Law Commons^™

Womenpowerconnect Newsletter, Professor Vibhuti Patel

Professor Vibhuti Patel

Dear Friends, It is once again time to reflect on WomenPowerConnect’s work and achievements over the last three months. WPC has continued to develop and expand its advocacy agenda and targeted concern for women on child marriage supported by Ford Foundation, Women’s land rights and property supported by Oxfam India, and Enhancing access of the Mobile population to HIV & AIDS services’ information & support in collaboration with Care India. The projects in hand are progressing well along with other activities. Many achievements have been made in advocacy and networking while many new highs have to be touched in the …

Institutions From Above And Voices From Below: A Comment On Challenges To Group-Conflict Resolution And Reconciliation, Laurel E. Fletcher

Laurel E. Fletcher

Fletcher explores how assumptions about justice have succeeded in establishing a new international consensus on necessary processes of rebuilding societies, some pitfalls of this approach, and recommendations for new directions for the field of transitional justice. A central assumption animating the moral, political, and legal cases for transitional justice is that those responsible for unleashing and conducting mass violence that devastates countries and the lives of civilian residents should not get away with their criminal acts. And further, supporters of justice assume that a legal response is necessary in order to promote reconciliation. He thinks that the appropriate role of …

Time For Justice: The Case For International Prosecutions Of Rape And Gender-Based Violence In The Former Yugoslavia, Kathleen M. Pratt, Laurel E. Fletcher

Laurel E. Fletcher

This article begins with a brief overview of the historical invisibility of rape and other gender-based violence in international humanitarian and human rights discourse. It also describes the factual basis for prosecutions of rape and other forms of gender-based violence in the context of the former Yugoslavia. Finally, the authors examine relevant provisions of the Statute of the Tribunal, which under conventional and customary international law, provide the Tribunal with jurisdiction to prosecute rape and other forms of gender-based violence as international crimes. This section reviews the types of rapes and forms of gender-based violence captured by each statutorily defined …

The Cult Of Hostile Gender Climate: A Male Voice Preaches Diversity To The Choir, Dan Subotnik

Dan Subotnik

No abstract provided.

A Public Health Approach To Understanding And Preventing Violent Radicalisation., K Bhui, M Hicks, M Lashley, E Jones

Madelyn Hsiao-Rei Hicks

No abstract provided.

Assessing Public Health Strategies For Advancing Child Protection: Human Trafficking As A Case Study, Jonathan Todres

Jonathan Todres

Ensuring the well-being of all children is one of the great challenges of our time. Despite concerted efforts in the United States to protect children, research reveals that millions of children suffer harm each year. Frequently, when policymakers and child advocates speak of “child protection,” they focus primarily on abuse and neglect in the home. Often, child protection does not contemplate violence against children in the community. The inside/outside-the-home divide is somewhat of a false dichotomy, however, as the two realms are interrelated. Children who suffer abuse and neglect in the home are frequently at heightened risk of exploitation outside …

“Reasoning-Lite” In The Violent Video Game Case, Alan Garfield

Alan E Garfield

One might have expected that the Supreme Court’s recent decision in the violent video game case, Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Ass’n, would have been a thoughtful balancing of society’s competing interests in protecting freedom of speech and protecting children from harm. After all, the Supreme Court had held decades earlier that the government could deny minors access to soft-porn, or what the Court called “girlie magazines.” So one could have assumed the Court would seriously consider California’s claim that minors also needed sheltering from the grittier world of violent video game rapes, beheadings, and ethnic cleansings. Yet, as Justice Scalia’s …

Women And Law: A Comparative Analysis Of The United States And Indian Supreme Courts’ Equality Jurisprudence, Eileen Kaufman

Eileen Kaufman

No abstract provided.

Cleveland Schools Social Skills Training Program Showing Positive Results, David Volosin, Oscar T. Mcknight, John Sikula

Oscar T McKnight Ph.D.

This article reports on research conducted in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District by the Society for Prevention of Violence (SPV). A total of 1500 students and 150 teachers participated in a social skills training program. Statistically significant positive results were found over the course of the 2009 - 2010 school year. A positive change in the school environment was documented via a thirty-five item learning survey. Because of the positive results, during the 2010 - 2011 school year, SPV's social skills training program is being implemented in all three Parma middle schools.

