Access to state-held information

China-EU Law Journal - On the basis of different cases of the ECHR regarding freedom of information and its scope of protection; this article analyses the individual right for access to state-held...     

Unusual Death of a Transvestite: Identification of Crime Weapon and Survival Time*

Abstract: The authors report a case of a transvestite found murdered near his automobile with several lacerated contused wounds to the face and cranial fractures. Autopsy revealed that the cause of death was a serious head trauma with subdural and subarachnoidal hemorrhages. In order to identify the crime weapon, a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used which revealed metallic residue on the skin fragments with the same molecular composition of the car paint. As for survival time, antibody anti‐beta‐amyloid precursor protein (APP) was applied to brain fragments and brainstem tissue, allowing for axonal varicosities (which form 2 to 3 h following death) to be observed under the optic microscope. So, by using SEM we understood that the fatal cranial‐encephalic lesions were the result of the victim’s head being repeatedly struck against the car door while anti‐betaAPP led to the understanding that the time elapsed between injury and death was less than 2 to 3 h.     

The impact of race on perceptions of criminal injustice

Based on a stratified sample of 239 residents of Cincinnati, Ohio, the present study explored whether African Americans and Whites differ in their perceptions of racial injustice in the criminal justice system. The data revealed a cleavage in the extent to which the races believed that Black citizens would be differentially stopped by the police, given a speeding ticket, jailed, and sentenced to death. The effect of race remained strong even when controls were introduced for sociodemographic characteristics, experience with the criminal justice system, experience with crime, neighborhood disorder, and political and crime related ideology. Perceptions of injustice, moreover, were strongest among the least affluent African Americans. The possibility that the racial divide in perceived criminal injustice both reflects and contributes to a larger racial chasm in how Black and White citizens understand and experience their lives in American society is explored.     

The Attitudes Towards Dating Violence Scales: Development and Initial Validation

This study describes the development and validation of three Attitudes Towards Male Dating Violence (AMDV) Scales and three Attitudes Towards Female Dating Violence (AFDV) Scales. These scales measure attitudes toward use of psychological, physical, and sexual dating violence, respectively, by boys and by girls. Eight hundred twenty-three students from grades 7, 9, and 11 participated in the validation study. All six scales have good internal consistencies. As predicted, students were more accepting of girls' use of violence than of boys' use of violence, and boys were more accepting of violence than were girls. The six scales were positively correlated with traditional attitudes toward gender roles and with each other, providing evidence for their construct validity. Higher scores on the AMDV Scales were related to boys' past use of violence in dating relationships and to their having aggressive friends, supporting their criterion-related validity. Higher scores on the AFDV Scales were associated with girls' past use of dating violence but not with their having aggressive friends, providing partial support for their criterion-related validity. Singly or in combination, the Attitudes Towards Dating Violence Scales can be used to increase our understanding of the development and maintenance of violence-supportive attitudes in adolescents of all ages.     

Exports,Outward FDI and Technology Upgrading: Firm Level Evidence from India

This paper evaluates the individual and combined effects of exporting and outward foreign direct investments (OFDI) on firms’ technology investments at home using firm-level data from the pharmaceutical industry in India. The analysis accounts for unobserved firm heterogeneity and the endogeneity of the choice of foreign market participation, and shows that exporting has been an important channel through which Indian multinational expansion has encouraged greater domestic technological activity. However, all else constant, higher levels of OFDI have rather acted as substitutes for such technological efforts.     

How limited representativeness weakens throughput legitimacy in the EU: The example of interest groups

Are the interest groups (IGs) that constitute European umbrella organizations capable of cooperating in a way that contributes to the throughput legitimacy of the EU? To answer this question, the representativeness of supranational actors is developed as the central criteria of throughput legitimacy, thereby reconfiguring throughput legitimacy as a two‐level concept. Representativeness is operationalized as consisting of regular contacts between the constituent and the umbrella organization as well as the satisfaction of the former with the representation by the latter. The article looks empirically at agricultural, environmental and anti‐poverty groups. Whereas there are different degrees of contact depending on the policy area, the satisfaction with the representation by the umbrella is compromised for all three IGs. This is closely linked to lowest common denominator policies which reduce the representativeness of the umbrellas and therefore the throughput legitimacy of the EU, a problem that also exists for other actors of supranational governance.     

Network news coverage of terrorism: The early years

Abstract

The electronic media influence public opinion by defining which national and international issues become significant, and shape public debates by the television images conveyed to the American audience. Based upon the Vanderbilt Television News Archive, this study examines the image projected in reporting of terrorist activities by the three major national networks, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), and the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). The reality presented by the media is explored by comparing variables such as story emphasis and depiction, frequency, length of coverage, and location in the newscasts.