PROFILE: CHILD CUSTODY MEDIATION SERVICES IN CALIFORNIA SUPERIOR COURTS

California is now in its 11th year of mandatory child custody mediation, with a current yearly case volume statewide estimated at 65,494. This article profiles the variations in programs and mediation styles in 56 of the state's 58 Superior Courts. Two research studies provide the basis for the information on program structures, case activity, procedures, agreement formats, recommendations, facilities, security, and fees.     

Protecting Children While Silencing Them: The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and Children's Free Speech Rights

In 1998, Congress passed the first law protecting the privacy of individuals on the Internet. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) restricts the online collection of personal information from children aged 12 or younger. Under the law, Web sites that maintain chat rooms directed at children must either condition a child's participation on the consent of a parent or guardian or monitor the chat room and censor references to personal information. This article examines whether COPPA's chat room restrictions infringe on the free speech rights of children. The examination finds that aspects of the chat room restrictions are constitutionally suspect because it is questionable whether the parental consent requirement is narrowly tailored.     

Graduate students' perceptions of contrapower sexual harassment

This study compared the perceptions of 172 graduate students to traditional versus contrapower sexual harassment. Graduate students are a unique sample due to their dual role as a student and a teacher. After controlling for attitudes toward feminism and sexual harassment, participants viewed contrapower sexual harassment as less indicative of sexual harassment than traditional sexual harassment. Those with teaching experience perceived the scenarios provided as more indicative of sexual harassment than participants without teaching experience, and this effect was magnified for males. These findings suggest that people take sexual harassment less seriously in contrapower sexual harassment than in traditional sexual harassment. Furthermore, it is possible that teaching experience makes graduate students more aware of the complicated power differentials involved in classroom settings.     

Risky Interactions: Relational and Developmental Moderators of Substance Use and Dating Aggression

Physical dating aggression is a prevalent and costly public health concern. A theoretical moderator model of substance use and dating aggression posits that associations between them are moderated by relational risk factors. To test these theoretical expectations, the current study examined seven waves of longitudinal data on a community-based sample of 100 male and 100 female participants in a Western U.S. city (M age Wave 1?=?15.83; 69.5% White non-Hispanic, 12.5% Hispanic, 11.5% African Americans, & 12.5% Hispanics). Multilevel models examined how links between substance use and dating aggression varied by relational risk and how these patterns changed developmentally. Main effects of relational risk and substance use emerged, particularly in adolescence. In young adulthood significant three-way interactions emerged such that substance use was more strongly associated with physical aggression when conflict and jealousy were higher. Thus, relational risk factors are integral to models of dating aggression, but their role changes developmentally.

     

INTERPARENTAL CONFLICT AND CHILD ADJUSTMENT

This article evaluates the past decade's research on the relationship between interparental conflict and children's behavioral, emotional, and social adjustment. Meta-analysis confirmed an overall conflict-adjustment relationship that was particularly strong and consistent across studies of behavioral outcomes. The article calls for further refinement of the general conflictadjustment relationship, particularly specification of the various dimensions of conflict and qualifications to limit applications to the particular populations that have been included in research. Secondary analysis is needed to differentiate the effects of family violence from other forms of discord and to compare outcomes for boys and girls. New research must extend inquiry to the full range of sociodemographic groups and family structures in our society. In the next decade, it is crucial to move beyond simple documentation of the general association between conflict and adjustment to identification of the specific conditions that put children at risk and safeguard them from harm.     

REPORT 4: MEDIATED AGREEMENTS ON CHILD CUSTODY AND VISITATION

This report describes child custody and visitation arrangements and assesses the impact of factors thought to influence the terms of mediated agreements. The data is from the California Snapshot Study conducted in June 1991 and is the fourth in a series of reports concerning this landmark study.     

Military Courts and Prosecution of Offences by National Defense Forces in the Dawn of the Complementarity Regime: The Case of Uganda

With the coming into force of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC Statute) and its complementarity regime, much emphasis has been placed on the role of national courts in prosecuting international crimes. Some states have demonstrated their commitment to this regime by; inter alia, ratifying the ICC Statute, enacting national legislation to implement the ICC Statute and establishing national judicial forums for prosecution of international crimes. Uganda is a prime example of states rising up to this challenge. Uganda ratified the ICC Statute in 2002. In 2008, it established the International Crimes Division (ICD) to prosecute international crimes and in 2010, it enacted the International Criminal Court Act to implement the ICC Statute. Even before these reforms, Uganda’s military courts had always relied on service offences to prosecute members of the national defence force. Worthy to note, members of the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF) have been implicated in a number of atrocities, some of which can be categorised as international crimes. However, military courts continue to prosecute UPDF soldiers for these atrocities on the basis of service offences. The situation current in Uganda highlights a number of legal issues relating to: first, the adequacy of service offences to advance accountability for the international crimes allegedly committed by UPDF soldiers; secondly, the jurisdiction of military courts over international crimes; and thirdly, the effect of concurrent jurisdiction by the ICD and military courts on the rule against double jeopardy.     

The need for a contextual approach in identifying street-connected children for purposes of intervention

Over the years, the major challenge to the protection of street-connected children’s fundamental rights has been the homogeneous conceptualisation of categories of children who fall within the ambit of street-connected children (SCC). As such, often, states – as duty-bearers – have narrowly identified SCC. This article argues that, if the rights of these children are to be effectively guaranteed, the phenomenon of SCC will need to be contextually conceptualised. A contextual approach, it is argued, affords broader protection to all affected children because it places emphasis on children’s interaction with the street, and how it impacts on their fundamental rights. However, because of the well augmented homogeneous definitions of SCC already in place, a contextual approach warrants express delineation so that the broader obligations of duty bearers are made more apparent. Against this backdrop, since the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is in the process of developing a General Comment (GC) on SCC, this process presents the CRC with a momentous opportunity to make the contextual approach more apparent. Following a brief introduction, the article gives an overview of the varying homogeneous definitions of SCC and their limitations in affording broader protection to children. A brief discussion of the realities of children in street situations in Africa follows. Subsequently, the potential of the forthcoming GC on SCC to clearly substantiate and further the cause of a contextual approach is underscored.