Should I help my neighbor? Self-interest,altruism and economic analyses of rescue laws

This article shows that the economic analyses of rescue laws developed in the ‘70s are the outcome of a long-term process that began at the end of the 1950s with the passing of the first legislations intended to promote and control rescue behaviour (the so-called “good Samaritan” legislations, acts or statutes) and that finally results in the economic models of rescue developed by Landes and Posner (The Journal of Legal Studies, 7(1):83–128, 1978a; The American Economic Review, 68(2):417–421, 1978b). The article investigates the context that made the occurrence of the economic analysis of rescue law possible and the controversies that it fueled in both the legal and economic fields. It also highlights the influence of the economic analysis of altruism on this particular field of law and economics.     

"We are also normal humans, you know?" Views and attitudes of juvenile delinquents on antisocial behavior, neurobiology and prevention

This paper presents and discusses the views and attitudes of juvenile delinquents regarding the implications of genomics and neurobiology research findings for the prevention and treatment of antisocial behavior. Scientific developments in these disciplines are considered to be of increasing importance for understanding the causes and the course of antisocial behavior and related mental disorders. High expectations exist with regard to the development of more effective prevention and intervention. Whether this is a desirable development does not only depend on science, but also on the ethical and social implications of potential applications of current and future research findings. As this pilot study points out, juvenile delinquents themselves have rather mixed views on the goals and means of early identification, prevention and treatment. Some welcome the potential support and help that could arise from biologically informed preventive and therapeutic measures. Others, however, reject the very goals of prevention and treatment and express worries concerning the risk of labeling and stigmatization and the possibility of false positives. Furthermore, interventions could aim at equalizing people and taking away socially disapproved capacities they themselves value. Moreover, most juvenile delinquents are hardly convinced that their crime could have been caused by some features of their brain or that a mental disorder has played a role. Instead, they provide social explanations such as living in a deprived neighborhood or having antisocial friends. We suggest that the hopes and expectations as well as the concerns and worries of juvenile delinquents are relevant not only for genomics and neurobiology of antisocial behavior, but also for prevention and intervention measures informed by social scientific and psychological research. The range of patterns of thought of juvenile delinquents is of great heuristic value and may lead to subsequent research that could further enhance our understanding of these patterns.     

Should I stay,or should I go? self-legitimacy of attorneys in an authoritarian state

Crime, Law and Social Change - In non-democracies, lawyers face various constraints ranging from the absence of acquittals or violations of their clients’ rights to threats and criminal...     

‘No,buddy, I will not speak to the press – I am working!’: criminal justice and the interprofessional dynamics of communication production in the Chilean Public Prosecutorial Office

This article analyses the interprofessional dynamics of communication production in the criminal justice system. Through 26 in-depth interviews, we investigate the production of media information on prosecutorial work in Chile, tracking the relationships between internal communication agents, prosecutors, and external legal journalists. Previous scholarship has shown the success of police organizations in defining the content of crime communication based on asymmetrical power relations with the media. By contrast, our study reveals that legal journalists can bypass attempts to control the flow of information from the prosecutorial office and impose extra-organizational goals. Lawyers regularly dismiss the work of journalists, particularly those working as strategic communication advisors with prosecutors, but the asymmetrical relationship between the criminal justice agency and the media plays in favour of external legal journalists. Our article considers several explanations for this configuration, including interprofessional values, transactional relationships between journalists and prosecutors, and local legal culture.     

The crimes of the homeless or the crime of homelessness? On the dialectics of criminalization,decriminalization, and victimization

This paper is a limited attempt to synthesize the older and newer trends in radical criminology — to integrate the issues of criminalization, decriminalization, and victimization. The object of our endeavor is homelessness and how society responds to it. In the paper, we first examine the dialectics of criminalization, homelessness, and economic crisis in relation to some of the general trends in the developing political economy of welfare capitalism. Second, we argue that criminologists should support and focus on effort to criminalize the condition of homelessness and, at the same time, to decriminalize most of the acts of survival of the homeless. In pursuing this end, we urge criminologists to respond by doing things with rather than for or to the homeless. Ultimately, we hope this paper contributes to the ideological and practical struggle for achieving stable institutional methods for satisfying basic human needs.     

