Criminology and victimology of rape in context with war-like conflicts using the example of the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda

The topic of this article is sexual violence in context with war-like conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The fundamental categories of sexual violence in war-like conflicts are described. The authors discuss the types of sexual violence as defined in the report of the UN Commission of Experts on the war-like conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. Four criminal trials were evaluated: three held before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague/Netherlands and one before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha/Tansania. The defendants were found guilty of torture, crime against humanity and genocide. Potential procedures with respect to similar crimes in current or prospective conflicts are discussed. An alternative may be the assignment of medical personnel (for example of the German Federal Armed Forces). Finally, the post-war cooperation between the Institute of Legal Medicine at the University Medical Centre of Hamburg-Eppendorf as well as the medical and government institutions in Rwanda is presented, which has been going on since 2005.     

A Minimally Invasive Technique for the Detection and Analysis of Pulmonary Fat Embolism: A Feasibility Study*

We investigated the feasibility of postmortem percutaneous needle biopsy (PNB) for obtaining pulmonary samples adequate for the study of pulmonary fat embolism (PFE). Samples of both lungs were obtained from 26 cadavers via two different methods: (i) PNB and (ii) the double-edged knife technique, the gold standard at our institute. After water storage and Sudan III staining, six forensic pathologists independently examined all samples for the presence and severity of PFE. The results were compared and analyzed in each case regarding the vitality of the PFE and its relationship to the cause of death. The results showed that PFE was almost identically diagnosed and graded on the samples obtained via both methods. The discrepancies between the two techniques did not affect the diagnoses of vitality or cause of death related to PFE. This study demonstrates the feasibility of the PNB sampling method for the diagnosis and interpretation of PFE in the postmortem setting.     

Variable adverse effects in subjects after ingestion of equal doses of Argyreia nervosa seeds

As the new drug Spice hit the market in 2006 and was a hot topic in the media, the general issue of legal highs has been brought to the attention of a large number of (young) people. One of these so called legal highs are the seeds of Argyreia nervosa, also known as Hawaiian Baby Woodrose, which contains the psychotropic alkaloid lysergic acid amide (LSA). A study was designed to assess how driving ability is affected by Argyreia nervosa. However, the study could not be continued due to severe adverse effects in 3 of 4 subjects, such as cardiovascular dysregulation in two and a psychosis like state in one subject. All of the participants recovered completely within 9h after ingestion. Despite body normalized doses interindividually highly differing reactions in type and intensity were observed. Furthermore, fluctuating alkaloid contents in seeds and multi-drug intoxications make the use of this legal high far more dangerous than commonly believed.     

Studentische Hilfskräfte im deutschen Bildungswesen

The article takes a critical look at the situation of graduate assistants at German universities. For this purpose the paper is based on two sociological perspectives. On the one hand, being employed as a student assistant can be regarded as an important individual strategy to gather privileges in the German higher educational system. On the other hand, working as a student assistant is a paradigmatic example of labor conditions in modern society due to the fact that higher qualified persons need to be profoundly flexible and have to work under precarious employment conditions. The analysis highlights that the problematic working conditions of student assistants are caused by the specific structures of the German education system. It is the difference between individual prospects and objective possibilities which makes these precarious labor conditions possible.     

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Imagining society: constructivism and the English School

This article critically examines the current relationship between constructivism and the English School. Scholars in each school have worked largely with stereotypes of the other, and this has greatly impeded productive dialogue and cross–fertilization. A more fruitful strategy is to treat both schools as bounded fields of debate, as rich and diverse realms of internally contested thought. Constructivism is characterized by three key axes of debate: between sociological institutionalists, Habermasian communicative action theorists, and Foucauldian genealogists; between unit–level, systemic, and holistic theorists; and between interpretivists and positivists. The English School is also divided between pluralists and solidarists, between those who identify the school with international society theory and those who see it as inherently multifaceted, and between those who emphasize interpretive or eclectic methodologies. Opening up each approach in this way enables us to identify new, more fruitful axes of dialogue between the two perspectives.