Getting tough on mothers: regulating contact and residence

This article critically examines the relationship between shared residence and contact after the breakdown of the parents’ relationship. It examines the background to the government’s main emphasis on methods of monitoring, facilitating and enforcing contact as the most efficacious method of proceeding in respect of the law reform agenda, focussing particularly on the potential impact of punitive enforcement measures on primary carers, usually mothers. The article sets the discussion within its wider cultural context in respect of fathers’ rights claims that family law currently favours mothers, and shows how recent legal developments constitute part of a package to manage post-separation relationships between parent and children. It also examines some of the emerging case law to show how the judiciary is using shared residence orders and transfer of residence to deal with protracted and very difficult contact disputes, and in ways which were not anticipated when shared residence orders were first introduced. Drawing on feminist legal commentaries the argument will be made that the use of transfer of residence and shared residence orders in these disputes is extremely worrying, especially in light of the growing body of empirical research which heralds caution. The article will conclude by suggesting that far from favouring mothers, both the law reforms and the case law effectively construct mothers as integral to the problem of contact. They are treated as the site of and solution to the ‚problem’ of contact, and the means of dealing with the problem is by increasingly punitive measures which are inappropriate in a family law context. At the same time non-residential fathers who do not uphold contact escape legal sanctions.     

Menstrual cycles and criminal responsibility

Since at least the turn of the century, there have been reports indicating that women have an increased tendency toward criminal behavior during certain phases of the menstrual cycle. Recently these reports have served as the basis for a proposal to expand the insanity defense to recognize the impact of menstrual cycles in diminishing criminal responsibility. This paper reviews the empirical literature on the link between menstruation and crime and raises several critical questions regarding interpretation of this data. In light of these questions it is suggested that at this time an insanity defense based on menstrual symptomology would be inappropriate.     

Infanticide: is its incidence among postneonatal infant deaths increasing?: an 18-year population-based analysis in California

The decline in the incidence of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and recent recommendations regarding the differentiation of SIDS and child abuse has generated speculation that some cases of infanticide were misdiagnosed as SIDS. The aims of this study were to determine the change in incidences and proportions of postneonatal deaths from all causes, SIDS, and infanticide in California over an 18-year interval encompassing years before and after the Back to Sleep campaign. Selected postneonatal mortality data from 1981 through 1998 obtained from the California Department of Health Services were analyzed and graphically displayed. The total postneonatal mortality and incidence of SIDS deaths per 100,000 live births decreased 45% and 66%, respectively, during the study interval; the incidence of infanticide remained low. The ratio of infanticide to SIDS increased from 4.3 per 100 in 1981 to 10.2 per 100 in 1998. Infanticide deaths, as a percentage of the total number of postneonatal deaths, increased slightly from the first to the second half of the study interval but never rose above 3.2%. It is concluded that this increased percentage is due to a decrease in SIDS deaths and not to an actual increase in infanticide deaths.     

Predicting symmetry in female/male crime rates

This paper examines changes in female criminality. Data were obtained from 1943 through 1998 on six index crimes: murder, robbery, assault, burglary, auto theft, and larceny. Rape and arson are not included because rape is almost exclusively a male crime, while statistics for arson have not been consistent for the period studied. A review of the literature on female crime is presented. Percentage differences between males and females were obtained for specific crimes for each year. A regression line was computed for this difference by year. Each line is characterized by R², as a measure of confidence in future predictions and “b” levels to determine slope, and the expected year in which male and female crime will achieve equality if current trends continue. The authors also suggest using the year generated as an index on which to compare growth or decline of female crime.