CHOOSE TO HUG,NOT HIT*

This article discusses reasonable chastisement of children as a defense by parents to assault charges. It suggests that its continued retention contravenes the rights of children and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It compares developments in various countries, such as the Scandinavian countries and New Zealand, where the defense has been abolished, as compared with the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, where it has been retained. It suggests that its continued retention encourages bullying and violence in schools and in later adult life.     

Conjunctive use of quantitative and qualitative X-ray diffraction analysis of soils and rocks for forensic analysis

This paper describes a repeatability test, comparing conventional X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses with the technique of quantitative X-ray diffraction (QXRD) as a determinant of mineral abundance. The conjunctive use of both methods allows specific mineral abundances to be matched between scene of crime (SOC) and suspects where soil or substrate mineralogy is similar. In our test, samples from potential SOC locations were taken from car tyre tracks. A car was driven to one location by an independent person and the car submitted for sampling. The tyre-tread sample showed potential correlation to two locations: one correct and the other incorrect. QXRD showed the mineral proportions of the tyre-tread sample matched only the correct location. However, QXRD did fail to discriminate two locations that XRD did show to be different. Both methods utilise the same sample and X-ray diffractogram, suggesting that their conjunctive use, preceded by standard Earth material forensic study, is recommended.     

Left on the shelf: Explaining the failure of public inquiry recommendations

Public inquiries remain the pre-eminent mechanism for lesson-learning after high-profile failures. However, a regular complaint is that their recommendations get ‘shelved’. In political science, the most common explanation for this lack of implementation tells us that elites mobilize bias in order to undermine inquiry lesson-learning. This article tests this thesis via an international comparison of inquiries in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK. A series of alternative explanations for shelving emerge, which tell us that inquiry recommendations do not get implemented when: they do not respect the realities of policy transfer; they are triaged into policy refinement mechanisms; and they arrive at the ‘street level’ without consideration of local delivery capacities. These explanations tell us that the mobilization of bias thesis needs to be reworked in relation to public inquiries so that it better recognizes the complex reality of public policy in the modern state.     

Geophysics and the search of freshwater bodies: A review

Geophysics may assist scent dogs and divers in the search of water bodies for human and animal remains, contraband, weapons and explosives by surveying large areas rapidly and identifying targets or environmental hazards. The most commonly applied methods are described and evaluated for forensic searches. Seismic reflection or refraction and CHIRPS are useful for deep, open water bodies and identifying large targets, yet limited in streams and ponds. The use of ground penetrating radar (GPR) on water (WPR) is of limited use in deep waters (over 20 m) but is advantageous in the search for non-metallic targets in small ditches and ponds. Large metal or metal-bearing targets can be successfully imaged in deep waters by using towfish magnetometers: in shallow waters such a towfish cannot be used, so a non-metalliferous boat can carry a terrestrial magnetometer. Each device has its uses, depending on the target and location: unknown target make-up (e.g. a homicide victim with or without a metal object) may be best located using a range of methods (the multi-proxy approach), depending on water depth. Geophysics may not definitively find the target, but can provide areas for elimination and detailed search by dogs and divers, saving time and effort.     

Quantitative Leverage Through Qualitative Knowledge: Augmenting the Statistical Analysis of Complex Causes

Social scientific theories frequently posit that multiple causalmechanisms may produce the same outcome. Unfortunately, it isnot always possible to observe which mechanism was responsible.For example, IMF scholars conjecture that nations enter IMFagreements both out of economic need and for discretionary domesticpolitical reasons. Typically, though, all we observe is thefact of agreement, not its cause. Partial observability probitmodels (Poirier 1980, Journal of Econometrics 12:209–217; Braumoeller2003, Political Analysis 11:209–233) provide one methodfor the statistical analysis of such phenomena. Unfortunately,they are often plagued by identification and labeling difficulties.Sometimes, however, qualitative studies of particular casesenlighten us about causes when quantitative studies cannot.We propose exploiting this information to lend additional structureto the partial observability approach. Monte Carlo simulationreveals that by anchoring "discernible" causes for a handfulof cases about which we possess qualitative information, weobtain greater efficiency. More important, our method provesreliable at recovering unbiased parameter estimates when thepartial observability model fails. The paper concludes withan analysis of the determinants of IMF agreements.

A member shall be entitled to purchase the currencies of othermembers from the Fund ...[provided] the member represents thatit has a need to make the purchase because of its balance ofpayments or its reserve position or developments in its reserves. —InternationalMonetary Fund Articles of Agreement [IMF] negotiations sometimesenable government leaders to do what they privately wish todo, but are powerless to do domestically. —Robert Putnam(1988, p. 457)

     

The use of ‘privileges’ in political discourse in the early modern Low Countries

This article examines why the privileges occupied such a prominent place in Dutch rebel propaganda from the 1560s. It then considers whether these continued to be so highly regarded after the United Provinces gave up the search for a princely overlord to succeed Philip II in the late 1580s. It concludes by suggesting that with the emergence of provincial sovereignty, the privileges gradually lost their significance as one of the bastions of Dutch freedom.