BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS TO PROTECT CHILDREN

A collaboration between Hawaii's Family Court and Child Protective Services resulted in statewide adoption of a form of family group conferencing–called 'Ohana Conferencing–which involves immediate and extended family, child welfare professionals, and others in a process of planning for the safety of children. The authors describe this model, its principles, origins, and format, emphasizing the importance within the conference of private family time apart from professionals. They discuss similarities and differences between 'Ohana Conferencing and mediation, case conferences, and therapy, 'Ohana Conferencing changes the relations among court (by diverting cases), family, and professionals; the authors address issues and challenges arising from this shift, such as the role of professionals, confidentiality, and decisions about whether to hold a conference and who may invite or veto attendees.     

Campaign activities and state election outcomes

This research first clusters campaign activities in state legislative elections into five empirically justified and conceptually meaningful clusters: direct attempts to persuade voters, obtaining the support of other elites, attempts to increase turnout, seeking endorsements from other political officials, and fund raising. Indices created from these clusters are then compared to the situational factors of incumbency and competition as predictors of election outcomes. Data are surveys of candidates for the Louisiana legislature in which they were asked about the conduct of their campaigns and their relative emphasis on various activities. Incumbency was by far the best predictor of what percentage of the vote a candidate obtained, and in open seat contests, expenditures and competition best predicted outcome. Overall, the campaign activities had very little relationship to outcome when controlling for situational factors. Variations occurred between the House and Senate races with implications for challengers' strategies and campaign financing.     

Re Lavigne and Ontario Public Service Employees Union: public administration and remedial decree litigation under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Abstract: Analysts studying the political impact of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms have tended to focus on the role of the Supreme Court of Canada and on the formulation of remedies for Charter violations under s. 52(1) of the Constitution Act, 1982 (judicial nullification) and s. 24(2) of the Charter (exclusion of evidence). Without denying the importance of the Supreme Court, or the impact of nullification and exclusion of evidence, it is important to recognize that s. 24(1) of the Charter provides a remedial alternative whose implementation is likely to occur primarily within lower courts, and whose potential policy consequences are vast. What makes s. 24(1) so potentially important is that it provides courts the opportunity to shape and administer social policy directly through positive and prospective remedies. This article offers a preliminary exploration of this phenomenon by utilizing a model of remedial decree litigation developed in the United States to examine the most interesting s. 24(1) case yet considered by lower courts: Re Lavigne and Ontario Public Service Employees Union. The aim of the article is to explore the extent to which Canadian courts are restructuring their decision-making processes to undertake the institutional obligations imposed on them by remedial decree litigation under the Charter. Sommaire: Les analystes qui étudient l'impact politique de la Charte des droits et Iibertés axent leurs travaux sur le rôle de la Cour suprême du Canada et sur la formulation des sanctions pour violation de la Charte en vertu de l'art. 52(1) de la Loi constitutionnelle de 1982 (invalidation judiciaire) et de l'art. 24(2) de la Charte (exclusion de preuve). Sans nier ni l'importance de la Cour suprême, ni celle de l'impact de l'invalidation ou de l'exclusion de preuve, il est important de reconnaître que l'art 24(1) de la Charte fournit un mode de sanctions dont l'application est plus susceptible de se produire de-vant les tribunaux inférieurs et dont les conséquences politiques éventuelles sont nom-breuses. L'importance de l'art 24(1) tient à ce qu'il donne aux tribunaux la possibilité de formuler et d'appliquer directement des politiques sociales par le biais de sanctions positives et prospectives. Cet article étudie ce phénomène en utilisant un modéle de jugement réparateur élaboré aux États-Unis pour examiner au titre de l'art. 24(1) un tribunal inférieur: Re Lavigne et le Syndicat des employés de Infection publiyue de l'Ontorio. L'objet de cet article est d'étudier dans quelle mesure les tribunaux canadiens restructuring leurs procédures de prise de décisions pour mettre en oeuvre les obligations institutionalism qui leur sont attribuées par les recours réparateurs qu'autorise la Charte.     

Genetic Testing and the Future of Disability Insurance: Ethics, Law & Policy

Predictive genetic testing poses fundamental questions for disability insurance, a crucial resource funding basic needs when disability prevents income from work. This article, from an NIH-funded project, presents the first indepth analysis of the challenging issues: Should disability insurers be permitted to consider genetics and exclude predicted disability? May disabilities with a recognized genetic basis be excluded from coverage as pre-existing conditions? How can we assure that private insurers writing individual and group policies, employers, and public insurers deal competently and appropriately with genetic testing?     

Defining and classifying serial murder in the context of perpetrator motivation

The last several decades have seen increased research attention to the subject of serial murder. Unfortunately, an empirical understanding of serial homicide continues to be impeded by difficulties in establishing a working definition for serial murder. Current definitions for serial homicide tend to focus on frequency and timing of homicide behaviors, and thus leave some confusion as to which groups of individuals should be included under the heading of serial murders. This article suggests alterations to the definition of serial murder, which focus not only on frequency and timing of homicide behaviors, but also on the motivation and context of those behaviors.