The market of human experimentation

How should experiments on humans be regulated and controlled? Is it possible to create an equilibrium between the optimal protection of patients’ rights and all the other interests involved? This paper analyzes the problem from a Law and Economics point of view and tries to develop a theoretical model that would provide a way to achieve that equilibrium, both in terms of effectiveness and efficiency, a model in which the interaction between different parties can lead to a market where information is exchanged for innovation. This paper is based on work that has been done up to now by other sciences, like medicine and bioethics, treating the issue with an alternative approach in order to propose an oversight system able to give an answer to this unsolved problem. This work is mainly aimed at defining the rules of the market in Europe, including its actors and their interactions using both a normative and a positive approach. Both the behavior of rational people and that of bounded ones are analyzed, as well as the strategies that can be applied against the latter by stronger parties. Finally, the public stakeholder’s role in preventing this from happening is analyzed.     

The Iron Fist in the Latex Glove: The Intersection of Public Health and Criminal Justice

The intersection of public health and criminal justice involves reducing negative human outcomes, disease and crime, respectively. In this article, we examine the public health approach in detail and how it relates to criminal justice research and practice and how each discipline achieves legitimacy. We demonstrate the public duties of the criminal justice system and how it already performs some public health duties and how we can better integrate public health approaches at the academic, bureaucratic, and street levels.     

The Role of Fantasy in a Serial Sexual Offender: A Brief Review of the Literature and a Case Report

Abstract: Extensive research has attempted to elucidate the role of fantasy in sexual offending. In this paper, the authors summarize the main results of the literature, especially the contents, themes, dynamics, etiopathogenesis, and potential functions of fantasy in sexual offending. Further, the authors analyze the case of a serial sexual offender who assaulted 39 women. The forensic‐psychiatric assessment revealed that his fantasies of forced sex, sexual coercion, and dominance, which were linked to narcissistic personality organization and functioning, were the primary drive mechanism in his crimes, because he imagined himself in the role of the aggressor, identified with the power associated with the role of perpetrator, and was sexually aroused by such images of omnipotent control of the victim. In conclusions, the authors suggest that fantasies of sexual aggression, coercion, and dominance of women may stimulate grandiosity and omnipotence and, in a minority of cases, may lead to sexual offending.     

Ear identification: a pilot study

Although several papers have recently been devoted to establishing the validity of identification using the ear, this part of the human body still remains underexploited in forensic science. The perfect overlap of two images of the same ear is not really possible, but photographs of the ears as a reliable means of inferring the identity of an individual are poorly treated in the literature. In this study, we illustrate a simple, reproducible method, which divides the photograph of an ear into four parts-helix, antihelix, concha, and lobe-by means of a suitable grid of four straight lines. Although the division does not follow exact anatomical features, their edges do join anatomical points which are more easily identifiable. Measurement of certain areas of these parts can be combined to produce a code allowing personal identification. This method produces false-positive identifications of <0.2%. Last, the repeatability and reproducibility aspects of the method are tested.     

Civil Society and the Responsibility to Protect

While a vast and growing literature on various aspects of responsibility to protect (R2P) exists, little attention has yet been given to the role played by civil society in the development and implementation of this doctrine. This paper aims to fill this gap. After providing a typology of civil society organisations—categorising this amorphous sphere into advocacy, operational and indigenous groups—this paper examines the contribution of civil society to the discussion surrounding the development of R2P. In particular, civil society has debated three main issues: the pros and cons of building an international coalition to promote R2P, the possibility that great powers could hijack the doctrine and the opportunity of using force during R2P implementation. As a whole, this paper argues that not only advocacy, operational and indigenous civil society organisations hold different ideas about R2P and have different strategies for its implementation but, more importantly, their approaches, strategies and actions may end up undercutting one another. This argument is explored in the case of Darfur—the first crisis many analysts have described as an R2P situation.     

Child-to-Parent Violence in Adolescents: The Perspectives of the Parents,Children, and Professionals in a Sample of Spanish Focus Group Participants

This study explored the characteristics of child-to-parent violence (CPV) in Spain based on the narrations of adolescents who perpetrate this kind of violence, their parents, and the professionals who work in this area. A qualitative design was used. Focus groups were asked about the risk factors associated with CPV, such as exposure to family violence, discipline, and psychological characteristics of the adolescents. Interviews were videotaped, transcribed, and reviewed independently by each investigator to identify and group distinct comments into categories with specific themes. Results suggest that CPV is mainly linked to exposure to marital conflict and family violence, permissive discipline, emotional disengagement in the father-child relationship, and symptoms of emotional stress and substance consumption in the children. Lastly, acts of CPV seem to be an attempt by the children to gain power in the context of family relations in which the parents display their incapacity to establish control. As several family and personal characteristics appear to be involved in CPV, it is recommended that family and individual approaches be considered for treatment.