回归法律规范:刑事值班律师制度适用问题再反思

目前我国刑事值班律师制度规范背后折射出有权机关抑制辩方权利的倾向。根据法律规范意旨,只要被追诉人没有辩护人,国家就应“强制指派”值班律师介入案件。将“约见”解读为国家指派值班律师需以被追诉人申请为前提,这混淆了律师会见与介入案件的关系,且将国家责任转嫁给个人,弱化了对被追诉人获得最低限度法律援助权利的保障。相关规范性文件将值班律师阅卷权能限定为“查阅”,但基于法律援助法第37条的文义、控辩平等之程序公正底线要求等因素,值班律师阅卷权能还应包括“摘抄”“复制”。《法律援助值班律师工作办法》第10条第2款规定,值班律师有量刑异议时,只要其认可犯罪嫌疑人认罪认罚的自愿性,就应在具结书上签字。这是对值班律师功能“见证化”的公开宣示,与2018年刑事诉讼法第201条的意旨以及值班律师实质性参与量刑协商的改革要求相矛盾。值班律师应被赋予拒绝签字的权利。“实质性参与”应是目前完善值班律师制度的基本方向。     

论我国刑事错案责任追究制度的完善 ——以侦查机关为视角

我国刑事错案追究制度自实行以来,其运用的合理性以及有效性一直饱受争议。从侦查机关的视角考察,错案追责情况主要存在纠正程序不具体、追责程序透明度不高等相关问题。结合我国实际情况考虑,从内部制度与外部监督入手考虑设立独立的错案追究机关来进行解决是可行的,同时可从细化错案责任追究的相关程序、明晰实体责任性质的认定标准、建立健全办案质量终身责任追究制度和建立追责程序相关信息发布机制等方面来完善刑事错案追究制度。     

刑法现代化理论的续造

根据党的十九届四中全会决议,在国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的背景下,刑法现代化需要继续发展。反观我国刑法学领域,现代化刑法的追求还占据着当代刑法学人的思维,遮蔽了中国刑法现代化之未来图景的真实面貌,妨碍了中国刑法现代化的进一步发展。为此,我们有必要从现代性的一般特征出发,尝试着以现代之后的视角看待刑法现代化发展及其遭遇的“陷阱”。在对现代性中的基础主义、表象主义,以及普遍主义的批判基础上,实现现代刑法经由自由刑法向风险刑法、单一法典化向立法多样化和实践理性向交往理性三个维度的转化,并为中国刑法的现代化事业提供更为充足的理论动力。     

The Search for “Fred”: An Unusual Vertical Burial Case,

Police witness intelligence stated a murdered adult male “Fred” had been vertically buried in wooded hilly terrain 30 years ago in the Midlands, U.K. Conventional search methods were unsuccessful; therefore, the police requested a geophysical investigation to be undertaken to determine whether “Fred” could be detected. A multiphased geophysical approach was conducted, using bulk ground conductivity and metal detectors, then follow‐up magnetics and ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey profiles on electromagnetic (EM) anomalous areas. A tight grid pattern was used to account for the reduced target size. Relatively high‐resolution EM and GPR techniques were determined optimal for this terrain and sandy soil. Geophysical anomalies were identified and the most promising intrusively investigated, and this was found to be a large boulder and tree roots. Study implications suggest careful multiphase geophysical surveys are best practice and give confidence in cold case searches. This study yielded a no‐body result, effectively saving police time and costs from further investigations.     

Swedish crime scene technicians: facilitations,epistemic frictions and professionalization from the outside

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the role of crime scene technicians in the Swedish criminal justice system, and particularly how Swedish crime scene technicians not only examine crime scenes but also facilitate the criminal justice system’s joint production of forensic evidence. It proposes thinking about the criminal justice system as a conglomeration of epistemic cultures, that is, of communities with different ways of producing and understanding forensic evidence. Such a perspective makes it possible to understand interprofessional frictions as epistemic frictions as well as to draw attention to the facilitations, mediations and translations that crime scene technicians perform. This perspective also makes it possible to illuminate how the crime scene technicians’ professionalization – a professionalization from the outside – affects both their future crime scene work and their facilitations.     

