The New Chinese Mental Health Laws

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is by far the most important international agreement yet developed concerning the mentally disabled. China adopted this Convention in 2008. In 2012 China went further—making major changes in the way that China deals with mental health issues in both its criminal and its civil law. Coming first was a new Criminal Procedure Code that adds a whole new dimension to the way that China deals with the mentally ill who are charged with crimes. Equally important was the new civil mental disabilities law that China adopted later in the year. Many years in the making, this new law is China’s first comprehensive modern civil mental disabilities law. This article discusses both the major features of these new laws and some of the more important tasks that remain for the future

A Comparative Description of the New York and California Criminal Justice Systems: Arrest Through Arraignment

The purpose of this article is to outline by comparative description the arrest and related court processes for handling criminal defendants in New York City and Oakland, California. Hopefully the description will shed light on problem areas shared by both systems and will suggest ways of alleviating these problems. This article discusses the period from arrest through the first judicial appearance in each system. A later study, not yet completed, will detail the sequence between the first judicial appearance and the beginning of trial. For the purposes of convenience and because the term is widely used both in California and in New York, the defendant\u27s first appearance in court will be referred to as the arraignment

Experimental traumatic brain injury

Traumatic brain injury, a leading cause of death and disability, is a result of an outside force causing mechanical disruption of brain tissue and delayed pathogenic events which collectively exacerbate the injury. These pathogenic injury processes are poorly understood and accordingly no effective neuroprotective treatment is available so far. Experimental models are essential for further clarification of the highly complex pathology of traumatic brain injury towards the development of novel treatments. Among the rodent models of traumatic brain injury the most commonly used are the weight-drop, the fluid percussion, and the cortical contusion injury models. As the entire spectrum of events that might occur in traumatic brain injury cannot be covered by one single rodent model, the design and choice of a specific model represents a major challenge for neuroscientists. This review summarizes and evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the currently available rodent models for traumatic brain injury

Citation in Lieu of Arrest: The New California Law

Sixty years ago, before the traffic infraction became a common occurrence, police departments found it necessary to make physical arrests in the case of each traffic violation. As the number of violations mounted, however, the arrest procedure proved to be too cumbersome and demanding. This led to the invention of a new procedure, the citation of promise to appear. The new system proved to be both convenient and practical and in short order it virtually replaced the old arrest procedure. Surprisingly, however, the invention of the new procedure did not lead to a rethinking of the need to arrest and detain persons accused of other kinds of misconduct. Somewhat more recently, the idea did develop that the citation procedure might be used in other situations. Many police departments now use such procedures extensively with juveniles and with regulatory offenses, such as housing code violations, in which there is little likelihood that the person to be charged will flee the jurisdiction