Abuse of law in taxes - abstract The author has decided to choose this particular topic as it concerns her occupations as tax advisor. The doctrine of abuse of law is actually becoming more frequent not only in the tax cases decided by the Court of Justice of the European Union, by the Czech Supreme Administrative Court and lower Czech courts but also often occurs in the regular tax proceeding conducted by all levels of the Czech tax administration. The aim of the author was to analyse the doctrine and try to develop a practical instrument for decision making of common Czech taxpayers. The thesis is decided in two parts and conclusion. In the first part, the doctrine of abuse of law and related concepts as tax avoidance, tax evasion, substance-over-form rule, sham transactions and tax optimization in the Czech law theory and legislation is analysed, in second chapter the author has looked more closely into cases decided by Czech courts. In the third chapter are analysed the most important cases concerning abuse of law decided by the Court of Justice of the European Union. In second part of the thesis are commented some practical measures to avoid harmful tax planning arrangements used as in the Czech republic as abroad, including the recently adopted BEPS Action Plan of OECD which refers to tax planning...

Self-poisoning - the deliberate, non-fatal ingestion of medicinal agents in excess of the recommended dose - is characterised wherever it occurs in Western society by a predominance of women - usually in the order of 2:1, and in over 60% of cases psychotropic medication is employed. Despite this the largely female nature of the phenomenon and its relationship to the 2:1 excess of women among the recipients of psychotropics generally has been virtually ignored in the literature. For many years self-poisoning was regarded as 'failed suicide' and consequently theoretical approaches to it have been dominated by the assumption of pathology - justifiable, perhaps in relation to completed suicide, as there is evidence of significant psychopathology among its perpetrators, but less so among self-poisoners where there is little such evidence. This thesis proposes that not only is the 'pathology paradigm' at odds with the known facts of self-poisoning but that the emphasis on psychopathology has discouraged the development of any convincing theory of female self-poisoning. An alternative account, based not upon pathology but upon processes of normative socialisation, suggests that the sex role system promotes a stereotypic view of women as helpless, dependent and emotionally unstable. This stereotype, when shared by physicians and their female patients, contributes to the excess prescription of psychotropic medication to women who have social, rather than psychopathological problems. Additionally, the sex role system and the social relations based upon it, fosters a 'female' cognitive style - particularly among those women who predominate among self-poisoners i.e. young, working class women with a history of family breakdown. This leads them to attribute the cause of adverse events internally to enduring, and irremediable personal inadequacy rather than - to others or misfortune. Such an "attributional style" externally renders these women vulnerable to "learned helplessness" in such circumstances - to the debilitating belief that their actions will be ineffective in resolving their difficulties. Female self-poisoning is interpretted, not as symptomatic of psychopathology, but as both consequence and expression of this socialised helplessness. The attributional style of male and female self-poisoners is compared in a pilot study with that of other patients and non-patients and support is found for an attributional approach to female self-poisoning.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Medicine in the branch of Psychiatry, Johannesburg, September 2013 / Objective: Anecdotal evidence suggests that substance use is a significant problem among psychiatric patients admitted to Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of substance use, the type of substance used and the socio-demographic and clinical factors associated with substance use among a group of psychiatric inpatients. Method: This study was a retrospective record review of all patients admitted to the psychiatric wards at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital between the periods of July and December 2008. Results: Substance use was 4.8 (95% CI:2.7-8.4) times more likely among male subjects (p<0.001), 4.1 times (95%CI: 1.8-9.3) more likely in subjects aged 18-30 years compared to older patients (p=0.001), 3 times (95% CI: 1.2-7.4) more likely in subjects who were single (p=0.001), 1.9 (95% CI:1.4-2.7) times more likely in subjects who did not have children (p<0.001), and 1.5 (95% CI:1.2-2.1) times more likely in subjects with a psychotic disorder (p=0.004) compared to those with a mood disorder. Mood and psychotic disorders were compared and only the past psychiatric history was found to be significantly associated with psychotic disorders. Conclusion: Male gender was found to be significantly associated with substance use. Alcohol and cannabis were the most common substances used and polysubstance use also was a common occurrence. These findings have implications for preventative measures, psychiatric practice and specialized care for dual diagnosis patients.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences. / Department of Sociology

