Characteristic Features of Severe Child Physical Abuse—A Multi-informant Approach

Minor child physical abuse has decreased in Sweden since 1979, when a law banning corporal punishment of children was passed, but more serious forms have not decreased. The aim of this study was to examine risk and background factors in cases of severe child abuse reported to the police. Files from different agencies (e.g., Social services, Adult and Child psychiatry and Pediatric clinic) for 20 children and 34 caretakers were studied. An accumulation of risk factors was found. It is concluded that when the following four factors are present, there is a risk for severe child abuse: 1) a person with a tendency to use violence in conflict situations; 2) a strong level of stress on the perpetrator and the family; 3) an insufficient social network that does not manage to protect the child; 4) a child that does not manage to protect him or herself. Thus, multiple sources of information must be used when investigating child abuse.     

Treatment of Concurrent Substance Dependence,Child Neglect and Domestic Violence: A Single Case Examination Involving Family Behavior Therapy

Although child neglect and substance abuse co-occur in greater than 60% of child protective service cases, intervention outcome studies are deplorably lacking. Therefore, a home-based Family Behavior Therapy is described in the treatment of a woman evidencing child neglect, substance dependence, domestic violence and other co-occurring problems. Treatment included contingency management, self control, stimulus control, communication and child management skills training exercises, and financial management components. Results indicated improvements in child abuse potential, home hazards, domestic violence, and drug use, which were substantiated by objective urinalysis testing, and tours of her home. Validity checks indicated the participant was being truthful in her responses to standardized questionnaires, and assessors were “blind” to study intent. Limitations (i.e., lack of experimental control and follow-up data collection) of this case example are discussed in light of these results.     

Activity Fields and the Dynamics of Crime

Our current understanding of the role of the social environment in crime causation is at best rudimentary. Guided by the theoretical framework of Situational Action Theory, and using data from the ESRC financed Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study (PADS+), this paper aims to propose how we can better theorise and study the role of the social environment, particularly the person and place interaction, in crime causation. We will introduce, and illustrate the usefulness of, a space–time budget methodology as a means of capturing people’s exposure to settings and describing their activity fields. We will suggest and demonstrate that, combined with a small area community survey and psychometric measures of individual characteristics, a space–time budget is a powerful tool for advancing our knowledge about the role of the social environment, and its interaction with people’s crime propensity, in crime causation. Our unique data allows us to study the convergence in time and space of crime propensity, criminogenic exposure and crime events. As far as we are aware, such an analysis has never before been carried out. The findings show that there are (a) clear associations between young people’s activity fields and their exposure to criminogenic settings, (b) clear associations between their exposure to criminogenic settings and their crime involvement, and, crucially, (c) that the influence of criminogenic exposure depends on a person’s crime propensity. Having a crime-averse morality and strong ability to exercise self-control appears to make young people practically situationally immune to the influences of criminogenic settings, while having a crime-prone morality and poor ability to exercise self-control appears to make young people situationally vulnerable to the influences of criminogenic settings.     

Kein Aussonderungsrecht am Kaufpreis im Konkurs des Verkäufers aufgrund der Nebenabrede, den Kaufpreis für den Fall der Ausübung eines Rückverkaufsrechts "treuhändig" zu halten

Eine Vereinbarung, derzufolge die Verk?ufer nach wirksamer übertragung des verkauften Gesch?ftsanteils an einer GmbH den dafür gezahlten Kaufpreis für den Fall der Ausübung eines Rückverkaufsrechts des K?ufers "treuh?ndig" für den K?ufer halten und dabei das wirtschaftliche Risiko (etwa einer verlustbringenden Veranlagung) tragen sollen, gew?hrt dem K?ufer im Konkurs der Verk?ufer kein Aussonderungsrecht. Durch die Geltendmachung des Rückverkaufsrechts im Sinn des § 1071 ABGB entsteht lediglich ein schuldrechtlicher Anspruch auf übertragung des (im Voraus festgelegten) Rückkaufpreises gegen Rückübertragung der Gesellschaftsanteile. Die dargestellte Nebenabrede der Parteien rechtfertigt es nicht, die Forderungen gegen die Bank als den Verk?ufern wirtschaftlich fremdes Verm?gen anzusehen; sie kann daher keinen Aussonderungsgrund bilden.     

Urteilsveröffentlichung in einem ausländischen Medium

§ 51 MedienG ist im Verh?ltnis zu § 34 Abs 5 MedienG als lex posterior anzusehen, die der letztgenannten Bestimmung (teilweise, soweit § 51 MedienG auf eine Urteilsver?ffentlichung in einem ausl?ndischen Medium anzuwenden ist) derogiert hat. Ver?ffentlichungen haben grunds?tzlich im (auch ausl?ndischen) Medium selbst (durchsetzbar nach § 20 MedienG) – und nicht in einem Ersatzmedium – zu erfolgen. Die internationale Zust?ndigkeit des inl?ndischen Gerichts für die Anordnung der Urteilsver?ffentlichung als zivilrechtlichen Anspruch iSd EuGVVO auch auf einer Website bestimmt sich nach Art 5 Nr 3 EuGVVO, wonach Ansprüche aus einer unerlaubten Handlung (Deliktsklage) auch an jenem Ort geltend gemacht werden k?nnen, an dem das sch?digende Ereignis eingetreten ist. Auch die vom EuGH für ehrenrührige ?u?erungen in Medien entwickelte Sonderregel, nach der der Gesch?digte nicht in allen Staaten, in denen die ?u?erung verbreitet wurde, den gesamten Schaden einklagen kann, sondern jeweils nur jenen Teil, der sich in dem Staat konkret verwirklicht hat, steht dem nicht entgegen.     

