Blake v DPP, a summary of criminal case law

Blake v DPP, a summary of criminal case law Introduction In addition to the general defences seen in criminal law (duress, coercion, diminished responsibility etc) the offence of criminal damage has a number of specific defences which are found in the Criminal Damage Act 1971. In particular section 5 (2) states that a defendant has a lawful excuse, if: He believed that the person whom he believed entitled to consent to the destruction or damage of the property would have consented, had he known of the circumstances; or he acted ‘in order to protect’ the property of himself of another, or a right or interest in property that the property, right, or interest was in immediate need of protection, and the means adopted were reasonable, having regard to all the circumstances. This defence has been used in a number of cases that will be dealt with below. The leading authority on the defence is Blake v DPP[1]. However, one must look at the law prior to this judgement and after it. Prior to Blake In R v Ashford[2] it was held not top be a lawful excuse for the defendants to cut the wire at an airforce base in order protest against the use of nuclear weapons even if they subjectively believed that they had a lawful excuse to act. Michael Jefferson states that the ‘defendants argued that the reduction of the risk of the use of nuclear weapons would protect property in England because the risk of retaliation would be reduced.’[3] It was an already viewed as an objective test that the courts employed. R v Hill[4] involved the defendants cutting a wire fence in order to prevent nuclear war. The Court of Appeal held that the act of cutting was too remote from the prevention of nuclear war and they confirmed that it was an objective test rather than a subjective test. Jefferson notes that the property was not in ‘immediate need of protection’ and so it did not matter that the defendants believed they were acting to protect ‘property belonging to another’. Blake v DPP The defence would apply if the defendant honestly believes X is the owner and consents, even though X is not the owner. However in Blake v DPP, the Divisional Court rejected the defendant vicar’s argument that he believed that God owned the property and had consented to the damage. The court acknowledged that his belief was sincere it was however impossible to produce any evidence other than the defendant’s own belief that the command was in fact given. If this defence was indeed accepted then the defence could be raised regarding murder where the accused could simply claim he was carrying out the intentions of God. His marker pen graffiti on the Houses of Parliament in protest against the Gulf war was held to be unlawful. The defendant also claimed that he had a lawful excuse under section 5 (2) (b) as he damaged the pillar in order to protect property in the Gulf States. The Divisional Court held that, even if the defendant had believed that he had a lawful excuse, the court needed to adopt an objective view, if on the facts believed by the defendant, what was done by him protected, or was capable of protecting property. Richard Card states that the offence was to protect the property in the Gulf States; as such protection was too remote from his conduct[5]. Card states that this objective requirement read into s 5 (2) (b) is not easily reconcilable with the words of the statute, which seem to be a clear expression of a test that is solely subjective. Post Blake The case of Chamberlain v Lindon[6] showed that the defence has some success. This case deals with a ‘right of way’ as the accused was held to be protecting it when he demolished a wall. This was held to be in an ‘immediate need of protection’ as it was being obstructed and it would continue until litigation resolved the case. R v Kelleher[7] involved a defendant who knocked the head off a statue of Baroness Thatcher in a protest regarding the policies of democratic governments (UK and USA). The defendant believed that these policies made the world a more dangerous place to live in and would lead to the destruction of the world. The defendant was convicted but then appealed on two grounds. First, he stated that the ruling of the judge that the defence of ‘lawful excuse’ was not available was wrong. Secondly, the judge wrongly directed the jury to return a verdict of guilty. Regarding the first issue, the court held that the trial judge was correct in deeming the defence of lawful excuse as unavailable to the defendant. Regarding the second ground for appeal, William Priestley states that as the jury was invited to retire after the judge’s direction, this showed that the jury had in fact acted independently as they then returned and delivered a verdict of guilty.