Don't help victims of crime if you don't have the time: Assessing support for Good Samaritan laws

Criminologists tend to study crimes that include active behaviors by offenders. Much less attention is given to inaction - or crimes that are defined by the absence of behaviors. A number of different crimes of omission, however, are included within state statutes. In recent times, a great deal of legislative attention has been directed towards whether Good Samaritan laws should be developed- laws that require bystanders to help those who are imperiled. This article describes a pilot study involving a survey of 134 “bystanders” to determine their attitudes about helping and their support for laws mandating that bystanders help crime victims. Results show that the sample overwhelmingly indicated that they would help others themselves, but there was mixed support for laws requiring that individuals help those in need. Support for Bad Samaritan laws was related to age and education. Implications are provided.     

What you don't know can hurt you: why managed care organizations have a legal duty to disclose the use of financial incentives to limit medical care

This article, winner of the 2000-2001 American Health Lawyers' Student Writing Competition, examines the conflicting policy goals at the heart of managed care--particularly in the use of financial incentives for physicians who limit their use of referrals and expensive diagnostic tests. While conceding the legality of such incentives, the author contends that Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) have a legal duty to disclose their existence to beneficiaries. After analyzing the basis for imposing a duty to disclose, the author proceeds to examine such issues as the proper timing, level, and extent of disclosure.     

On a clear day you can see forever: Integrating values and skills in sex offender treatment

Abstract

The topic of sex offender rehabilitation frequently evokes fierce reactions, ranging from strident demands for harsher sentences contrasted with calls for more imaginative and compassionate sentencing options. There seems to be a polarization of positions centred on the question of offenders’ moral standing: are they moral strangers or fellow travellers? This fundamental disagreement about offenders’ moral status is at the core of a number of independent, although related current practice and research issues confronting the field, namely: (1) risk management versus strength-based treatment approaches; (2) the utility of utilizing individually tailored versus manual-based programmes for offenders; (3) focusing on the technical aspects or therapy as opposed to relationship and therapist factors (what has been called process issues); and (4) the conflict between protecting the community versus promoting the interests of offenders. In this paper I suggest that an approach to sex offender treatment based on a combination of human rights theory (an ethical resource) and strengths-based approaches can help us navigate our way through the above dilemmas in a way that addressees both the needs of offenders and those of the community.     

The law and economics of international sex slavery: prostitution laws and trafficking for sexual exploitation

International trafficking in humans for sexual exploitation is an economic activity driven by profit motives. Laws regarding commercial sex influence the profitability of trafficking and may thus affect the inflow of trafficking to a country. Using two recent sources of European cross country data we show that trafficking of persons for commercial sexual exploitation (as proxied by the data sets we are using) is least prevalent in countries where prostitution is illegal, most prevalent in countries where prostitution is legalized, and in between in those countries where prostitution is legal but procuring illegal. Case studies of two countries (Norway and Sweden) that have criminalized buying sex support the possibility of a causal link from harsher prostitution laws to reduced trafficking. Although the data do not allow us to infer robust causal inference, the results suggest that criminalizing procuring, or going further and criminalizing buying and/or selling sex, may reduce the amount of trafficking to a country.     

Shame on you,John! Laws,stigmatization, and the demand for sex

The present article contributes to the literature on prostitution by shedding light on the effects of the criminalization of buying sex on the amount of prostitution bought, as well as on the proposed theoretical mechanisms underlying this change. We find indications that criminalizing the buying of sex may decrease the quantity of sex bought. While we find that stigma influences the demand for sex, we do not find that stigma increases as a result of the law. Therefore, the possible reduced quantity of sex bought is probably due to the more direct risk of getting caught.     

Prospects for the international migration of U.S. sex offender registration and community notification laws

Sex offender registration and community notification laws have proved enormously popular in the U.S. This is so even though the avowed sexual violence preventive benefits of the laws remain largely untested and unproven; indeed, it remains an open question whether the laws actually have anti-therapeutic and criminogenic effect. This article examines why this data deficit has characterized the social and political evolution of the laws and considers the prospects for their migration to other nations.     

如何保护你的知识产权

知识产权已经成为现代法律体系中变化最快的领域之一,每一位商人都有必要拥有一位通晓知识产权原则、对因不慎便可能陷入的知识产权陷阱有所了解的律师。商标名称、标志、图标及其三者的组合一旦被用来标识产品或者服务的来源时便落入了商标法调整的范围。为了确定一件商标能否被一个商业机构合法利用,就有必要首先确定该名称、标志或图标是否有可能得到保护以及该拟用商标与某个受保护的商标听起来或者看起来是否相同或者相似从而容易产生混淆。在ISCYRA诉ommyHilfiger(80F.3d749(2dCir.1996))一案中,世界著名的服装设计师希望使用“星…     

Perpetrators of sexual assault continuing to have sex with their victims following the initial assault: evidence for evolved reproductive strategies

Among a sample of college students, roughly 30% of the women and 12% of the men reported having been the victim of a sexual assault sometime in their lives. Of the assault victims, approximately 23% of both sexes stated that they had sexual intercourse with their assaulters on at least one subsequent occasion. Female victims of a completed sexual assault were significantly more likely to continue being sexually active with their assailants than were female victims who managed to block the assault, while no such difference was found for male victims. This would imply that some men are using assaultive tactics to secure sex partners beyond a single sexual episode, thereby enhancing their potential reproductive success in evolutionary terms. Also, men who committed sexual assault reported having had more lifetime sex partners than did sexually experienced men with no sexual assault history. Overall, the idea that sexual assault is part of an evolved reproductive strategy is consistent with findings from this study.     

International sex offender registration laws: research and evaluation issues based on a review of current scientific literature

In many jurisdictions, anyone convicted of a sexual offense is required to register with police, often for life. Nine different countries have now implemented sex offender registries in an attempt to protect the public from the perceived threat posed by sexual offenders. Yet such laws have been criticized as being overly inclusive, tying up limited law enforcement resources to track many offenders who pose little risk of sexual reoffending. This paper considers the available research evidence relevant to the effectiveness of such laws for the deterrence of sexual offending and the investigation of sex crimes. It is concluded that significant gaps persist in our knowledge of whether existing laws effectively reduce sexual offending or reoffending and that large-scale, well-designed studies of the impact of sex offender registration on rates of offending, the collateral consequences to offenders and their families, and the costs of such laws are needed.     

Design standards for laws to ensure effective democracy

Electoral suffrage and civil and political rights are insufficient to guarantee effective democracy in the age of social media and the Internet. Democracy must be upgraded to strengthen and reinforce accountability, transparency, fairness and rationality, and oversight independence. Design standards in the preparation and drafting of laws would be a major contribution to this objective.     

Tribal law enforcement authority to enforce state laws

This paper summarizes the current status of the ability of tribal law enforcement officers to enforce state law in all states that have Indian country – defined in 18 U.S.C. § 1151 as any Indian reservation, dependent Indian communities, or Indian allotments – within their borders. It is important to understand the current status of those officers as their agencies look to improve public safety in their nations. First, for context, we provide a brief background on tribes and tribal law enforcement. Then, we present a summary of the legal jurisdictional challenges faced by tribal law enforcement. Finally, we analyze the current status of tribal law enforcement officers in each state and conclude with a summary and concluding remarks.