Sexual abuse in childhood and interpersonal violence in adulthood: a cumulative impact on depressive symptoms in women

This study investigates the cumulative impact of sexual abuse in childhood and adult interpersonal violence in the past year on depressive symptoms in a nonclinical sample of 265 primarily African American (74%) women. The frequency of depressive symptoms, measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), was highest for women who experienced both forms of victimization. Women who reported greater stress over life's daily hassles reported more depressive symptoms. Women with higher levels of family support and a sense of personal mastery reported fewer depressive symptoms. The final model explained 42% of the variance in CES-D scores. Implications for practitioners are discussed.     

Law and public health: beyond emergency preparedness

This Article examines three questions: What is public health? What is public health law? What roles can lawyers play in public health? It first describes the breadth of public health, highlighting six trends shaping its future: social determinants of health; synergy between medicine and public health; shifts in focus from external (e.g., environmental and social) to internal (behavioral) risks to health; federalization of public health law; globalization of health risks and responses; and bioterrorism. Because the domains of law that apply to public health are equally broad, the Article next offers a conceptual framework for identifying the types of laws most suitable to different public health problems. Finally, the role of lawyers in the applied field of public health law is examined, first to encourage attention to law's effect on health, even laws having little apparent relationship to health; and second, to recognize that laws intended to achieve specific health outcomes may affect broader legal principles. Lawyers have a unique role to play in ensuring that the legal principles used to promote health also preserve justice.     

Protecting the Common Good: Technology, Objectivity, and Privacy

The rhetoric of public policy after September 11 encourages us to believe that the preservation of freedom and the safety of the common good requires our universal acquiescence to technological invasions of privacy. The purpose of this article is simply to warn that the rhetoric of public policy solutions post–September 11 may be inconsistent with the philosophical and legal framework of American democracy. While serving as a solution today, this rhetoric may pose a devastating blow to the balance of individual privacy and common good that is essential to the preservation of freedom.