Teaching controversial issues in criminal justice: Using historical material to overcome student resistance

Although the teaching of controversial issues in criminal justice can be a lively and rewarding experience, it can also be extremely challenging. Unlike subject matter in other disciplines, the subject matter of criminal justice is to some extent familiar to most reasonably well-informed citizens. Thus students in criminal justice classes will possess an awareness of many of the discipline's controversial issues, such as the value of capital punishment and the utility of the Miranda rules, and have their own views regarding these issues. Unfortunately, many of these views are strongly held, and students are sometimes unreceptive to critical examination of such issues because of the strength of their convictions. This paper describes an approach to overcome this obstacle to critical scrutiny of controversial issues in criminal justice. The general approach relies upon the use of historical material as a tool to make it easier for the student to master the important problems, concepts, and data which pertain to current justice system controversies.     

IPV Survivors’ Perceptions of How a Flexible Funding Housing Intervention Impacted Their Children

An estimated 15.5 million American children are exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) every year. Such exposure negatively impacts children’s health, development and academic performance and may also be accompanied by housing instability or homelessness. Children growing up with periods of homelessness or housing instability are at risk for many of the same detrimental outcomes as children exposed to IPV. To date there are few studies examining the interrelationships among IPV, housing instability and the impact of housing interventions on children’s well-being. The current qualitative, longitudinal study examined mothers’ perceptions of how receipt of flexible funding designed to increase their housing stability may have also impacted their children’s safety, stress, mood and behavior. Forty-two mothers in the Washington, D.C. metro area were interviewed three times over a six-month period about their own safety and housing stability, as well as their children’s. Ninety-five percent of the mothers and their children were housed at the six-month interview. Mothers described improvements in children’s stability and safety, decreases in children’s stress levels, and improvements to their mood and behavior. They also discussed the symbiotic relationship between their own stress and well-being, and their children’s. The provision of flexible funding to assist domestic violence survivors with their housing also collaterally impacted their children’s safety, stress, mood and behavior.     

The Effectiveness of Supervision over the Execution of Laws

A quick glance at the report on the work of the procurator in supervision over the execution of the laws (form P, section I) is sufficient to be convinced: more than a few criminal cases are initiated on the basis of the materials of verifications. For example, in 2004, 11,700 of them (one-fourth) were criminal cases in the sphere of the economy. It would seem that this circumstance should give evidence, at a minimum, of the active work of procurators in revealing economic violations of the law and the strict nature of their evaluation. But is that really the case?     

Beyond the Courtroom Workgroup: Caseworkers as the New Satellite of Social Control

Many jurisdictions nationwide are faced with overcrowded jails, backlogged court dockets, and high rates of recidivism for mostly nonviolent offenders. To address these complex problems, law enforcement officials have institutionalized alternatives to incarceration programs, including work furloughs, electronic monitoring, and treatment courts. These recent trends in legal reform are designed to reduce and prevent criminal behavior by helping to reintegrate defendants back into their local communities. One aspect that has been largely unaddressed in prior research is that jail-alternative programs are primarily staffed by caseworkers with outside nonprofit agencies. This important group of nonlegal actors plays a pivotal role in crafting decisions to divert low-level offenders from the criminal justice system; few studies, however, explore the organizational contexts surrounding caseworkers' everyday decision-making practices. In response, I draw upon ethnographic data to analyze the ways that pretrial release caseworkers in a California county evaluate defendants' entitlement to release on their own recognizance. The results of this study suggest that caseworkers exercise discretion beyond the traditional power structure of the courtroom workgroup. I conclude that caseworkers emerge as the new satellite of social control in contemporary courts.     

Rethinking Criminal Libel: An Empirical Study

The prevailing view of criminal libel among communication law scholars in the United States is that there are very few prosecutions, that most of the prosecutions are about politics or public issues, and that none of the prosecutions are necessary because victims of defamation can sue for civil libel. The results of an empirical study of all Wisconsin criminal libel cases from 1991 through 2007, however, suggest that criminal libel is prosecuted far more often than realized, that most criminal libel prosecutions have nothing to do with political or public issues, and that the First Amendment is an effective shield on the rare occasions when a criminal libel prosecution is politically motivated. This article concludes that criminal libel can be a legitimate way for the law to deal with expressive deviance that harms the reputations of private figures in cases that have nothing to do with public issues.     

Child murder committed by severely mentally III mothers: an examination of mothers found not guilty by reason of insanity. 2005 Honorable Mention/Richard Rosner Award for the best paper by a fellow in forensic psychiatry or forensic psychology

Forensic hospital records of 39 severely mentally ill mothers adjudicated Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity for filicide (child murder by parents) were analyzed to describe characteristics preceding this tragedy and to suggest prevention strategies. Almost three-quarters of the mothers (72%) had previous mental health treatment. Over two thirds (69%) of the mothers were experiencing auditory hallucinations, most frequently command hallucinations, and half (49%) were depressed at the time of the offense. Over one third (38%) of the filicides occurred during pregnancy or the postpartum period, and many had a history of postpartum psychosis. Almost three-quarters (72%) of the mothers had experienced considerable developmental stressors, such as death of their own mother or incest. Maternal motives for filicide were predominantly "altruistic" (meaning murder out of love) or "acutely psychotic" (occurring in the throes of psychosis, without rational motive). Psychiatrists should perform careful risk assessments for filicide in mothers with mental illnesses.     

