Children Have Rights, Too: How the Thirteenth Amendment Can Protect America\u27s Abused Youth

Three million children are abused every year in the United States. Although there are some safeguards, such as foster care and state child abuse laws, the number of abused children has not dwindled. How should the federal government respond? This article argues that the Thirteenth Amendment can be interpreted to protect abused children. It is widely accepted that the Thirteenth Amendment’s sole purpose is to abolish Black slavery, therefore rendering it useless in the modern legal climate. Nothing in the wording or context of the Amendment, however, suggests that it is limited to Black slavery. Interpreting the Amendment to encompass modern forms of slavery and involuntary servitude could provide a solution to many of the most pervasive and perplexing human rights issues facing the world today. Abused children could find protection in the Amendment, as it prohibits all forms of slavery and involuntary servitude, regardless of familial relations, age, or race. The Courts have struggled to balance the conflicts between parental rights and children\u27s rights, causing inconsistencies that have prevented sustained progress. This paper will argue that the Thirteenth Amendment can be applied to child abuse cases by creating a connection between slavery and involuntary servitude as it is traditionally understood and child abuse. Once this connection is made, this article argues that this legal protection will allow for a workable standard to be developed within the Courts for balancing parental rights and children\u27s rights in cases involving serious child abuse

Alien Registration- Rozzi, Lauta (Portland, Cumberland County)

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The Barthel index: italian translation, adaptation and validation

The Barthel Index (BI) is widely used to measure disability also in Italy, although a validated and culturally adapted Italian version of BI has not been produced yet. This article describes the translation and cultural adaptation into Italian of the original 10-item version of BI, and reports the procedures for testing its validity and reliability. The cultural adaptation and validation process was based on data from a cohort of disabled patients from two different Rehabilitation Centers in Rome, Italy. Forward and backward translation method was adopted by qualified linguist and independent native English official translators. The scale obtained was reviewed by 20 experts in psychometric sciences. The Italian adapted version of the BI was then produced and validated. A total number of 180 patients were submitted to the adapted scale for testing its acceptability and internal consistency. The total time of compilation was 5 ± 2,6 minutes (range 3-10). Validation of the scale was performed by 7 trained professional therapists that submitted both the translated and the adapted versions to a group of 62 clinically stable patients (T-test=-2.051 p=0.05). The internal consistency by Cronbach’s alpha resulted equal to 0.96. Test – retest intra – rater reliability was evaluated on 35 cases; at test-retest was ICC=0.983 (95%IC: 0.967-0.992). This is the first study that reports translation, adaptation and validation of the BI in Italian language. It provides a new tool for professionals to measure functional disability when appraising Italian speaking disable patients in health and social care settings along the continuum of care