Risk Factors and Pathways to Imprisonment among Incarcerated Women in Victoria, 1860–1920

Criminological studies have found that men’s and women’s pathways to imprisonment differ, with risk factors such as substance abuse, mental illness, socioeconomic circumstances and past victimisation more strongly associated with female prisoners. However, limited quantitative or longitudinal research exists on how the risk factors associated with female offending may have shifted over time. This article investigates the criminal careers and pathways to imprisonment of 6,042 women incarcerated in Victoria between 1860 and 1920, and the risk factors associated with subsequent recidivism. The findings suggest that, while many of today’s risk factors were present historically, there have been notable shifts across time.     

刑法在应对突发公共卫生事件中的适用及限度——以应对新冠肺炎疫情为例

以危险方法危害公共安全罪、妨害传染病防治罪、妨害公务罪、非法经营罪等是妨害新冠肺炎疫情防控中的常见罪名,但是上述罪名在司法实践中存在争议,特别是在适用以危险方法危害公共安全罪规制妨害疫情防控行为时要特别慎重,把握好以危险方法危害公共安全罪和妨害传染病防治罪之间的限度。在刑法应对妨害新冠肺炎疫情防控行为的过程中,一方面,要从重从快打击涉疫情犯罪行为,有效震慑犯罪分子,恢复社会秩序。另一方面,考虑到刑法的谦抑性和刑法最后保障法的特性,有必要在刑法适用的过程中从刑法的基本价值、刑法教义学、刑事政策等方面进行限定,确保公平、正义、合理适用刑法,确保疫情防控不偏离法治的路线,确保刑法在疫情防控中的适用保持政治效果、法律效果、社会效果的统一。     

刑事案件速裁程序局限性及其完善

在公正基础上制度化地解决有限的司法供给与膨胀的刑事法律需求之间的矛盾是现阶段刑事司法改革的必然要求,基于此,我国在《刑事诉讼法》简易程序的基础上对刑事案件速裁程序进行试点,但是试点中的一些问题阻碍了试点的预期效果的实现。本文分别从侦查机关、公诉机关、被告人、辩护人、审判机关角度分析阻碍速裁程序适用的原因,提出设立非法律因素上诉甄别程序,从而节约二审司法资源、确立司法权威;同时提出构建多层次的刑事司法程序,以改变现行刑事诉讼程序体系扁平的现状。     

HOW JUDGES THINK ABOUT RACIAL DISPARITIES: SITUATIONAL DECISION‐MAKING IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM*

Researchers have theorized how judges’ decision‐making may result in the disproportionate presence of Blacks and Latinos in the criminal justice system. Yet, we have little evidence about how judges make sense of these disparities and what, if anything, they do to address them. By drawing on 59 interviews with state judges in a Northeastern state, we describe, and trace the implications of, judges’ understandings of racial disparities at arraignment, plea hearings, jury selection, and sentencing. Most judges in our sample attribute disparities, in part, to differential treatment by themselves and/or other criminal justice officials, whereas some judges attribute disparities only to the disparate impact of poverty and differences in offending rates. To address disparities, judges report employing two categories of strategies: noninterventionist and interventionist. Noninterventionist strategies concern only a judge's own differential treatment, whereas interventionist strategies concern other actors’ possible differential treatment, as well as the disparate impact of poverty and facially neutral laws. We reveal how the use of noninterventionist strategies by most judges unintentionally reproduces disparities. Through our examination of judges’ understandings of racial disparities throughout the court process, we enhance understandings of American racial inequality and theorize a situational approach to decision‐making in organizational contexts.     

Criminal Careers in Cyberspace: Examining Website Failure within Child Exploitation Networks

Publically accessible, illegal, websites represent an additional challenge for control agencies, but also an opportunity for researchers to monitor, in real time, changes in criminal careers. Using a repeated measures design, we examine evolution in the networks that form around child exploitation (CE) websites, over a period of 60 weeks, and determine which criminal career dimensions predict website failure. Network data were collected using a custom-designed web-crawler. Baseline survival rates were compared to networks surrounding (legal) sexuality and sports websites. Websites containing CE material were no more likely to fail than comparisons. Cox regression analyses suggest that increased volumes of CE code words and images are associated with premature failure. Websites that are more popular have higher odds of survival. We show that traditional criminal career dimensions can be transferred to the context of online CE and constitute some of the key determinants of an interrupted career.     

A Criminal Career Study of the Continuity and Discontinuity of Sex Offending during the Adolescence-Adulthood Transition: A Prospective Longitudinal Study of Incarcerated Youth

Longitudinal research has seriously challenged assumptions that juvenile sex offenders (JSO) are characterized by high level of dangerousness, mental health problems, and crime specialization in sex offenses. The current study examines the longitudinal pattern of offending among a sample of JSO and a sample of juvenile nonsex offenders. The research design includes longitudinal data over a nine-year period allowing the examination of offending patterns and the crime mix from age 12 to age 23. The findings highlight that, while JSO are prone to persist offending in adulthood, there is limited continuity of sex offending. Further, the findings stress the importance of taking into account nonsexual juvenile delinquency, more specifically, youth violence, to make a better assessment of early adult offending outcomes of JSO.     

Imprisonment and co-offending: results from a 10-year follow-up study

A recurring question in criminological research is whether prisoners meet new accomplices in prison. This article’s objective is to study co-offending among individuals who have served prison sentences. The frequency of co-offending among individuals who have been in the same prison at the same time will be examined. If gender, age, type of prison, offence type and prior experience of co-offending are significant for this type of co-offending will also be examined. The study population comprised all inmates released from a Swedish prison during a half year in 2001–2002 (n = 3.930). The follow-up period is 10 years. The results show that only 3% of those who have been in the same prison at the same time are suspected of committing offences together subsequent to release. The likelihood of being suspected of committing an offence together following the conclusion of a joint stay in the same prison is higher for those released from a closed prison who are aged 31–40, and who had committed large proportion of their offences together with others prior to the relevant prison sentence. The results suggest that the concept of criminal capital is not important for future co-offending after a joint stay in prison.