Decentering Motherhood: Reentry Strategies for Women on Parole and Probation

As the population of mothers under state supervision rapidly increases, it is necessary to document and analyze their experiences. This research contributes to the literature by exploring the experiences of such mothers, highlighting narratives from mothers who transitioned to a halfway house as part of their reintegration. We analyze how such mothers define good mothering and how they construct and manage their own mothering in light of their histories of drug use and criminal justice involvement, which often lead to prolonged absences from their children. The discourses of priority and presence dominate the mothers’ narratives, supported by expectations from both probation/parole and the halfway house. Collectively our data suggest that mothers engage in a complex negotiation between state supervision and motherhood that reimagines the nature and practice of good mothering and adapts strategies for fulfilling state obligations.     

PARTNER ABUSE AND GENERAL CRIME: HOW ARE THEY THE SAME? HOW ARE THEY DIFFERENT?*

Both partner abuse and general crime violate the rights and safety of victims. But are these phenomena the same or are they distinct, demanding their own research and intervention specialties? Are per‐ sons who abuse their partners the same people who commit other criminal behavior? Do partner abuse and general crime share the same correlates? We investigated these questions in a birth cohort of over 800 young adults, by testing whether a personality model known to predict general crime would also predict partner abuse. Personality data were gathered at age 18, and self‐reported partner abuse and general criminal offending were measured at age 21. Results from modeling latent constructs showed that partner abuse and general crime represent different constructs that are moderately related; they are not merely two expressions of the same underlying antisocial propensity. Group comparisons showed many, but not all, partner abusers also engaged in violence against nonintimates. Personality analyses showed that partner abuse and general crime shared a strong propensity from a trait called Negative Emotionality. However, crime was related to weak Constraint (low self‐control), but partner abuse was not. All findings applied to women as well as to men, suggesting that women's partner abuse may be motivated by the same intra‐personal features that motivate men's abuse. The results are consistent with theoretical and applied arguments about the “uniqueness” of partner violence relative to other crime and violence.     

DESISTING DISTANCE DECAY: ON THE AGGREGATION OF INDIVIDUAL CRIME TRIPS*

The distance-decay function suggests a spatial pattern of criminal activity whereby most crimes are committed nearer rather than farther from the criminals' own homes. Presumably, the farther away the target, the lower the chances of crimes. The reason usually offered for this general pattern is an individual one: The costs to the criminal in terms of time, energy, and money increases with distance. We contend that it may be misleading to draw inferences about individuals from the aggregated decay function because it conceals individual variations in ranges of operation. This argument is supported by data randomly generated by the computer that show that even when individual criminals increase their crime rate with increasing distance, a distance-decay function still emerges at the aggregate level. This is not to say that an individual-level distance-decay function does not exist, only that it must be demonstrated by data at the individual level because distance-decay effects can characterize aggregate behavior even in the absence of individual distance decay.     

风险社会的刑法调适——以危险犯的扩张为视角

风险社会的实质是人类在从现代技术手段获益的同时,却无法完全掌控这些手段,陷入对自身行为所可能带来的风险无法预测与控制的境地。风险社会的风险源于人的决策与行为,因此,如何有效管控人的行为,最大限度地规避与控制各种潜在风险,成为人类社会所面临的共同任务。作为社会调控最后手段的刑法也必须针对当前的风险状况及时做出回应。现行刑法基于传统的以实害犯为主的立法模式,无法有效地规制各种风险行为。危险犯的立法设计,特别是抽象危险犯的设置,能够将刑法的保护防线提前,从而达成法益保护的早期化,有利于对社会共同体的安全保障,是应对风险行为的有效处置手段。     

Why Would Two-Level Consequentialists Punish Only the Guilty?

The most commonly encountered and most serious objection against consequentialist theories of punishment is that they could sometimes endorse punishing innocent people. Two-level consequentialists can resist this objection. Because of how deterrence works, a system of social protection would clearly need to be careful, most of the time, to pick out only the guilty for punishment. What about exceptional cases? Any institution empowered to secretly frame innocent people would pose a grave danger to democracy, a danger that could prove lethal under only moderately unusual conditions. Meanwhile, individual consequentialists working within the criminal justice system should fear that their own views could be distorted by confirmation bias and other cognitive errors. These officials should normally trust any moderately well-functioning adversarial trial process more than they trust their own judgment of who needs to be punished. They should use extra-legal discretion only in cases where both their confidence and the stakes are extremely high; and in cases where the stakes are extremely high, the consequentialist answer is no longer counter-intuitive.     

