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The purpose of this paper is to examine the awareness of intellectual disabilities (ID) amongst professionals in the criminal justice system (CJS) and their knowledge of those persons, either as victims, witnesses, suspects, accused or defendants.

A survey of the professionals in the CJS (n=388), combined with a series of focus group interviews with experienced professionals (n=20), was conducted.

One out of three respondents (police, district attorneys and judges) reported that they have regular contact with suspects who have an ID. Differences in knowledge of ID amongst professionals in the CJS can explain awareness and detection of persons with ID.

Non-responders may represent professionals with no knowledge or less interest in these issues.

Reflections on ID have not previously been studied in the Norwegian CJS. The findings serve as a basis and status quo for further research.

This study aims to provide an overview of studies concerning bias in law, particularly in judges’ decisions. The authors intend to bring to light the factors that can most frequently lead to unequal decisions to enable judges to better perform their function.

A literature review was used as a methodology based on studies involving judges and juries.

The evidence reported by this review suggests how difficult the judge’s job is and how they can be unconsciously influenced by inferences, deductions and biases. The results show that the pleasantness of the witness and the confidence they exhibit during testification are crucial factors in influencing the decisions of judges and jurors. From these studies, it can be assumed that different personal aspects – smiling, pleasantness and the witness’s credibility – can be positively associated with each other, which could compromise the ongoing evaluation. Gender is another factor that can influence evaluations; in fact, witnesses are evaluated based on their own “gender” as well as that of the jurors. Another essential factor is self-confidence. Also, the age of both of the judge and of the witness can be a factor that influences decisions in court. Other factors such as communication effectiveness, degree of accuracy of reported information and non-verbal behaviour were also found to be important.

Among the limitations of this research, the authors have to consider the low number of available research and that the most of these derive from a specific cultural context – the American one. There may also be limits to the way in which certain concepts are used in different parts of the world, particularly through a very broad construct, such as the credibility of witness.

This study highlights which inferences and biases can characterise decision-making processes and, above all, highlights the need for specific training courses aimed at managing the many processes involved in influencing human decisions.

The authors believe that this work can raise awareness about the series of unconscious reasoning that may happen in the legal field, which has a major impact on people’s lives and on the general perception of justice.

In this research, the authors have considered some of the criteria that may intervene in the evaluation of witnesses, those present in the current scientific literature. From the research, it seems appropriate and necessary to provide judges with adequate training aimed at the recognition of their cognitive processes and bias. In fact, when they were made aware of them, they were less affected by bias, resulting in more objective and limiting improper inferences.

Perpetrators of technology-facilitated gender-based violence are taking advantage of increasingly automated and sophisticated privacy-invasive tools to carry out their abuse. Whether this be monitoring movements through stalkerware, using drones to nonconsensually film or harass, or manipulating and distributing intimate images online such as deepfakes and creepshots, invasions of privacy have become a significant form of gender-based violence. Accordingly, our normative and legal concepts of privacy must evolve to counter the harms arising from this misuse of new technology. Canada's Supreme Court recently addressed technology-facilitated violations of privacy in the context of voyeurism in R v Jarvis (2019) . The discussion of privacy in this decision appears to be a good first step toward a more equitable conceptualization of privacy protection. Building on existing privacy theories, this chapter examines what the reasoning in Jarvis might mean for “reasonable expectations of privacy” in other areas of law, and how this concept might be interpreted in response to gender-based technology-facilitated violence. The authors argue the courts in Canada and elsewhere must take the analysis in Jarvis further to fully realize a notion of privacy that protects the autonomy, dignity, and liberty of all.

The modern family constitution is a written declaration summarizing a process of agreement and decision-making within an entrepreneurial family regarding the motives, guidelines, and regulations for the family members’ cooperation within the family and the family business association. This chapter exposes facets of family constitutions from a historical and a practical point of view. In order to do so, it begins with a review of the predecessors and origins of family constitutions. Subsequently, focusing especially on the interplay between a family constitution and the family business’ binding legal agreements, it describes four forms of family constitutions that have evolved from different consulting approaches in practice. The chapter concludes with some legal implications.

This chapter demonstrates that social business models do not meaningfully prioritize or impose accountability to “social good” over other purposes in ways that (a) best protect against owners changing their minds or entry of new owners with different priorities and (b) enable reliable accountability over time and across circumstances. This chapter further suggests a model – a “social primacy company” – that actually prioritizes “social good” and meaningful accountability to it. This chapter thus clarifies circumstances under which existing models might be most useful and are not particularly useful, especially as investors, entrepreneurs, employees, regulators, and others pursue shared, common understandings about purposes, priorities, and accountability.

