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Legal Cases (legal + case)
Selected AbstractsMedical Evidence and Expert Testimony in Child Sexual AbuseJUVENILE AND FAMILY COURT JOURNAL, Issue 1 2006LORI D. FRASIER ABSTRACT Expert medical testimony in child sexual abuse cases can be critical to the outcome of a legal case. This article will review the development of the medical knowledge and clinical expertise in child sexual abuse. Since the passage of mandatory child abuse reporting laws, the forensic medical examination of a child for evidence of sexual abuse has become standard. Until recently, many myths regarding female genital anatomy existed but were based primarily on dogma and lack of empirical research. Over the past 25 years, many research studies and accumulating clinical evidence have expanded medical knowledge and debunked old myths. Physical evidence, even in cases of alleged genital or anal penetration is rare. Sexually transmitted infections are also uncommon and often require medical interpretation as to their significance in a prepubertal child. Specialized medical knowledge, training, and clinical expertise have developed in order to evaluate children presenting with allegations of sexual abuse. Such medical expertise provides invaluable service to courts. We review criteria for evaluating such expertise in light of current medical practice. [source] Defamation Cases against HistoriansHISTORY AND THEORY, Issue 3 2002Antoon De Baets Defamation is the act of damaging another's reputation. According to recent legal research, defamation laws may be improperly used in many ways. Some of these uses profoundly affect the historian's work: first, when defamation laws protect reputations of states or nations as such; second, when they prevent legitimate criticism of officials; and, third, when they protect the reputations of deceased persons. The present essay offers two tests of these three abuses in legal cases where historians were defendants. The first test, a short worldwide survey, confirms the occurrence of all three abuses; the second test (an empirical analysis of twenty,one cases (1965,2000) from nine western European countries) the occurrence of the third abuse. Both tests touch on problems central to the historical profession: living versus deceased persons; facts versus opinions; legal versus historical truth; the relationship between human dignity, reputation, and privacy; the role of politicians, veterans, and Holocaust deniers as complainants; the problem of amnestied crimes. The second test,the results of which are based on verdicts, commentaries, and press articles, and presented in a synoptic table,looks closely into the complainants' and defendants' profiles, the allegedly defamatory statements themselves, and the verdicts. All statements deemed defamatory were about such contemporary events as World War II (particularly war crimes, collaboration, and resistance) and colonial wars. Both tests amount to two conclusions. The first one is about historians' professional rights and obligations: historians should make true, but privacy,sensitive or potentially offending, statements only when the public interest is served; otherwise, they should have a right to silence. The second conclusion concerns defamation itself: defamation cases and threats to sue in defamation have a chilling effect on the historical debate; they are often but barely veiled attempts at censorship. [source] Can you keep a secret?JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 5 2008Confidentiality in psychotherapy Abstract Confidentiality is the secret-keeping duty that arises from the establishment of the professional relationship psychologists develop with their clients. It is a duty created by the professional relationship, it is set forth in the American Psychological Association's (2002) Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct, and it is codified in many state regulations. However, the difference between confidentiality and legal privilege; how, why, and when it can be violated; and the reasons for so doing are not well understood by many practitioners. While on the surface confidentiality might seem to be an easy concept to apply to professional practice, in fact it is quite complex and filled with exceptions that frequently differ from circumstance to circumstance and from state to state. A lack of respect for and a lack of familiarity with the significance of these exceptions could have dire professional consequences. This article reviews the ethical imperative of confidentiality and then provides examples of legal cases that help to better understand its complexity. Then, we offer strategies designed to help metal health practitioners when they are confronted with questions regarding confidentiality and privilege. