Experimental statistical studies on the evaluation of the value of evidence in the comparison of human hair

In this paper a statistical experiment is presented which allows to estimate the evidential value of human head hair comparison. The procedure described in detail was essentially the same as in case-work. Questioned hairs were taken randomly from 20 different persons out of a pool of 111 individuals. From each of the 20 persons one, three an five hairs respectively were compared consectively with samples from 100 different individuals. The results were classified as follows: a) "matching" and b) "similar" - if the hair(s) may originate form that person; c) "not matching" - if an individual is excluded as possible source. In our experiment about 95% of the samples (persons) were excluded as possible source of a questioned hair on the average. This is a mean value which may vary considerably in a distinct case. The experiment, its results and problems are discussed.     

Beyond dependency,autonomy, and exchange: Prosocial behavior in late-life adaptation

This paper focuses on prosocial and altruistic behavior in late life. Empirical data on prevalence of helping behaviors among the elderly and the range of motives underlying their helping are reviewed. The authors consider implications of these data for theories of social behavior in late life. Questions are raised regarding the universal applicability of models of social behavior which have been implicit in much of existing research in social gerontology. Data on helping by the elderly are related to dependency and autonomy models of social interaction. Futhermore, the potential for altruistic as opposed to extrinsic motivations for helping among older adults is considered, challenging the exclusive reliance on exchange principles for understanding social interactions by older persons. Empirical evidence of prosocial behavior in late life is placed in the context of life-span developmental theories of personality and a contributory model of late life social behavior is proposed.     

Depth-interviewing Finnish professional criminals

This article shows how easy and valuable is to interview offenders, when the information of crime or criminals life is needed. There is no need to use just authorities information that is often very one sided and focused on solving single crime or personality behind the committed crime. During this study I interviewed 15 persons and one group of 6 persons. The 21 interviewees represented 14 different groups active in the 1990s in Finland and cross-border criminality. The interviewed persons were selected for equal representation of four different criminal backgrounds. The types of crimes that Finns typically commit across borders (from abroad to Finland) include: (1) different kinds of smuggling (spirits, tobacco and drugs), (2) trafficking in prostitutes and organising their work (procuring) in the country. From Finland to foreign countries, Finnish criminals primarily, (3) handle stolen goods (fencing), (4) money laundering. The persons selected to be interviewed were still committing or had recently committed these types of crimes. There are only a few empirical studies made on professional criminals. It is amazing how similar the findings of these are, even though the three studies—British, American and the present—reflect different social conditions and different decades. On occasion it feels that the place and time of study are irrelevant, as if you are reading and analysing just one study. From the research point of view it is interesting how such similar findings are possible. None of the 14 groups that I studied were able to fulfil the 14 variables of organised crime, that I required for a group to be classified as an organised crime group.

Genetic discrimination: Huntington's disease and the Americans with Disabilities Act

This Note discusses the potential for genetic discrimination, current views as to whether genetic conditions will be covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), and the specific issue of whether presymptomatic persons who test positive for Huntington's disease should be classified as persons with a "disability" within the meaning of the ADA. In considering whether presymptomatic Huntington's individuals have a disability under the ADA, an analogy is made between Huntington's disease and HIV-positive status. Inter alia, Huntington's disease and HIV-positive status are analogous in that, at the time of diagnosis, victims of both diseases may have no symptoms and may remain healthy for a number of years; but even though the exact time of onset of both diseases is unascertainable, death of both victims within a given range of years is highly likely. Further, both Huntington's disease and HIV are transmitted to offspring at a relatively high rate. Given these similarities, the author argues that Huntington's individuals should be afforded the protections of the ADA for the same reasons that HIV-positive persons are protected.     

