Forensic informativity of domestic dog mtDNA control region sequences

We have analysed the genetic information to be obtained from analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in domestic dogs studying the exclusion capacity in different populations and the correlation between mtDNA types and breeds or types of dogs. The exclusion capacities for a 573 bp sequence of the mitochondrial control region was between 0.86 and 0.95 for dogs in Sweden, the UK, Germany, Japan and China. The direct correlation between mtDNA type and breed, type of dog, and geographical origin of breed was generally low, but in some cases certain mtDNA types were overrepresented in one breed, and for wider groupings such as morphologically similar breeds, some mtDNA types were in many cases found in a distinct group of breeds, often originating from the same geographic region. This type of information may be used as an indication of the breed and, with some degree of probability, to include or exclude certain breeds from being the source of evidence materials.     

Reforming the Human Tissue Acts

The Human Tissue Acts of the various States and Territories that were enacted following the 1977 Report of the Australian Law Reform Commission on Human Tissue Transplants are in need of an overhaul as a result of rapid advances in medical science and biotechnology, as well as growing public expectations regarding the ethical use of tissues and organs obtained from autopsies and other sources. The author argues that the time is ripe for a comprehensive review and revision of the Acts throughout the country in order to maintain a consistent approach.     

The End of Domestic Violence

In this article, I examine the rationales that have been given for extending domestic violence legislation to associated persons. I argue that the empirical and principled rationales are unfounded and that the ideological rationale is reactionary. With regard to the empirical rationale, the extent of violence that the aggregate of associated persons suffers is not high enough to justify privileging associated persons over other citizens with regard to protection from violence. In relation to the principled rationale, the impetus for domestic violence legislation was based on isolation and inequality, which are not experienced in particular by the category of associated persons when taken as a whole. With regard to the ideological rationale, it is worrying that intimacy and equality are emerging as the touchstones of a newer rationale for domestic violence legislation, which rightly has more to do with isolation and inequality than intimacy and equality.     

HUMAN TISSUE LEGISLATION AND MEDICAL PRACTICE: A BENEFIT OR A BURDEN?

The scandals surrounding organ removal and retention throughout the United Kingdom provoked several Inquiries and ultimately led to law reform. Although the medical professions were well represented at the Inquiries, little was heard of the voices of those at the 'coal face'. In this scoping study, funded by the Wellcome Trust, we interviewed a number of doctors and others engaged in the uses of human tissue and organs to explore their hopes, concerns and fears about the role of the law in their practices. We found that those involved in transplantation were more aware of, and more actively involve with, the law, whereas others, such as pathologists, had less direct engagement with the law. Most of those we interviewed expressed the hope that law reform would provide much-needed clarity. Although some expressed concern that the law might be over-intrusive, most felt that the placing of authority firmly in the hands of the person him or her self to decide what should happen to their bodies was to be welcomed.     

The Significance of Shame in the Lives of Women Who Experience Male Violence

Recently there has been recognition of the cultural politics of emotion, that is, the ways in which emotions impact upon individual life experiences. Significantly, it has been shown how emotions can produce effects of power on and through the bodies of individuals. Despite this knowledge, the law and legal responses tend to minimise, obscure and deny the ways in which emotions, and in particular shame, impacts upon individuals. This article therefore argues that the lives of women who experience male violence cannot be fully understood without reference to the ways in which shame affects those experiences. It explores how shame operates as a gendered set of self-regulatory practices, which are also practices of male power in individual womens’ lives. In order to do this findings from a small scale qualitative study which used semi-structured interviews with women who have experienced violence are utilised, together with a Foucauldian theoretical framework. The article contends that an awareness and understanding of how shame affects the lives of women experience male violence can improve law and social policy responses to male violence against women.     

Exploring how teenage boys are constructed in relation to parent abuse

Historically, the impact of domestic violence on children and young people has been relatively neglected in comparison to its effects upon adult women. Recently however, there has been increasing awareness of its effects upon this vulnerable group, with a recognition that they can and are profoundly affected by domestic violence (Hester et al., 2007). This growing awareness has been part of a broader trend of increased understanding of the many forms which domestic violence can take and its effects.     

Short notes on some books received

Africa's Management in the 1990s and Beyond: Reconciling Indigenous and Transplanted Institutions. By Mamadou Dia. Washington, DC: The World Bank, 1996. Pp.xii + 293. NP. ISBN 0 8213 3431 X

A Land Without Gods: Process Theory, Maldevelopment and the Mexican Nahuas. By Jacques M. Chevalier and Daniel Buckles. London: Zed Books, 1995. Pp.x + 374. £55.00/$69.95 and £19.95/$29.95. ISBN 1 85649 325 3 and 326 1

Local Resource Management in Africa. Edited by J.P.M. van den Breemer, C.A. Drijver and L.B. Venema. Chichester: John Wiley, 1995. Pp.xii + 245. £40. ISBN 0 47196004 7

Third World Cities in Global Perspective: The Political Economy of Uneven Urbanization. By David A. Smith. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996. Pp.xiii + 202. £40.95 and £13.50. ISBN 0 8133 8720 5 and 2998 1

Power of Development. Edited by Jonathon Crush. London and New York: Routledge, 1995. Pp.xvi + 324. £35 and £ 14.99. ISBN 0 415 11176 5 and 11177 3

Financial Liberalisation and Investment. By K.L. Gupta and R. Lensink. London: Routledge, 1996. Pp.xii + 183. £40. ISBN 0 415 13879 5

Anthropology of Tourism. By Denison Nash. Oxford, New York and Tokyo: Pergamon, 1996. Pp.ix + 205. £41/US$66. ISBN 0 0804 42398 1

Politics of Technology in Latin America. Edited by Maria Ines Bastos and Charles Cooper. London and New York: Routledge, 1995. Pp.xii + 258. £47.50. ISBN 0 415 12690

Voices from Mutira: Change in the Lives of Rural Gikuyu Women: 1910–1995. By Jean Davison. Boulder, CO and London: Lynne Reinner Publisher, 1996. Pp.vi + 271. £18.95. ISBN 1 55587 602 1

Women and Politics in the Third World. Edited by Haleh Afshar London: Croom Helm, 1996. Pp.xi + 210. £40 and £12.99. ISBN 0 415 13853 1 and 13861

Re‐Presenting the City: Ethnicity, Capital and Culture in the Twenty‐First Century Metropolis. Edited by Anthony D. King. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996. Pp.ix + 282. £42.50 and £13.99. ISBN 0 333 60191 2 and 60192 0

Women and Industrialization in Asia Edited by Susan Horton, London and New York: Routledge, 1996. £50. ISBN 0415 12907 9

Enterprise and the State in Korea and Taiwan. By Karl J. Fields. Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 1995. Pp.xiv + 269. NP. ISBN 0 8014 3009 7