Legislature size and government spending in Italian regions: Forecasting the effects of a reform

We analyze the effect of different legislature size on per capita regional expenditure in Italy. According to the theory, legislature size has an indefinite effect on government spending because logrolling and transaction costs may have canceling effects. We find a large and significantly positive effect of the number of legislators. We use these findings to forecast the effects of the increase in the number of legislators that is taking place in some regions: a 10% increase in legislature size commands on average a 12% increase in per capita regional expenditure.     

Women Victims of Violent Partners: The Italian Situation Amid Culture and Psychopathology

In 2006, the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) conducted a survey over the entire national territory of women victims of sexual, physical, and psychologic violence, a few years after the first survey, conducted in 2002. For the 2002 survey, respondents were 60,000 women, 22,759 of whom were aged 14–59 years. For the 2006 survey, the sample consisted of 25,000 women aged 16–70 years. Owing to the sensitivity of the issues, the telephone survey technique seems best suited because it provides more anonymity and guarantee of protection. The survey showed that the phenomenon of violence against women is most commonly perpetrated by the partner or ex‐partner, even in cases of homicide. A comparison of the Italian data with those of the U.S.A. for the period 2001–2006 showed a specificity of Intimate Partner Violence in Italy, that seems to be related to cultural elements and psychologic and psychopathologic factors.     

Psychiatric disorders and management of sexual offenders in the prison psychiatric consultation unit of Marseille

Since 2017, complaints of sexual violence have increased in France. At the same time, the management of sexual offenders has been at the center of international public health policies. The prevalence of mental disorders among sexual offenders is an essential field of research. There are some published studies on the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in sexual offenders in detention, but there are few recent published studies among French individuals who were detained. Our objectives were to determine the prevalence of psychiatric disorders among persons detained for sexual offenses and the level of care received according to their diagnosis. For this purpose, we carried out a retrospective observational study from January 2017 to October 2021 of all adult sexual offenders, whether accused or convicted, who were seen in the psychiatric consultation unit of Les Baumettes prison, Marseille, France. The primary outcome measure was the psychiatric diagnosis entered in the medical records. One hundred forty-two patients were included in analysis. All patients were men, and the majority (n = 97, 68.3%) of these patients presented with at least one psychiatric disorder, principally a personality disorder (31.7%). 10.6% presented with a schizophrenic disorder, 4.9% a bipolar disorder, 3.5% a depressive disorder, 5.6% pedophilic paraphilia, and 25.4% an addictive disorder. Their management and comorbid addictions were analyzed in subgroups for each psychiatric disorder. Patients appeared to receive an appropriate level of care for their diagnosed disorder. It seems important to develop structured assessment of recidivism risk for better management of sexual offenders.     

Distinct age-related differences among victims in cases of suspected child abuse

Evidence describing age-related differences among children with suspected physical and sexual child abuse is lacking. We describe findings in severe cases of suspected abuse. Cases with 756 children <15 years old were included during 2001–2013 at the Department of Forensic Medicine, Aarhus University, using forensic evaluation documents, medical records, and court proceedings. Eight percent of children <4 years old died from child abuse, 36% through violence resulting in death, and 64% by manslaughter, whereas 1% > 4 years old died, solely by manslaughter. External injuries were mainly located to head and torso in children <4 years old, changing to the upper and lower extremities in older children. Child sexual abuse was suspected in 52% of cases with living children <4 years old, 83% of children 4–7 years of age, 88% of children 8–11 years of age, and 93% of children >12 years old. Anogenital findings were mainly caused by other medical conditions in children <4 years old, hymenal clefts in the superior half of the hymenal rim were almost exclusively found in children between 8 and 11 years of age, whereas both superficial and complete hymenal clefts in the inferior half of the hymenal rim were found in children >12 years old. The present study describes age-related differences in victims of suspected child abuse. Fatal versus nonfatal child physical abuse and the significance of hymenal findings in child sexual abuse could be studied further.     

Fighting terrorism with nonviolence: an ideological perspective

ABSTRACT

This article explores the potential of using nonviolence as a counter-ideology against terrorism. I analyse the current scholarship on nonviolence and terrorism, highlighting that terrorist ideology is crucial but is not directly addressed by nonviolent scholars. I outline a different approach to nonviolence, one which interprets the latter as an ideology of praxis centred on the interrelatedness of life, freedom and plurality. This ideology shares with terrorist ideologies the emphasis on action and conflict to overcome a grievance, but it offers a completely different path centred on diverse citizenship, building alternative social mechanisms (going beyond the focus on institutions), and omnicracy.     

An Experimental Investigation of Electoral Delegation and the Provision of Public Goods

How effectively do democratic institutions provide public goods? Despite the incentives an elected leader has to free ride or impose majority tyranny, our experiment demonstrates that electoral delegation results in full provision of the public good. Analysis of the experimental data suggests that the result is primarily due to electoral selection: groups elect prosocial leaders and replace those who do not implement full contribution outcomes. However, we also observe outcomes in which a minimum winning coalition exploits the contributions of the remaining players. A second experiment demonstrates that when electoral delegation must be endogenously implemented, individuals voluntarily cede authority to an elected agent only when preplay communication is permitted. Our combined results demonstrate that democratic delegation helps groups overcome the free‐rider problem and generally leads to outcomes that are often both efficient and equitable.     

Determination of stature from skeletal and skull measurements by CT scan evaluation

The aim of this article is to find a correlation between height and femur/skull measurements through Computed Tomography (CT) scans and derive regression equations for total skeletal height estimation in the Caucasian population. We selected 200 Caucasian patients from March 2010 to July 2011 who had to perform a CT scan for cancer restaging. The mean age is 64.5 years. Both sexes are represented by the same number of persons. Patients have executed a total body CT scan with contrast; once scan accomplished, we measured height through a digital scales. We analyzed CT scans of each patient, obtaining multiplanar reconstruction in sagittal and coronal planes with 1mm of thickness, and we measured 10 diameters of skull and femur. Then we performed a single and a multiple regression analysis considering the three diameters that better correlated with height. The skeletal diameters with the highest correlation coefficients with stature were femur lengths, length of cranial base (Ba-N), and distance from the posterior extremity of the cranial base to the inferior point of the nasal bone (Ba-NB). Although both femur and skull are skeletal segments used for stature estimation, in our sample femur gave stronger correlation with height than skull. h=35.7+1.48·BaN+2.32·BaNB+2.53·FEM and h=3.06·FEM+72.6 are the formulae that provided the most accurate stature assessment using multiple and single regression analysis respectively.     

The recovery of latent text from thermal paper using a simple iodine treatment procedure

Faded, or actively removed text on thermally printed paper samples may be enhanced and retrieved through the use of a simple iodine fuming procedure. The recovery of printed documentation evidence in this fashion is neither affected by prior fingerprint enhancement techniques (such as ninhydrin or DFO), nor by sample age. This method allows, for the first time, evidence to be obtained from completely faded thermal paper samples (receipts, for example) as well as allowing deliberately removed printed text (a consequence of solvent washing pre-treatment in latent fingerprint enhancement procedures) to be recovered.