American Prison Culture In An International Context: An Examination Of Prisons In America, The Netherlands, And Israel, Lucian Dervan

Lucian E Dervan

In 2004, British authorities arrested Abu Hamza al-Masri, an Egyptian born cleric sought by the United States for his involvement in instigating terrorist attacks. As authorities prepared to extradite him in July 2010, the European Court of Human Rights issued a stay. According to the court, al-Masri’s claims that maximum-security prisons in the United States violate European human rights laws prohibiting torture and degrading treatment warranted further examination. Regardless of the eventual resolution of the al-Masri case, the European Court of Human Rights’ inability to summarily dismiss these assertions demonstrates something quite troubling. At a minimum, the court’s actions indicate …

Don't Be So Quick To Ban Violent Videogames, Alan E. Garfield

Alan E Garfield

No abstract provided.

Book Review, Professor Vibhuti Patel

Professor Vibhuti Patel

The most mind-boggling issue of the 21st century has been identity politics linked with caste, ethnicity, race, religious and gender identities. It has played havoc in innumerable life situations: in personal lives, in the community, in national politics and in the global scenario. Whether is it communal violence in India, ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, apartheid in South Africa, Crisis in Afghanistan or war on Iraq, genocide in Rwanda or civil war in Sri Lanka, it is these grave socio-political and cultural contexts that makes this seminal contribution by Bhikhu Parekh worthy of debate and discussion.

Sex Trafficking Of Women For The Production Of Pornography, Donna M. Hughes Dr.

Donna M. Hughes

Neuroimaging And Competency To Be Executed After Panetti, Michael L. Perlin

Michael L Perlin

Scholars have begun to consider the impact of neuroimaging evidence on capital punishment trials, questioning whether reliance on such testimony can actually make “sentencing more rational and humane.” They have also considered the impact of this evidence on criminal sentencing, expressing concern that such evidence will be improperly used “as predictive factors to increase sentences,” and counseling policymakers to “avoid misuse of new techniques.” In an earlier article on neuroimaging and criminal procedure, I considered the questions of a criminal defendant’s competency to submit to neuroimaging testing, and the impact of antipsychotic medications on the results of such testing.

What …

Risk And Resilience: Crime And Violence Prevention In Aboriginal Communities, Ross Homel, Robyn Lincoln, Bruce Herd

Robyn Lincoln

Developmental prevention involves the manipulation of multiple risk and protective factors early in developmental pathways that lead to offending, often at transition points between life phases. The emphasis is not just on individuals but also their social contexts. Risk and protective factors for crime and violence in Aboriginal communities include such standard factors as child abuse, school failure and supportive family environments, but additional factors arise from unique aspects of Aboriginal history, culture and social structure. This paper draws on existing literature, interviews with urban Aboriginal community workers, and data from the Sibling Study to delineate those interrelated risk factors …

Tracking Civilian Casualties In Combat Zones Using Civilian Battle Damage Assessment Ratios., E Cameron, M Spagat, M Hicks

Madelyn Hsiao-Rei Hicks

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Different Forms Of Risk Communication On Judicial Decision Making, Richard E. Redding, John Dolores

Richard E. Redding

When mental health experts provide information to courts on the results of a risk assessment conducted on a defendant or patient, they engage in “risk communication.” We examined the effects of four different forms of risk communication (prediction, categorical, risk factors/risk management, or hybrid) on judges’ (n = 253) perceptions of risk assessment evidence introduced in a case where they must decide whether to release from the hospital an individual found not guilty by reason of insanity. Judges who received information in the risk factors/risk management form were more likely to release the patient than were those who received prediction …

Incorporating The Criminal Law In Sport Studies, Adam Epstein

Adam Epstein

The purpose of this article is to provide an outline for teaching the criminal law in a sport studies (or related) course. The article discusses the differences among various crimes and whether physical violence involves legitimate or illegitimate force during a sports contest. Even non-violent (white collar) crimes such as the incident at the University of Toledo demonstrate how the criminal law can weave its way into the legal environment of sport. The article also notes how crimes can be committed in all environments and at all levels: youth sport, recreational activities and leagues, amateur competition and in the professional …

No Cherries Grow On Our Trees: A Brief By The Take Action Project, Janet Mosher

Janet Mosher

Testing An Individual Systems Model Of Response Evaluation And Decision (Red) And Antisocial Behavior Across Adolescence, Reid Griffith Fontaine, Chongming Yang, Kenneth A. Dodge, John E. Bates, Gregory S. Pettit

Reid G. Fontaine

This study examined the bidirectional development of aggressive response evaluation and decision (RED) and antisocial behavior across five time-points in adolescence. Participants (n = 522) were asked to imagine themselves behaving aggressively while viewing videotaped ambiguous provocations, and answered a set of RED questions following each aggressive retaliation (administered at Grades 8 and 11 [13 and 16 years]). Self- and mother-reports of antisocial behavior were collected at Grades 7, 9/10, and 12 (12, 14/15, and 17 years). Using structural equation modeling, we found a partial mediating effect at each hypothesized mediational path, despite high stability of antisocial behavior across adolescence. …

The Dirty War Index: A Public Health And Human Rights Tool For Examining And Monitoring Armed Conflict Outcomes., M Hicks, M Spagat

Madelyn Hsiao-Rei Hicks

War, a major public health problem, is a situation where the interests of public health, human rights, and humanitarian law intersect.

