Slaves as criminal informers in ancient Rome

The Romans expected slaves to inform on their fellow slaves, particularly in regard to the master's safety. If a slave killed his master, a terrible retribution on the entire household of slaves would have to be paid to atone for the offense. In the final analysis, the slave‐informer system, with all of its drawbacks, supported the Roman criminal justice system nearly 1,000 years and the Byzantines employed it in a modified form. This paper is a case study of how a culture, with its values, musters its resources, in the case of slavery, to cope with the problems of internal security.

With most of the crime problems that confront us today, the ancient Romans were hard put to protect the public peace. They had neither the modern technology nor the forensic science that we do, so they utilized the limited resources they had to prevent crimes and catch criminals. They devised a policy of enticing slaves to act as criminal informants with the offer of freedom. Considering the sizeable adult slave population, this policy greatly deterred crime and the saying “Every slave, an enemy” became current among the citizenry.

The Romans, however, did not intend to open a door by which slaves could accuse citizens of false charges out of vindictiveness. The legal‐minded Romans adopted the safeguard of having the slave informant interrogated under torture.

Slaves also served the criminal justice system in other ways besides volunteering information. When the police were stymied in an investigation, they “rounded up the usual suspects” in the form of slaves who might have knowledge of the crime, but for some reason had not stepped forward. The police would use their powers to interrogate slaves in this case, too. This ancient practice reflects the procedure of modern police investigators checking surveillance cameras in the vicinity of the crime scene in the hopes of discovering a clue.     

Relationship Between Intimate Partner Violence, Depressive Symptomatology, and Personality Traits

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) and personality disorder symptoms controlling for depressive state. Victims of IPV (n?=?176) and non-abused women (n?=?193) completed the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology-Basic Questionnaire (DAPP-BQ), Index of Spouse Abuse (ISA), and Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). IPV victims scored higher than non-abused women on Intimacy Problems, and scored lower on Rejection traits, after adjustment for depressive symptoms. Severity of the IPV was related to Cognitive Distortion, Suspiciousness, Restricted Expression, and Intimacy Problems, and the length of the IPV was negatively associated with Rejection. The current study suggests only modest differences in personality traits between IPV and non-abused women. The DAPP-BQ traits associated with severity of IPV, in a dose-response manner, would partially reflect the symptoms of complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD), although this possibility deserves further study.     

Measurement of Postmortem Pupil Size: A New Method with Excellent Reliability and Its Application to Pupil Changes in the Early Postmortem Period

Measurement of postmortem pupil width is a potential component of death time estimation. However, no standardized measurement method has been described. We analyzed a total of 71 digital images for pupil–iris ratio using the software ImageJ. Images were analyzed three times by four different examiners. In addition, serial images from 10 cases were taken between 2 and 50 h postmortem to detect spontaneous pupil changes. Intra‐ and inter‐rater reliability of the method was excellent (ICC > 0.95). The method is observer independent and yields consistent results, and images can be digitally stored and re‐evaluated. The method seems highly eligible for forensic and scientific purposes. While statistical analysis of spontaneous pupil changes revealed a significant polynomial of quartic degree for postmortem time (p = 0.001), an obvious pattern was not detected. These results do not indicate suitability of spontaneous pupil changes for forensic death time estimation, as formerly suggested.     

An academic perspective on the copyright reform

The recently proposed new Copyright Directive was released on 14 September 2016. It has been described by EU law-makers as the pillar of the copyright package promised by the European Commission (EC), to be delivered before the end of Mr. Juncker's mandate. In its Communication of 6 May 2015, the EC had stressed “the importance to enhance cross-border access to copyright-protected content services, facilitate new uses in the fields of research and education, and clarify the role of online services in the distribution of works and other subject-matter.” The proposed Copyright Directive is thus a key measure aiming to address two of these three issues. However it is not without shortfalls.We have therefore decided to publicly express our concerns and send an open letter to the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council to urge them to re-assess the new provisions dealing with mandatory filtering of user-generated content in the light of the CJEU case law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.In a more extended statement, we examine in details the text of both the explanatory memorandum and the Directive itself.Our conclusions are:1. A comprehensive re-assessment of Article 13 and Recital 39 in the light of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the E-commerce Directive (in particular Article 15) including CJEU case law is needed, as the proposed Copyright Directive does not expressly address the issue of its compatibility with both of these texts.2. Recital 38 does not clarify the domain and effect of Article 13. Rather, it creates confusion as it goes against settled CJEU case law (relating to Articles 14 and 15 of the E-commerce Directive and Article 3 of the Infosoc Directive). Recital 38 should therefore be deleted or substantially re-drafted/re-phrased. If the EU wants to introduce a change in this regard it should clearly justify its choice. In any case, a recital in the preamble to a directive is not an appropriate tool to achieve this effect.We hope that this exercise will prove useful for the debate that has now begun both in the European Parliament and in the Council.     

