Do Metropolitan Special Districts Reinforce Sociospatial Inequalities? A Study of Sewerage and Technical Education in Milwaukee County

Public choice scholars state that federal systems are more responsiveand efficient than unified ones. In addition, through overlappingunits, federal systems provide a measure of interjurisdiclionalequity. This research addresses the equity claim and extendsthe testing of it beyond previously-examined federal, state,and county role! to the unexamined role of metropolitan districtsthat overlap cities and suburbs. Services provided by the MetropolitanMilwaukee Sewerage Qistricl and the Milwaukee Area TechnicalCollege are found to be disparity-reducing between the Cityof Milwaukee and its suburbs.     

Contextualizing depression and physical functioning in battered women: adding vulnerability and resources to the analysis

This investigation examined the relationships between physical, psychological, and sexual abuse along with vulnerability appraisals, positive and negative social relations, and socioeconomic resources on battered women's depression symptomatology and physical functioning. Women were recruited following an incident of partner violence that resulted in a police-report or the filing of a protection order. Participants were surveyed using a standardized questionnaire. Bivariate correlations and multiple regressions were used to examine the relationships between predictors as well as the cumulative and unique contributions of each variable set in explaining depression and physical functioning. Findings indicate that vulnerability appraisals, social relations, and socioeconomic resources significantly explain women's depression and physical functioning over and above the unique effect of specific types of partner violence. Given that women's physical and mental health are important aspects of assisting women with safety planning and violence cessation strategies, implications for assessment and interventions for battered women are discussed.     

Tripping over thresholds: a reflection on legal andragogy

This lecture was delivered as the 2015 Annual Lord Upjohn Association of Law Teachers lecture. It explored the nature of law as a learned discipline, using the process of leading the review group responsible for writing the 2015 QAA Law Subject Benchmark Statement, but within a broader framework of threshold concepts. It considered how the process of learning the law can irreversibly transform the learner, and included a examination of liminal spaces (troublesome places in learning) in law and the teacher’s role in promoting the students’ transformation and in facilitating (nudging) their successful crossing of the legal learning threshold and meeting a learning outcome. The lecture set legal learning primarily in the undergraduate context in England and Wales, but it also included references to graduateness (in law and more widely) and commented on the place of an undergraduate law degree in the legal regulatory landscape.     

The Institution of a Standardized Investigation Protocol for Sudden Infant Death in the Eastern Metropole,Cape Town,South Africa,,

The rate for the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in Cape Town, South Africa, is estimated to be among the highest in the world (3.41/1000 live births). In several of these areas, including those of extreme poverty, only sporadic, nonstandardized infant autopsy, and death scene investigation (DSI) occurred. In this report, we detail a feasibility project comprising 18 autopsied infants with sudden and unexpected death whose causes of death were adjudicated according to the 1991 NICHD definitions (SIDS, n = 7; known cause of death, n = 7; and unclassified, n = 4). We instituted a standardized autopsy and infant DSI through a collaborative effort of local forensic pathology officers and clinical providers. The high standard of forensic investigation met international standards, identified preventable disease, and allowed for incorporation of research. We conclude that an effective infant autopsy and DSI protocol can be established in areas with both high sudden unexpected infant death, and elsewhere. (SUID)/SIDS risk and infrastructure challenges.     

Balancing Between Human Rights Assumptions and Actual Fundamental Human Rights Safeguards in Building an Area of Freedom,Security and Justice: a Cosmopolitan Perspective

Rhetoric often claims that the European Union (EU), in issues related to Justice and Home Affairs, has to be united in its diversity. As such, the asylum and judicial systems of the Member States are initially perceived as equally good. By applying the cosmopolitan theory on two fields of interstate cooperation, asylum and judicial cooperation in criminal matters, the article explores how cosmopolitan the EU is in these fields, with a specific focus on material detention conditions. For cosmopolitanism to work, it has to be grounded in commonly shared norms, which enable the EU to regulate its dealings with the otherness of the Member States. The crucial role of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union in placing boundaries on the equal goodness of the Member States’ asylum and judicial systems is analysed. This judicial reality in which cosmopolitan norms are established and protected is discussed, together with the political realities dominating policy debates in order to build an Area of Freedom, Security and Justice.