“I didn’t do it,but if I did I had a good reason”: Minimization,Denial, and Attributions of Blame Among Male and Female Domestic Violence Offenders

Women are increasingly being arrested and prosecuted for assaulting an intimate partner. Whereas extensive research has been conducted to identify the treatment needs of male domestic violence offenders, few studies have examined females convicted of the same charges. In the present study 1,267 men and 159 women convicted of intimate partner abuse were compared on scales assessing attributions of blame for their recent offense, minimization, denial, and socially desirable responding. Research with male offenders has identified these factors as important treatment targets, as they appear to influence an offenders risk for noncompliance and recidivism. The results of the study suggest that both male and female domestic violence offenders engage in socially desirable responding during court-ordered evaluations, that both attribute greater blame for the recent offense to their spouse/partner than they acknowledge for themselves, and that significant numbers of both genders deny the recent incident and/or minimize the severity of the offense. Areas for further research are highlighted along with a discussion of the implications of these findings for practitioners.     

Me,myself and I: the sociology of policing male rape,the gaze of the ‘Other’

In this paper, the bodies of male rape victims as the ‘other’ are problematized. The social and cultural constructions of male rape within a policing context are examined since the police play a major role in impeding the progress of male rape cases. The author draws on police data, generated from interviews and qualitative questionnaires with the police, to illustrate the problems with policing male rape in England, UK. While the author provides empirical data, sociological, cultural, and post-structural theoretical frameworks largely inform it. It is argued that the bodies of male rape victims are positioned in inferior positions, whereby their bodies are metaphorically and symbolically marked as ‘abnormal’, ‘deviant’, and the ‘other’. Through social and power relations, their bodies are tainted, which reinforces gender and social norms.     

Conflict or compatibility? The trade,conservation and animal welfare dimensions of cites

Abstract

While analysis of the effectiveness of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) often focuses on its ability to ensure sustainable trade in the species it regulates, the treaty also contains many provisions intended to ensure the welfare of species introduced into international trade. While such provisions serve salutary objectives, they are often complied with only in the breach. Efforts should be made by the Parties to CITES to ensure implementation of the animal welfare provisions of CITES through stricter enforcement measures, enactment of national legislation and an interpretation of treaty provisions that furthers the underlying welfare objectives of the Convention.     

"I want you to listen to my side of this": is there a role for mediation early in the health care complaints process?

The resolution of disputes that arise out of the provision of health care services has historically taken place at an institutional level, with the hospital administrative unit conducting the process, or through the legal system with the parties traversing the relevant courts and tribunals. Increasingly, the wide range of decisions which must be made in relation to the delivery of patient and client care and the broad scope of variations in expectations as to what a health service is capable of delivering, are providing fertile ground for conflict. This column considers the potential role of mediation as an early intervention strategy to resolve health care disputes.     

A Lust for Treasure and a Love of Gold…or Desperation? Global Facilitation of Piracy,Neoliberal Policies and the Control of the Somali Pirate

The issue of piracy is most often framed as being the product of dangerous individuals plundering and murdering for personal gain. What is less often discussed are the state, political, economic, and corporate interests that intersect with piracy (i.e. the corporate interest demand for protection of global shipping routes that are instrumental for capital accumulation in the world market). Here I utilize the concept of crimes of globalization to demonstrate that the motivations that undergird policies aimed at controlling piracy today are not dissimilar to those promoted through international financial institutions in their effort to advance the economic interests of highly empowered countries at the expense of addressing localized needs.     

Foreign agents or agents of justice? Private foundations,backlash against non-governmental organizations,and international human rights litigation

The premise of Russia's 2012 “Foreign Agents” Law, one of the first such laws restricting foreign funding for non-governmental organizations (NGOs), is that foreign monies equal foreign agendas. Since then, over 50 countries have adopted similar laws using a similar justification. This paper interrogates this claim of foreign donor influence through examining legal mobilization by human rights NGOs at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). We track donor support for litigation by providing an overview of all foundation grant flows relating to strategic litigation for 2013–2014, and then matching the granting activities of two major U.S. foundations over 14 years to human rights NGO participation in cases before the ECtHR. Further, through case studies of Russian NGOs, we assess the causal role that donor support has played in facilitating their increased involvement in ECtHR litigation. The combined analysis indicates broad patterns of private foundation support to litigating NGOs, but uncovers no evidence that foreign donors were “pushing” NGOs toward litigation as a strategy, but instead more evidence suggesting that NGOs convinced donors to support human rights litigation. Despite the inaccuracy of the justification underpinning Russia's foreign agent law, the law threatens the survival of human rights organizations.