The exclusion of Roma claimants in Canadian refugee policy

The arrival of thousands of European Roma seeking refugee status in Canada elicited a range of legislative and policy instruments that severely restrict their acceptance and create conditions antagonistic to further admissions. Interventions have included visa restrictions, actions by Immigration and Refugee Board, the Balanced Refugee Reform Act followed by the Protecting Canada's Immigration System Act, and ministerial rhetoric about the illegitimacy of Roma as refugees. Other factors have involved interpretations of persecution in relation to the Geneva Convention and Protocol, and the implications of the conditions required for membership to the European Union. These political circumstances in large part determine Canadian acceptance rates for the Roma. Their systematic exclusion is reminiscent of the historical treatment of other groups due to institutional racism. In the new racism, however, refugee law and policy is racist in effect while evading the language of race.     

Interpreting Injury Mechanisms of Blunt Force Trauma from Butterfly Fracture Formation

According to biomechanics of fracture production during blunt impact, tubular bones are subject to compressive (impact site) and tensile (opposite impact site) forces; this causes bones to break in tension before compression, producing Y-shaped fracture patterns with breakaway (butterfly) fragments. In current forensic models, the side of the bone exhibiting the breakaway fragment is designated the impact side, with initial breakage occurring opposite. Fracture production and patterning of blunt impacts to 255 sheep femora were analyzed. Contra the existing model, only 60% of complete butterfly fractures exhibited impact side breakaway fragments. Although fractures initiated on the tension, nonimpact side, butterfly fragments formed on either compression or tension sides. Using newly defined breakaway fragment shape criteria, impact side was estimated with 98% accuracy for both complete and partial butterfly fractures. Furthermore, the results suggest that the impact site is the located on one of the Y-fracture's arms, not the butterfly fragment's center, as previously modeled.     

Filtering speed in a Continental European reorganization procedure

Recent studies of US Chapter 11 show it to be a relatively efficient procedure. We examine reorganization cases in a Continental European, creditor-oriented bankruptcy system, viz. Belgium, and report very different findings. Using hazard and cure regression models to determine what drives the length of time spent in reorganizations, we find evidence suggesting that courts have little impact on the screening and filtering process. In fact, many drivers of procedure length prove to have the opposite sign of what one would expect if the procedure would efficiently realise its goals. Instead, the procedure appears to be mainly creditor or owner-driven.     

Physical victimization in prison: the role of mental illness

This study compares prison physical victimization rates (inmate-on-inmate and staff-on-inmate) for people with mental disorder to those without mental disorder in a state prison system. Inmate subjects were drawn from 14 adult prisons operated by a single mid-Atlantic State. A sample of 7,528 subjects aged 18 or older (7,221 men and 564 women) completed an audio-computer administered survey instrument. Mental disorder was based on self-reported mental health treatment ever for particular mental disorders. Approximately one-quarter of the sample reported some prior treatment for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, PTSD, or anxiety disorder. Rates of physical victimization for males with any mental disorder were 1.6 times (inmate-on-inmate) and 1.2 times (staff-on-inmate) higher than that of males with no mental disorder. Female inmates with mental disorder were 1.7 times more likely to report being physically victimized by another inmate than did their counterparts with no mental disorder. Overall, both males and females with mental disorder are disproportionately represented among victims of physical violence inside prison.     

Women arrested for partner violence and substance use: an exploration of discrepancies in the literature

Discrepancies exist in research examining substance problems within groups of women arrested for intimate partner violence (IPV). In some studies women IPV arrestees have been found to be at high risk for substance-related problems, whereas in others they are found to be at low risk for substance-related problems. The current study explores these discrepancies then compares a sample of women court ordered to a domestic violence diversion program (n = 78) to a matched sample of men (n = 78) in the same program using police report information, self-report measures, the Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory-3, and the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III alcohol and drug subscales. Women IPV arrestees had a low occurrence of substance use during the arresting incident, a low incidence of substance-related diagnoses, and fewer substance-related problems than did men IPV arrestees. However, women demonstrated personality structures susceptible to nondiagnosable, hazardous drinking patterns.     

Executive Orders and Administrative Control

One of the key recommendations of the Winter Commission was the empowerment of governors over the executive branch. However, key institutions have not evolved in this direction; the long ballot still exists in most states, and the formal powers of governors have strengthened to their probable capacity. The authors suggest that a quasi‐formal power—the gubernatorial use of executive orders—may be a significant tool for empowering the governor in the state administrative realm. Analyzing all executive orders in 49 states for 2004 and 2005, they find variation in the aggregate use of and functions performed through these orders. Many executive orders do allow the government more direction and control of state bureaucracy. Finally, the authors suggest that the study of executive orders may be necessary to understand gubernatorial power in the executive arena and beyond.     

Splitting the Atom of Sovereignty: Term Limits, Inc.'s Conflicting Views of Popular Autonomy in a Federal Republic

In his concurrence to U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thorton, JusticeAnthony Kennedy described federalism as an attempt to "splitthe atom of sovereignty." As Term Limits demonstrates, the taskis an incredibly difficult one, which deeply rends the Court.One block, currently composed of Justices John Paul Stevens,David Souter, Ruth Baider Ginsburg, and Stephen Breyer, viewthe source of constitutional authority as residing in the peopleof the nation as a whole; the other block, made up of ChiefJustice William Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor,Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas, argue that the constitutionalwellspring is the people of each individual state. Justice Kennedy,now occupying the Court's middle ground, stresses the "dualcharacter" of federal government. The debate is much morethanacademic. Depending on how it is played out, the argument mayhave profound implications for the understanding and practiceof U.S. federalism.