“There is, in fact, hardly an argument that can be advanced for the stern suppression of crime by penal methods that does not apply equally to the suppression of disease. . . . “ Medical service in the penal and correctional institutions throughout the United States has been reported at various times to be below the level of medical care for the general population. In 1939 McCartney2 noted that...

Since 2002, hundreds of thousands of United States troops have returned from the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters, many after multiple deployments. The high suicide rate and high prevalence of mood disorders, substance use disorders, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in this population have been widely reported. Many returning soldiers have had difficulty adjusting to civilian life, and som...

ISSN 1746-6938 PAPER Introduction We present here a brief outline of findings from our research, which explores the relationship between welfare expenditure and levels of punishment. We begin by examining research on welfare spending and imprisonment rates across US states and replicate this work using data from 18 countries, including the United Kingdom. The results show that welfare provision...

Swiss law is becoming a major reference point for those seeking to legalize medically assisted suicide. Lord Joel Joffe, who on 20 February introduced a Patient Assisted Dying Bill in the UK parliament, cited the case of Reginald Crew, who had ended his life with medical assistance in Zurich in January. This and other much publicized cases, Joffe said, reflected ''the pressing need to allow ter...

Current abortion law is restrictive, but its legal interpretation needs to be clarified. In Tanzania, the penal code explicitly states that termination of pregnancy is legally permitted if it is performed to save a woman’s life.1 However, a recent report indicated that since Tanzania’s legal system is based on English common law, the English case of Rex v. Bourne could be applied in the interpr...

During spring 2009 a Swedish senior paediatric intensivist and associate professor was detained and later prosecuted for mercy-killing a child with severe brain damage. The intensivist was accused of having used high doses of thiopental after having withdrawn life-sustaining treatment when the child was imminently dying. After more than 2.5 years of investigation the physician was acquitted by ...

Among biomedical scientists, there is a great deal of controversy over the nature of race, the relevance of racial categories for research, and the proper methods of using racial variables. This article argues that researchers and scholars should avoid a binary-type argument, in which the question is whether to use race always or never. Researchers should instead focus on developing standards f...

The Dilemma of Penal Reform. By Dr. Hermann Mannheim, with a preface by Prof. A. M. Carr-Saunders. Allen & Unwin. 1939. pp. 228. 7s. 6d. This book is based on a course of public lectures given at the London School of Economics in 1938-9. Professor Carr-Saunders points ?ut that for the constructive development of Penal Reform we need, firstly, accurate systematic sociological and psychological s...