The concept of compliance in international law remains amongst the most significant and, at the same time, the most perplexing of questions. The significance of compliance is highlighted in certain spheres of international law that deal with specific extraordinary circumstances. This is particularly true with respect to international humanitarian law, which is applicable during periods of armed conflict. The importance of ensuring and improving compliance with international humanitarian law is clearly expressed in the opening Article of the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocol I of 1977, in which the High Contracting Parties undertake to both "respect" and "ensure respect" for these instruments. This thesis is derived from a conviction that compliance with international humanitarian norms is more efficiently ensured through implementation, rather than enforcement mechanisms. However, it only ventures a critique of the appropriateness of military intervention as one of the mechanisms most frequently used to enforce humanitarian rules in the past decade of armed conflicts. The hypothesis this thesis postulates is that the recourse to armed force to ensure respect for international humanitarian law is at cross-purposes with the body of these rules. This statement is assessed against the Security Council's military humanitarian intervention in civil conflicts. It is suggested that the validity of the Council's decisions on humanitarian intervention hinges upon two equally determinative criteria: legality and legitimacy. The hypothesis of the thesis questions both the legality and legitimacy of the Security Council's authorized military humanitarian intervention in armed conflicts. The underlying purpose of the thesis is thus to expand the parameters of theoretical discussions about compliance in the context of international humanitarian law from a jurisprudential perspective.

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A large-scale intervention, designed to increase healthier fast-food consumption, was evaluated at a national fast-food chain. Participants included fast-food consumers at three separate restaurant locations in southwestern Virginia. Each restaurant received three phases, consisting of fourteen days each. Two of the restaurants were exposed to two conditions, A (Baseline) and B (Intervention), while the other restaurant served as a control. Restaurant 1 received the following phases, with each phase lasting two weeks: A--B--A. Restaurant 2 received A--A--B, and Restaurant 3 received A--A--A. Research assistants distributed discount coupons on a new healthy sandwich to consumers during Condition B in Restaurants 2 & 3. This sandwich was available in a healthy combo including salad and water, and a regular combo including soda and fries. At all 3 locations, research assistants collected receipts showing all total menu item sales every day during the six-week intervention. Analyses of variance revealed consumers purchased the healthy sandwich significantly more during the incentive conditions, and also purchased the regular combo more frequently than the healthier combo during the intervention condition. Implications for the social validity of using incentives to motivate nutrition-related behaviors are discussed. / Master of Science

Bakgrund: De vanligaste substanserna som ungdomar missbrukar är alkohol och narkotika. Narkotikamissbruket är en av de största orsakerna till hälsoproblem och dödsfall bland ungdomar och yngre vuxna i Europa. Alkoholen påverkar folkhälsan och ligger således bakom en stor andel olyckor, skador och våldsbrott.En vanlig konsekvens av missbruk och beroende av alkohol eller narkotika i ungdomsåren är försämrat studieresultat, antisociala och kriminella aktiviteter, en minskning av sociala aktiviteter, psykiska besvär samt utsatthet för våld och övergrepp. Det finns tydliga samband mellan hög alkoholkonsumtion och psykisk ohälsa. Syfte: Att beskriva preventiva interventioner för att förebygga substansmissbruk hos ungdomar. Metod: Sökningarna genomfördes i databaserna Cinahl, Pubmeb & Socindex. I litteraturstudien har åtta kvantitativa studier granskats och analyserats. Resultat: Analysen resulterade i tre domäner – en som i huvudsak baserades på skolinterventioner, en baserades på skolinterventioner med familjeengagemang och en domän med övriga interventionsprogram. Resultatet visade att sju av åtta interventionsprogram hade effekt i att minska substansanvändningen bland ungdomar. Konklusion: Substansmissbruk bland ungdomar har under det senaste decenniet ökat drastiskt, idag har de flesta ungdomar tillgång till Internet och kan därigenom lätt få tillgång till olika substanser. Ny forskning borde konstant bedrivas eftersom nya substanser hela tiden produceras och blir tillgängliga. Detta gör ämnet högst aktuellt och mer forskning behövs för att hitta nya adaptiva preventiva interventionsprogram.

Despite considerable declines in physical and sexual abuse over recent decades, child maltreatment remains a public health priority. In 2014, 702,000 children were determined to be victims of maltreatment, 75% of whom experienced neglect (DHHS, 2016). An area in need of further scrutiny is the complex relationship of multiple risk factors and the association of those risk factors with subsequent child welfare involvement. The purpose of this three-manuscript dissertation was to examine evidence-based child maltreatment prevention through an empiric examination of risk and novel prevention efforts. The first paper, Getting the Most Juice for the Squeeze: Where SafeCare® and Other Evidence-based Programs Need to Evolve to Better Protect Children, discusses the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based prevention programs using SafeCare as an applied example. The paper concludes with recommendations for evidence-based practices to improve the outcomes of children and families. Among several recommendations, this paper suggests considering innovative implementation settings, collaboration between systems, and response to the underlying risk factors for maltreatment. The second paper, Drug Court as a Potential Point of Intervention to Impact the Well-being of Children and Families of Substance-Using Parents, responds to the recommendation of collaboration and innovation from the first paper. This descriptive study sought to describe the needs of families of adult drug court populations related to parenting and mental health services. Baseline data indicated a low potential for abuse and the need for mental health services among drug court participants and their children under 18-years old. The findings from this paper indicate a potential intervention and collaboration opportunity between the child welfare and criminal justice systems. The third paper, An Examination of Risk Profiles among Mothers Involved with Child Protective Services, responds to the need to better understand underlying risk factors among child welfare involved families as discussed in the first paper. A latent class analysis was conducted to explore the heterogeneity among women reported to child protective services. In what is typically a homogenously treated and characterized sample, this analysis indicated three classes of risk and examined the classes’ association with subsequent referral to child protective services. The findings of this research support the recommendation of the importance of better understanding underlying risk factors to better align services with needs of children and families.

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