranged from .58 to .84. The psychometric characteristics of BSQ Portuguese version were found to be adequate. The results confirm the multi-dimensional model composed of four factors proposed by the authors of this instrument, as well as their suitability to assess quality of Portuguese sibling relationships. The BSQ offers a reliable and valid measure to be used within Portuguese population.     

Dyadic Types of Sibling Sexual Coercion

Sibling sexual abuse seems to be the most prevalent form of sexual abuse in the family context. This study used the Sexual Coercion Scale of the Revised Conflict Tactics Scales – Sibling Version (Straus et al. 1995) to measure the extent of sibling sexual coercion in a sample of 590 Portuguese university students. Prevalence: 11% of male students and 5% of female students had sexually coerced a sibling in the year when the participant was about 13 years old or in another year. Chronicity: When there was sexual coercion in a sibling relationship, it was perpetrated an average of 22.4 (mean) times by males and 9.1 times by females. Dyadic Concordance Types (DCT’s) revealed that in 26% there was only one perpetrator who was Male-Only, in 19% the perpetrator was Female-Only and more than half (55%) Both coerced. From the perspective of female respondents, in 50% of the cases the perpetrator was a Male-Only, in 31% Female-Only and in 19% Both coerced. Conclusions: Sexual coercion of siblings is probably more frequent than generally realized. Males had higher rates of perpetration, but the percentage of females was substantial. These results suggest a need to expand research to understand the etiology of sibling sexual coercion by females as well as males, understand causes, risk factors and to expand efforts to reduce sexual coercion in sibling relationships.     

Nucleotide variability of HV-I in Afro-descendents populations of the Brazilian Amazon Region

The analysis of genetic variation in the nucleotide sequences of mitochondrial DNA, provides unique information about the population diversity and human identification. In this study, the mitochondrial DNA sequences of the first hypervariable region (HV-I) were analyzed in 243 unrelated individuals of seven Afro-descendents populations of the Amazon Region. Sequence polymorphisms were detected using PCR and direct sequencing analysis. A total of 133 different haplotypes were found determined by 97 variable nucleotides. Each one of the three more frequent haplotypes was shared by 9 samples and 91 sequences were unique. The genetic diversity was estimated to 0.9898+/-0.0016 and the probability of two random individuals showed identical mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotypes were 1.2%.     

Analysis of body fluid mixtures by mtDNA sequencing: An inter-laboratory study of the GEP-ISFG working group

The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) working group of the GEP-ISFG (Spanish and Portuguese Group of the International Society for Forensic Genetics) carried out an inter-laboratory exercise consisting of the analysis of mtDNA sequencing patterns in mixed stains (saliva/semen and blood/semen). Mixtures were prepared with saliva or blood from a female donor and three different semen dilutions (pure, 1:10 and 1:20) in order to simulate forensic casework. All labs extracted the DNA by preferential lysis and amplified and sequenced the first mtDNA hypervariable region (HVS-I). Autosomal and Y-STR markers were also analysed in order to compare nuclear and mitochondrial results from the same DNA extracts. A mixed stain prepared using semen from a vasectomized individual was also analysed. The results were reasonably consistent among labs for the first fractions but not for the second ones, for which some laboratories reported contamination problems. In the first fractions, both the female and male haplotypes were generally detected in those samples prepared with undiluted semen. In contrast, most of the mixtures prepared with diluted semen only yielded the female haplotype, suggesting that the mtDNA copy number per cell is smaller in semen than in saliva or blood. Although the detection level of the male component decreased in accordance with the degree of semen dilution, it was found that the loss of signal was not consistently uniform throughout each electropherogram. Moreover, differences between mixtures prepared from different donors and different body fluids were also observed. We conclude that the particular characteristics of each mixed stain can deeply influence the interpretation of the mtDNA evidence in forensic mixtures (leading in some cases to false exclusions). In this sense, the implementation of preliminary tests with the aim of identifying the fluids involved in the mixture is an essential tool. In addition, in order to prevent incorrect conclusions in the interpretation of electropherograms we strongly recommend: (i) the use of additional sequencing primers to confirm the sequencing results and (ii) interpreting the results to the light of the phylogenetic perspective.