Long-term effects of participation in the Baltimore City drug treatment court: Results from an experimental study

This study uses an experimental design comparing 235 offenders assigned either to drug treatment court or treatment as usual. It extends prior analyses of this study sample to examine whether differences observed between drug treatment court subjects and control subjects at one and two years after the start of the program persist after three years, when many of the subjects had ceased active treatment. Further, it extends earlier analyses that showed that the quantity of drug treatment court services received was related to lower recidivism rates by using an instrumental variables approach to handle the endogeneity problem that sometimes arises when subjects self-select into different levels of service. Results show a sustained treatment effect on recidivism, controlling for time at risk. This effect is not limited to the period during which services are delivered. Rather, it persists even after participation in the drug court program ceases. Results also show that the recidivism is lowest among subjects who participate at higher levels in certified drug treatment, status hearings, and drug testing. These positive findings are tempered with findings that more than three-fourths of clients are re-arrested within three years, regardless of participation in the drug treatment court, and that drug treatment court cases spend approximately the same number of days incarcerated as do control cases. Implications for strengthening drug treatment courts are discussed.     

当事人及法官对瑕疵书证的运用——以民事诉讼为视角的分析

瑕疵书证是民事诉讼实践中经常遇到的特殊书证。瑕疵的存在使书证的证明力受到影响,成为当事人证明主张和法官查明事实的障碍,不研究其存在现象,就无法认识其一般规律。本文分析了当事人对瑕疵书证的运用,法官对瑕疵书证证明力的审查判断等问题。     

Fairness and equal recognition

An important contribution of Alan Patten’s Equal Recognition is the conception of neutrality that grounds his defence of minority cultural rights. Built in to his conception of neutrality of treatment is a notion of ‘fairness’ whose effect is to provide an upfront, across the board limitation on the demands cultural minorities may legitimately make on the rest of society. There must be limits on the duty to accommodate, but it obscures more than it illuminates to build this into the content of the right to equal recognition itself. We see more clearly what is at stake in these conflicts by articulating the value of self-determination independently and taking account of necessary limits to its satisfaction as part of a second-stage analysis of what duties may be claimed and against whom. Familiar principles of discrimination law exemplify this alternative model. This presents the interest in self-determination more robustly, while acknowledging that the claims of duty arising out of it are defeasible. The result is a more flexible and nuanced exploration of the complex moral issues involved when fundamental interests clash.     

骨折误诊漏诊的临床法医学研究(附56例分析)

目的　探讨骨折误诊漏诊的临床法医学特点 ,提高正确诊断 ,鉴定骨折的能力。　方法　收集 5 6例骨折误诊漏诊的案例 ,对骨折误诊漏诊的原因及特点进行回顾性研究。　结果　发现骨折误诊漏诊的主要原因是 :(1)对骨骼的正常解剖、变异不够熟悉 ;(2 )对骨的某些病理生理变化不认识 ;(3)拍片技术及检查方法不当 ;(4 )与诊断者业务素质有关 ;(5 )主观因素。　结论　熟悉骨折误诊漏诊的临床法医学特点 ,对于减少骨折鉴定中的误诊漏诊 ,提高骨折鉴定的准确性 ,具有重要的实际意义     

Order in the Piazzi case

University Health Services, Inc. petitioned the Superior Court of Richmond County, Georgia, for an order to maintain life support systems for Donna Piazzi, a brain dead patient, to preserve the life of her quickened, nonviable fetus until the point of delivery with a reasonable chance of survival. Robert Piazzi, the husband, requested termination of support. The guardian ad litem of the fetus and David Haddon, the putative father, requested maintenance of support. The Division of Family and Children Services argued that the Court lacked jurisdiction. The Court concluded that, based on case law and on Georgia statutes, only the mother has the right to terminate a quickened, nonviable fetus and that public policy requires the maintenance of life support systems for a brain dead mother as long as there exists a reasonable possibility that the fetus may develop and survive.     

Bouvia v. Glenchur

Bouvia, a quadriplegic with cerebral palsy, earlier had failed to win Superior Court injunctions to restrain personnel at Riverside General Hospital from force feeding her if she attempted to starve herself to death while in their care [Bouvia v. County of Riverside, Trial court decision (in Bouvia I), No. 159780, 8 Feb 1984]. In this case, she sought a preliminary injunction restraining the staff of High Desert Hospital from continuing to feed her through a nasogastric tube, and from placing her on a special bed to control bed sores. In denying her request, the Superior Court ruled that, despite her claims to the contrary, Bouvia's refusal of nutrition and medical treatment was motivated by an intention to kill herself using public facilities, and not by a desire to exercise her right of privacy.