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol: In Session 64: 1,12, 2008. [source] ,An Unfortunate Coincidence': Jews and Jewishness in Twentieth-century English Judicial DiscourseJOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY, Issue 2 2006Didi Herman This paper explores the neglected area of representations of Jews and Jewishness in English legal cases. In considering judicial knowledge of ,the Jew', I ask three primary questions. First, how do English judges understand and represent ,the Jew' and in relation to what material factors do these understandings and representations change? Second, how do English judges construct racial knowledge, what rhetorical technologies are fashioned and deployed? Third, are the effects of contemporary judicial racializations of Jewishness different in substance from earlier ones? The purpose of this paper is to study the encounter between English judges and ,the Jew' in the twentieth century, eschewing a reading that centres ,antisemitism' or ,discrimination' in favour of one that focuses on the complex and contradictory narratives in these judgments and the kinds of work these narratives do. [source] Obstacles to desegregating public housing: Lessons learned from implementing eight consent decreesJOURNAL OF POLICY ANALYSIS AND MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2003Susan J. Popkin Between 1992 and 1996 the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) settled a number of legal cases involving housing authorities and agreed to take remedial action as part of court-enforced consent decrees entered into with plaintiffs. These housing authorities faced significant obstacles that impaired their ability to comply swiftly and fully with all of the elements in the desegregation consent decrees. The obstacles fell into two broad categories: contextual obstacles (racial composition of waiting lists and resident populations, lack of affordable rental housing, and inadequate public transportation), and capacity and coordination obstacles (conflict among implementing agencies and ineffective monitoring by HUD). Findings presented here highlight the sizable potential delay between the time a legal remedy is imposed and when plaintiffs in public housing segregation disputes realize any benefits. They also reinforce the argument that implementation problems will be legion when policies impose a significant scope of required changes on a large number of actors who must collaborate, yet are not uniformly capable or sympathetic to the goals being promoted. © 2003 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. [source] The Benefits of Diversity in Education for Democratic CitizenshipJOURNAL OF SOCIAL ISSUES, Issue 1 2004Patricia Gurin The social science statement in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) stressed that desegregation would benefit both African American and White children. Eventually, it was recognized that integration, rather than mere desegregation, was important for benefits to be realized. A parallel argument is made in the legal cases concerning affirmative action in higher education: educational benefits of diversity depend on curricular and co-curricular experience with diverse peers, not merely on their co-existence in the same institution (Gurin, P., 1999, Gurin, Dey, Hurtado, & Gurin, 2002). Positive benefits of diversity were demonstrated in a study comparing students in a curricular diversity program with students in a matched control group (n = 174), and in a longitudinal survey of University of Michigan students (n = 1670). [source] The Fallacy of Generalizing from Egg Salad in False-Belief ResearchANALYSES OF SOCIAL ISSUES & PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 1 2009Kathy Pezdek Geraerts et al. (2008),reported that misleading individuals with false beliefs about having gotten sick on egg salad in childhood can reduce the probability of subsequently consuming egg salad. They concluded that their results ", have important implications for people's food and dieting choices," (p. 752). We argue that their conclusion represents a fundamental generalization problem. We report new findings that, together with other recent studies, data on disgust and the fact that hard boiled eggs produce a chemical associated with rotten food, suggest that Geraerts et al.'s success in reducing individuals' interest in eating egg salad is likely restricted to less appealing foods that are less frequently consumed. Because of potential applicability of their results to public health and well-being, and the more general applicability of the false-feedback paradigm to legal cases, it is important to accurately limit these conclusions and generalizations. [source] IS INFORMED CONSENT IN CARDIAC SURGERY AND PERCUTANEOUS CORONARY INTERVENTION ACHIEVABLE?ANZ JOURNAL OF SURGERY, Issue 7 2007Marco E. Larobina Background: Medical and legal published work regularly discusses informed consent and patient autonomy before medical interventions. Recent discussions have suggested that Cardiothoracic surgeons' risk adjusted mortality data should be published to facilitate the informed consent process. However, as to which aspects of medicine, procedures and the associated risks patients understand is unknown. It is