The Influence of Accounts and Remorse on Mock Jurors’ Judgments of Offenders

Defendants often provide accounts that minimize their responsibility for the accused offense. Jurors attribute responsibility to defendants and decide legal outcomes based on the given account. The current research examined the effects of accounts (i.e., excuse, justification, denial, and no explanation) and the defendant’s remorse display (i.e., remorseful, remorseless) on mock jurors’ judgments. Participants acquitted the defendant in the denial condition most often and recommended the most lenient punishment in the justification condition. The remorseful defendant was found guilty more frequently than the remorseless defendant in the no explanation and (marginally) excuse conditions. Limitations and future research are discussed.     

The Value of Remorse: How Drivers’ Responses to Police Predict Fines for Speeding

After they stop drivers for exceeding the speed limit, police often have the discretion to alter the penalty. We investigated the degree to which extra-legal factors (apologies and other verbal responses), in addition to speed over the limit, predict ticket costs for speeding. Surveys of speeders were conducted in the U.S. and Canada. The data suggest that what people say to police matters. Participants who reported statements of remorse, e.g., “I’m sorry,” received lower fines for speeding. The relation of speeders’ responses to ticket costs is discussed from legal and psychological perspectives.     

No Harm No Foul? Objectivism and the Law of Attempts

Law and Philosophy -     

Why Should Remorse be a Mitigating Factor in Sentencing?

This article critically examines the rationales for the well-settled principle in sentencing law that an offender’s remorse is to be treated as a mitigating factor. Four basic types of rationale are examined: remorse makes punishment redundant; offering mitigation can induce remorse; remorse should be rewarded with mitigation; and remorse should be recognised by mitigation. The first three rationales each suffer from certain weaknesses or limitations, and are argued to be not as persuasive as the fourth. The article then considers, and rejects, two arguments against remorse as a mitigating factor in sentencing: that the crime, not the offender, is the focus of punishment; and that the truly remorseful offender would not ask for mitigation. The article concludes with a brief consideration of whether a lack of remorse should be an aggravating factor.

No association of IL-10 promoter SNP −592 and −1082 and SIDS

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) constitutes a considerable percentage of infant death of unknown etiology. The genetically controlled pathway of cytokine mediated response to inflammation is presumed to play a role in SIDS. The A allele of SNP ?592 of the promoter region of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 has been suggested to be associated with SIDS. Herein we investigated whether we could confirm this finding by SNP genotyping a series of 123 cases of SIDS and 406 control cases. We did not find a correlation between the A allele or an A allele containing genotype of IL-10 promoter SNP ?592 and SIDS which is in contrast to previous studies. Also, in concordance with previous work, no association of the A allele or A allele containing genotypes of IL-10 promoter SNP ?1082 and SIDS was found.     

The most ambitious plan in 26 years of telecoms market reform? No way!

The European Commission's claim that their proposed new telecoms regulation² constitutes “the most ambitious plan in 26 years of telecoms market reform” is preposterous. That honour must belong to the set of new European directives in 2002 which transformed the structure of telecoms regulation and facilitated competition throughout Europe. Instead the plans make great play of a number of actually pretty minor changes and, the Body for European Regulators for Electronic Communications (“BEREC”) has been particularly critical that the proposals will create unnecessary complexity and uncertainty and limit innovation and competition.     

No child left behind in the European Union?: the position of Romani children

This paper analyses how different EU documents (communications, recommendations, reports and surveys, etc.) focusing on Roma frame the position of Romani children. Many studies have shown that because of their intersectional positioning, Romani children often face multiple discrimination and triple exclusion: on the basis of their ethnicity, their age and their socio-economic status. The paper comments on selected findings on Roma in the Second European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey published by the Fundamental Rights Agency in late 2016. One of the main findings of this Survey was that 80% of Roma live below the country-specific risk of poverty line in all EU Member States in which the Survey has been conducted. By specifically examining the implication this finding has for the position of Romani children, I argue that their position is, in fact, produced and reproduced with systemic, but also everyday racism. When it comes to Roma, but specifically Romani children, not even the European Union (EU), based on principles of fundamental human rights, is immune to such phenomena.     

No body,no crime? The role of forensic awareness in avoiding police detection in cases of sexual homicide

PurposeThe study examines whether the use of forensic awareness strategies increases the chance of avoiding police detection in sexual homicide.MethodsLogistic and negative binomial regression analyses are used on a sample of 350 cases of sexual homicide – 250 solved and 100 unsolved cases – in order to determine if forensic awareness strategies are related to the status of the case (i.e., solved versus unsolved) and the number of days before body recovery, while controlling for certain victim characteristics.ResultsAlthough an offender’s use of precautions does not seem to increase the offender’s chance of avoiding police detection, some modus operandi behavior adopted by the offender at the crime scene may help to delay the discovery of the victim, and thus delay the offender’s apprehension. Moreover, the likelihood of whether or not a sexual murderer is apprehended varied significantly across victim characteristics.ConclusionSome offenders seem to exhibit rational thinking in targeting certain types of victims and in adopting certain strategies in order to delay body recovery. Number of days until body recovery is a more appropriate measure of detection avoidance than case status, as it is not biased by administrative rules or timing of data entry.     