[8] In Jones v Gloucestershire Crown Prosecution Service[9] the defendants relied on section 5 (2) (b) as they damaged property at RAF Fairford in order to protest at illegality of the war in Iraq. These acts were done in order to preserve the homes of their family and friends. It was held that none of the defendants could reasonably believe that their actions of cutting wire around an RAF base would protect their homes. Conclusion As we have seen the defence of s 5 (2) has been used by a number of defendants. Its use has been primarily used by individuals protesting against the policies of the government. With the Human Rights Act 1998 cementing the European Convention of Human Rights into the UK legal system, Article 10 and 12 will be relied on in order to give individuals the right of assembly and free speech. This right however does not extend to criminal acts of damage against property. The objectivity that surrounds s (5) (2) shows that defendants will find it increasingly difficult to rely on this defence however compelling and sincere these subjective thoughts may well be. Bibliography Books Ashworth, A. Principles of Criminal Law 5th ed. 2006. Oxford Card, R. Criminal Law 16th ed. 2004. Lexis Nexis. London Herring, J. Criminal Law: Text, Cases and Materials 3rd ed. 2008. Oxford. Jefferson, M. Criminal Law 8th ed. 2007. Lexis Nexis. London. Journals The Police Journal. Vol.76 (4) 2003 Footnotes [1] [1992] 93 Cr App R 169 [2] [1988] Crim LR 682 (CA) [3] Jefferson, M. Criminal Law 8th Ed. 2007.p.707 [4] [1989] 89 Cr App R 74 [5] Richard Card. Criminal Law 16th Ed, 2004. [6] [1998] 2 All ER 538 [7] [2003] EWCA Crim 2846 [8] Priestley, W. Lawful Excuse to the Offence of Criminal Damage. Police Journal vol.76 2003. [9] [2005] QB 259

paintball :: essays research papers

Paintball Misrepresented Sport When you here about paintball in the news, it's always a story of someone losing an eye or committing a crime. Is this what paintball is about? Definitely not! Lets first start off by saying, that accusing the sport of paintball, for criminals vandalizing property with paintball markers (They are actually classified as markers, not guns, because they mark people, like in a game of tag), is like blaming the sport of baseball, for people that fight or injure people with bats. It's like accusing football for encouraging people to fight. Of course though, football is never blamed for that. Some people also would like to say that paintball is too dangerous, and people get injured way too often because it's unsafe to play. The fact is, those people couldn't be more wrong. Paintball requires a mask to be worn on all public fields. Neck protectors and vests are also optional if you feel like it. Most people would probably be surprised to learn that players and referees take extra care to make sure that all the players are safe in a game. National averages even show that paintball has a lower injury rate than bowling and golf! So how did those kids in the news loose an eye? Simple, they didn't wear the right protection and were probably playing on their own field, without refs and proper marker testing. Playing paintball without masks is the equivalent of playing tackle football with pads and helmets, which means someone could get hurt. Is football ever criticized for severe injuries? Almost never. So why should paintball be any different? So, before you decide to criticize paintball, first go to you local field (here in Utah, you can go to Paintball Planet or Army Navy Surplus) and try a game. Then create your opinion. Most people who go actually find it very fun. It gets your adrenaline pumping and has a frantic (but fun) feel to it. It also has some value. Playing the game a lot develops excellent hand-eye-coordination, teaches teamwork, trust, and careful planning.

