An unusual mechanical asphyxia in a homicide-suicide case by smothering and strangulation

A very unusual homicide of 2 children by smothering and strangulation by means of a rubber adhesive band carried out by the mother who committed suicide by the same manner is presented. Smothering is supposed to be one major cause of death in child homicide. Suicide by smothering is relatively uncommon. Suicidal smothering by winding strips of adhesive tape around the head to cover the nose and mouth is an even rarer method recently described in literature. The circumstances of the crime and the macroscopic and microscopic evidence are discussed to reduce the potential for underdiagnoses or mistakes in such cases in which it may be difficult to establish whether suicide or homicide occurred.     

Immunohistochemical quantification of pulmonary mast-cells and post-mortem blood dosages of tryptase and eosinophil cationic protein in 48 heroin-related deaths

Recent studies suggest that many fatal heroin overdoses are caused by anaphylactoid reaction. In the present study we measured tryptase and eosinophil cationic protein in post-mortem blood of 48 deaths after heroin injection. We also investigated the presence and pulmonary distribution of mast-cells using specific immunohistochemical antibody for tryptase and morphometric evaluation in those cases of heroin-related deaths. The data were compared with 44 subjects who died following head trauma and to 32 cases of fatal anaphylactic shock. In the heroin-related death cases, the measurements of serum tryptase levels and eosinophil cationic protein dosages resulted in particularly elevated concentrations compared with the trauma cases. Nevertheless, the data that our study supplies by immunohistochemical techniques indicate that when mast-cells count in the lung was determined, no definite pattern was obtained between fatal heroin overdose cases and the control groups. Furthermore, the wide range of morphine concentrations found in post-mortem blood samples suggest that the term ‘overdose’ is relative and does not sufficiently characterize death associated with heroin addiction. Our study confirms that elevated concentrations of serum tryptase are associated with many heroin-related deaths. At this moment to attribute the cause of these deaths to ‘heroin overdose’ ignores the likely causal contribution of other possible systemic reactions to the mechanism of death.     

Preliminary Data on the Role of Emotional Intelligence in Moderating the Link between Psychopathy and Aggression in a Nonforensic Sample

This short report presents preliminary data on the role of emotional intelligence (EI) in moderating the relationship between psychopathy and aggression in a nonforensic sample. A sample of 109 volunteer men was administered the Psychopathic Personality Inventory‐Revised (PPI‐R), the Reactive‐Proactive Aggression Questionnaire, and the Mayer‐Salovey‐Caruso emotional intelligence Test in individual sessions. Correlation and moderation analyzes showed that, at low levels of EI (in terms of strategic ability to understand and manage one's own and others’ emotions), people scoring high on the total PPI‐R and impulsivity dimension seemed to be both reactively and proactively aggressive. By contrast, at high levels of strategic ability, the relationships between psychopathy and aggression were no longer significant. These preliminary results encourage further investigation into the role of EI ability in mitigating aggressive outcomes in psychopathic subjects.     

Values, Diversity and the Justification of EU Institutions

Liberal theories of justice typically claim that political institutions should be justifiable to those who live under them – whatever their values. The more such values diverge, the greater the challenge of justifiability. Diversity of this kind becomes especially pronounced when the institutions in question are supranational. Focusing on the case of the European Union, this article aims to address a basic question: what kinds of values should inform the justification of political institutions facing a plurality of value systems? One route to an answer is provided by John Rawls, who famously distinguishes between comprehensive and political values, and defends the exclusion of the former from the foundations of a political theory of justice. This article questions the tenability of the Rawlsian solution, and draws attention to an alternative twofold conceptual distinction: that between minimal and non-minimal and between substantive and procedural values. Minimal values are meant to be as independent as possible of controversial conceptions of the good and views of the world, regardless of whether these are comprehensive or purely political. It will be argued that their endorsement may thus further specify the nature of what should be shared in order to justify political institutions in conditions of pluralism. In order to refine further the account of such a basis of justification, two variants of minimalism will be presented according to whether they invest substantive or procedural values. Substantive values qualify the property of an outcome; procedural values qualify the property of a procedure. The latter part of the article consists of a 'face-off' between minimal proceduralism and minimal substantivism, considering reasons in favour of the adoption of each. The result, we suggest, is a helpful reorientation of the political dimension of the value debates to which the multiplicity of values amid contemporary European horizons give rise.     

Concepts of citizenship underlying EU gender equality policies

This article assesses the framing of gender equality in the EU political discourse from 1995 to 2005 and the conceptualisations of citizenship that emerge from it. To assess the extent to which EU gender equality policies meet the aspirations of the concept of a gender equal citizenship, it develops an analysis of how different feminist approaches to citizenship are related to concepts of rights and responsibilities in EU gender equality policies. The frame analysis of a selection of EU policy documents in the areas of family policies, domestic violence, and gender inequality in politics reflects different configurations of the relation between feminist conceptualisations of citizenship and citizens' distribution of rights and responsibilities. Findings show that both gender-neutral and gender-differentiated conceptualisations of citizenship are present in EU policy documents, while a gender-pluralist approach tends to be absent. They also reveal that, while both men and women are formally treated as right-holders, women are framed as mainly responsible for eradicating the barriers to an equal enjoyment of citizenship rights. Moreover, men and women are constructed as different citizens. The article concludes that EU formal definitions of citizenship based on the concept of equality, while promoting legal gender equality and acknowledging the existence of gender obstacles to the enjoyment of an equal citizenship for women, are not by definition translated into policy initiatives transformative of traditional gender roles. In this respect they could hamper the achievement of a gender equal citizenship in the European Union.     

Democracy,Civil Liberties and the Role of Religion after the Arab Awakening: Constitutional Reforms in Tunisia and Morocco

The electoral results following the Arab Awakening have rewarded Islamist parties in Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco. Their arrival in power sparked once more intense scholarly and policy debates related to the relationship between Islamism, democracy and individual rights. This article examines that relationship in the context of the constitutional debates in Morocco and Tunisia, which have seen the prominent role of Islamist parties in attempting to shape the new constitutional charters. What emerges from this analysis is that, in the parties examined, pragmatism plays a greater role than fixed ideological positions.