The DWI is a data-driven public health tool that identifies rates of particularly undesirable or prohibited, i.e., “dirty,” outcomes inflicted on populations during war (e.g., civilian death, child injury, or torture).

A DWI is calculated as: (Number of “dirty,” i.e., undesirable or prohibited cases/Total number of cases) × 100.

DWIs are designed for direct, easy translation of war's public health outcomes into the human rights, policy, and interdisciplinary work needed to address war's practice.

DWIs support monitoring, deterrence, and …

Pornography, Coercion, And Copyright Law 2.0, Ann Bartow

Ann Bartow

The lack of regulation of the production of pornography in the United States leaves pornography performers exposed to substantial risks. Producers of pornography typically respond to attempts to regulate pornography as infringements upon free speech. At the same time, large corporations involved in the production and sale of pornography rely on copyright law's complex regulatory framework to protect their pornographic content from copying and unauthorized distribution. Web 2.0 also facilitates the production and distribution of pornography by individuals. These user-generators produce their own pornography, often looking to monetize their productions themselves via advertising revenues and subscription models. Much like their …

Testing An Individual Systems Model Of Response Evaluation And Decision (Red) And Antisocial Behavior Across Adolescence, Reid G. Fontaine

Reid G. Fontaine

This study examined the bidirectional development of aggressive response evaluation and decision (RED) and antisocial behavior across five time points in adolescence. Participants (n5522) were asked to imagine themselves behaving aggressively while viewing videotaped ambiguous provocations and answered a set of RED questions following each aggressive retaliation (administered at Grades 8 and 11 [13 and 16 years, respectively]). Self- and mother reports of antisocial behavior were collected at Grades 7, 9/10, and 12 (12, 14/15, and 17 years, respectively). Using structural equation modeling, the study found a partial mediating effect at each hypothesized mediational path despite high stability of antisocial …

Benefiting Society And Children Through Violent Media: As Evidenced By First Amendment Protection For Violent Video Games, Austin Nowakowski

Austin James Nowakowski

This article discusses the constitutional, psychological, and societal reasons for why the courts have never upheld any laws censoring violent video games.

Disentangling The Psychology And Law Of Instrumental And Reactive Subtypes Of Aggression, Reid G. Fontaine

Reid G. Fontaine

Behavioral scientists have distinguished an instrumental (or proactive) style of aggression from a style that is reactive (or hostile). Whereas instrumental aggression is cold-blooded, deliberate, and goal driven, reactive aggression is characterized by hot blood, impulsivity, and uncontrollable rage. Scholars have pointed to the distinction between murder (committed with malice aforethought) and manslaughter (enacted in the heat of passion in response to provocation) in criminal law as a reflection of the instrumental–reactive aggression dichotomy. Recently, B. J. Bushman and C. A. Anderson (2001) argued that the instrumental–reactive aggression distinction has outlived its usefulness in psychology and pointed to inconsistencies and …

Taxing Alternatives: Poverty Alleviation And The South African Taxi/Minibus Industry, Karol C. Boudreaux

Karol C. Boudreaux

South Africa's transporation landscape is a legacy of apartheid. Apartheid-era laws forcibly moved black South Africans out of city centers to surrounding townships. In rural areas, black South Africans were moved off valuable farmland and onto marginally productive homelands. Laws and regulations limiting employment opportunities meant that black citizens lived far from work. Under the National Party government, the ability to serve people who wanted to travel from home to work or home to shopping areas, etc. was severely resitricted. So too was the ability to travel. The minibus industry arose in response to these restrictions. It began as a …

"Culturing" Survival : Afro-Caribbean Migrant Culture And The Human Rights Of Women Under Globalization, Hope Lewis

Hope Lewis

These remarks were delivered at the 93rd Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law (24-27 March 1999, Washington, DC) for a panel on the rule of law vs. cultural authority. The reality for working-class Afro-Caribbean women migrants (called "lionheart gals" by one Caribbean feminist organization) is that both "the rule of law" and "cultural authority" can enhance, or undermine, the protection of fundamental human rights. For lionheart gals, the choice is not between a liberating rule of law and a static, cocoonlike cultural authority. For them, the primary imperative is to use law and culture in a creative …