Equal access to justice

Conclusion My concerns are unlikely to strike a note amongst those senior judges delivering “big justice” who will operate in the multi-track. They seldom encounter disabled people in their courts and when they do access, communication and representation problems are likely to have been sorted out at an earlier stage. But for those of us who have to deal with those earlier stages or are to (and already do) deliver “bulk justice” in the fast track and small claims courts, coping with disabled litigants is already a problem. Hitherto we have responded with insufficient care to their needs, but is it too late to hope that we may be encouraged (or better still constrained) to take into account their disclosed needs when managing cases so that civil proceedings may be conducted in a manner that is fair to all. If we do not face up to this now we could find ourselves and our courts in breach of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 which is intended to impose the new culture on society (including our courts). The message from society is clear: a change in the culture of civil justice is required but we must not overlook the “disability factor”. A District Judge at Preston on the Northern Circuit.     

The Impact of African American Fathers on Adolescent Sexual Behavior

A common finding in past research on adolescent sexual behavior is that initiation of sexual intercourse is more frequent in households where the teen does not live with both biological parents. The present study examined this result in greater depth by examining the impact that father attitudes toward premarital sexual intercourse have on the sexual behavior of the father's adolescent. Approximately 750 inner-city African American youth between the ages of 14 and 17 were interviewed in a survey on parent–teen communication. Results showed that adolescent perceptions of paternal attitudes were predictive of teen sexual behavior independent of adolescent perceptions of maternal attitudes and that the effects of live-in status on sexual behavior were mediated by adolescent perceptions of paternal attitudes. This result was robust across gender and age of the adolescent.     

Reviews

Rudolf L. Tökés (ed.), Opposition in Eastern Europe. London and Basingstoke: Macmillan in association with St. Anthony's College, Oxford, 1979. xxiv + 306 pp. £12.00.

Hannes Adomeit and Robert Boardman (eds.), Foreign Policy Making in Communist Countries. Farnborough: Saxon House, 1979. 164 pp. $19.00.

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T. H. Rigby, Lenin's Government: Sovnarkom 1917–1922. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979. xvi + 320 pp. £16.75.

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R. S. Mathieson, Japan's Role in Soviet Economic Growth. Transfer of Technology since 1965. New York: Praeger, 1979. xxi + 278 pp.