著作权保护期限标准的审视与重构

著作权的两类权利主体(自然人和非自然人)获得保护的正当性理由不同,相应的保护期限也应根据不同的标准确立。回顾著作权法的发展历史,二者没有被清晰区分。以自然人作者保护为前提发展而来的"照顾理论"是大部分国家现行时间标准的正当性理由。信息社会著作权法的保护范围和制度设计都有了深刻变革,要实现公平正义目标,著作财产权的保护期限应当重构:一方面,非自然人权利主体作品不应也不宜直接适用原有根据自然人作者设计的保护期限,而应根据"激励理论"参考专利法确定固定保护期;另一方面,应当审视"照顾理论"在现有背景下的合理性,对自然人作品建议采用原则上以作者生命为限结合最低保护期限的标准。现有保护期限都应缩短,在受国际条约所限该目标短期难以达成的现状下,可以调整著作权保护宽度,采用相对宽松的合理使用制度。     

Narrative approach to ethics education for students without clinical experience

Niigata University School of Medicine has provided three courses in which medical ethics (ME) is taught to students who have little or no clinical experience. To evoke student's imagination, we have developed a "narrative approach" to learn ME using cases. Prior to a case analysis, students are required to exchange their own life history regarding the core issues in the case. A case is presented not only in the traditional form of vignette, but also in the form of narrative. In the narrative, the case is a story composed of personal narratives, collected and edited from diaries, letters, interviews of persons involved. Our experience suggests that the principle-based reasoning using simple vignettes is often hardly accomplished by students. However, the narrative approach was found to be useful since students can: (1) gain more accurate and wide comprehension of medical and psycho-social aspects of the case; (2) grasp the nature and the history of the conflicting views among persons in the case; (3) find more easily any method for dealing with and settling problems; and (4) exchange viewpoints with patients and their family.     

Building bridges between the parole officer and the families of serious juvenile offenders: a preliminary report on a family-based parole program

Responding to a model of juvenile offender case supervision that called for a new intervention paradigm to guide the work of probation and parole officers, the present article reports on the use of a family-based parole initiative known as the Growing Up FAST program. Developed in part as a tool for use within this new intervention paradigm, the Growing Up FAST parole program targets serious youthful offenders who have been released from juvenile correctional facilities and their families. Based on elements contained within the "what works" literature and the Balanced and Restorative Justice model, this program recognizes the central role that field staff can play in rehabilitation efforts. Demographic information and formative data regarding the first set of families to participate in this program are presented, then program limitations and lessons learned as part of the initial offering of this parole initiative are discussed.     

Asymptomatic HIV as a disability under the Americans with Disability Act

The Americans with Disability Act (ADA) does not state whether it prohibits discrimination against individuals who are infected with HIV but asymptomatic. Some courts have held that the language of the ADA is unambiguous and does not cover asymptomatic HIV as a disability because the virus is not an "impairment" that substantially limits a "major life activity." Other courts have looked behind the statutory language and found that Congress intended to protect asymptomatic individuals with HIV because the virus impairs one's ability to procreate and/or engage in sexual relations. This Comment argues that asymptomatic individuals with HIV are indeed protected under the ADA, but that the analytic framework thus far employed by the courts is flawed. Asymptomatic HIV is a protected disability not because it is independently debilitating, but because the prejudices and fears of other may prevent HIV-infected persons from fully participating in society. The ADA was enacted to prevent exactly this type of discrimination.     

Assassination in the United States: an operational study of recent assassins, attackers, and near-lethal approachers

This study is the first operational exploration of the thinking and behavior of all 83 persons known to have attacked, or approached to attack, a prominent public official or public figure in the United States since 1949. In addition to data about each attack or near-attack and each subject's demographic and background characteristics, information was gathered about each subject's ideas and actions in the days and weeks before their attacks or near-lethal approaches. Questions were examined about each subject's movement from the idea of attack to actual attack, motives, selection of targets, planning, communication of threat and intent, symptoms of mental illness, and significant life experiences. In every case, the attack or near-attack was the end result of an understandable, and often discernible, process of thinking and action. Implications for protectors, investigators, and researchers are discussed.     

The Recurring Victimization of Individuals with Mental Illness: A Comparison of Trajectories for Two Racial Groups

Objective

This study explores whether the trajectories of recurring victimization of Black persons diagnosed with major mental illnesses vary from the trajectories of their White counterparts. Further, the study examines whether the risk factors for recurring victimization among persons with major mental illness vary by race.

Methods

Using data from the MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment Study (MacRisk), two separate hierarchical binomial regression models were estimated to compare the recurring victimization trajectories of Black and White MacRisk participants. Cross-level interaction terms were also estimated to determine if the coefficients for each of the time-varying covariates included in the analyses were significantly different across race.

