Holding Collectives Accountable

This article argues that there is a need to understand better the legal origins of collective responsibility, as well as to provide additional material for further judicial interpretation of this form of responsibility. For the purposes of this article, collective responsibility refers to the form of individual criminal responsibility that holds individuals accountable for the criminal purpose or objective of a group where they acted in concert with others or otherwise contributed to the fulfillment of the common criminal plan. To spur on further inquiry into the subject of collective responsibility specifically, this article examines the contribution of the United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC) to the development of this mode of liability and discusses how it is relevant today. In order to provide sufficient background information on this subject matter, this article begins by presenting an overview of the evolution of collective responsibility from Nuremberg to where it stands in practice at the ICC. Finally, the article will demonstrate how the Commission’s diplomatic exchanges in tandem with cases under its supervision contributed to early formation of customary international law and how these historical events are important today.     

Protecting the Botanic Garden: Seward,Darwin, and Coalbrookdale

In late 1787, both Anna Seward and her mentor Erasmus Darwin wrote letters to friends about Coalbrookdale,1 a mining town located along the Severn River in Shropshire, the county adjoining Seward's and Darwin's Staffordshire.     

Are Perceptions of Organizational Justice Universal? An Exploration of Measurement Invariance Across Thirteen Cultures

Previous research examined whether justice effects are comparable, focusing on quantitative differences in justice effects. This study examines whether justice perceptions are structured similarly or whether they are qualitatively different across working populations from 13 nations. Confirmatory factor analysis and multi-group analysis show that Colquitt??s (J Appl Psychol 86:386?C400, 2001) four-dimensional model of justice works well across these samples. However, factor intercorrelations and reliabilities are found to systematically vary between cultural samples. Perceptions of justice are more highly intercorrelated in power distant and collectivistic samples, in line with extensions of the relational model of authority. Score reliabilities were lower in collectivistic settings.     

Adoption of retrospective Medicare maximization billing practices by state Medicaid home care programs

Home care services funded by Medicare and Medicaid grew rapidly throughout most of the 1990s. During this period some state Medicaid programs transferred costs for home care claims to the Medicare program to reduce their liability and increase beneficiary access to Medicare coverage. This article reports the findings of the first national study of these Medicare maximization billing practices for home care services. Primary data were collected to determine which states conduct retrospective Medicare billing practices and the amounts recovered from Medicare. Our analysis indicates that seven states recovered as much as dollar 265 million from Medicare in state and federal dollars during the 1990s. Ratios of recovered expenditures-to-costs incurred for retrospective billing practices conducted in Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts are between 5:1 and 7:1. While retrospective billing practices may aid states in reducing Medicaid outlays and potentially help dual Medicare beneficiaries gain coverage for their home care claims, they increase Medicare expenditures for home care at a time of concern for the long-term financial viability of Medicare and illustrate the need for reforming our national long-term care financing policy.     

Victimization and perpetration among perinatal substance abusers

This study examined associations between demographic, psychiatric, substance abuse, and childhood abuse variables and past 30-day victimization and perpetration among 77 perinatal substance abusers. Victimization rates were 70% emotional, 34% physical, 29% sexual, and 42% personal freedom violations. For perpetration, incidence was 71% emotional, 25% physical, 5% sexual, and 9% personal freedom violations. Through univariate regression, Addiction Severity Index (ASI) psychiatric and drug composite scores, childhood physical abuse, borderline personality disorder (BPD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were found to significantly predict victimization. In contrast, ASI psychiatric and drug composite scores, BPD, PTSD, and aggressive-sadistic and antisocial personality disorders were found to significantly predict perpetration. In multiple regression models, ASI drug and psychiatric composite scores accounted for the majority of the variance for both victimization and perpetration, suggesting that women with high ASI scores should be queried about their involvement in abusive acts at time of admission to drug treatment.     

New Technologies in the Politics Classroom: Using Internet Classrooms to Support Teaching and Learning

This article introduces some ideas about using internet classrooms to enrich the experience of those learning and teaching politics. It draws and reflects upon my three-year experience of using internet classrooms to teach politics in optional and compulsory politics undergraduate modules, providing critical evaluation of the successes and problems involved. Much of what the article discusses can be applied to most, if not all, politics modules and will be useful to those wishing to use new technologies to support active learning strategies in their undergraduate teaching. The article is based on personal experience and student evaluations, rather than any rigorous research of learning outcomes. As such, I do not set out to prove that using internet classrooms has pedagogical advantages over using only traditional methods, and I am not arguing a case for or against using either.