Metric forensic anthropology decisions: Reliability and biasability of sectioning-point-based sex estimates

Subjective decisions make human cognitive processes more susceptible to bias and error. Specifically, research indicates that additional context biases forensic anthropologists’ morphological analyses. To address whether metric analyses are also subject to bias, we conducted a pilot study in which 52 experienced osteologists measured a difficult-to-classify human femur, with or without additional contextual information. Using a metric sectioning-point sex-estimation method, participants provided a sex estimate for individual skeletal element(s) and, when given multiple elements, the combined skeletal assemblage. Control group participants (n = 24) measured only the femur. In addition to the femur, bias group participants (n = 28) either measured a female humerus and viewed a female-biasing photograph (n = 14) or measured a male humerus and viewed a male-biasing photograph (n = 14). We explored whether the experts in the different groups would differ in: (1) femoral measurements; (2) femoral sex-estimation conclusions; and (3) final sex-estimation conclusions for the skeletal assemblage. Although the femoral measurements and femoral sex estimates were comparable across groups, the overall sex estimates in the female-biased group were impacted by contextual information—differing from both the control and male-biased groups (p < 0.001). Our results demonstrate that cognitive bias can occur even in metric sex-estimation conclusions. Specifically, this occurred when the metric data and single-element sex estimates were synthesized into an overall estimate. Thus, our results suggest that metric methods are most vulnerable to bias when data are synthesized into an overall conclusion, highlighting the need for bias countermeasures and comprehensive statistical frameworks for synthesizing metric data to mitigate the effects of cognitive bias.     

An Ideational Approach to Gendered Institutional Change: Revisiting the Institutionalization of a New Prostitution Regime in Sweden

Recent work in the field of feminist institutionalism has made important progress in furthering our understanding of gendered institutional change. I argue that gradual ideational changes play an essential role in processes of gendered institutional change, and that examining the interaction between ideas and gendered institutions is of great importance for gaining a better understanding of processes of this type. This article revisits an empirical study of gendered institutional change in Swedish prostitution policy in the effort to specify two idea-based mechanisms that are conducive to gendered change, namely, consensus concerning the problem and gendering of the problem.     

Local government projectification in practice – a multiple institutional logic perspective

ABSTRACT

During the last couple of decades, we have witnessed a proliferation of the project as an organizational solution in sectors as diverse as IT, housing, social services, education and culture. Despite a growing interest in the phenomenon, we know surprisingly little of how processes of public sector projectification unfold in practice, especially at local government level. This article uses an institutional logic perspective to illustrate and argue that public sector projectification can be understood and conceptualized as the enactment of multiple, co-existing institutional logics, but where one particular logic is of growing importance – the project logic. It is argued that even though the project form is often perceived as more flexible than that of the bureaucracy, the practical outcome seldom represents a radical break with traditional, bureaucratic management models. Rather, it appears to aid a rediscovery and reuse of central bureaucratic practices and procedures such as reporting, documentation and standardization.     

美国社区矫正体制的中间制裁制度

美国社区矫正体制的中间制裁制度始兴于20世纪80年代,是一种惩罚程度介于监狱监禁和传统的缓刑、假释之间的社区化行刑方式。作为社区矫正罪犯数量增加和社区公共安全保障的妥协产物,具有一定惩罚性的中间制裁主要包括严密的缓刑和假释监督、住宅禁闭与电子监控、军训式矫正中心、日报告中心、返回社区训练所、日罚金和社区服务等类型,以分层控制体系实现保障社区安全和改造罪犯的双重目的。各种制裁措施的适用依据是罪犯的罪行严重程度、矫治和服务需要。中间制裁的应用取得了一定成效,但也引发了一些问题。     

论植物人的法律人格及权利行使和保护

Although human vegetables lose their capacities of will and do not have the intrinsic attribute of civil subjects, they still have legal personalities and the status of civil subjects. The law has not provided for defects of their legal personalities, and thus civil law shall include human vegetables as objects of guardianship. The system of adult guardianship shall be constructed to supplement and correct the legal personalities of human vegetables. When human vegetables enter into a permanent vegetative state or state of brain death, law may declare the termination of legal personalities of the human vegetable. Due to the unique life state and capacity of act of human vegetables, the exercise of their civil rights faces a series of legal difficulties and challenges, mainly involving important issues such as the right of treatment for life rescue, marital right and reproductive right. The civil law shall ensure that the civil right of human vegetables can be fully enjoyed and effectively protected. Zhang Li, associate professor in civil and business law at Fujian Normal University, and also an invited researcher on civil law, international economic law and international private law, co-operated with Law School of Renmin University of China. Till now, she’s already released 23 theses in law journals and a monograph of the Survey of International Private Law. In addition, she was a member in doing studies (2006) on the legislation of Chinese tort law and presides over the researching (2007) of the legal personality and rights of disabled persons.     

我国刑事被害人诉讼权利保护制度的完善

随着诉讼制度的发展,刑事被害人的诉讼地位经历了一个由高到低再逐渐提高的过程。我国修改后的刑事诉讼法提升了被害人的法律地位,并一定程度上强化了其诉讼权利,但在保护被害人诉讼权利方面仍存在着一些不足,应当采取相应的措施加以完善。     

The Frontiers of Legal Analysis: Reframing the Transition in Northern Ireland

British constitutional legal discourse is structurally limited in its capacity to capture the complexity of the Good Friday Agreement. Rather than assessing the Agreement in narrow devolutionary terms, it should be seen as a hybrid domestic and international law instrument, making an important contribution to accepted international law norms in relation to self-determination. The Agreement transforms and partly transcends the Northern Ireland conflict by substituting political contestation for violent conflict, and by defining the modalities of conducting that contestation. This analysis complements classical international law perspectives, and opens up the application of legal discourses associated with 'transitional justice' to the legal and political transformation in Northern Ireland. These discourses focus on the problem of reconciling the demands of peace with the imperatives of justice. The Agreement sits squarely in this terrain with its provisions on 'dealing with the past' and 'institutional legacies'. The insights gained here challenge orthodox thinking about conflict-management and the ongoing political process.     

浅析办理治安案件中存在的问题及对策

《治安管理处罚法》和《公安机关办理行政案件程序规定》施行以来,公安机关在办理治安案件中存在鱼龙混杂、画蛇添足、张冠李戴、因循守旧、玩忽职守和虎头蛇尾等问题。要进行"矫治",就必须加强学习,端正态度,更新观念,强化指导并细化制度。     

国家与经济发展:关于发展问题的深层次思考

研究一个国家的经济发展问题离不开政治因素的讨论。作为政治因素的核心,国家自然应进入我们的研究视野。应建立国家经济学,把政治观念与新古典的分析方法结合起来,探讨经济发展的源泉,揭示经济发展规律,研究经济发展问题。     

行政问责制对地方政府经济行为的影响——制度堕距的视角

行政问责制是构建责任政府的具体制度安排。问责制度在制度设计与制度执行层面存在制度堕距。制度堕距对地方政府经济行为产生重要影响,因此,从制度设计与制度执行层面改进问责制制度文本,消弭制度堕距,有助于构建优良的问责制制度,推动地方政府经济行为合理化。