Legal Accountability in the Service-Based Welfare State: Lessons from Child Welfare Reform

Current trends intensify the longstanding problem of how the rule of law should be institutionalized in the welfare state. Welfare programs are being redesigned to increase their capacities to adapt to rapidly changing conditions and to tailor their responses to diverse clienteles. These developments challenge the understanding of legal accountability developed in the Warren Court era. This article reports on an emerging model of accountable administration that strives to reconcile programmatic flexibility with rule-of-law values. The model has been developed in the reform of state child protective services systems, but it has potentially broad application to public law. It also has novel implications for such basic rule-of-law issues as the choice between rules and standards, the relation of bureaucratic and judicial control, the proper scope of judicial intervention into dysfunctional public agencies, and the justiciability of "positive" (or social and economic) rights.     

A Test of Sex Estimation in Subadults Using the Elevation of the Auricular Surface from Four Samples of Known Age and Sex

Biological sex is foundational to the work of forensic anthropologists and bioarcheologists. The lack of reliable biological sex estimation methods for subadults has, thus, greatly limited forensic and bioarcheological analyses. Auricular surface elevation showed promise as a subadult sex estimation method in previous studies. This study examined two auricular surface elevation evaluation methods on four subadult samples of known age, sex, and ancestry. Samples were scored as “male,” “female,” or “indeterminate” and results were examined with chi‐square analysis. No consistent sex estimation pattern, accuracy, or predictive value was produced between samples. Only one test was significant using Fisher's exact test analysis (FET = 7.501, p < 0.022): the composite approach on the Hamann‐Todd sample. While age, sample size, or developmental factors may play a role in these results, clearly sample variation does as well. This study found auricular surface elevation was not a useful subadult sex estimation method.     

Metric Assessment of the Pubic Bone Using Known and Novel Data Points for Sex Estimation,

Biological sex estimation of skeletal remains is essential in forensic and archaeological analyses. Anthropologists most often use the pelvis, which is the most sexually dimorphic element both morphologically and metrically. While nonmetric pubic bone features have been studied extensively, few metric studies have examined this individual bone for dimorphism. For this study, three observers examined three previously identified and ten novel measurements of the pubic body on a modern sample of isolated pubic bones from the Maricopa County Forensic Science Center (FSC), in Phoenix, Arizona (n = 400). A relationship between pubic body measurements and biological sex was demonstrated, with significant correlations. Discriminant function analyses found that five measurements, four of which were novel, discriminated between males (89%) and females (86%). Observer experience level did not significantly impact the results. These five measurements were reliable and show promise for inclusion in metric methods for assessment of sex.     

Depressive Symptomatology and Program Efficacy: Examining a Program to Improve Communication in Community Families

Destructive conflict is linked with adjustment problems over time, putting families at risk even when conflict behaviors have not reached levels of clinical concern. The Family Communication Project (FCP) is a psychoeducational program designed to improve communication in families with adolescent children. The present study examines the role of depression in program efficacy over time. Data were collected across four time points, assessing aspects of marital and family conflict, adolescent emotional security, and depressive symptoms in mothers, fathers, and adolescents. Results indicated improvements in conflict strategies for families who received the psychoeducational program (relative to controls), and point to a role of depressive symptomatology in adolescents in relation to treatment outcomes.     

Y-STR profiling in extended interval (> or = 3 days) postcoital cervicovaginal samples

Depending upon specific situations, some victims of sexual assault provide vaginal samples more than 36-48 h after the incident. We have tested the ability of commercial and in-house Y-STR systems to provide DNA profiles from extended interval (> or =3 days) postcoital samples. The commercial Y-STR systems tested included the AmpFlSTR Yfiler (Applied Biosystems), PowerPlex Y (Promega) and Y-PLEX 12 (Reliagene) products whereas the in-house systems comprised Multiplex I (MPI) and Multiplex B (MPB). Three donor couples were recruited for the study. Postcoital cervicovaginal swabs (x2) were recovered by each of the three females at specified intervals after sexual intercourse (3-7 days). Each time point sample was collected after a separate act of sexual intercourse and was preceded by a 7-day abstention period. As a negative control, a precoital swab was also recovered prior to coitus for each sampling and only data from postcoital samples that demonstrated a lack of male DNA in the associated precoital sample was used. A number of DNA profile enhancement strategies were employed including sampling by cervical brushing, nondifferential DNA extraction methodology, and post-PCR purification. Full Y-STR profiles from cervicovaginal samples recovered 3-4 days after intercourse were routinely obtained. Profiles were also obtainable 5-6 days postcoitus although by this stage partial profiles rather than full profiles were a more likely outcome. The DNA profiles from the sperm fraction of a differential lysis were superior to that obtained when a nondifferential method was employed in that the allelic signal intensities were generally higher and more balanced and exhibited less baseline noise. The incorporation of a simple post-PCR purification process significantly increased the ability to obtain Y-STR profiles, particularly from 5- to 6-day postcoital samples. Remarkably an 8 locus Y-STR profile was obtained from a 7-day postcoital sample, which is approaching the reported time limit for sperm detection in the cervix.     

In-Group Love Versus Out-Group Hate: Which Is More Important to Partisans and When?

Political Behavior - Recent evidence indicates that partisans discriminate against those from the opposing party. However, it is still unclear whether partisan out-group prejudice reveals a desire...     

Prospects for health impact assessment in the United States: new and improved environmental impact assessment or something different?

Health impact assessment (HIA) has been advanced as a means of bringing potential health impacts to the attention of policy makers, particularly in sectors where health impacts may not otherwise be considered. This article examines lessons for HIA in the United States from the related and relatively well-developed field of environmental impact assessment (EIA). We reviewed the EIA literature and conducted twenty phone interviews with EIA professionals. Successes of EIA cited by respondents included integration of environmental goals into decision making, improved planning, and greater transparency and public involvement. Reported shortcomings included the length and complexity of EIA documents, limited and adversarial public participation, and an emphasis on procedure over substance. Presently, EIAs consider few, if any, health outcomes. Respondents differed on the prospects for HIA. Most agreed that HIA could contribute to EIA in several areas, including assessment of cumulative impacts and impacts to environmental justice. Reasons given for not incorporating HIA into EIA were uncertainties about interpreting estimated health impacts, that EIA documents would become even longer and more complicated, and that HIA would gain little from the procedural and legal emphasis in EIA. We conclude that for HIA to advance, whether as part of or separate from EIA, well-formulated methodologies need to be developed and tested in real-world situations. When possible, HIA should build on the methods that have been utilized successfully in EIA. The most fruitful avenue is demonstration projects that test, refine, and demonstrate different methods and models to maximize their utility and acceptance.     

Monitoring the uninsured: a state policy perspective

Because states have primary responsibility for the implementation of public health insurance programs, states need timely, good quality data to evaluate programs, monitor trends in the number and characteristics of the uninsured, and better understand the dynamics of health insurance coverage. This article provides a synthesis of the data sources available to states for monitoring rates of health insurance coverage. Information was collected through a comprehensive review of state and national health surveys and in-depth interviews with state analysts in all fifty states. Our findings suggest that national surveys do not meet states' needs for data, and in response, states have initiated their own household surveys. We provide information on thirty-six household surveys that are used to estimate state levels of health insurance coverage. We recommend that national and state efforts be better coordinated to facilitate efficient use of resources to achieve good state-level date.