Are Judges Street‐Level Bureaucrats? Evidence from French and Canadian Family Courts

Although judges were included in the street‐level‐bureaucracy (SLB) group by Lipsky (1980), sociolegal scholars have barely used this theoretical framework to study them. This article aims to specify their position with respect to SLB in order to bridge the gap between public administration and sociolegal research. Specifically, using a cross‐national ethnography of judicial institutions, it compares family trial judges' practice on the ground in France and Canada. General conditions separate them from the core SLB group: encounters with clients are less direct; discretion is more legitimate. However, French judges are far closer to the SLB group than their Canadian counterparts regarding public encounters and case processing. As such, the accuracy of the SLB framework depends on professional and cultural patterns that combine differently in these two national contexts.     

Issue Ownership of the Economy: Cross-Time Effects on Vote Choice

Issue ownership has become a useful concept for explaining party and voter behaviour in electoral democracies. This article argues that issue ownership can also provide us with a better understanding of the economic issue’s impact on the vote because perceptions of party competence at managing the economy can counterbalance the influence of retrospective economic evaluations, by encouraging voters to put economic performance (good or bad) into perspective. These general expectations are tested with the use of individual-level survey data from five Canadian Election Studies conducted between 1984 and 2011. That relatively long period of time allows estimation of the impact on incumbent vote choice of competence perceptions and economic assessments during both good and bad economic times. Consequently, the article shows that issue ownership of the economy matters to vote choice, that its influence has been consistent across elections, and that it outweighs the impact of retrospective economic judgements.     

Public support for European defence: Does strategic culture matter?

This article identifies previously ignored determinants of public support for the European Union's security and defence ambitions. In contrast to public opinion vis‐à‐vis the EU in general, the literature on attitudes towards a putative European army or the existing Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) suggests that the explanatory power of sociodemographic and economic variables is weak, and focuses instead on national identity as the main determinant of one's support. This article explores the possible impact of strategic culture, and argues that preferences vis‐à‐vis the EU's security and defence ambitions are formed in part through pre‐existing social representations of security. To test this proposition, ‘national’ strategic cultures are disaggregated and a typology is produced that contains four strategic postures: pacifism, traditionalism, humanitarianism and globalism. Applying regression analysis on individual‐level Eurobarometer survey data, it is found that strategic postures help explain both the general level of support for CSDP and support for specific Petersberg tasks.     

Comparison of Factors Associated with Parricide in Adults and Adolescents

Despite high revalence rates of intimate partner violence in the lives of extremely poor women with depenent children, few studies have investigated the patterns of violence that occur over time, and the characteristics of women that serve as risk markers for partner violence. This study compared 43 adult parricides and 12 adolescent parricides. Several statistically significant differences were observed. Adults suffer from severe mental disorders, have a history of violent behavior and psychiatric antecedents, and are more likely to threaten their parents. Less predictable in their acting out, adolescents present several profiles as a function of victims’ sex, number of victims, diagnostic elements, and being witness to or victim of intrafamilial violence. Results suggest different approaches should be used to understand the dynamics and course of these two groups.     

International socialization at the state and individual levels: mixed evidence from intellectual property

This article synthesizes the results of two quantitative analyses, one at a macro and the second at a micro level, to shed light on the process of international socialization. The first analysis examines the seeming adoption of intellectual property norms at the state level while the second looks at the internalization of similar norms at the individual decision maker level. Both pay special attention to foreign education and capacity-building courses as carriers of US norms to developing countries. By triangulating the results of these analyses, we develop a more nuanced view of international socialization processes than analyses centred at only one level. We provide clear evidence that institutionalization of foreign norms often takes place prior to individual persuasion rather than as a result of it. We show that different socialization types (acculturation and persuasion) and the transmission of different idea types (causal and normative beliefs) may simultaneously operate in opposing directions. These conclusions reveal a bias in previous studies that focussed at only one level of analysis and support calls for greater eclecticism in the levels of analysis.     

Acute Aortic Dissection Diagnosed after Embalming: Macroscopic and Microscopic Findings

A 58‐year‐old man died suddenly in Madagascar and poisoning was suspected. The body was embalmed after death and the general state of preservation was good. We found a major aortic dissection with a large false lumen from the aortic root to the common iliac arteries and a hemopericardium with formalinized blood clot. The intimal tear was on the ascending aorta, and an intramural hemorrhage was noted at the right coronary artery, attesting to a retrograde dissection. Microscopic studies confirmed aortic dissection with extensive intramural hemorrhage and also confirmed the retrograde dissection to the right coronary artery with a reduction of 90% of the true lumen. Classically, aortic dissection occurs in individuals with hypertension and individuals with genetic disorders of collagen formation. The diagnosis is often first established at the postmortem examination. Aortic dissection is therefore dealt with largely in necropsy studies. The usual cause of death is rupture into the pericardial sac. One case of bloodless dissection has been reported but the sudden death was explained by acute myocardial ischemia secondary to dissection of the left coronary artery. In our case, we found major hemopericardium and also intramural hemorrhage at the right coronary artery. We were able to make the diagnosis of aortic dissection and exclude the suspicion of homicide 15 days after death and after embalming.     

Anthropological Facial Approximation in Three Dimensions (AFA3D): Computer‐Assisted Estimation of the Facial Morphology Using Geometric Morphometrics

This study presents Anthropological Facial Approximation in Three Dimensions (AFA3D), a new computerized method for estimating face shape based on computed tomography (CT) scans of 500 French individuals. Facial soft tissue depths are estimated based on age, sex, corpulence, and craniometrics, and projected using reference planes to obtain the global facial appearance. Position and shape of the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears are inferred from cranial landmarks through geometric morphometrics. The 100 estimated cutaneous landmarks are then used to warp a generic face to the target facial approximation. A validation by re‐sampling on a subsample demonstrated an average accuracy of c. 4 mm for the overall face. The resulting approximation is an objective probable facial shape, but is also synthetic (i.e., without texture), and therefore needs to be enhanced artistically prior to its use in forensic cases. AFA3D, integrated in the TIVMI software, is available freely for further testing.