CHILD RELOCATION: AN INTRACTABLE INTERNATIONAL FAMILY LAW PROBLEM

This article examines the current state of the law on child relocation across the major common law‐based jurisdictions, with particular emphasis on the contrasting approaches to the problem in Australia and the United Kingdom. It then goes on to suggest changes aimed at achieving more principled and predictable outcomes.     

THE PROBLEM OF MASS TORTS

Law and Philosophy -     

REVIEWS: COMBATING THE OTHER DRUG PROBLEM

Book reviewed in this article: Corporate Crime in the Pharmaceutical Industry . By J. Braithwaite Roche versus Adams . By S. Aams Compensation for Criminal Damage to Property . By D. S. Greer and V. A. Mitchell Constitutional Development in the U.S.S.R. A Guide to the Soviet Constitutions . By Arryeh L. Unger Parliamentary Practice . By Erskine May     

SELECTIVE INCAPACITATION AND THE PROBLEM OF PREDICTION*

Recent innovations in sentencing policy across the United States reveal a renewed interest in the idea of selective incapacitation of criminal offenders. This is perhaps most evident in the proliferation of “Three Strikes and You're Out” habitual-offender statutes across the nation. Although the term was first introduced by David Greenberg in 1975, Peter Greenwood and Allan Abrahamse's eponymous 1982 Rand report represents the most fully articulated plan for implementing such a strategy. The report's release stimulated much discussion, because of the AUTHOR'S claims that selective incapacitation could simultaneously reduce crime rates and prison populations. Ethical problems inherent in such proposals as well as methodological inconsistencies in the original research warrant a reexamination of the proposal and of the empirical basis for the conclusions offered therein. Greenwood and Abrahamse's original research is replicated with a representative sample of California state prison inmates (N = 2, 188) in light of these limitations, with specific focus on the methodological issues concerning the construction of the predictive scale. The selective incapacitation scheme advocated by Greenwood and Abrahamse performs extremely poorly in terms of both reliability and validity, thus precluding the implementation of such schemes. The article contains a discussion of other, more ethically acceptable uses of an instrument that identifies “high-rate” or “dangerous” offenders. In conclusion, some observations on the limitations of incarceration-based strategies of crime control are offered.     

BEHAVIORAL PREDICTION AND THE PROBLEM OF INCAPACITATION*

Traditional views of incapacitation as a crime control strategy rely fundamentally on behavioral prediction. Most attempts at predicting offenders' behaviors have relied on simple dichotomous dependent variables. Recent attention to components of the “criminal career,” such as the rate of offending and the nature and potential patterning of offending behavior, could provide significant advantage to the prediction problem while informing debates about incapacitation strategies. We examine this possibility in the context of a study of some 6,000 offenders followed for more than 25 years. Little predictive advantage is realized by attention to more sophisticated behavioral outcome criteria. In agreement with other studies, we observe little support for hypotheses concerning the pattern of careers with respect to offense behaviors. The utility of incapacitation as a crime control strategy seems to be constrained by the limits imposed by predictive validity and perhaps by the nature of the criminal career.     

“企业社会责任”国际研讨会综述

<正>2006年1月13日至14日,"企业社会责任"国际研讨会在北京大学法学院模拟法庭隆重召开。本次会议由北京大学法学院、劳动法与社会保障法研究所主办。中华全国总工会书记处书记张鸣起先生、北京大学常务副校长陈文申教授、中国企业联合会副理事长陈英女士、中国劳动法学研究会会长郑东亮先生、北京大学法学院党委书记张守文教授出席了开幕式并做了热情洋溢的致辞,开幕式由北京大学法学院叶静漪教授主持。前美国劳动关系委员会主席、美国斯坦福大学法学院Willian B.Gould教授,北京大学法学院劳动法与社会保障法研究所所长贾俊玲教授做了会议总结发言。     

THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION ADDRESSES THE NATIONAL PROBLEM OF YOUTH AT RISK

During the 2006–2007 American Bar Association (ABA) year, a special ABA Presidential Youth at Risk Initiative has addressed several important topics: addressing the needs of juvenile status offenders and their families; foster children aging out of the foster care system; increases in girls, especially girls of color, in the juvenile justice system; the need to better hear the voices of youth in court proceedings affecting them; and improving how laws can better address youth crossing over between juvenile justice and child welfare systems. Lawyers are encouraged to use their skills to improve the systems addressing at‐risk youth and their families and to help facilitate coordination of youth‐related community efforts. Learning how to effectively communicate with youth is an important skill attorneys must learn. Through the Youth at Risk Initiative, the ABA has held continuing legal education programs, hosted community roundtables among youth‐serving stakeholders, and developed projects on: juvenile status offenders; lawyer assistance to youth transitioning from foster care; educating young girls on violence prevention, conflict resolution, and careers in law and justice; and provision of useful information to youth awaiting juvenile court hearings. New ABA policy has addressed services and programs to at‐risk youth, assuring licensing, regulation, and monitoring of residential facilities serving at‐risk youth, enhanced support for sexual minority foster and homeless youth, juvenile status offenders, and improving laws and policies related to youth exiting the foster care system.