Many in the founding generation believed that a virtuous citizenry would protect against abuses of power in a democracy. But their experience during the period of the Articles of Confederation revealed the limits of republican virtue as a check on abuses of power and underscored the challenge of limiting the opportunities for minority and majority factions to impose their will on their fellow citizens.

With the combined experience of an abuse of power by the British monarch and an absence of executive authority under the Articles of Confederation, the Framers faced the challenge of establishing an executive authority of effective, yet limited, powers. It was generally agreed that the role of the executive was limited to the execution of the laws enacted by Congress, but the number of executives, the manner of selection, and length of tenure in office were considered important to restraining factions.

The role of the judiciary as a check on the legislative and executive branches was believed necessary to the effectiveness of the horizontal separation of powers as a check on political factions. The nature of the judicial power was generally agreed to include the power of judicial review, but selection and tenure in office were thought to be important to limiting abuses of power.

A fundamental dilemma in both the radiology reading room as well as the courtroom is whether a potential abusive head or spinal injury may be mistaken for other entities – both pathological processes and also normal anatomical or physiological variants.

A number of differential diagnoses, or mimics, for abusive head trauma may be apparent radiologically, but many may not be. Striving to achieve a medical “diagnosis” of an abusive injury requires the interplay between the radiologist and numerous other clinical specialties. The wide differentials which we discuss include accidental trauma, coagulopathies – both congenital and acquired, metabolic disorders, sepsis and vascular malformations, with all needing to be excluded before reaching a conclusion of nonaccidental trauma.

The experienced radiologist and clinician working in the challenging field of child protection also recognises that it is not always possible to reach a clear-cut decision and learning to communicate levels of uncertainty is essential. Part of this process is to always be alert to diagnostic mimics that may mislead the inexperienced and unwary.

Millions of women and girls worldwide experience violence. Violence against women and girls takes many forms, including physical, emotional and sexual violence and abuse, which is associated with a range of adverse impacts on women, their families and society as a whole. Health professionals supporting women during the perinatal period should assess the risks posed by exposure to previous or current violence and how this may affect them during pregnancy. As an important risk factor in a woman’s mental health presentation, psychiatrists working with pregnant and postpartum women should consider the presence of violence in their formulation; it can increase the risk of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Domestic violence and abuse increase the risk of domestic homicide and may play a role in many perinatal suicides. Sensitive assessment and effective management of women exposed to violence can improve engagement with mental health services and response to treatment.

This chapter moves from the semi-privacy of homes to the more public arena of urban courts. It looks at the surprising role of the pox in two different kinds of legal cases involving unlawful sex: suits for separation and rape cases. In both types of case, the disease served as a proxy for sex, material evidence of otherwise unprovable acts. Yet its role in court was much more complex than this. Marks of the disease were visible and long-enduring, an early form of medical forensics, and women could talk about the disease more freely than they could talk about sexual matters. Mothers of rape victims could bear witness to the horrifying effects of disease and disgruntled wives could frame their husbands’ abuse as contagion stemming from illicit sex. The disease allowed women to speak the unspeakable. What is more, cases did not rest wholly on women’s words, which were accorded little value in courts. Confirming the existence and transmission of disease called for the allegedly more trustworthy testimony of medical men. The disease centered legal cases about sex on to the words and bodily inspections that the court deemed reliable.

This chapter explores safeguarding as a duty on tennis sport governing bodies (SGBs) and tennis academies in respect of their athletes, whether junior or senior. The chapter considers safeguarding as a duty of care, the violation of which gives rise to tort-based liability. It looks at the various instruments and codes adopted by tennis SGBs, as well as by national tennis federations, including also their monitoring processes. The chapter explores how these processes are enforced with a view to limiting exposure to risks present or future. The chapter also considers health and safety as part of the duty of safeguarding and goes on to point out legal consequences for failure to meet safeguarding obligations.

Eileen Carey’s books are rarely read; her acting career was forgotten during her lifetime; and her presence in literary culture has always remained in the shadow of her husband. But she provided important support for Sean O’Casey throughout the second half of his life, and there is also great prescience in her own writing. This chapter presents a new assessment of Eileen Carey’s professional career in the wake of the #MeToo (2006–) and #WakingTheFeminists (2015–16) movements, showing how she experienced and wrote about male abuse in the entertainment industry, and how she inspired her husband to write about some of those themes in his own writing.

This chapter explains principles of safeguarding, the relevant law and statutory framework, the role of the anaesthetist in safeguarding, specific forms of abuse, the safeguarding process for children when concerns arise and the investigation process when a child dies.

This chapter explores what we know about violence against young people with cognitive disability. It looks at what can make it more likely that young people with cognitive disability are abused. It’s hard to really know how many young people with cognitive disability have experienced violence. Young people with cognitive disability can be harmed by workers, family, or friends who are meant to help them. Abuse can happen in many places. Services and society need to learn how to keep young people with cognitive disability safe. We need to make sure young people can make decisions for themselves.

Young people with cognitive disability, families, and practitioners reported many acts of violence against young people. The violence included physical abuse, sexual assault/abuse, neglect, exploitation, emotional and psychological abuse, and domestic and family violence. Young people were abused by other young people with disability, family members, partners, practitioners, and services. Young people in this book found the strength to speak up and tell their stories of violence.

This chapter tells Amethyst’s story. Amethyst is an Aboriginal and South Sea Islander young woman with cognitive disability. Amethyst is not her real name. Amethyst was abused many times as a child and a young adult. Her story can tell us a lot about what needs to change for young people with cognitive disability. We need to understand that abuse affects a person’s whole life, their family, and their world.

Becoming an adult involved lots of changes and challenges for young people with cognitive disability. Many services, and sometimes families, judged young people badly because they had a cognitive disability. Young people needed help to be independent, but this wasn’t always given to them. Some young people were lonely and found so-called friends who abused them. Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander young people and young people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds needed others to understand and respect their culture. LQBTIQA+ young people wanted love and acceptance as they became adults.