论我国行政处罚听证制度的不足及其完善

听证制度是行政程序法基本制度的核心。从司法执法实践可以看出,《行政处罚法》缺乏较为详细的配套性规定,尤其是一些重要的制度性建设欠明确与具体,及时总结以往听证工作的经验,完善行政处罚的听证程序已是一项紧迫任务。     

An Evaluation of the Use of Videotaped Evidence for Juvenile Witnesses in Criminal Courts in England and Wales

For the first time, the UK Criminal Justice Act (1991) allowed the videotaped evidence of a child to be substituted for the child's evidence-in-chief in a criminal court. The present study is an evaluation of that legislation. One hundred and fifty children were observed testifying in a criminal court in the UK. The use of the videotaped evidence and subsequent cross-examination of the child witness (usually via the closed circuit television system) was also observed. The data base from the Lord Chancellor's Department of all trials involving child witnesses in England and Wales was also analysed. The results showed that the introduction of the video technology into the criminal courts reduced the levels of stress of child witnesses but did not increase the conviction rates.     

The Effect of a Standard to Improve Person Descriptions by Children

This study examines whether or not using a person as a standard/comparison improves the ability of a child witness to provide more accurate detail about a previously observed person. Study participants included 135 children who observed a male stranger and were then later asked to describe and answer various questions about that person using a third-person standard/comparison. Despite the fact that one-half of participants were exposed to a standard/comparison, neither participants’ gender or exposure to the standard/comparison improved recollection outcomes. However, the gender of the standard/comparisons - especially where female - did have a significant effect on the recall ability of male participants.     

我国民事诉讼中悬赏取证问题探讨

所谓悬赏取证，是指当事人为证明诉讼事实，以公开许诺奖励的方式，请求证人为其作证的举证形式。诉讼法理论界以及司法实务界针对悬赏取证问题出现了两种不同的观点，从两个典型案例出发，探讨悬赏取证出现的现实基础，是否具有合法性以及其证据效力；并且悬赏取证不等于收买证人，与收买证人是两种不同的概念。在此基础上，对悬赏取证的法律规制问题予以阐述，以期规范我国的取证方式。     

未成年人犯罪公诉工作的思考

未成年人刑事犯罪给家庭、学校、社会带来隐忧和不安,成为社会各界关注的焦点和迫切需要解决的问题。未成年人犯罪对其如何处罚,不仅关系到未成年犯的前途,而且会产生巨大的社会影响,意义重大深远,检察机关的公诉部门承担着对未成年犯罪诉讼工作,笔者结合多年从事公诉工作的实践,就基层检察院在公诉工作中如何对未成年人犯罪开展公诉工作进行思考、探讨。     

我国司法赔偿制度现状分析与完善

我国的司法赔偿制度在归责原则、赔偿范围以及赔偿程序等方面都存在缺陷。针对这些问题,我国司法赔偿应适用多元化的归责原则,并扩大现有司法赔偿范围,完善确认程序,引进听证程序。     

认知询问技术探究

认知询问技术是以心理学理论为基础并为国外警方实践所广泛认可的询问证人的技术。其能有效引导证人进行更好的回忆，促使证人提供准确和完整的信息。但在我国侦查实践中这一技术却没有受到应有的重视。实验对比发现，与一般询问技术相比，认知询问技术在促进证人回忆时具有明显的效果，能够帮助证人回忆起更多细节。     

An Approach to Speaker Identification

This presentation will provide standards upon which any attempts to meet the challenge of identifying speakers by voice should be based. It is organized into a model based on (i) application of a rigorous research program validating the system, (ii) an upgrading of the organization of the SI area, and (iii) exploitation of new technology. The second part of the presentation will describe an illustrative speech/voice approach to SI development. This effort is also based on an extensive corpus of research. It is suggested that application of the cited standards, plus the illustrative model, will permit reasonable progress to be made. Finally, a number of procedural recommendations are made; they should enhance the efficacy of the proposed approach.     

Catching the Bad Guy: Morphing Composite Faces Helps

Composite faces built by eyewitnesses commonly are poor likenesses of the target face. When there are multiple witnesses, however, an opportunity exists to morph the composites. Morphs were rated as more similar to the target face than were the mean ratings of the individual composites. However, as hypothesized, the morph also came to resemble non-target faces more than the individual composites did (a prototype effect). This prototype effect was so strong that the morphs resembled non-targets more than the individual composites resembled the targets. In addition, morphing composites produced an attractiveness bias, which made the morphing of composites less effective for less attractive targets. Even when the prototype effect and the attractiveness bias were controlled for, however, a true morph-superiority effect continued to exist. The author won the Psi Chi/APS Albert Bandura Graduate Research Award in 2005--2006 for this study.     

Non-biased lineup instructions do matter – a problem for older witnesses

Abstract

From the limited literature on older witnesses’ identification performance it is known that they are less accurate on lineups compared to younger witnesses. What is less certain is why they show this age deficit and what can be done to aid their performance. Witnesses forgot being given non-biased lineup instructions informing witnesses that the perpetrator may or may not be present. More older witnesses than younger witnesses forgot and witnesses who failed to report remembering these instructions were significantly less accurate on the lineups. In addition, the current study investigated the use of sequential lineup presentation and stringent decision criteria to aid the performance of older witnesses. Sequential presentation was beneficial to both younger and older adults when the lineup was target absent (TA) but was detrimental when the lineup was target present (TP). Stringent decision criteria had no significant beneficial effect. Future directions for aiding older witnesses’ performance are discussed.