A Fatal Case of Poisoning with Fentanyl Transdermal Patches in Japan

Fentanyl transdermal patches have been used to treat cancer‐ and noncancer‐related chronic pain. However, its inappropriate or illegal application may cause fatal poisoning. We herein present the case of a Japanese woman in her 40s who was found dead with seven 25‐μg/h fentanyl transdermal patches on her body. We established a detailed toxicological analysis procedure to quantify fentanyl, and its metabolite norfentanyl, and other drugs (acetaminophen, allylisopropylacetylurea, celecoxib, estazolam, promethazine, and sertraline) in human whole blood by ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. The measured fentanyl and norfentanyl concentrations in the femoral and cardiac blood were 0.051 and 0.072 μg/mL and 0.033 and 0.076 μg/mL, respectively. The decedent's fentanyl concentrations were consistent with previously reported postmortem blood levels for fatal cases of poisoning by fentanyl transdermal patches. Based on the decedent's case history, autopsy findings, and toxicological analyses, the cause of death was identified as intoxication with transdermal fentanyl.     

Medical–Legal Partnerships: How Legal Services can Dramatically Improve Health Outcomes,and the Missed Opportunity to Help Women Seeking Abortions

There are significant health disparities in the United States, with low‐income and minority Americans experiencing higher rates of chronic disease and autoimmune disorders. Research has firmly established that social factors ‐ such as malnutrition, limited access to healthcare, and safe housing ‐ play a critical role in these health disparities. Medical‐Legal Partnerships are a relatively new approach to improving the health of people living in poverty by addressing the root causes of these health‐harming social factors. This article discusses the benefits of Medical‐Legal Partnerships and argues for continued expansion of the model, particularly in pediatricians’ offices, because parents are more likely to seek medical care for their children than themselves. This article further discusses how legal constraints prevent federal funding for Medical‐Legal Partnerships in abortion clinics; this creates a missed opportunity to work with women who are seeking abortions, many of whom face considerable social and economic challenges that could be addressed through legal assistance. This article digs into the legal restrictions that create this missed opportunity and proposes potential solutions to better serve the vulnerable population of abortion‐seeking women.     

Reducing Domestic Violence and Improving Outcomes for Children: Funding Civil Legal Aid to Maximize Impact

Domestic violence survivors and children in foster care often experience significant unmet civil legal needs. Legal aid services, when adequately funded, can help close the justice gap for these two populations while improving safety, stability, and court efficiencies. However, despite ample literature demonstrating how legal aid can improve outcomes, almost half of those seeking legal aid services are turned away due to lack of resources. This article reviews the research and data about how legal aid can improve outcomes for people in the domestic violence and child welfare contexts. It also discusses how several state‐administered federal funding opportunities—including the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) Victim Assistance Formula Grant Program, Title IV‐D child support funds, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) basic block grants—can fund the needed civil legal help.     

Guiding Principles for Family Justice Programs

The Association of Family and Conciliation Courts and Relate, UK, co‐convened a 24‐hour consultation at St George's House, Windsor, UK, on modern family justice issues across Europe. This article identifies a preliminary set of guiding principles for family justice programs developed by consultation participants.     

JUDICIAL ROTATION AS CENTRIPETAL FORCE: SENTENCING IN THE COURT COMMUNITIES OF SOUTH CAROLINA*

Courts as communities theory emphasizes the sentencing differences that can arise between localities within a single state. The results of published studies have highlighted how local differences emerge based on informal sociological and political processes defined by the communities perspective. The findings from recent quantitative studies from South Carolina have revealed notably less county variation in sentencing than has been observed elsewhere. I use qualitative interviews with 13 South Carolina trial judges to investigate sentencing processes and to shed light on these findings. The interviews explore the state's legal structure and culture, including the practice of circuit rotation in which judges travel among counties holding court. The results suggest rotation serves as a centripetal force of sentencing culture, homogenizing what might otherwise be a more varied collection of county‐specific norms. Rotation leads to increased uniformity through judge shopping and the cross‐pollination of ideas and norms. Defendants can strategically judge shop and plead in front of a lenient judge—a process that gives rise to the term “plea judge,” which is a label for the most lenient judges who sentence a large number of defendants. Rotation also increases the interactions among judges and prosecutors, expanding networks and grapevines, and leading to cross‐pollination and the sharing of ideas.     

STREET NETWORK STRUCTURE AND CRIME RISK: AN AGENT‐BASED INVESTIGATION OF THE ENCOUNTER AND ENCLOSURE HYPOTHESES

Street networks shape day‐to‐day activities in complex ways, dictating where, when, and in what contexts potential victims, offenders, and crime preventers interact with one another. Identifying generalizable principles of such influence offers considerable utility to theorists, policy makers, and practitioners. Unfortunately, key difficulties associated with the observation of these interactions, and control of the settings within which they take place, limit traditional empirical approaches that aim to uncover mechanisms linking street network structure with crime risk. By drawing on parallel advances in the formal analyses of street networks and the computational modeling of crime events interactions, we present a theoretically informed and empirically validated agent‐based model of residential burglary that permits investigation of the relationship between street network structure and crime commission and prevention through guardianship. Through the use of this model, we explore the validity of competing theoretical accounts of street network permeability and crime risk—the encounter (eyes on the street) and enclosure (defensible space) hypotheses. The results of our analyses provide support for both hypotheses, but in doing so, they reveal that the relationship between street network permeability and crime is likely nonlinear. We discuss the ramifications of these findings for both criminological theory and crime prevention practice.