What is the nature of the links which may exist between social deprivation and harm to children? In seeking to shed light on the nature of these links this thesis will draw upon a study of parents' perceptions of the problems faced by them in bringing up children in neighbourhoods characterised by high scores on indices of social deprivation and high levels of child protection registrations. It will be demonstrated that parents facing social disadvantage encounter a range of adversities and hindrances which may have a cumulative adverse effect upon the care of children. The problems to which these lead will be shown to be linked by three main strands:- - social deprivation contributes to the existence of socially and economically impoverished neighbourhoods in which it is difficult for parents to provide a safe and healthy environment for children - by creating material, social, interpersonal and intrapersonal barriers in families, social deprivation can prevent parents from achieving the standards of parenting to which they might aspire and which society expects of them - in interaction with many other factors, social deprivation can contribute to high levels of psychosocial stress within families that may lead some parents to physically injure or neglect their children. In these ways the study will develop the argument that harm to children is linked to deficits in material resources and complex, interacting psychosocial stress factors. The study will be seen to have major implications for service-provision under the Children Act 1989 and promoting "partnership with parents".

This collection of personal essays about incest, abuse, and depression explores the lasting effects of an invisible childhood. The essays follow the protagonist from the age of five to her early twenties. Her brother, at a young age, becomes sexually abusive of her and her sisters, and her parents fail to protect their daughters. The family is divided as the older girls strive to defend their little sisters, while their parents attempt to excuse their son. When her brother is finally sent away, the protagonist is left to salvage what remains of her relationships with her parents.

This research report will engage in the debate surrounding decriminalization of drug use and whether it is a possible solution to the problem of drug use in South Africa. This is a question becoming more prevalent in global discussions regarding drug policy and its efficacy. It is held in the report that when evaluating policy two aspects must be addressed; namely the philosophical justification for the policy and the efficacy of the policy. Regarding criminalization it is found that policy may be justified by the public harm principle but that it does not effectively achieve the purpose of preventing and decreasing drug use and associated burdens. Thus, it is argued that prohibition is a constitutional limitation, but does not necessarily achieve its purpose in the least repressive or most effective way. Finally it is suggested that the solution to the drug problem will be one which addresses the background, particularly socio-economic, to drug use. Decriminalization has the theoretical potential to address this context but further empirical research is required in order to establish evidential grounds for continued discussion.

Although sexual and physical abuse have clear definitions, psychological abuse is difficult to define and conceptualize. Though men can and have experienced psychological abuse, there is limited research on heterosexual men's experiences with psychological abuse and much of the research on abuse has been on women. Therefore, this qualitative phenomenological study, grounded on control theory, the social choice framework, and narrative theory, was conducted to investigate how heterosexual men describe their experiences with psychological abuse. A phenomenological qualitative approached with purposeful sampling was used to draw a sample of heterosexual male participants (N = 6), ages 30 to 42 were interviewed, and transcripts were created from their responses for content analysis. The data was analyzed and coded to identify categories and themes. The results of this study indicated that heterosexual men do experience psychological abuse and they define this phenomenon with the underlying behavior of manipulation where physical abuse may or may not be prevalent. This research may also provide behavior health practitioners an opportunity to develop treatment strategies that address heterosexual men who experience psychological abuse. This research may also provide understanding to policy, lawmakers and law enforcement into understanding the lived experiences of heterosexual men who experience psychological abuse. This research has the potential for social change by adjusting both perspective and clinical definition as it pertains to heterosexual men who have experienced psychological abuse.

