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The contributions of this paper are the result of a thematic review conducted on some of the most relevant scientific contributions and policy guidelines about women's perception of safety while walking in public spaces. The first part of the review focused on 23 scientific references revolving around the keywords "gender", "safety" and "walkability". This led to the establishment of three main Safety Factors: (i) Spatial Features (space characteristics/morphological features); (ii) City Use (traces of behavior and presence of city users); and (iii) Hotspots (safe havens and no-go areas); further resulting in 19 sub-factors. The second part of the review covered a collection of 20 reports and 10 guidelines focused on diverse geographical scales, areas of interest and target audiences, as well as data collection methods. This involved the selection of multiple case studies, which are also presented, thus maintaining a geographically diverse sample. As part of the scientific research project "STEP UP—Walkability for Women in Milan", the outputs of the proposed thematic review will be exploited to help identify challenging areas of Milan (Italy), as samples of analysis to develop a set of policy recommendations to enhance the level of walkability for women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors present a case which brings out a unique modality of child homicide by placing the baby in a washing machine and turning it on. The murder was perpetrated by the baby's mother, who suffered from a serious depressive disorder. A postmortem RX and then a forensic autopsy were performed, followed by histologic examinations and toxicology. On the basis of the results of the autopsy, as well as the histology and the negative toxicological data, the cause of death was identified as acute asphyxia. This diagnosis was rendered in light of the absence of other causes of death, as well as the presence of typical signs of asphyxia, such as epicardial and pleural petechiae and, above all, the microscopic examinations, which pointed out a massive acute pulmonary emphysema. Regarding the cause of the asphyxia, at least two mechanisms can be identified: drowning and smothering. In addition, the histology of the brain revealed some findings that can be regarded as a consequence of the barotrauma due to the centrifugal force applied by the rotating drum of the washing machine. Another remarkable aspect is that we are dealing with a mentally-ill assailant. In fact, the baby's mother, after a psychiatric examination, was confirmed to be suffering from a mental illness-a severe depressive disorder-and so she was adjudicated not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity. This case warrants attention because of its uniqueness and complexity and, above all, its usefulness in the understanding of the pathophysiology of this particular manner of death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]