In order to create sustainable health systems, many countries are introducing ways to prioritise health services underpinned by a process of health technology assessment. While this approach requires technical judgements of clinical effectiveness and cost effectiveness, these are embedded in a wider set of social (societal) value judgements, including fairness, responsiveness to need, non-discrimination and obligations of accountability and transparency. Implementing controversial decisions faces legal, political and public challenge. To help generate acceptance for the need for health prioritisation and the resulting decisions, the purpose of this paper is to develop a novel way of encouraging key stakeholders, especially patients and the public, to become involved in the prioritisation process.

Through a multidisciplinary collaboration involving a series of international workshops, ethical and political theory (including accountability for reasonableness) have been applied to develop a practical way forward through the creation of a values framework. The authors have tested this framework in England and in New Zealand using a mixed-methods approach.

A social values framework that consists of content and process values has been developed and converted into an online decision-making audit tool.

The authors have developed an easy to use method to help stakeholders (including the public) to understand the need for prioritisation of health services and to encourage their involvement. It provides a pragmatic way of harmonising different perspectives aimed at maximising health experience.

All health care systems are facing increasing demands within finite resources. Although many countries are introducing ways to prioritise health services, the decisions often face legal, political, commercial and ethical challenge. The research will help health systems to respond to these challenges.

This study helps in increasing public involvement in complex health challenges.

No other groups have used this combination of approaches to address this issue.

Studies about product customization decision are especially relevant for organizations that decide opening a subsidiary overseas. This scenario requires the company to decide which products should be customized and which products should be standardized when selling products in international markets. The main purpose of this paper is to identify which factors influence the decisions on the customization of industrial products and consumer products to a particular country in the marketing function of a global company.

To do so, a literature review was conducted addressing the following topics: internationalization, international marketing and product customization factors. With regard to methodological aspects, an initial qualitative phase was conducted with four exploratory case studies. In the quantitative phase, an online survey was developed, obtaining 123 records of an intentional non-probabilistic sample.

As a result, six factors were deemed essential to the product customization decision: customers’ characteristics, sustainable return on investment, sustainable profit, legal requirements, sales of other products in the portfolio and weather differences.

The authors expect that the results of this research contribute academically for the management knowledge about the meanings that product customization can assume in internationalized companies, and, additionally, in a business way, the authors expect that they help companies make strategic decisions on the appropriate measure to take regarding product customization in international markets, whether industrial products or consumer products. With these findings, the authors expect to make a valid contribution about product customization decision and suggesting future studies from other perspectives.

When discussing the term “technology-facilitated violence” (TFV) it is often asked: “Is it actually violence?” While international human rights standards, such as the United Nations' Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (United Nations General Assembly, 1979), have long recognized emotional and psychological abuse as forms of violence, including many forms of technology-facilitated abuse (United Nations, 2018), law makers and the general public continue to grapple with the question of whether certain harmful technology-facilitated behaviors are actually forms of violence. This chapter explores this question in two parts. First, it reviews three theoretical concepts of violence and examines how these concepts apply to technology-facilitated behaviors. In doing so, this chapter aims to demonstrate how some harmful technology-facilitated behaviors fit under the greater conceptual umbrella of violence. Second, it examines two recent cases, one from the British Columbia Court of Appeal (BCCA) in Canada and a Romanian case from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), that received attention for their legal determinations on whether to define harmful technology-facilitated behaviors as forms of violence or not. This chapter concludes with observations on why we should conceptualize certain technology-facilitated behaviors as forms of violence.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the operation of multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings within a forensic hospital in England, UK.

Mixed methods, including qualitative face to face interviews with professionals and service users, video observations of MDT meetings and documentary analysis. Data were collected from 142 staff and 30 service users who consented to take part in the research and analysed using the constant comparison technique of grounded theory and ethnography.

Decisions taken within MDT meetings are unequally shaped by the professional and personal values and assumptions of those involved, as well as by the power dynamics linked to the knowledge and responsibility of each member of the team. Service users’ involvement is marginalised. This is linked to a longstanding tradition of psychiatric paternalism in mental health care.

Future research should explore the nuances of interactions between MDT professionals and service users during the meetings, the language used and the approach taken by professionals to enable/empower service user to be actively involved.

Clear aims, responsibilities and implementation actions are a pre-requisite to effective MDT working. There is a need to give service users greater responsibility and power regarding their care.

While direct (video) observations were very difficult to achieve in secure settings, they enabled unmediated access to how people conducted themselves rather than having to rely only on their subjective accounts (from the interviews).