The Criminal Justice System\u27s Response to Battering: Understanding the Problem, Forging the Solutions

This article will focus on the appropriate criminal justice response to battering. Part II describes the nature of the problem of wife beating. It first discusses the extent of abuse in America to demonstrate the seriousness of the problem and the urgent need for solutions. The remainder of Part II looks at the issue on a more individual basis. It examines the battered woman, the batterer, the battering relationship, and the effects of abuse on the couple\u27s children. An understanding of the participants and their relationship, unencumbered by the many myths that surround battering, is essential to creating effective legal remedies. Part III argues that the law must take a stand against wife abuse. The arguments for legal intervention against abuse may seem obvious, since spousal assault has been a crime for over a century. Nevertheless, the legal system remains reluctant to use its powers against batterers. Rationalizations offered for this reluctance range from alleged interests in protecting family privacy to the asserted ineffectiveness of the law in dealing with the problem. This article rejects these rationalizations because their effect is to condone wife beating. The law is not a panacea for domestic violence, but that does not mean it can or should do nothing. Part IV enumerates the appropriate goals of a legal program to reduce battering. This enumeration is necessary for two reasons. First, one cannot determine whether any law is desirable without considering its purported objectives. Second, the flaws in the legal system\u27s traditional answers to abuse are largely attributable to the pursuit of incorrect goals, such as the reconciliation of the partners. With proper goals in mind, including protecting the victim and deterring the batterer, we can proceed to evaluate the legal system\u27s response to battering. Part V examines the present state of the law and the changes necessary for an effective criminal justice response

Chromosome Xq23 is associated with lower atherogenic lipid concentrations and favorable cardiometabolic indices

Abstract Autosomal genetic analyses of blood lipids have yielded key insights for coronary heart disease (CHD). However, X chromosome genetic variation is understudied for blood lipids in large sample sizes. We now analyze genetic and blood lipid data in a high-coverage whole X chromosome sequencing study of 65,322 multi-ancestry participants and perform replication among 456,893 European participants. Common alleles on chromosome Xq23 are strongly associated with reduced total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides (min P = 8.5 × 10−72), with similar effects for males and females. Chromosome Xq23 lipid-lowering alleles are associated with reduced odds for CHD among 42,545 cases and 591,247 controls (P = 1.7 × 10−4), and reduced odds for diabetes mellitus type 2 among 54,095 cases and 573,885 controls (P = 1.4 × 10−5). Although we observe an association with increased BMI, waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI is reduced, bioimpedance analyses indicate increased gluteofemoral fat, and abdominal MRI analyses indicate reduced visceral adiposity. Co-localization analyses strongly correlate increased CHRDL1 gene expression, particularly in adipose tissue, with reduced concentrations of blood lipids