Between the town and the mountain: abortion and the politics of life in Edith Wharton's "Summer"

In the early twentieth century, American laws focused on women's reproductive capacities and were coalescing into the ethical and moral frameworks that subtend American reproductive politics today. Edith Wharton published her 1917 novel, Summer, at a time when anti-abortion sentiment was widespread in American culture. Through a reading of Summer, the article provides a theoretical and historical framework for understanding this new American obsession with the judicial regulation of women's reproductive options. In particular, I situate the novel's presentation of abortion within the tension between the carefully defined laws of North Dormer, the town in which the majority of the story takes place, and the lawlessness of the Mountain, a place that looms throughout the story as the protagonist's birthplace and a location of utmost abjection. The novel's profound insight is that power does not function unilaterally and individually but through and on the population. Furthermore, Wharton leaps ahead by recognizing that life is not simply that which lives but that which is recognized and embraced by the law. This realization, one that Wharton must have come to terms with through her painful work with World War I refugees, shapes Charity's character and her understanding not only of how reproduction is regulated but also of how living within this regulation and control generates the norm and offers the only possibility for a liveable and legible life.     

Tanya Serisier: Speaking Out: Feminism,Rape and Narrative Politics

Feminist Legal Studies -     

A Maelstrom of Bodies and Emotions and Things: Spectatorial Encounters with the Trial

This paper explores spectatorial encounters with criminal trials. Particularly focusing on the 2018 work of Australian contemporary visual artist Julie Fragar that followed her watching murder trials in the Supreme Court of Queensland, it is argued that the artist as a legal outsider grapples with the inhumanity of the trial. This grappling can go in two directions. For some there is a need to bring the human back, to see the person beneath the mask of the role that they are performing, to connect the gothic horror of the trial back to a redeeming humanism. For others, and this is evident in Fragar, the horror of the inhumanity is visceral and overpowering, and the grotesque masque of judgment needs to be witnessed. Both perform a corrective and critique to the business as usual of processing, judging and stamping onto human lives that is legal insider’s performance in the criminal trial.

     

Self-harming behaviors in prison: a comparison of suicidal processes,self-injurious behaviors,and mixed events

Self-harming behaviors occurring in prison disproportionately consume resources and cause considerable disruption. To date, theoretical paradigms have explained self-injurious behaviors and suicidal processes either via a continuum or dichotomy of self-harm. This current study examines all documented acts of self-harm (n = 1,158) occurring in South Carolina’s 28 prisons over a 50-month period. We test and find support for a tripartite schema of self-harm; differentiated with regard to suicidal processes, self-injurious behaviors, and a ‘mixed group‘ of self-harming behaviors. These groups of behaviors were distinct with regard to situational variables (i.e. body part targeted, injury severity) as well as institutional responses (i.e., medical treatment needed, employment of suicide protocols). Findings indicate that self-injurious behaviors are likely to result in physical injury and/or hospitalizations.     

Mother–infant separations in prison. A systematic attachment-focused review of the academic and grey literature

This review systematically searched UK academic and grey literature in relation to mother and child separation in prison. Attachment theory is referred to in current prison policy for mothers and could provide a framework linking policy and practice. Reviewing grey literature provided an opportunity to explore practice-based literature. Twenty-four academic papers and 51 grey documents were reviewed. Use of attachment theory in the academic literature varied according to discipline, ranging from extensive use to no use. There was greater use of attachment theory in the grey literature. Despite linguistic differences, all documents highlighted the detrimental impact of separation on imprisoned mothers. However, specificity was lacking regarding support for mothers, and staff needs were overlooked. Given its use across the sparse research and practice literature, and its basis for policy, attachment theory could underpin theoretically informed support for imprisoned mothers separated from their infants and staff who support them.     

Information pathways into prison mental health care

Police and court liaison and diversion services provide important specialist mental health input along critical stages of the criminal justice pathway. Effective sharing of information between the services and relevant justice agencies is essential. However, various problems exist with the flow of information between agencies and services across the criminal justice pathway. This service evaluation explored how clinically relevant information is transferred, by drawing on the perspectives of prison health care staff in a large urban UK male prison. A qualitative service evaluation was conducted using semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 11 prison staff. The main themes included: gaps in the transfer of essential information, (particularly concerning risk and offending information); information gathering to fill these gaps; the importance of professional relationships, information sharing between agencies; and information solutions. Improving information transfer across the criminal justice pathway could prevent treatment delays and ensure more timely mental health care in prison.     

Sex offender laws in the United States: smart policy or disproportionate sanctions?

In the 1990s, the United States began enacting a series of laws to monitor and supervise sex offenders living in the community. These evolved to include Internet registries of sex offenders, sex offender residence restrictions, GPS monitoring, and even civil commitment of sex offenders at the conclusion of their criminal sentences. Though other countries have enacted legislation to monitor sex offenders, none have implemented laws impinging on the civil liberties of offenders to the extent of those in the United States. This article examines the basis of the US laws and their challenges, provides an overview of their efficacy, and compares the US approach to those of other countries.     

Distribution of Enantiomers of Methadone and Its Main Metabolite EDDP in Human Tissues and Blood of Postmortem Cases

Knowledge concerning the distribution of methadone in postmortem human tissue and the effect of postmortem redistribution on methadone is today limited making the choice of a suitable substitute for femoral blood difficult when this is not available. Cardiac blood, femoral blood, muscle, and brain tissue concentrations of the enantiomers of methadone and its metabolite 2‐ethyl‐1,5‐dimethyl‐3,3‐diphenylpyrrolinium were recorded for 155 postmortem cases. Brain and muscle tissue concentrations exceeded the femoral blood concentrations with a median fold of 2.3 and 1.6, respectively, but both had a better correlation than cardiac blood to femoral blood concentrations. The Kruskal–Wallis test showed a significant dependency on time and body mass index for some of the matrix ratios over femoral blood. We conclude brain or muscle tissue may constitute a better alternative for measurement of methadone than cardiac blood for situations in which femoral blood is not available, despite concentrations in both matrices being systematically higher.     

Art as a Means to Disrupt Routine Use of Space

This paper examines the publicly visible aspects of counter-terrorism activity in pedestrian spaces as mechanisms of disruption. We discuss the objectives of counter-terrorism in terms of disruption of routine for both hostile actors and general users of public spaces, categorising the desired effects as 1) triangulation of attention; 2) creation of unexpected performance; and 3) choreographing of crowd flow. We review the potential effects of these existing forms of disruption used in counter-terrorism. We then present a palette of art, advertising, architecture, and entertainment projects that offer examples of the same disruption effects of triangulation, performance and flow. We conclude by reviewing the existing support for public art in counter-terrorism policy, and build on the argument for art as an important alternative to authority. We suggest that while advocates of authority-based disruption might regard the playfulness of some art as a weakness, the unexpectedness it offers is perhaps a key strength.