From Uniformity to Diversity? Reinventing Public Sector Industrial Relations in New Zealand

Since 1988 industrial relations in New Zealand's public sector have changed significantly. This paper discusses the changing roles of the State Services Commission and chief executives in bargaining with public sector employees, and how these changing roles have affected union representation and wage rates. While the Employment Contracts Act, 1991 resulted in changes to bargaining, generally its effect was minimal in the public sector with respect to bargaining outcomes. However, one of the more significant changes as a result of the Employment Contracts Act has been a move to direct employer — employee negotiations. Bargaining in New Zealand's public sector has moved, in the last nine years, from uniformity to diversity, but to what extent?     

Keeping Abortion Clinics Open: The Importance of Ragsdale v. Turnock in the Post-Casey Era

In 1973, Roe v. Wade constitutionalized a woman's right to an abortion. But, while Roe removed most legal obstacles to abortion, it did not address the limited availability of abortion services in the nation. The case examined here, Ragsdale v. Turnock, revolved around an Illinois statute that imposed far-reaching restrictions on abortion clinics, the site of most U.S. abortions since Roe. The crucial role of clinics in providing abortion services explains why the dispute represented by Ragsdale had the potential for an enormous impact on legalized abortion in the United States. Because of the number of women affected, the Ragsdale litigation could have led to the most significant judicial ruling since Roe. The suit resulted in a settlement in which plaintiffs secured the right to a legal clinic abortion during the first 18 weeks of pregnancy. Although the case was settled to the satisfaction of pro-choice advocates, a similar law today might well survive constitutional scrutiny.     

A Statewide Study of the Public's Knowledge of Child Abuse Reporting Laws

This study conducted telephone interviews with a random sample of adults (N = 509) in a state with a universal child abuse reporting law. A substantial proportion of the interviewees (39%) were not aware of this law. Findings indicated that the public's understanding was mixed. Most respondents knew that reports could be made anonymously and that their identity could be kept private. However, most believed that children are automatically removed from the home if there is maltreatment and more than 50% were not aware they could be charged with a misdemeanor for failing to report a suspicion of child abuse. The respondents who had ever made a report (19%), had a greater knowledge of the laws than those who had not made a report. Older adults and those with less education had the least accurate perception of child abuse reporting policies. When asked about barriers to reporting, respondents cited worries that reporting would not help the child. Findings suggest that efforts to increase the public's comfort with reporting may require strategies to increase their confidence that the benefits will outweigh the risks for the child.     

Examining 19 years of officially reported child abduction incidents (1995–2013): employing a four category typology of abduction

Child abduction has generated extensive media attention due to deep-seated fear elicited by infamous incidents. Perceptions of an abduction epidemic during the 1970s and 80s entrenched a perception of ‘stranger danger’. Limited research on child abduction overemphasizes stranger abductions, which account for fewer than half of all abductions. As a result, less is known about the victim/abductor relationship across other abduction types. Prior work has emphasized simplistic stranger vs. family dichotomies, and similar trichotomies. This study, drawing on officially reported child abductions employing NIBRS datasets (N = 29,293), emphasizes differences across abductors/victims in a four category relationship-based typology, including a newer category – ‘intimate partner abductions’. Findings contribute baseline knowledge about child abductions by countering misplaced media driven fears and placing empirical findings in a more accurate context. Findings also reveal that intimate partner abductions have a unique victim/offender/incident profile and are the most serious and most consequential to adolescent female victims.     

谁是叙述者？

“谁是叙述者”这个问题,对叙述者概念是虚构叙事的区别性内在代理者,提出质疑。这个概念曾经误导性地包含了虚构性。本文探讨了热奈特对叙述者类型的划分。在比较故事外的同质叙述者与故事的叙述者之后,认为所有叙述者和人物都在叙事中得到同等程度的再现。文章接着考量了故事外异质叙述者的情况,不仅研究了全知叙述和外聚焦的含义,而且也反驳了如下观点,即在这类叙事中,需要区别性叙述者,以便展示虚构的信息是已知的而不是想象的。在讨论作者对虚构话语的责任时,文章参照了言语行为理论,表明传统的虚构作品“假装”模式并不完善,一个可接受言语行为阐释不会假定有一个叙述者的存在,因此叙述者要么以角色身份,要么以作者身份出现。文章还讨论了针对本论点几种可能的反对意见：不可靠性的含义,关于局部叙述者和隐性叙述者的观点,以及隐含作者问题等。最后,本文简要阐明了该观点之于从修辞性角度而非从再现性角度来理解虚构作品的意义。     

Preventing youth suicide: issues for law enforcement personnel

Suicide is a leading cause of death for adolescents. A number of problem behaviors associated with youth suicide fall into the purview of law enforcement personnel, and they are therefore in a position to detect risk and prevent suicidal behaviors. Eight hundred one youth identified as having school difficulty, a group at increased risk for both suicide and legal problems, participated in a paper and pencil survey followed by an interview focusing on suicide risk and protective factors. Linear regression was used to examine the ability of factors within each risk and protective factor dimension to predict current suicide risk. The study goal was to determine the most relevant factors influencing suicide risk in each domain examined. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for assessment and policy for law enforcement personnel.     

Population data from the New South Wales Aboriginal Australian sub-population for the profiler plus autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) loci

It is a requirement that forensic DNA profiling evidence be accompanied by an estimation of its weight, in order that the court can assign an appropriate probative value to it during legal proceedings. There are various models by which this estimation can be made, but each relies on approximations of the allele frequencies in the relevant population. This report provides the results of population genetic analyses at nine autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) loci for the Aboriginal Australian sub-population of New South Wales, Australia.     

A decade of child-initiated family violence: comparative analysis of child--parent violence and parricide examining offender, victim, and event characteristics in a national sample of reported incidents, 1995-2005

This article examines 11 years (1995-2005) of National Incident Based Reporting System data comparing victim, offender, and incident characteristics for two types of child-initiated family violence: child-parent violence (CPV) and parricide. The objective is to better understand the victim-offender relationship for CPV and parricide and to highlight distinguishing features between the two offenses. This work extends the research and addresses shortcomings in the extant literature. Data analysis consists of chi-square tests and logistic regression. Findings suggest that CPV and parricide are distinct and unique crimes. In short, parricide offenders and victims are both older than CPV offenders and victims, with CPV offenders more likely to be female, more likely to be African American, and less likely to use a weapon than parricide offenders. The study calls for future research and exploration of preliminary support for a family violence escalation hypothesis.     

Tabet v Gett: the end of loss of chance actions in Australia?

This article critically analyses the recent High Court decision in Tabet v Gett (2010) 84 ALJR 292; [2010] HCA 12 which considered whether a person should be able to obtain compensation on the basis of a loss of a chance of a better medical outcome. The appellant argued that the High Court should regard a plaintiff as entitled to compensation when a breach by a defendant of their duty of care causes the plaintiff to lose a possibility, but not a probability, of a better medical outcome. The High Court held that it was not possible for a person in the position of the appellant to obtain compensation for the loss of a chance of a better medical outcome.