Objections to medico-legal autopsy--recent developments in case law

Medico-legal autopsies can be directed by coroners. However, in a number of jurisdictions family members can lodge objections with coroners against such procedures taking place. The authors analyse the objections, successful and unsuccessful, taken in Australia. Reviewing recent Victorian developments, they emphasise the public interest in autopsies which reveal medical causes of death. They identify the ongoing importance of coroners being able to exercise their statutory function to undertake death investigations effectively and to make informed recommendations to reduce the incidence of avoidable deaths.     

The transfer of property rights by theft: an economic analysis

This article studies the voluntary transfer of property that had been stolen—a topic almost unexplored in the law and economics literature. The question is whether a buyer of a stolen good should obtain title to the good if he/she has purchased it in good faith. As described in the article different jurisdictions treat this issue differently. The traditional theory suggests that there is a trade-off between the costs of protecting the good and the costs of verifying the ownership. However, as shown, the rule of law concerning this issue significantly affects parties’ incentives. Specifically, it is shown that a rule of law where good faith is irrelevant in determining the issue of property rights Pareto dominates a rule where good faith may protect an innocent buyer. Thus, an owner of an asset will spend more resources on protecting his property and potential buyers will incur higher costs in order to verify the ownership when good faith is decisive for the transfer of property rights.     

ANALYSIS OF MEDIATION AGREEMENTS OF FAMILIES REPORTING SPECIFIC TYPES OF INTIMATE PARTNER ABUSE

The purpose of this study was to carefully measure Intimate Partner Abuse (IPA) behaviors among a large ( n  = 864 couples) sample of pairs of husbands and wives who were mandated to attend divorce mediation and then to: categorize the behaviors into theoretically-driven types of IPA, determine the number of cases screened out of mediation for any reason, and investigate whether measured outcomes of mediation (primary physical and legal custody) were related to IPA. Results indicated that rarely was IPA not reported—the most frequently reported IPA behavior was psychological abuse (98% of wives; 97% of husbands), followed by physical abuse (58% of wives; 54% of husbands), escalated physical abuse (62% of wives; 50% of husbands), and sexual intimidation, coercion and rape (56% of wives; 29% of husbands). Rarely were couples reporting IPA screened out of mediation (5%), and rarely were supervised parenting time or restrictions on contact between parents included in mediated agreements made by couples reporting IPA (6.5%). The overall level of IPA was unrelated to the specific terms of mediated agreements; however, by far the most frequent type of mediated agreement the couples' negotiated in mediation was for primary physical custody to go to the wife and for the husband and wife to have joint legal custody (59% of cases). Analysis of the implications of these findings and policy recommendations are included.     

Don’t let them kill you on some dirty roadway: survival,entitled violence,and the culture of modern American policing

The police subculture serves as a means for police officers to cope with the perceived stresses associated with police work, including the belief that their lives are constantly threatened by dangerous ‘others’. As a result, the police subculture is peppered with racialized survivability discourse that reminds police of the possibility of their own mortality, mobilizes them through fear, and facilitates an entitlement to violence in the name of guardianship. Drawing from the author’s past experiences as a police officer, this paper offers insight into how, through this racialized police survivability discourse, police officers come to believe that their lives are more valuable than others, particularly when compared to Black lives. This has not only been demonstrated by the disproportionate killing of unarmed Black men but also by the emergence of the Blue Lives Matter ‘movement’ that arose in direct oppositional response to the subculture’s perceived threat of the Black Lives Matter movement.     

Multilevel Modeling in Family Violence Research

Family violence researchers often use an ecological perspective to describe persons nested within groups. Further, family violence researchers frequently investigate whether group characteristics impact individual outcomes. The theoretical orientation and research designs typically used therefore present opportunities to utilize multilevel modeling (MLM) for clustered designs. It is widely understood that MLM corrects standard errors for grouped data, though other approaches can address this issue. Importantly, MLM presents a structured approach to the examination of group differences in outcomes, group differences in the association between the characteristics of persons and these outcomes, and the explanation of group differences using group-level characteristics. This journal frequently receives studies that use MLM for clustered designs, and a set of analytical guidelines may assist authors in preparing such articles so as to properly implement and better leverage the power of MLM to advance family violence research. I describe MLM for the new user, providing guidance on estimation of these models in the context of two examples. In addition, for more experienced users of MLM, I argue for greater attention to between-group and compositional effects that may be prevalent in family violence research, and the opportunities they may raise for a better understanding of the complexities at the group level. In closing I discuss some extensions of MLM and place MLM in the context of research design, providing guidelines for designing, carrying out, and reporting findings from studies that use these methods.     

普京政权交接问题和俄罗斯外交

历史上俄国领导人的政治任期与俄的国际地位有一定的相关性。俄政权交接制度化程度较低,往往影响到国内和国际稳定。考虑到普京任内卓越的贡献和影响力,其政权交接问题对俄外交势将产生重要的影响。如果2008年普京离任,其外交方针将保持延续性,即普京的接班人将继续一方面把欧亚中部作为外交政策的优先着力点,另一方面努力保持与G7为代表的发达世界之间的和谐。受种种结构性因素制约,如果将来的权力交接出现失控,不排除普京时代的外交进程中断的可能。     

Incarcerated Mothers of Minor Children: Physical Health,Substance Use,and Mental Health Needs

Mothers of minor children serving sentences in a large Midwestern jail were screened for potential substance use problems and asked to report their physical and mental health status and treatment experiences. Of mothers screened for substance use problems, 72.1% had positive findings on the AUDIT-12, 56.7% reported at least one serious physical health problem, and 67.1% had received mental health treatment. More than two-thirds (68.8%) of the 240 mothers reported a co-occurring condition, and a third (33.8%) reported problems in all three spheres (substance use, mental health, and physical health). The relationship among the three health-related problems is examined as well as the characteristics of mothers related to having co-occurring health conditions. Given that the overwhelming majority of mothers reported more than one health-related problem, the changes to policy and practice need to avoid simplistic solutions.     

I Told Steve Bannon: “We Are Not At War With Islam.” He Disagreed

I was the target of Islamist ire for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper. But a war against all Muslims is not the solution.