Gender and release from imprisonment: Convict licensing systems in mid to late 19th century England

This paper draws on the research undertaken into the lives and prison experiences of around 650 male and female convicts who were released on licence (an early form of parole) from sentences of long term imprisonment (three years to life) in England in the mid- to late-nineteenth century. Our project confirmed the patterns of offending seen in other studies of female and male offending, namely, that women were committed to periods of long-term imprisonment overwhelmingly for crimes of larceny and sometimes low-level violence (or their criminal backgrounds indicated this type of low-level disorderly behaviour) and only in the minority for crimes of serious interpersonal violence. Similarly, the majority of men were also committed to the convict system for larceny. Yet how male and female offenders were treated by the prison licensing system did differ significantly. The vast majority of all prisoners, male and female, were released early on licence from their prison terms, even those who had committed very serious offences. All licences had several conditions in them and licence-holders were free so long as they met these conditions. Any breach of the above conditions meant that the individual would be returned to prison to serve out the remainder of their sentence.However, a proportion of female offenders were released slightly earlier than their male counterparts, though not directly into the community but on a conditional licence to Female Refuges. Out of the 288 women researched in our project, 200 of them were released in this manner; under further confinement in a refuge. Women stayed in such refuges for on average between six and nine months, before their final release was then approved by the Directors of the Convict Prisons

"Monstrous and indefensible"? Newspaper accounts of sexual assaults on children in nineteenth-century England and Wales

This material has been published in Women's Criminality in Europe, 1600–1914 edited by Edited by Manon van der Heijden, Marion Pluskota, Sanne Muurling, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108774543. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution or re-use. © 2020 Cambridge University Press.Popular crime reportage of sexual violence has a long history in England. Despite the fact that from the 1830s onwards newspapers and periodicals – and sometimes even law reports – were increasingly liable to skim over the reporting of sexual offences as ‘unfit for publication’, this does not mean that such reportage vanished entirely. Instead, certain linguistic codes and euphemisms were invoked to maintain a respectable discourse. Given the serious problems with gaps in the surviving archival record for modern criminal justice, newspapers remain an essential tool for understanding the history of sexual violence in nineteenth century England and Wales. Using keyword searches in digitized newspaper databases such as the British Newspaper Archive and Welsh Newspapers Database, this chapter examines the continuities and changes in the reporting of sexual violence against children between 1800 and 1900, and explores what these euphemisms and elisions reveal about attitudes to gender and crime in nineteenth-century England and Wales.Peer reviewe

Functional and biochemical characterization of a recombinant Arabidopsis thaliana 3-deoxy-D-manno-octulosonate 8-phosphate synthase

An open reading frame, encoding for KDOPS (3-deoxy-D-manno-octulosonate 8-phosphate synthase), from Arabidopsis thaliana was cloned into a T7-driven expression vector. The protein was overexpressed in Escherichia coli and purified to homogeneity. Recombinant A. thaliana KDOPS, in solution, displays an apparent molecular mass of 76 kDa and a subunit molecular mass of 31.519 kDa. Unlike previously studied bacterial KDOPSs, which are tetrameric, A. thaliana KDOPS appears to be a dimer in solution. The optimum temperature of the enzyme is 65 °C and the optimum pH is 7.5, with a broad peak between pH 6.5 and 9.5 showing 90% of maximum activity. The enzyme cannot be inactivated by EDTA or dipicolinic acid treatment, nor it can be activated by a series of bivalent metal ions, suggesting that it is a non-metallo-enzyme, as opposed to the initial prediction that it would be a metallo-enzyme. Kinetic studies showed that the enzyme follows a sequential mechanism with K(m)=3.6 μM for phosphoenolpyruvate and 3.8 μM for D-arabinose 5-phosphate and k(cat)=5.9 s(−1) at 37 °C. On the basis of the characterization of A. thaliana KDOPS and phylogenetic analysis, plant KDOPSs may represent a new, distinct class of KDOPSs

Direct Genotyping of Toxoplasma gondii in Ocular Fluid Samples from 20 Patients with Ocular Toxoplasmosis: Predominance of Type II in France▿

We report the direct genotyping analysis of Toxoplasma gondii in ocular samples collected from 20 patients, as well as associated clinical and epidemiological data. This work was aimed at better understanding the impact of genotypes of Toxoplasma gondii strains on toxoplasmic retinochoroiditis. For this purpose, we studied the aqueous humor (AH) or vitreous humor (VH) of 20 patients presenting with ocular toxoplasmosis (OT) in 2 hospitals in France. Genetic characterization was obtained with microsatellite markers in a multiplex PCR assay. In contrast to the results of previous studies, we found no association between atypical Toxoplasma gondii genotypes and the occurrence of OT. Considering the local epidemiological data, our OT patients seemed to be infected more frequently by ordinary type II strains found in the environment. In conclusion, direct genotyping of Toxoplasma gondii strains from aqueous or vitreous humor showed a predominance of the type II genotype in ocular toxoplasmosis; this may be due to a high exposure rate of this genotype in humans

Neurodevelopmental outcome in very preterm and very-low-birthweight infants born over the past decade : a meta-analytic review

Aim: The purpose of this systematic review was to provide an up-to-date global overview of the separate prevalences of motor and cognitive delays and cerebral palsy (CP) in very preterm (VPT) and very-low-birthweight (VLBW) infants. Method: A comprehensive search was conducted across four databases. Cohort studies reporting the prevalence of CP and motor or cognitive outcome from 18months corrected age until 6years of VPT or VLBW infants born after 2006 were included. Pooled prevalences were calculated with random-effects models. Results: Thirty studies were retained, which included a total of 10293 infants. The pooled prevalence of cognitive and motor delays, evaluated with developmental tests, was estimated at 16.9% (95% confidence interval [CI] 10.4-26.3) and 20.6% (95% CI 13.9-29.4%) respectively. Mild delays were more frequent than moderate-to-severe delays. Pooled prevalence of CP was estimated to be 6.8% (95% CI 5.5-8.4). Decreasing gestational age and birthweight resulted in higher prevalences. Lower pooled prevalences were found with the Third Edition of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development than with the Second Edition. Interpretation: Even though neonatal intensive care has improved over recent decades, there is still a wide range of neurodevelopmental disabilities resulting from VPT and VLBW births. However, pooled prevalences of CP have diminished over the years. What this paper adds : The Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition reported lower pooled prevalences of motor and cognitive delays than the Second Edition. The pooled prevalence of cerebral palsy in infants born extremely preterm was reduced compared with previous meta-analyses