Neuropharmacology and gender

There is a growing interest in examining differences in pharmacological responses among different genders.   This gender-related discrepancy in the administration of pharmaceutical drugs has influenced that success of the treatment of specific medical disorders.   Several research investigations have been conducted in the last ten years in order to better understand any underlying gender-related mechanisms that influence factors related to particular diseases.   The factors that are swayed by gender include prevalence, disease symptoms, behavior of the patient during treatment and reaction to pharmacological treatment.Several analyses have suggested that gender-related differences in pharmacology induce different levels of sensitivity to drug medications.   In the field of neuropharmacology, a significant number of pharmaceuticals have already been reported to illicit gender-related differences in the reaction and response to specific neuropharmacologic reagents.   The diff erences include delayed reaction time or even a lowered sensitivity to the administered drug.   The opposite scenario has also been observed with other medications, wherein a specific gender is more responsive to the drug treatment due to the elevated sensitivity to the medication.   It has also been suggested that gonadal hormones may play a role in the reaction of specific genders to particular drugs.Pharmacological research has recently focused on determining the factors that influence the effects of prescription drugs on the treatment of neurological disorders.   One factor that has been of great concern is gender.   There are critical differences based on sex that have been determined to influence neurological disease prevalence.   In addition, gender has also swayed the presentation of symptoms among patients as well as the behavior of the patient himself in terms of seeking treatment.Another influence of gender-based neuropharmacological treatment is the response of the patient to psychotropic medication.   It has been observed that females tend to undergo a less serious course of schizophrenia than males.   This condition is characterized by less frequent negative symptoms and a greater chance for the females to adapt to her social environment.   Females have also been determined to response faster to an administered low dose of antipsychotic drug regimen, thus resulting in fewer cases of hospital admissions and hospitalization.It has been estimated that approximately 5% of all hospital cases are due to adverse drug reactions.   This significant number of death due to adverse drug reactions thus makes it essential to identify the factors that are strongly associated with risk management.   Case studies have shown that the increasing age of a patient poses a higher risk for adverse drug reactions.   In addition, the employment of several pharmaceutical drugs at the same time influences a patient to experience adverse drug reactions .   Liver and kidney diseases are also correlated with adverse drug reactions.   Interestingly, gender has also been determined to be a factor for adverse drug reactions, wherein females are more prone to experience such deleterious side effects.The main mechanism behind the connection between gender and adverse drug reactions still remains unclear but it has been suggested that pharmacological concepts play a major role in this reaction.   Pharmacokinetics or the dynamics of drug interactions in the human body is one of the areas of pharmacology that integrates the aspect of gender-related differences (Meibohm et al., 2002).   The concept of pharmacogenetics or the inter-individual differences in drug response also provides some kind of influence of gender-related pharmacological issues.   Hormonal factors have also been suggested to cause some effect of the response of different genders to pharmacological reagents.Classical pharmacological studies have generally under-re presented females in clinical trials for neuropharmacological drugs and this has resulted in an insufficiency of information with regards to any gender differences in drug efficiency and side effects (Aichhorn et al., 2005).   The major reason behind the under-representation of females in clinical trials is that there is a general fear that the drug being tested may be a potential teratogen which may cause mutations and eventually cancer to females.The fear is also associated in generating offspring that may carry multiple congenital anomalies due to the exposure of a neuropharmacological drug that is still being investigated.   Today, the principles of registration of a new drug require more stringent criteria for approval for clinical trials.   Amongst the requirements are the guidelines that indicate the need for gender-specific testing.Both males and females should thus participate in a clinical trial, with equal numbers of females and males in the entire study population so that bias can be avoided.   In addition to sex-matching in clinical trials, each gender is age-matched, meaning that every age group within the female category of participants should have an equivalent male of the same age group.   The new guidelines with regards to registration of a new drug have thus facilitated the inclusion of females in clinical trials.One neuropharmacological drug that has been extensively studied in terms of pharmacokinetics and pharmacogenetics are the second generation anti-psychotic drugs.   Clinical investigations have reported that different anti-psychotic drugs have different efficacies.   In turn, there anti-psychotic drugs also exert variable side effects among the patients that have been administered with this drug.   