Introduction: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been linked with negative physical and mental health outcomes in adulthood. A limited amount of literature has discussed the impact of individual ACEs on HIV risk behaviors using nationally representative data. Objective: This study investigated how ACEs impact HIV risk behaviors using cross-sectional data from the 2011 and 2012 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). Methods: Data were obtained from BRFSS for 2011 and 2012. Only states that answered the optional ACE questionnaire were included in the study. All ten ACEs were categorized into abuse (parents physically hurt you in any way or parents swore, insulted or put you down), household dysfunction (lived with anyone mentally ill, lived with parental alcoholic, lived with parental drug abuser, had a parent incarcerated, parents beat each other, or parents were divorced or separated) and childhood sexual abuse (forced to have sex, forced to touch sexually, or forced to be touched sexually). The number of individuals in each category were then categorized based on if they said yes to HIV risk behaviors: used intravenous drugs in the past year, been treated for a sexually transmitted or venereal disease in the past year, and/or given or received anal sex without a condom in the past year. Sociodemographic factors were assessed including race (White, Black, Hispanic, or Other), sex, income (<$15,000, $15,000-<$25,000, $25,000-<$35,000, $35,000-<$50,000, and >$50,000), education (high school education or less and some college or more), age (18-34, 35-54, and 55+) and marital status (currently married or widowed and never married, divorced or separated). Weighted multiple logistic regression analyses were used to examine the association between ACEs and HIV risk behaviors controlling for sociodemographic characteristics. Results: The unweighted sample size was 151,289. The final adjusted sample size was 58,622. Majority of those who said yes to HIV risk behaviors were among the ages of 18-34 (7.92%) compared to other age categories. Adults with an income of <$15,000 had a higher prevalence of saying yes to HIV risk behaviors compared to all other income categories (6.30% vs. 4.85% vs. 3.87% vs. 3.12% vs 2.33%). Adults who experienced growing up with a parent in jail or had a parent who abused drugs had a higher prevalence of saying yes to HIV risk behaviors (11.18% and 11.14% respectively). Of the 4.34% of adults who were forced to have sex as a child, 12.17% said yes to HIV risk behaviors. All ACEs were significantly associated with HIV risk behaviors (P<0.0001). Multiple logistic regression analysis show that adults who grew up with parents who abused drugs (Odds Ratio (OR)= 1.74, 95% Confidence Interval (CI)= 1.72-1.74) or were forced to have sex as a child (OR=1.70, 95% CI=1.68-1.72) were more likely to have HIV risk behaviors. Not being currently married or widowed increased the odds of HIV risk behaviors by 2.31 times (OR= 2.31, 95% CI= 2.30-2.33). Conclusions: ACEs were positively associated with HIV risk behaviors. Longitudinal studies are warranted to confirm the causal relationship. Educational and prevention measures may be considered to address this public health problem.

Currently, there exists no conclusive etiology of child abuse although there are two major and contrasting theories which attempt to impart a systematic interpretation to the data. The purpose of this study was to determine what are the significant factors in child abuse and to what extent the respective theories render a coherent and comprehensive explanation of these factors. This study aggregated the data on the demographic, social, economic, and psychological features of the child abuse victim and perpetrator. Each study was analyzed according to a methodology of review which considered the problems involved in eliciting meaningful data from a group of studies grounded on different assumptions and conducted according to disparate research designs. The studies were compared and contrasted to determine what factors were significantly related to child abuse. Thereafter, both major theories of child abuse were tested against the findings of the literature review to determine to what extent the respective theories successfully predicted and related significant factors in child abuse. The review of the literature clearly established a demographic profile of the child abuse victim and his family. The abused child is usually very young, typically below the age of three. Neither race nor gender are specifically related to the age of the victim. Abusing families tend to have more than the average number of children, but usually select only one child - frequently, the eldest or the youngest - as the target for abuse. The child is likely to have been born prematurely and to have had more than the usual number of serious physical illnesses or disabilities throughout his life. In addition, a significant number of abused children display intellectual, social, and psychological dysfunction which may have resulted from injuries sustained from previous abuse. Most injuries stemming from child abuse fall into the general category of superficial bruises and welts although compared with accidental childhood injuries, there is a higher frequency of fractures and head injuries. The pattern that emerges from the somewhat limited data is that abused children are unusually impaired in intellectual, social, and psychological functioning. Nearly all child abuse is committed by parental figures most of whom are the natural mothers and fathers of abused children. Most abusing parents are around twenty-five years old reflecting the fact that the majority of abuse victims are infants and younger children. Mothers are the most frequent child abusers. Although only one parent actually attacks the abuse victim, generally speaking, the other parent is overtly, or at least covertly involved in abusing the child. Abusing parents are characterized by a history of anti-social behavior and psychological problems. A general atmosphere of instability and disruption surrounds the child abusing family indicated by frequent discord among married parents, as well as separations and divorces. On all measures of socioeconomic status, child abusing families have low achievement and face the stresses of poverty and its associated conditions. However, neither race nor socioeconomic status distinguish the abusing family when compared with the social, racial, and economic groups to which they belong. Abusing families are distinguished by their transience and inability to maintain social contact with the community or affiliation with social organizations. Neither a sociocultural or a psychodynamic theory of child abuse effectively relates and explains all the significant findings of the literature review. While the former predicts the several environmental factors significantly related to child abuse and the latter explains the significant findings associated with the perpetrator, neither theory provides an explanation of the role of the child abuse victim. This review suggests that an alternative theoretical framework which incorporates environmental factors and relates significant factors about the child abuse victim and perpetrator will produce the most comprehensive explanation of child abuse.