No More Negotiated Deals?: Settlement of Trade and Investment Disputes in East Asia

Many argue that East Asian countries have come to adopt ‘aggressivelegalism’ in trade and investment policy, in the sensethat they have come to settle their trade and investment disputesthrough the dispute settlement mechanism (DSM) of the WTO andthe other third-party procedures. Scrutiny of the dispute casesof these countries shows, however, that East Asian legalismis not so aggressive, that it varies country by country, andthat there still exists room for negotiated deals in settlingtrade and investment disputes among them. On the other hand,the recent move toward regional integration through free tradeagreements (FTAs), economic partnership agreements (EPAs), andbilateral investment treaties (BITs) in East Asia may lead tothe adoption of a more aggressive legalism in the region, inparticular in settling investment disputes, disputes relatingto intellectual property rights, and trade remedies.     

No.1少女弑母

家住加拿大魁北克市中心的少女海伦一大早便敲开了伊里家的房门。伊里是本市赫赫有名的法医。海伦神情沈郁、恍惚地告诉他，由于她的母亲要与一个她十分讨厌的宝石商亚当斯结婚，她一直觉得恶心、别扭。所以当母亲举行婚礼时，她干脆跑到外地独居，以避开这个尴尬的场面。     

Subject Index2002(No:page)

AAstudyondevelopmentofbloodfingerprint１：７Astudyonpreventingdiffusionofhandwritinginkonpapercausedbyfingerprintreagent１：２０Astudyonenhancementofsupergluefingerprintsbyopticalmethods２：１０Achemicalmethodfordetectingpotassiumpermanganateonaltereddocument２：１３AnalysisofSTRprofilingoftwopeople’smixedsamples２：２０Applicationoftheultrasonicextractionmethodinsolidsamplespre－processingfortoxicologyanalysis２：２２Applicationofvirtuallyrealtechniqueforrecordingscentofcrime２：２４Astud…     

Subject Index2003(No:page)

AAstudyondetectionoftetramineinbiologicalsamplesbytandemmassspectrometry1:24Astudyofgeneticpolymorphismson10STRlociofthepolicedogsinHubeiarea2:12AmplificationofmicrotemplanteDNA2:32Analysisoflysergicaciddithyamide(LSD)byusingGC/MS3:33Applicationtospeciesidentificationbysequencingthecytoch?rome-bgenespecificfragment4:11Astudyofpolymorphismof9STRlociintheShepopulationinZhejiang4:22AnalysisofcarbofuranbyGC/MSinbiologicalsamples4:25AgeestimationwithpalatinefromChinesemales5:7Applicatio…     

‘No banquet can do without liquor’: alcohol counterfeiting in the People’s Republic of China

The illegal trade in alcohol has been an empirical manifestation of organised crime with a very long history; yet, the nature of the illegal trade in alcohol has received relatively limited academic attention in recent years despite the fact that it has been linked with significant tax evasion as well as serious health problems and even deaths. The current article focuses on a specific type associated with the illegal trade in alcohol, the counterfeiting of alcohol in China. The article pays particular attention to the counterfeiting of baijiu - Chinese liquor - in mainland China. The aim of the article is to offer an account of the social organisation of the alcohol counterfeiting business in China by illustrating the counterfeiting process, the actors in the business as well as its possible embeddedness in legal practices, trades and industries. The alcohol counterfeiting business is highly reflective to the market demand and consumer needs. Alcohol counterfeiting in China is characterised primarily by independent actors many of whom are subcontracted to provide commodities and services about the counterfeiting process. The business relies on personal networks – family and extended family members, friends and acquaintances. Relationships between actors in the business are very often based on a customer-supplier relationship or a ‘business-to-business market’. The alcohol counterfeiting business in China highlights the symbiotic relationship between illegal and legal businesses.     

Self-Reported Intentions to Offend: All Talk and No Action?

To study criminal decision making, researchers commonly present hypothetical offending scenarios to participants and record their self-reported intentions to offend (SRIO). These SRIO scores are treated as an indicator of participants?? predisposition to commit the act described in the scenario. Drawing from the field of clinical measurement, the current study examines the diagnostic accuracy of SRIO scores by comparing participants?? intentions to acquire illegal music files from a designated distributor to their actual attempts to acquire such files. Approximately 7% of participants who read about a (bogus) music piracy opportunity reported strong??and at times definitive??intentions to seek out the illegal files. However, in actuality, no one in the study engaged in this behavior. Clinimetric indicators suggest that SRIO scores are better at predicting abstention from crime than actual criminal participation.