also unclear how well the medical profession understands the concepts of informed consent and medical negligence. The aims of this study were to evaluate patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) to assess their understanding of the risks of interventions and baseline level of understanding of medical concepts and to evaluate the medical staff's understanding of medical negligence and informed consent. Methods: Patients undergoing CABG or PCI at a tertiary hospital were interviewed with questionnaires focusing on the consent process, the patient's understanding of CABG or PCI and associated risks and understanding of medical concepts. Medical staff were questioned on the process of obtaining consent and understanding of medicolegal concepts. Results: Fifty CABG patients, 40 PCI patients and 40 medical staff were interviewed over a 6-month period. No patient identified any of the explained risks as a reason to reconsider having CABG or PCI, but 80% of patients wanted to be informed of all risks of surgery. 80% of patients considered doctors obligated to discuss all risks of surgery. One patient (2%) expressed concern at the prospect of a trainee surgeon carrying out the operation. Stroke (40%) rather than mortality (10%) were the important concerns in patients undergoing CABG and PCI. The purpose of interventions was only partially understood by both groups; PCI patients clearly underestimated the subsequent need for repeat PCI or CABG. Knowledge of medical concepts was poor in both groups: less than 50% of patients understood the cause or consequence of an AMI or stroke and less than 20% of patients correctly identified the ratio equal to 0.5%. One doctor (2.5%) correctly identified the four elements of negligence, eight (20%) the meaning of material risk and four (10%) the meaning of causation. Thirty doctors (75%) believed that all complications of a procedure needed to be explained for informed consent. Less than 10% could recognize landmark legal cases. Conclusion: Patients undergoing both CABG and PCI have a poor understanding of their disease, their intervention, and its complications making the attaining of true informed consent difficult, despite their desire to be informed of all risks. PCI patients particularly were highly optimistic regarding the need for reintervention over time, which requires specific attention during the consent process. Medical staff showed a poor knowledge of the concepts of material risk and medical negligence requiring much improved education of both junior doctors and specialists. [source] Racial inequality in employment in Canada: Empirical analysis and emerging trendsCANADIAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION/ADMINISTRATION PUBLIQUE DU CANADA, Issue 3 2008Mohammed Al-Waqfi The authors discuss some theoretical perspectives on racial discrimination, briefly review empirical studies on the topic, examine the nature of and trends in such employment discrimination cases over the two decades, and provide an in-depth discussion and analysis of selected legal cases on racial discrimination in Canada. After some concluding remarks, policy recommendations to combat racial discrimination in the workplace are suggested. Sommaire: Le présent article examine la discrimination raciale en matière d'emploi au Canada à l'aide de données d'un échantillon de causes judiciaires qui ont été publiées dans le Canadian Human Rights Reporter de 1980 à 1999. Les auteurs discutent de certaines perspectives théoriques sur la discrimination raciale, passent brièvement en revue les études empiriques sur le sujet, examinent la nature et les tendances de tels cas de discrimination en matière d'emploi au cours des deux décennies, et fournissent une discussion et analyse approfondie de causes judiciaires sélectionnées portant sur la discrimination raciale au Canada. En conclusion, ils proposent des recommandations de politiques pour combattre la discrimination raciale dans le lieu de travail [source] Reconfigured Bodies: The Problem of OwnershipCOMMUNICATION THEORY, Issue 1 2005Leslie Maria Bowen This essay explores issues of ownership as one particularly potent site of struggle in the biotechnological arena. The article begins with the concept of ownership, followed by a discussion of the problem with conceptualizing the body as property. The author then maps the terrain of ownership, using the cadaver market, the organ trade, the market for replenishable human biological materials, and the market for genetic materials as examples. Two landmark legal cases (Diamond v. Chakarbarty and Moore v. Regents of the University of California) illustrate the limitations of traditional discourse on the body and the increasing urgency with which relations of power and agency play out in the biotechnology arena. New configurations of the body emerging in the biotechnology arena indicate that communication scholarship needs new conceptual tools in order to address what it means to be/have a body. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||