Delayed Prosecutions of Historic Child Sexual Abuse: Analyses of 2064 Canadian Criminal Complaints

Recently, in many English-speaking countries, legal principles that had the effect of barring delayed criminal prosecutions have been abrogated. In these jurisdictions, criminal prosecutions of child sexual abuse that is alleged to have occurred in the distant past (historic child sexual abuse or HCSA) are a growing legal challenge. These cases raise myriad issues relevant to research and the development of public policy that would benefit from a considered exchange of ideas that is informed by a clear understanding of the phenomenon. Based on 2064 judicial decisions of Canadian criminal complaints of HCSA we describe the trial, the complainant, the accused, and the offence. In the context of these legal cases, we raise some of the germane issues as well as suggestions for future research and discussion that we believe are particularly current and pressing.     

前南国际刑事法庭刑事程序中的普通法和大陆法传统：油能溶于水吗

在前南刑事法庭刑事程序中,国际刑事案件的独特性使得越来越多的大陆法系传统因素开始注入普通法诉讼模式。两大法系之间的传统差异已经渐渐走向融合。这些不同的制度应灵活而和谐地相处,共同解决国际犯罪审判所特有的问题。     

Communal response to criminal behavior in the kibbutz during periods of crisis

This research examines whether the situation of crisis which has been developing in the majority of secular kibbutzim since the eighties has influenced the attitudes of kibbutz members towards criminal behavior. Previously, the kibbutzim were accustomed to dealing with any deviant behavior in their midst, with the exception of serious crime, by means of their own internal control institutions. Our assumption is that there would be a greater tendency among members of kibbutzim in crisis, as compared to those in a situation of stability, to see criminal behavior as a disturbing, even threatening, social phenomenon, and to turn to outside agencies, such as the police. In order to examine this hypothesis, we selected 230 kibbutz members from six well-established secular kibbutzim in the center of the country, which differ from each other with regard to levels of crisis which in turn determined by means of specific economic and social criteria. Our findings show that criminal behavior is more prevalent in the kibbutz than the members themselves believe. The more stable the kibbutz, the more the members continue to rely on their own conventional methods of dealing with criminal behavior, while the more severe the crisis situation, the greater the tendency to pass the responsibility for the offender to outside agencies.     

隐私权新论——试论罪犯的隐私权

隐私权作为一项个人的权利,越来越受到人们的重视,但作为特殊群体的罪犯是否也享有隐私权呢?刑满释放人员对其曾经的犯罪事实是否也享有隐私权呢?本文将就该问题予以论述。     

知识产权刑事司法鉴定若干问题研究

知识产权刑事案件中,司法鉴定尚存在很多亟待解决的问题,这些问题不仅阻碍了诉讼活动的顺利进行,有的也违背了司法鉴定的基本规律。从长远的角度来看,知识产权刑事诉讼,很多司法鉴定问题更宜转化为专家证人的形式加以解决。     

Extraterritorial criminal jurisdiction: Its impact on criminal justice

Public international law recognizes the right of states to protect themselves and their subjects against threats and damage from within their territory and outside. In the international sphere, the means and methods of national protection are restricted by the extraterritorial jurisdiction of courts and the laws they enforce.Criminal justice today is being confronted on an ever increasing scale by international criminal offenses that impinge on domestic concerns: drugs, securities and financial manipulations, money laundering, and terrorism, to mention only a few. This article discusses some of the issues that arise under the United States Constitution when criminal justice agencies are called upon to enforce U.S. laws beyond U.S. territorial limits. The principles of extraterritorial jurisdiction are discussed along with a number of United States court cases pointing to the importance of this new area of criminal justice.     

中国刑事诉讼制度变迁的多重逻辑：一个分析框架

中国的刑事诉讼制度正在发生深刻的变迁。这种变迁来自于中央司法机构、地方司法机构与民间主体这三类群体具体行为的推动,而这些群体的行为受各自所处场域的制度逻辑支配。支配这些群体行为方式的制度逻辑在很大程度上还是中国刑事诉讼制度变迁的制度逻辑。中国刑事诉讼制度变迁的轨迹与方向在很大程度上取决于参与其中的多重制度逻辑的作用。从＂多重制度逻辑＂来解释中国刑事诉讼制度的变迁,不仅可以更好地把握这一复杂的变迁过程,也具有一定的方法论意义。     

论犯罪心理的生成机制

任何犯罪行为的发生都是以犯罪主体的犯罪心理活动为基础的,而犯罪心理的产生又总有一定的规律和机制。从犯罪心理的生成过程看,需要是其根源和基础。当需要与具体的满足对象、工具和手段结合时,即成为动机推动个体去实施满足需要的行为;当个体的行为方式经常、反复、稳定地出现时,即构成一个人的人格特征。在需要基础上生成的犯罪动机和形成的犯罪人格即是犯罪心理的具体表现。