Anti-psychotics are generally given to patients suffering from schizophrenia and bipolar or manic-depressive disorders.Other mental health illnesses that are associated with the use of anti-psychotic drugs include dementia, delirium, depression and autism.   Anti-psychotics drugs are prescribed to the patient in order to control any untoward behavior that the patient may perform in the near future, such as aggression, violence and suicide.   These drugs are effective enough in lowering the chances of performing these untoward actions without affecting their normal motor functions, yet there are particular side effects that have been noted in relation to the use of anti-psychotic drugs.One side effect is weight gain which is determined by the increase in weight as well as the change in body mass index of the patient.   Abnormalities in glucose and lipid metabolic pathways are also affected by the intake of anti-psychotic drugs.   There have also been reports with regards to side effects related to cardiac and sexual functioning of the patient.   Gender-based differences in side effects have been implicated to these observations.For the case of schizophrenia, gender-related differences have be en observed in relation to the cumulative lifetime risk.   The initial expectation for the risk of schizophrenia among males and females was classically determined to be the same.   However, there is an accumulation of clinical reports that show that males generally experience schizophrenia at a younger age than females.There is an average difference of 3 to 5 years between males and females with schizophrenia.   More importantly, this gender-related difference also affects the patients’ behavior in terms of seeking medical attention.   Negative symptoms associated with schizophrenia have also been observed to be higher frequency among males.   The prevalence of cognitive deficiencies has een reported to be greater among males.   Any related structural brain and neurophysiological dysfunctions and abnormalities are also more frequent among male schizophrenia patients than among female schizophrenia patients.Oppositely, female schizophrenia patients have been repor ted to more frequently show affective symptoms related to this psychological disorder.   Females are also more prone to experience auditory hallucinations as well as delusions that result in self-persecution.   However, it is interesting to know that females respond to anti-psychotic medications at a faster rate than male patients.   This quick response, unfortunately, is strongly correlated to more severe drug-related side effects.   Clinicians have observed that the course of schizophrenia is less destructive among female patients.   Also, female schizophrenia patients are associated to fewer incidents with smoking and substance abuse, unlike male patients who generally perform both heavy smoking and drug and alcohol abuse during their entire illness.The gender-related issues that were observed with schizophrenia are strongly associated to neuroanatomic sexual differences among males and females.   For example, research has shown that the temporolimbic abnormalities ar e present among male schizophrenia patients.   These abnormalities involve a significant change in the volume of the left temporal lobe of male schizophrenia patients.   The volume was observed to be much smaller as compared to the left temporal lobe of female schizophrenia patients.   Comparison of the volume of the left temporal lobes of schizophrenia patients with that of normal healthy individuals has shown that the volume of the left temporal lobe of female schizophrenia patients is the same as that of normal healthy males and females.Another difference that relates to gender differences and neuropharmacology is the variation in the volume of the grey matter of the brain.   It has been reported that male schizophrenia patients showed a significant decrease in the volume of their grey matter (Leung and Chue, 2000).   On the other hand, female schizophrenia patients show a smaller volume in their hippocampal region, while the volume of their amygdala had increased.   Magnetic resonance imaging studies have indicated that male and female schizophrenia patients show great differences in the volume of their corpus callosum.The differences in volume of several regions of the brain among male and female schizophrenia patients may possibly influence the variations in response to pharmacological treatment of schizophrenia.   Initial pharmacological studies with regards to psychopharmaceuticals mainly focused on the treatment of the disorder itself and gender differences were not investigated until a significant number of cases reports were issued describing specific adverse drug reactions to anti-psychotic drugs.   It has been generally observed that female schizophrenia patients improve at a faster rate than their counterpart male schizophrenia patients.   This positive response, unfortunately, is coupled with the occurrence of extrapyramidal symptoms among female schizophrenia patients.Aside from gender differences in neuropharmacological treat ment, differences among female schizophrenia patients have also been observed.   Research investigations have observed that pre-menopausal female schizophrenia patients show a faster and better response to pharmacological treatment than post-menopausal female schizophrenia patients.   This observation suggests that female younger than 40 years old only need a minimal amount of anti-psychotic pharmacological treatment than male schizophrenia patients.   This pharmacological treatment advantage is lost when the female schizophrenia patient is above 40 years of age.Differences in neuropharmacological treatment response, clinical course and treatment outcome among males and females may also be due to variations in the cerebrum.   An example that could be employed to this notion is that the volume of the caudate nucleus changes over time after treatment of the patient with anti-psychotic drugs.   