Criminal thinking as a moderator of the perceived certainty–offending relationship: age variations

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the perceived certainty of punishment and general criminal thinking interact and whether the effect varies as a function of age. Data from all 1354 members (1170 males, 184 females) of the Pathways to Desistance study were used to test whether perceived certainty, general criminal thinking, and their interaction predicted subsequent offending during late adolescence (16–18 years of age) and emerging adulthood (20–22 years of age). The results showed that while perceived certainty and general criminal thinking failed to interact at age 17, general criminal thinking moderated the effect of perceived certainty at age 21. During emerging adulthood, offending was more common and varied in young adults with low certainty perceptions and high criminal thinking than it was in emerging adults with high criminal thinking and high certainty perceptions or low criminal thinking and either high or low certainty perceptions.     

论“套路贷”犯罪的刑事规制及其完善

“套路贷”犯罪是以非法占有为目的,假借民间借贷之名、行非法侵占他人财物之实的新型犯罪,具有犯罪意图的侵财性、犯罪手段的隐蔽性、犯罪团伙的组织性和犯罪后果的严重性等特征。我国对“套路贷”犯罪的立法规制,总体上契合惩处“套路贷”犯罪的情势与实际需要,但也存在一些问题。当前,对“套路贷”犯罪的司法规制呈现民多刑少的格局,规制的主要罪名是诈骗罪、敲诈勒索罪,规制的核心标准是划清“套路贷”犯罪与高利贷、非法讨债行为的界限。改进“套路贷”犯罪的刑事规制,应确立“重重轻轻,以重为主”的刑事政策,在《刑法》中增设套路贷诈骗罪,健全“套路贷”案件的刑民衔接机制,探索“套路贷”犯罪案件专业化办理机制,积极推行“套路贷”犯罪案例指导制度。     

刑事被害人当事人化的反思与制度重构

刑事被害人当事人化的实质是犯罪损害追诉方式的公私合一,该制度设计混淆了公益和私益两种不同性质的诉讼,导致两种权益保护相互冲突进而对刑事司法结果公正造成负面影响。公私分离是刑事被害人去当事人化的当然制度选择,其立法对策主要包括在刑事立法中确立被害人为特殊诉讼参与人、废除被害人在刑事审判中就定罪量刑发表意见的权利、废止被害人刑事自诉权和切断其引起刑事二审、再审的程序路径。同时需要完善相关配套举措,如允许被害人对其物质和精神损害单独提起民事诉讼、完善精神损害赔偿制度、建立刑事被害人国家补偿制度等。     

论不追究刑事责任

我国《刑法》和《刑事诉讼法》用三个不同的概念对不追究刑事责任作了规定。《刑事诉讼法》第16条所规定的不追究刑事责任可分为三种情形,但《刑法》第201条第4款中规定的不予追究刑事责任并未归属其中。现行刑事立法在不追究刑事责任的规定中概念不统一,《刑法》在规定不追究刑事责任方面不当缺位,已有的规定也较为粗糙,《刑事诉讼法》缺乏特赦令执行的程序规定,我们有必要完善不追究刑事责任的刑事立法规定。     

Child Sexual Abuse Perpetrated by Women: Case Series and Review of the Literature

The literature on child sexual abuse (CSA) perpetrated by female sexual offenders (FSOs) is exiguous, and many studies have focused on judicial databases. The present retrospective study, instead, analyzed clinical and judicial data of a group of both victims and alleged FSOs, to additionally include women who have not been convicted by the criminal justice system, but who hold strong clinical suspicions of being perpetrators of CSA. The medical records and the Court files of 11 children and their eight suspected FSOs have been collected and critically reviewed in light of the literature to date. This approach allowed for a deeper understanding of the relationship between child and FSO. The authors hypothesize that the victims’ severe psychopathological outcomes were a result of a failure to develop appropriate attachments with their prospective caregivers, which could have been damaged by the pathological relationship with FSOs, who were the victims’ caregivers.