Results

The findings indicate that the trajectories of recurring victimization for Black persons with serious mental illness are significantly different from those of White persons with serious mental illness. Specifically, Black persons’ trajectories remain relatively stable over time, while the risk of recurring victimization declines for Whites as time since release from the hospital increases. Further, the effects of alcohol abuse on revictimization risk vary by race.

Conclusion

The findings suggest that the life experiences of Black persons with mental illness may be different from their White counterparts, which is likely to contribute to distinct patterns of recurring victimization over time. Future research should continue to explore recurring victimization among diverse samples to identify potential sources of the variation in revictimization trajectories across race.

     

Legal Aim, Discretion, and Social Control

This study attempts to ascertain how the legal a i m of rehabilitation are applied, as well as their social control consequences for a group of offenders sentenced under the Federal Youth Corrections Act (FYCA) of 1950. Discriminant function analyses were conducted on a random sample of 452 persons selected f o r a "special" FYCA rehabilitative disposition and 758 persons accorded a regular punitive disposition, to determine 1) the factors that influence the judge's choice between these two outcomes; and 2) if persons sentenced under the special rehabilitative provision spend more or less time incarcerated, relative to those given a regular disposition Our analyses indicate that age is the single discriminator of much significance in determining whether an offender is given a FYCA or regular disposition, with younger persons more likely to receive rehabilitative treatment. Little support was found for the contention that greater intrusiveness of social control inevitably results from adoption of a rehabilitative form of social control as opposed to a regular punitive disposition. The implications of these findings for the application and consequences of the FYCA are discussed.     

The New York State Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1980: a legislative experiment

Through a statistical analysis of major changes in postacquittal procedures of the Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1980 (IDRA 1980), the study reveals the Act's success in formalizing, regularizing, juridicizing, accelerating, and extending to all acquittees psychiatric examinations and review and release procedures. Although more persons are reviewed and released at postacquittal hearings than in the matched pre-1980 cohort, fewer enter nonsecure facilities at commitment or during first 18 months of hospitalization, and fewer are released at the six-month review. After 18 months more acquittees remain inmates in secure facilities. Interviews with leading figures in the formulation and enactment of IDRA provide retrospective and prospective judgments on insanity defense reform issues.     

Applications for release by Australians in Victoria found not guilty of offences of violence by reason of mental impairment

Much research in relation to mental illness and the law has concentrated upon when accused persons are entitled to avail themselves of the defence of not guilty by reason of insanity or mental impairment. However, the decision as to when persons found not guilty by such pleas should be released step by step back into the community involves difficult analyses of the risk of recidivism by persons who have committed serious acts of violence whilst mentally ill. This article analyses some 70 cases heard by the Supreme Court of Victoria in Australia since the jurisdiction to make such decisions has been transferred from the executive arm of government to the judiciary. The jurisprudence generated by the Victorian Supreme Court constitutes Australia's most developed law in relation to prediction of dangerousness. This article evaluates the different and subtle dynamics that have influenced the judges in an increasingly sophisticated way to grapple with the phenomenon of mental illness in deciding when persons who have already killed can safely be released from involuntary detention status within the confines of a forensic psychiatric institution back into the general community.     

SUPPORTING FAMILY STRENGTH: THE USE OF TRANSFORMATIVE MEDIATION IN A PINS MEDIATION CLINIC

This article describes, and explains the rationales for, the establishment of an innovative program in which a law school and two social services agencies are collaborating in a mediation clinic that uses the transformative model of mediation to serve clients in cases that seem ideally suited to benefit from this approach to practice—so-called "PINS" (persons in need of supervision) cases involving conflict within families, between parents and their adolescent children. The article first describes the evolution of the PINS system and the changing views of its purpose, especially in New York State. It then offers a brief introduction to the unique features of the transformative approach to mediation and explains why that approach in particular is likely to mesh with current understandings of the needs of the families involved in these cases. Finally, the article describes the innovative "Family Solutions Program" and how it uses transformative mediation to help these families and suggests that experience of this program shows how use of the transformative model, in particular, could be valuable not only for clinical education but also for effective volunteer training and supervision in mediation programs generally.     

