Rethinking Criminal Law and Family Status

In our recent book, Privilege or Punish: Criminal Justice and the Challenge of Family Ties (OUP 2009), we examined and critiqued a number of ways in which the criminal justice system uses family status to distribute benefits or burdens to defendants. In their review essays, Professors Alafair Burke, Alice Ristroph & Melissa Murray identify a series of concerns with the framework we offer policymakers to analyze these family ties benefits or burdens. We think it worthwhile not only to clarify where those challenges rest on misunderstandings or confusions about the central features of our views, but also to show the deficiencies of the proposed alternatives. While we appreciate and admire the efforts of our critics to advance this important conversation, we hope this Essay will illuminate why the normative framework of Privilege or Punish remains a more helpful structure to policymakers assessing how family status should intersect with the criminal law within a liberal democracy such as our own

Voluntarism, Vulnerability, and Criminal Law: A Response to Professors Hills and O\u27Hear

This Response addresses the criticisms of our project by Professors Rick Hills and Michael O\u27Hear. Before we address those challenges, we first want to reiterate our gratitude to the B.U. Law Review for hosting an exchange based on our article, Punishing Family Status (forthcoming BU LR, December 2008), and to Professors Hills and O\u27Hear for their careful and subtle analysis of that article. Additionally, it\u27s worth recapitulating what our bottom-line conclusions are so we can better see if there are any practical disagreements with our critics. Summarizing quickly: we support decriminalization in the cases of parental responsibility laws (based on strict and vicarious liability), bigamy, adultery, and non-payment of parental support; we endorse decriminalizing incest between most adults, though we are divided on certain sub-issues in the incest context; and we are highly skeptical of criminalization in the non-payment of child support context, though concede that more research needs to be done on just how effective criminalization is in achieving compliance. The only area in which we are more or less unconflicted about criminalization is the omissions liability (duty to rescue) context - and, that is where our critics primarily aim their critiques. This Response focuses on three general points; most of the discussion of those general points, however, comes up in the context of disagreement over the scope and rationale for omissions liability. We begin by explaining how Professors Hills and O\u27Hear tend to overstate our commitment to voluntariness as a basis for allocating criminal law liability. Second, we address their concern regarding the criminal law\u27s ability to shape people\u27s care-giving choices. Third, we discuss what our commitment to criminal law minimalism requires when it comes to designing family ties burdens. While some differences persist, we hope our Response clarifies a few features of our argument and at the same time narrows the gap between our positions and those of Professors Hills and O\u27Hear

Ground reaction force estimates from ActiGraph GT3X+ hip accelerations.

Simple methods to quantify ground reaction forces (GRFs) outside a laboratory setting are needed to understand daily loading sustained by the body. Here, we present methods to estimate peak vertical GRF (pGRFvert) and peak braking GRF (pGRFbrake) in adults using raw hip activity monitor (AM) acceleration data. The purpose of this study was to develop a statistically based model to estimate pGRFvert and pGRFbrake during walking and running from ActiGraph GT3X+ AM acceleration data. 19 males and 20 females (age 21.2 ± 1.3 years, height 1.73 ± 0.12 m, mass 67.6 ± 11.5 kg) wore an ActiGraph GT3X+ AM over their right hip. Six walking and six running trials (0.95-2.19 and 2.20-4.10 m/s, respectively) were completed. Average of the peak vertical and anterior/posterior AM acceleration (ACCvert and ACCbrake, respectively) and pGRFvert and pGRFbrake during the stance phase of gait were determined. Thirty randomly selected subjects served as the training dataset to develop generalized equations to predict pGRFvert and pGRFbrake. Using a holdout approach, the remaining 9 subjects were used to test the accuracy of the models. Generalized equations to predict pGRFvert and pGRFbrake included ACCvert and ACCbrake, respectively, mass, type of locomotion (walk or run), and type of locomotion acceleration interaction. The average absolute percent differences between actual and predicted pGRFvert and pGRFbrake were 8.3% and 17.8%, respectively, when the models were applied to the test dataset. Repeated measures generalized regression equations were developed to predict pGRFvert and pGRFbrake from ActiGraph GT3X+ AM acceleration for young adults walking and running. These equations provide a means to estimate GRFs without a force plate

Failure to Protect: Why the Individual Insurance Market Is Not a Viable Option for Most U.S. Families

Based on the Commonwealth Fund 2007 Biennial Health Insurance Survey, examines access to and affordability of individual insurance. Reviews obstacles to obtaining coverage, such as health issues and costs, and out-of-pocket costs of those who obtain it

Losing Ground: How the Loss of Adequate Health Insurance Is Burdening Working Families: Findings From the Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Surveys, 2001-2007

Highlights declining health coverage and rising deductibles for American adults and the implications for medical costs, debt burdens, and access to health care. Examines socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of the uninsured and underinsured

Out of Options: Why So Many Workers in Small Businesses Lack Affordable Health Insurance, and How Health Care Reform Can Help

Based on the 2007 Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Survey, examines small business employees' limited access to health insurance and contributing factors. Explores how small businesses and employees could benefit from proposed reforms

Rite of Passage? Why Young Adults Become Uninsured and How New Policies Can Help

Assesses the scope of the health insurance problem facing young adults, its causes and implications, and offers policy changes that could help them stay insured as they make the transition to independent living