Violent Victimization and Perpetration: Joint and Distinctive Implications for Adolescent Development

To date few reports have provided direct comparison of psychosocial vulnerability and resources among youth with victimization and perpetration histories. Within a racially diverse, high-risk adolescent sample (n = 849), this study undertakes MANCOVA tests on a multidimensional set of risk and protective factors contrasting youth with histories of 1) neither violent victimization nor perpetration, 2) victimization only , 3) both perpetration only, and 4) both victimization and perpetration. All three violence-affected groups reported elevated risk and diminished protection, with perpetrating victims demonstrating the greatest psychosocial impairment. Detailed contrasts among the youth group profiles provide insights regarding overlapping and distinct developmental etiologies and implications for preventive and remedial intervention.     

Disobedience to Law – Debbie Purdy's Case

This case note examines the implications of the House of Lords decision to order the DPP to issue offence specific guidelines allowing those contemplating assisting terminally ill persons to commit suicide to know the risk they face of prosecution under section 2(1) of the Suicide Act 1961. On the assumption that these guidelines will be law, and binding upon the DPP as well as the CPS, does this represent a change in the law, or a situation in which it may be unlawful to enforce the law, or even generate a legal right of disobedience to law?     

Quantifying the Accuracy of Forensic Examiners in the Absence of a “Gold Standard”

This study asked whether latent class modeling methods and multiple ratings of the same cases might permit quantification of the accuracy of forensic assessments. Five evaluators examined 156 redacted court reports concerning criminal defendants who had undergone hospitalization for evaluation or restoration of their adjudicative competence. Evaluators rated each defendant’s Dusky-defined competence to stand trial on a five-point scale as well as each defendant’s understanding of, appreciation of, and reasoning about criminal proceedings. Having multiple ratings per defendant made it possible to estimate accuracy parameters using maximum likelihood and Bayesian approaches, despite the absence of any “gold standard” for the defendants’ true competence status. Evaluators appeared to be very accurate, though this finding should be viewed with caution.     

Trials and Miscarriages: an evolutionary socio-historical analysis

Periodically miscarriages of justice become newsworthy and inform not only those who may have some responsibility for their occurrence and rectification, but the general public as well. At those times proposals for reform tend to ensue, and reforms occur. But such occasions are rarely considered historically or understood from an evolutionary perspective. This article undertakes to offer that missing feature. It attempts to inform the periodic highly charged discussion of miscarriages of justice with an understanding of their ingredients illustrated by both some recent and some much older history. The article presents the thesis that miscarriages of justice are a component of the workings of all criminal justice systems, part of their operations, rather than their malfunction. It shows how miscarriages of justice are the criminal justice system’s answer to a prior problem, the functional need to convict more persons than can be shown, with certainty, to have committed the crimes of which they have been charged. This thesis has the implication of inserting some modesty into proposals for reform, not to decry their attempts, but to inspire less naivety. The article focuses on the changing methods of the criminal trial, throughout the second millennium and up to the present day, as an expression of the underlying problématique that represents its thesis.     

Ideas, innovations, and networks: a new policy model based on the evolution of knowledge

In this paper, we argue that a new policy model for science and technology is needed and must be evolutionary in nature. The paper proposes utilizing the idea innovation network theory as a framework for assessing sectoral innovation patterns and identifies six types, or “arenas,” of research that are linked to innovation within these networks. Following the idea innovation network theory, the paper argues that two societal trends, the fragmentation of markets and the growth of knowledge, are driving organizations toward greater functional differentiation. Successful innovation will occur when these differentiated organizations become closely linked within innovation networks that integrate the arenas of research. The paper argues that this framework has predictive power, in that it allows the identification of path-dependent blockages or gaps within idea innovation chains that prevent the emergence of effective innovation networks in different countries. Policy makers can play an important role by fostering the development of tightly coupled networks that include organizations involved in each of the types of research. The paper provides empirical support for the framework using a cross-national European study of the telecommunications and pharmaceutical industries.     

Rewriting the “dirty war”: State terrorism reinterpreted by the press in Argentina during the transition to democracy

Abstract

The Argentine press reinterpreted the period of dictatorial military rule (1976–1983) in terms of an interest in the continuity of democratic protections. La Voz del Interior, the newspaper of record in the provincial capital and second largest city of Cordoba, sought to censure, subordinate, and yet reintegrate the military within a democratic institutional ideology. This study uses discourse analysis to characterize 10 elements of a model of coverage of state‐sponsored terrorism: (1) perpetrators, (2) victims, (3) target population, (4) violence and violation, (5) motives or intentions of the perpetrators, (6) fear or terror among the populace, (7) outcomes or changes in the target population, (8) news sources, (9) remedies and projects, (10) and probable responses or appropriated uses by readers or the press. In 1985–1986, when the elected government sought to judge and castigate senior junta commanders, La Voz supported establishment continuity by legitimating societal actors, including the military, even though its members were perceived as having violated basic societal values.     

Using Systems Theory to Study Legal Pluralism: What Could Be Gained?

This article examines the ability of modern systems theory to provide a foundation for understanding the problematic notion of legal pluralism, and to the ability of scholars to apply that understanding to engage in the study of pluralistic legal orders. In particular, it develops the observations of systems theory of the relationship between state law and violence by adopting one of its linked ideas, that of structural coupling. It also considers the role played by translation when law is identified by reference to the application of the legal code: legal/illegal. The whole analysis is underpinned by systems theory's account of the differences between studying premodern and modern societies.     

Perceived positive aspects of intimate relationships among abused women in methadone maintenance treatment programs (MMTP)

This study examines the positive aspects of intimate relationships perceived by drug-involved women victims of intimate partner violence (IPV). The article examines the association of psychological distress, childhood abuse, and severity of IPV with the different positive aspects the women indicated. Most analyses were conducted on a subsample of 149 women in methadone maintenance treatment who intended to continue their relationship with their abusive partner. The women most frequently valued fulfillment of the role of an intimate partner such as "he takes care of me, loves me, makes me laugh" (29.7%). Fewer than one tenth of the women valued their partners' role as economic provider; however, these women reported more physical IPV. Women intending to continue the relationship (more than two thirds of the participants) reported less physical or sexual IPV and experienced less psychological distress. Policy and practice implications are discussed.     

A primer on case law under the Americans with Disabilities Act

This article provides a comprehensive guide through the Americans with Disabilities Act. It discusses highlights of the statutory scheme, and surveys many of the cases decided under the Act, by subject matter.