Kollaudierung, zuständige Behörde

Für die überprüfung nach § 121 WRG ist die "zur Erteilung der Bewilligung zust?ndige Beh?rde" zust?ndig. Hat sich zwischen der Erteilung der Bewilligung und der überprüfung die Zust?ndigkeit ge?ndert, ist für die überprüfung jene Beh?rde zust?ndig, die zum überprüfungszeitpunkt für die Bewilligung zust?ndig w?re.     

The Event and the Subject: The (IM)Possible Rehabilitation of Carl Schmitt

The subject is the bearer of the sovereign decision, according to C. Schmitt. This decision grounds on certain situational pragmatics, yet mainly is born out of a ‘null’; as the decision forms the political normalcy that follows after, it displays its nature as an ‘event’. This subject is simultaneously a legal and a political one; it is the founder of the Nomos. This founding subject has been eclipsed in alignment with its post-modernly acclaimed ‘death’. The subject is deemed to have been inherently divided, as long as its identity steadily postpones itself, is incessantly ‘differing’, according to the deconstructionist approach; or it is considered as fundamentally ‘passive’, meaning not so much ‘weak’, but rather dethroning the Western preoccupation with the active autonomous individual; or, it is maintained but intrinsically reversed, now held either as part of a fundamental ontological order and indirectly of the nature (Agamben), or, opposite to Kantian assumptions, as primarily captured in a radical heteronomy, which constitutes it as a proper ethical subject (Levinas). Crucial is how to develop a concept taking into account the eventfulness of the constitution of the subject, without effacing the political character of such constitution by reducing it to non-political discourses, i.e., to metaphysics, morals or economics; how to conceive of Derrida’s ‘democracy to-come’ as political event, namely both as secular act and in the same time as referring to extramundane fundaments (to a ‘political theology’?); how to go beyond the linearity of the liberalist ideology by equating the political event with a messianic miracle ‘without messianism’; how to ‘salute’ democracy?     

The practice of birth control and historical fertility change: Introduction

This introduction discusses the contributions in the special issue. The articles present results concerning the practice of birth control, mainly at the family level. They represent different analytical approaches where both interviews, letters, surveys and micro-level data have been used. The European fertility decline has made a fundamental change to the societies in the 20th and 21st centuries. Birth control spreads rapidly. Research in this field requires both qualitative and quantitative studies, where both approaches contribute to different perspectives on the transition. The articles in the issue discuss several themes in relation to birth control, of which three are developed in the introduction. These are gender and fertility, gender and health and finally how to control fertility. The presented results demonstrate the importance of including gender in the analyses of the fertility decline. A gender perspective makes it natural to consider historical persons as agents. It is also necessary to acknowledge that we should not treat the married couple as a single unit. They may have conflicting interests, something that several of the articles illustrate. One aspect we would like to emphasize is how health problems can influence the will to have more children and this affects birth control. This is a theme that in different forms is taken up by several of the authors. Finally, families practiced birth control with several different methods that also changed throughout the married years, thus demonstrating a flexibility that is often overlooked in conventional methods for the analysis of fertility.     

Fundamental rights in the EU after Kadi and Al Barakaat

This article takes stock of the emerging scholarship on the European Court of Justice's 2008 Kadi decision and seeks to make sense of the court's apparent evasiveness towards international law. The article argues that Kadi is best understood as an act of civil disobedience prompted by the UN Security Council's misapplication of foundational principles of the international order. In turn, the court's forceful articulation of the stakes in this case signals a prioritisation of basic rights within the supranational constitutional architectonic. In this respect, the ‘domestic’ constitutional implications of Kadi are just as far reaching as its consequences for the EU's status as an actor under international law.     

Using Alkylate Components for Classifying Gasoline in Fire Debris Samples

The characteristic that discriminates gasoline from other ignitable liquids is that it contains high‐octane blending components. This study elaborates on the idea that the presence of gasoline in fire debris samples should be based on the detection of known high‐octane blending components. The potential of the high‐octane blending component alkylate as a characteristic feature for gasoline detection and identification in fire debris samples is explored. We have devised characteristic features for the detection of alkylate and verified the presence of alkylate in a large collection of gasoline samples from petrol stations in the Netherlands. Alkylate was detected in the vast majority of the samples. It is demonstrated that alkylate can be detected in fire debris samples that contain traces of gasoline by means of routine GC‐MS methods. Detection of alkylate, alongside other gasoline blend components, results in a more solid foundation for gasoline detection and identification in fire debris samples.