Civil Legal Aid and Domestic Violence: a Review of the Literature and Promising Directions

This note summarizes extant research on civil legal aid, which includes provision of legal services for indigent and low-income individuals, and its applications for DV and IPV victims, and concludes with suggestions for improving service delivery and research in the field. Results of searches of online databases for peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed articles, reports, analyses, and evaluations of civil legal aid in the United States were analyzed and critically assessed. Civil legal aid is a promising but underfunded and underexplored avenue for responding to and reducing domestic violence (DV), intimate partner violence (IPV), and their devastating effects. Providing civil counsel in divorce, custody, and protective order proceedings can significantly improve outcomes for DV and IPV victims and their children as well as serve as a cost-effective strategy for reducing violence and generating positive social returns.     

Microbiota Composition and Pulmonary Surfactant Protein Expression as Markers of Death by Drowning

Pathological diagnosis of drowning remains a challenge for forensic science, because of a lack of pathognomonic findings. We analyzed microbiota and surfactant protein in the lungs for a novel diagnosis of drowning. All rats were divided into drowning, postmortem submersion, and control groups. The water, lungs, closed organs (kidney and liver), and cardiac blood in rats were assayed by targeting 16S ribosomal RNA of Miseq sequencing. Lung samples were analyzed by immunohistochemical staining for surfactant protein A. The closed organs and cardiac blood of drowned group have a lot of aquatic microbes, which have not been detected in postmortem submersion group. Furthermore, intra‐alveolar granular staining of surfactant protein A (SP‐A) was severely observed in the drowned group than the postmortem submersion and control groups. The findings suggested that the presence of aquatic microbiota in the closed organs and increased expression of SP‐A could be markers for a diagnosis of drowning.     

Adoption among the Qing nobility and its implications for Chinese demographic behavior

The article draws on a source of unusual completeness and accuracy—the genealogical archives of the Qing imperial lineage—to provide an initial quantitative study of son adoption among the Qing nobility during the last imperial dynasty (1644–1911). Adoption was used rather frequently not only for genealogical purposes to continue the ancestral line, but also for economic security. Adoption was also an integral component of the Chinese historical demographic system and therefore varied in frequency according to the level of fertility and mortality. After a discussion of the sources for lineage population history, the article calculates the levels of son adoption over time and highlight the demographic and economic circumstances leading to adoption. It then analyzes the social relationships between biological and adoptive parents as a function of noble status and generational distance, and comments on the role of adoption as a means of social mobility within the lineage population.     

Neighborhood structure differences between homicide victims and non-victims

While there were numerous studies documenting the neighborhood characteristics that led to increased risk of crime victimization, very little was done to compare the neighborhoods of homicide victims to non-victims. The current research used the case-control design to alleviate this gap in the research. A sample of homicide victims and non-victims collected from Prince George's County, Maryland, in 1993, was used to make these comparisons. Significant differences were noted in the macro-level measures of education, unemployment, household income, and percentage of female-headed households in the neighborhoods of victims and non-victims. Individual elements, such as age, race, gender, and arrest were also strongly associated with the risk of homicide victimization. Both macro and micro level variables needed to be included when studying factors that increased the risk of homicide victimization.     

Institutional Regimes for Sustainable Collective Housing Stocks

The influence of public policy, property rights and contracts on the sustainability of residential buildings remains largely unknown. This research will use the analytical framework of the housing institutional regime to study the sustainability over time of the housing stock. We aim to produce an inventory of the housing institutional regime in Switzerland, a comparison with the German and Catalan regimes, and policy suggestions to achieve a better sustainability of the housing stock.