Review of The Victim of a Crime

Theoretical treatment of questions pertaining to the individual victimized by a crime and his behavior and role in the commission of the crime is essential for purposes of practical struggle with crime and for crime prevention. This book not only centers its attention on this subject, important for theory and practice, but also contains a further development of the subject. The authors have chosen to study questions pertaining to the victim, analysis of which was furthered by the completeness with which the subject is dealt with, the high level of scholarship, and the practical usefulness of the approach. Moreover, they did not confine themselves to questions relating to purely legal disciplines but examined a range of social relationships (criminological, psychological, and moral). The book interprets the concept of victimization-prone as "the possibility of becoming the sufferer from a crime in a situation when the outcome could, objectively, have been prevented" (p. 13). It would appear to us that the most successful aspect of the book is the treatment of the qualities and actions of the citizen leading to his being a victim and, consequently, placing him in the position of a damaged party.     

论刑事被害人权利

本文在论述我国刑事被害人权利的特点和现行刑事被害人权利制度的内容后,提出了完善我国刑事被害人权利制度的建议。提出应赋予因犯罪行为而遭受精神损害的被害人提起附带民事诉讼的权利。     

Victim/witness noncooperation: A second look at a persistent phenomenon

During the last decade, numerous programs were established to increase the alarmingly low rate of cooperation of victim/witnesses with lower criminal court officials. It is argued that these programs were largely unsuccessful because they were based on assumptions about the motives of victim/witnesses and about the effect of their cooperation on case outcomes which were only partially correct. The article attempts to explain noncooperation by integrating what is known about the desires and expectations of victim/witnesses from recent empirical studies with what is known about the nature of the adjudication process from organizational studies of criminal courts. The article concludes that victim/witness noncooperation may not pose the major obstacle to prosecution that has been alleged, but that it is indicative of the failure of criminal courts to recognize that victim/witnesses have a legitimate interest in the adjudication process.     

Briefly unidentified: a study of a peculiar source of identification.

In May of 1992, unidentified human remains were received at the C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida for identification. The decedent was identified as a white female in her early sixties between 62 and 63 in. in stature. Significant trauma was observed at various skeletal sites. The identity of the decedent was meant to be obscured due to the decapitation of the head and removal of the lower arms including the hands. Examination of the clothing revealed that the first initial and last name of the decedent had been written in ink inside the label of the underpants. Subsequently, this information was matched with missing persons reports. Identification of the decedent was confirmed by comparison of antemortem and postmortem radiographs.     

Interviewing serious offenders: Ms. Egghead meets Mr. Gumshoe

Organised crime, due to its intricate nature, is a very challenging as well as less accessible research field. Although difficult to conduct a methodical research on this topic, organised crime, nevertheless, offers a unique opportunity to utilise an interdisciplinary research methodology. This paper describes (multiple) triangulation as an appropriate method for researching the role of culture in the advancement of ethnic Albanian organised crime groups in Europe. Triangulation, for the purpose of the described project, has been used to obtain confirmation of findings through convergence of different perspectives. Interviewing offenders is one of the research methods more thoroughly explained in this paper. The paper too explores some advantages of snowball technique used for interviewing less accessible research subjects. It also discusses various dilemmas, security-related or not, researchers are faced with when intending to interview serious offenders.

From Victim to Offender: Female Offenders of Child Sexual Abuse

Historically, women have been seen to have a much lower recorded rate of crime than men. In the area of child sexual abuse, women have figured prominently in official statistics as victims but have had virtually no official recognition as offenders. It is difficult for many people to accept that women do sexually abuse children and this can result in discounting by personnel in child protection services and police. This article discusses female offenders of child sexual abuse and the way in which these cases are processed by the criminal justice system.     

Infant Homicide: Victim/Offender Relationship and Causes of Death

The phenomenon of infant homicide (infanticide) has been examined, explained, justified, and treated according to physiological, psychiatric, and psychological correlates. There has been little examination of the social correlates directly pertaining to infant homicide. However, social correlates are often indirectly addressed in the medical and psychiatric literature. This paper tests relationships between social correlates often asserted, but typically not tested, in the medical and psychiatric literature. Using a sample of 380 infant homicides in Texas from 1981 through 1991, a multivariate analysis between victim/offender relationship, cause of death, and victim's age at time of fatal injury, predicts the age at which an infant (34 months) is likely to be fatally injured. The findings support the following hypotheses: (1) as the age of the victim increases, the level of violence used to fatally injure the infant increases; and (2) as the level of relational intimacy decreases, the level of violence used to fatally injure the infant increases.     

Victim cooperation and the prosecution of domestic violence in a specialized court

We address the role of victim cooperation in the prosecution of domestic violence cases in a specialized court in Toronto, Canada. We first examine what factors predict whether a case will proceed to prosecution. We find that, even in a court designed to minimize reliance on victim cooperation through the use of other types of evidence, when prosecutors perceive a victim to be cooperative, the odds that a case will be prosecuted are seven times higher than if a victim is not perceived to be cooperative. In the second part of our analysis, where we seek to determine the correlates of victim cooperation, we find that the two most important determinants of victim cooperation are the availability of videotaped testimony and meetings between victims and victim/witness assistance workers. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research and policy.     

刑事被害人陈述的证据学思考

有关被害人陈述制度,在刑事司法实践中存在诸多困扰和矛盾之处,被害人不同诉讼身份所带来的紧张关系对其陈述的证明力造成不利影响;被害人的控诉职能导致其自由陈述受到限制。新近立法对被害人陈述制度做出了部分努力,但仍不完善。因此,必须修正被害人身份冲突;确立人证取得以任意侦查为原则,以强制侦查为例外的取证规则;明确非法取证行为的审查主体及程序;确立翻证免受刑事追诉为原则,承担刑事责任为例外的规则。     

Ear identification: a pilot study

Although several papers have recently been devoted to establishing the validity of identification using the ear, this part of the human body still remains underexploited in forensic science. The perfect overlap of two images of the same ear is not really possible, but photographs of the ears as a reliable means of inferring the identity of an individual are poorly treated in the literature. In this study, we illustrate a simple, reproducible method, which divides the photograph of an ear into four parts-helix, antihelix, concha, and lobe-by means of a suitable grid of four straight lines. Although the division does not follow exact anatomical features, their edges do join anatomical points which are more easily identifiable. Measurement of certain areas of these parts can be combined to produce a code allowing personal identification. This method produces false-positive identifications of <0.2%. Last, the repeatability and reproducibility aspects of the method are tested.     

江平先生的法学教育之路

2001年底,中国政法大学特别授予江平先生终身教授荣誉,褒奖这位卓越的法学家对本校、本学科及整个中国法学事业所做出的杰出贡献.对于那些真正关心中国法学发展的人来说,这无疑是个令人欣慰的消息.<比较法研究>主编米健教授托我代做一个关于江先生的短篇幅的人物评传.对此,我诚惶诚恐,江先生是何等博大,岂是我这等愚钝小辈所敢妄写的.但是我还是欣然接受了这个任务,所谓恭敬不如从命.江先生是博学多才又影响深远的法学家,是目前中国法学的精神脊梁.他的学术深邃、思想敏锐、活动频繁、情趣高雅,各方面散发着无穷的魅力.本文限于篇幅,不可能面面俱到,主要从他的较感人的一个方面--法学教育之路人手,做一点粗略的追踪.