DID YOU KNOW?
Forensic nursing became a recognized discipline by the American
Nurses Association only in 1997.
Forensic nursing involves tending to patients whose medical
conditions may lead to court action.
RELATED LINKS:
www.iafn.org (International Association of Forensic Nurses)
“Forensics lures nurses,” June 4, 2003, The Arizona
Republic, www.azcentral.com
GENDER DISCRIMINATION ALLEGED
Ten domestic violence shelters in Los Angeles County are
being sued by a man who says that in December 2002 they refused
to shelter him because of his gender.
The suit was filed March 12 in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The National Coalition of Free Men is assisting with the suit,
and says similar suits may be filed in San Bernardino and
Orange Counties.
Currently only one shelter in Los Angeles County -- the Antelope
Valley Domestic Violence Council/Valley Oasis Shelter -- accepts
men.
REFERENCE: “Man suing women’s
shelters; Gender: the plaintiff alleges that 10 centers discriminate
against men,” June 4, 2003, The Press Telegram, www.presstelegram.com
NEWSPAPER FOLLOWS CPS REPORTER
The Arizona Republic is following a new Child Protective
Services worker through her first year on the job. The story
of her first three weeks, “CPS takes a child,”
ran June 1, 2003. (www.azcentral.com)
The idea of a series like this may be one you want to pitch
to your local paper, to demystify elder abuse work.
NORTH CAROLINA PAPER ANALYZES DOMESTIC
VIOLENCE PROSECUTIONS
The North Carolina News & Observer on May 19, 2003 printed
an in-depth examination of domestic violence prosecutions
in that state. After recognizing that “[i]n North Carolina,
no one keeps up with how many people have been killed by their
partners, how many women have reported abuse, how many batterers
have been arrested or how their cases turned out in court,”
the paper examined 238,000 misdemeanor charges brought between
January 1, 1997 and October 11, 2002, and interviewed numerous
prosecutors and others to develop a picture of domestic violence
prosecutions in the state.
They found that prosecution procedures vary widely between
counties, with one prosecutor dismissing nearly three out
of four charges brought in his district while another one
convicts 57% of those charged with domestic violence. Overall,
the paper found that 53% of all domestic violence charges
statewide are dismissed by prosecutors and judges, that only
about a third of the domestic violence crimes reported to
authorities result in convictions, and of those 80,000 convictions
they examined, only 18% are sentenced to “time behind
bars.”
Interestingly, the paper only looked at assaults on females
in coming up with its statistics (see related story in the
March AAR, “Is There Anti-Male Bias in Domestic Violence
Services?“ http://www.wordbridges.net/elderabuse/aar/vol2issue3/antimaledv.html).
REFERENCE:
“Many charged, few jailed,” May 19, 2003, News
& Observer, www.newsobserver.com
FEDERAL DO NOT CALL LIST
If you have clients who are being defrauded or bothered by
telemarketers, you have a new tool. The Federal Trade Commission
is now taking phone numbers for a federal do-not-call list.
Most telemarketers who call someone who has placed their number
on the list can be fined $11,000 per call. Telemarketers not
covered by the list include charities, political organizations,
telephone surveyors, and businesses with whom someone has
an existing business relationship (although the latter must
add someone to their own do-not-call list if asked to do so).
Registration of phone numbers can be done online if the person
registering has an active email account and agrees to follow
the simple confirmation instructions in the follow-up email.
To do that, go to www.donotcall.gov/. To register by phone,
the call must be made from the phone number being registered.
Those phone numbers are 1-888-382-1222 or, for TTY, 1-866-290-4236.
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