Psychometric Proprieties and Construct Validity of the Brother-Sister Questionnaire in a Sample of Portuguese Adolescents

The Brother-Sister Questionnaire (BSQ; Graham-Bermann and Cutler 1994) is an instrument designed to measure qualities of sibling relationships. Aim: In the present study the main objective was to examine the psychometric properties and validity construct of BSQ - Portuguese version. Data were collected among 197 adolescents. The Cronbach’s alpha of the four domains ranged from .58 to .84. The psychometric characteristics of BSQ Portuguese version were found to be adequate. The results confirm the multi-dimensional model composed of four factors proposed by the authors of this instrument, as well as their suitability to assess quality of Portuguese sibling relationships. The BSQ offers a reliable and valid measure to be used within Portuguese population.     

Dyadic Types of Sibling Sexual Coercion

Sibling sexual abuse seems to be the most prevalent form of sexual abuse in the family context. This study used the Sexual Coercion Scale of the Revised Conflict Tactics Scales – Sibling Version (Straus et al. 1995) to measure the extent of sibling sexual coercion in a sample of 590 Portuguese university students. Prevalence: 11% of male students and 5% of female students had sexually coerced a sibling in the year when the participant was about 13 years old or in another year. Chronicity: When there was sexual coercion in a sibling relationship, it was perpetrated an average of 22.4 (mean) times by males and 9.1 times by females. Dyadic Concordance Types (DCT’s) revealed that in 26% there was only one perpetrator who was Male-Only, in 19% the perpetrator was Female-Only and more than half (55%) Both coerced. From the perspective of female respondents, in 50% of the cases the perpetrator was a Male-Only, in 31% Female-Only and in 19% Both coerced. Conclusions: Sexual coercion of siblings is probably more frequent than generally realized. Males had higher rates of perpetration, but the percentage of females was substantial. These results suggest a need to expand research to understand the etiology of sibling sexual coercion by females as well as males, understand causes, risk factors and to expand efforts to reduce sexual coercion in sibling relationships.     

Exercising control and gathering information: the functions of interpellations in Hungary (1990–2014)

The article investigates the factors shaping the number and content of interpellations, a form of parliamentary questions by members of parliament (MPs) in post-regime change Hungary. Four theoretical propositions regarding the functions of interpellations are examined in this context: political control; policy-oriented information seeking; parliamentary group leadership; and constituency service. A new database of 4096 observations for the period between 1990 and 2014 is compiled in order to analyse these hypotheses. Computer-assisted content analysis techniques and count data regressions are used to describe the text of interpellations in terms of their geographical and policy content. Results show that opposition MPs interpellate more, whereas representatives of single-member districts and regional lists interpellate less than their peers. Representatives from single-member districts and regional lists make more reference to local issues in general, but not to their own district or county. Finally, policy specialisation increases the likelihood of submitting pertinent parliamentary questions.     

Rechtsfolgen fehlerhafter Willensbildungsakte der Eigentümergemeinschaft nach dem WEG 2002

Der Wortlaut des § 24 Abs 6 Satz 1 WEG 2002 l?sst die unterschiedlichen Rechtsfolgen fehlerhafter Willensbildungsvorg?nge der Eigentümergemeinschaft nicht erkennen. Der folgende Beitrag versucht, fehlerhafte Willensbildungsvorg?nge im Einklang mit dem allgemeinen Verbandsrecht zu kategorisieren.