Why Develop and Support Women's Organizations in Providing Legal Aid in China? Women's rights,women's organizations and legal aid in China

This article argues that women's organizations are central to legal aid for women in China. Chinese women would benefit if more women's legal aid organizations were developed and supported. There are currently too few such organizations, especially in rural areas. Their work challenges the public legal aid programme to develop a rights-based legal aid agenda to achieve greater gender equality through the protection of women's rights. They bring diverse women's perspectives which counter prevailing traditional patriarchal attitudes and male dominance in Chinese society. The emergence of autonomous women's organizations is also important because it helped to break the monopoly of the All China Women's Federation over women's perspectives, identities and interests in China. The article concludes that the competitive yet collaborative relationship between autonomous women's legal aid organizations and the All China Women's Federation is producing a definite and positive impact on gender equality through legal reform.     

Does contact with the justice system deter or promote future delinquency? Results from a longitudinal study of British adolescent twins

What impact does formal punishment have on antisocial conduct—does it deter or promote it? The findings from a long line of research on the labeling tradition indicate formal punishments have the opposite-of-intended consequence of promoting future misbehavior. In another body of work, the results show support for deterrence-based hypotheses that punishment deters future misbehavior. So, which is it? We draw on a nationally representative sample of British adolescent twins from the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study to perform a robust test of the deterrence versus labeling question. We leverage a powerful research design in which twins can serve as the counterfactual for their co-twin, thereby ruling out many sources of confounding that have likely impacted prior studies. The pattern of findings provides support for labeling theory, showing that contact with the justice system—through spending a night in jail/prison, being issued an anti-social behaviour order (ASBO), or having an official record—promotes delinquency. We conclude by discussing the impact these findings may have on criminologists’ and practitioners’ perspective on the role of the juvenile justice system in society.     

Residential Stability and Trust in the Police: an Understudied Area of Police Attitudinal Research

American Journal of Criminal Justice - Residential in/stability has been observed to influence several behavioral outcomes such as mental health, child abuse, adolescent substance uses and...     

The political economy of infrastructure development in Africa: an assessment of the NEPAD Presidential Infrastructure Champion Initiative (PICI)

Using a political economy approach, this article examines the factors that cause high-profile political leaders on the African continent to champion particular regional infrastructure projects within the framework of the Presidential Infrastructure Champion Initiative (PICI). It also analyses the extent to which the presence of high-stature political champions enhances the prospects for project implementation. The paper argues that the economic and integrative potential of regional infrastructure projects, alongside the presence of high-stature political champions, do not necessarily guarantee implementation. Rather, it is the interplay of diverse economic, institutional and political factors and interests that determines the successful implementation, or otherwise, of the various championed infrastructure projects.     

Thyroid Cartilage Ossification and Multislice Computed Tomography Examination: A Useful Tool for Age Assessment?

Abstract: Many authors have studied the thyroid cartilage ossification process using radiographic features for age estimation of individuals. Their results were various: Sugiyama reported excellent correlation coefficients between ossification rates and civil age, unlike most other authors. We hypothesized that recent advances in imaging techniques would enable more precise evaluation of the ossification of the thyroid cartilage. We retrospectively analyzed the CT scans of 312 French patients using postprocessing software to examine the pattern of thyroid cartilage ossification, calculating the ossified volume of the cartilage on 3D reconstructions. Pearson’s correlation coefficients for volume were 0.73 for men and 0.75 for women (standard error 18.02 and 17.06), indicating considerable inter‐individual variability. Although a correlation between civil age and morphological changes was found, these methods based on thyroid cartilage ossification were not accurate enough for the assessment of individual age.     

Common law country update on international humanitarian law: annual update on national legislation, 2010

The article highlights the challenge before the courts to the decision of the parliamentary select committee to remove the former Chief Justice of Sri Lanka in January 2013. Parliament and the President proceeded with the impeachment and removal of the Chief Justice, despite court decisions, on the basis that this was a power specifically granted to the parliament under the constitution. The article examines how the legitimacy of impeachment proceedings of superior court judges can be ensured within the concept of the separation of powers without adversely impacting on the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law.     

Children and young people accused of child sexual abuse: A study within a community

This paper reports on a study of 227 children and young people, all living in a West Midlands city in the UK, who between November 1993 and December 1999 were accused of having sexually abused a child. The study had two main objectives: first to examine the alleged behaviours, family backgrounds and personal characteristics of the young people; and second to discover what factors, if any, may be associated with recidivism later in adulthood. It is still too early to draw firm conclusions regarding recidivism, because half of the sample has not yet reached adulthood. However, preliminary findings contradict the notion that many young people who display sexually abusive behaviour will grow into adult sex offenders.     

Forensic isoscapes based on intra-individual temporal variation of δ18O and 206Pb/207Pb in human teeth

Isotopic signatures used in the georeferencing of human remains are largely fixed by spatially distinct geologic and environmental processes. However, location-dependent temporal changes in these isotope ratios should also be considered when determining an individual’s provenance and/or trajectory. Distributions of the relevant isotopes can be impacted by predictable external factors such as climate change, delocalisation of food and water sources and changes in sources and uses of metals. Using Multi-Collector Inductively-Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (MC-ICP-MS) analyses of ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁷Pb in tooth enamel and dentin from a population of 21 ± 1-year-old individuals born circa 1984 and isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) of δ¹⁸O in their enamel, we examined the expected influence of some of these factors. The resulting adjustments to the geographic distribution of isotope ratios (isoscapes) found in tooth enamel and dentin may contain additional useful information for forensic identification, but the shifts in values can also impact the uncertainty and usefulness of identifications if they are not taken into account.

KEY POINTS

• Isoscapes of ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁷Pb and δ¹⁸O used for geolocation are not static.
• Within a few years, the enamel and dentin of a person may exhibit measurable differences in ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁷Pb even without changing locations.
• Changes in climatic patterns tied to rising temperatures are more significant than the direct effect of increasing temperature on δ¹⁸O fixed in tooth bioapatite.
• Third molar (M3) enamel mineralisation includes material incorporated from before formal amelogenesis takes place.