These changes in volume of the caudate nucleus are also influenced by the gender o f the schizophrenia patient.   In terms of male schizophrenia patients, treatment with neuropharmacologic reagents generally results in an increase in the volume of the caudate nucleus.   On the other hand, this volume was observed to increase among female schizophrenia patients after treatment with anti-psychotic drugs.It should be noted that not all components of the brain show gender-related differences in terms of neurological disorders and neuropharmacological treatment and response.   The striatal dopamine D2 receptor binding activity among male and female schizophrenia patients were determined to be the same, suggesting that the left striatus of both male and female schizophrenia patients are similar before and after neuropharmacological treatment for schizophrenia.Cognitive functions have also been observed to be different among male and female schizophrenia patients.   It is a common observation that male schizophrenia patients perform in a poorer fashion than femal e schizophrenia patients.   Other research groups have observed the opposite result, wherein female schizophrenia patients showed a lower degree of performance in cognitive functions.One explanation for such variations among genders is that some particular research groups only reported these differences as a side-observation while conducting an investigation that focus on another aspect of neuropharmacological research.   It would thus be more reliable if a research study was performed solely in identifying gender-related differences associated with neurological disorders and their response to pharmacological treatment.   It has been postulated that the discrepancies among male and female schizophrenia patients may eventually lead to major variations in the cognitive functions of males and females.It is therefore imperative that gender differences be comprehensively analyzed in terms of cognitive functions.   Another interesting research would involve drug responses among ma les and females of different neurological disorders.   There is also a great need to determine whether there exists a difference between males and females in terms of neurocognitive outcome after pharmacologic treatment for a neurological disorder.There is also a need to examine differences between gender and ethnicity in terms of neurological disorders, treatment and response.   Case reports have described that African-American male and female patients diagnosed with psychoses showed a unique neurological profile and treatment response from that of the general human population.   This observation resulted in a faster rate for hospital discharge after administration of a relatively higher dose of anti-psychotic pharmaceutical drug.The comprehensive investigation of gender-related differences among neuropharmacological treatments would provide a better understanding of the pharmacokinetics of drugs.   In addition, future research efforts on this area would also provide more i nformation that may be used in designing safe, effective and personalized drug treatment plans for patients suffering from neurological disorders.ReferenceAichhorn W, Gasser M, Weiss EM, Adlassnig C and Marksteiner J (2005):   Gender differences in pharmacokinetics and side effects of second generation antipsychotic drugs.   Current Neuropharmacology   3:73-85.Leung A and Chue P (2000):   Sex differences in schizophrenia, a review of the literature. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica Suppl. 401:3-38.Meibohm B, Beierle I and Derendorf H (2002): How important are gender differences in pharmacokinetics?   Clinical Pharmacokinetics   41:329-342.

When I Met The Next Best Thing - 769 Words

During a rough period in my marriage, I started attending a local church with the hope that I d find peace in serving God. That s where I met the next best thing: Connie. Connie arrived on the scene when I needed her most and upon talking with her, I found out her husband was in the air force. Surprisingly, most of the church s congregation consisted of military families, many of which lived on base. Although I had grandparents, my father, cousins and friends who had served our country, I d never actually been on an air force base before and while I d heard plenty of war stories through the years, my new-found introduction to the military lifestyle surprised me. Accustomed to watching sons or daughters leave their homes and take off for duty, this time I had a rare glimpse into the military families who traveled along with their loved ones. Connie and her husband moved off-base where they managed an apartment complex several blocks away from where I lived. On fair-weather days, she d make the somewhat lengthy trip by foot and stop to visit with me. At that time I was married to my first husband who for some reason openly disapproved of Connie, but that didn t discourage her visits. She d smile at my husband and say, Hello, how are you? Then, innocently ignoring the scowl on his face, she d stay and chat for a while. We shared everything with each other and I knew no matter how weird or strange I sounded with my crazy ideas, Connie never onceShow MoreRelatedWhen I Met The Next Best Thing884 Words   |  4 Pages I was going through a rough period in my marriage and had started attending a local church with the hope that I d find peace in serving God. That s where I met the next best thing: Connie. Connie arrived on the scene when I needed her most and upon talking with her, I found out her husband was in the air force. Surprisingly, most of the church s congregation consisted of military families, many of them who lived on base. 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