风险社会大规模损害责任法的范式重构——从侵权赔偿到成本分担

风险社会是人类利用科技从事创造活动而产生的人为风险成为影响人类生活乃至生存和发展的主要因素的社会,如何缓解与分配风险损害成为风险社会的核心问题。风险社会的大规模损害以事故型和累积型大规模公害为主导。侵权法解决的损害问题是私人对私人利益的侵害,其主要功能在于补偿受害者,其制度运行有赖于损害的确定性、有限性、可计量性、可预期和可控制性、私人性。风险损害所具有的不确定性、无限性、不可计量性、不可预期性、不可控制性和社会公共性颠覆了这些条件,对风险损害主要以规制法予以事前防范。规制法防治私人对公共利益的侵害,其主要通过事前预防责任的分担降低风险损害,事后责任作为补充。规制法责任的实质是对风险成本的分担。分担应遵循社会分担、有效分担、平衡分担以及预防为主、救济为辅的原则。规制法的责任制度包括预防责任和补救责任。     

The first year of operation under the new Patuxent law

To summarize briefly, it can be said that the new Patuxent admissions are approximately in the same age range, but more often black and from urban areas. The seriousness of their crimes is significantly higher than in the old Patuxent population. It may be said with some assurance that the change of the law has been a positive step towards making the Patuxent Institution a more treatment-oriented place, since there is no more mandatory indeterminate incarceration of persons unwilling to participate in the program. On the other hand, a number of persons who could eventually be reached by the prolonged stay at the Institution under the indeterminate sentence are now lost to the treatment process and they will be eventually released as potentially dangerous persons into society.     

Effectiveness of a prolonged incarceration and rehabilitation measure for high-frequency offenders

Objectives

To estimate the incapacitation effect and the impact on post-release recidivism of a measure combining prolonged incarceration and rehabilitation, the ISD measure for high frequency offenders (HFOs) was compared to the standard practice of short-term imprisonment.

Methods

We applied a quasi-experimental design with observational data to study the effects of ISD. The intervention group consisted of all HFOs released from ISD in the period 2004–2008. Two control groups were derived from the remaining population of HFOs who were released from a standard prison term. To form groups of controls, a combination of multiple imputation (MI) and propensity score matching (PSM) was used including a large number of covariates. In order to measure the incapacitation effect of ISD, the number of convictions and recorded offences in a criminal case of the controls were counted in the same period as their ISD counterfactuals were incarcerated. The impact on recidivism was measured by the prevalence and the frequency of reconvictions corrected for time at risk. Robustness of the results were checked by performing a combined PSM and difference-in-difference (DD) design.

Results

The estimate of the incapacitation effect was on average 5.7 criminal cases and 9.2 offences per ISD measure. On average 2.5 convictions and 4 recorded offences per year per HFO are prevented. The HFOs released from ISD showed 12 to 16 % lower recidivism rates than their control HFOs released from prison (Cohen’s h?=?0.3–0.4). The recidivists of the ISD group also showed a lower reconviction frequency than the control group recidivists (Cohen’s d?=?0.2).

Conclusions

The ISD measure seems to be effective in reducing recidivism and crime. The estimated incapacitation effect showed that a large portion of criminal cases and offences was prevented. DD analysis and sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of the PSM results. Due to the absence of actual treatment data, the effects found cannot be attributed separately to resocialization, imprisonment, or improvement of life circumstances.     

Unemployment: A double burden and a public issue

Almost all European countries suffer from mass unemployment. More than 20 million persons in Europe are out of work. When the unemployment rate reaches such levels it can be assumed that it has implications not only for each unemployed individual but also for society as a whole. In this article, a distinction is made between unemployment as a private trouble and unemployment as a public issue. This distinction with regard to unemployment was introduced by Mills (1959) and illuminates the different, although interrelated, effects of unemployment on the individual and on the overall structure of society. The private trouble perspective raises the question of how individuals are affected by unemployment and the public issue examaines how unemployment affects society as a whole. We apply the reasoning by first discussing the relations between individual consequences of unemployment. We focus on two often neglected aspects, namely, economic hardship and shame. Then the implications for working life and society are discussed. There is much evidence indicating that the social and health consequences of unemployment are not limited to the unemployed and their families but also affect the working life and the overall structure of society. It is argued that mass unemployment might increase the process of social disintegration in society.