Successful Restitution as a Predictor of Juvenile Recidivism

Abstract This is an evaluative study of a juvenile probationary project in which youth are ordered to pay restitution as a term of probation and, to assure them means of compliance, the juvenile court arranges for and supplies their employment. Demographic variables (age and sex) and court-related variables (plea, length of probation, amount of restitution ordered, and amount and proportion actually paid) are examined in relation to one another and, most important, in relation to recidivism as measured by subsequent law violations for which the offender was investigated, and subsequent law violations that resulted in formal charges against the youth. The data demonstrate that recidivism is related to severity of the initial offense, but more important, it is related to the youth's success in achieving the restitution goal. Successful compliance with the restitution order, when success is measured by amount of restitution paid relative to the amount ordered by the court, is significantly related to revocation of probation, time given to pay, amount ordered to be paid, and subsequent offenses charged. Indeed, the proportion of restitution paid is the most important predictor of recidivism. The data reinforce the dominant legislative position that an offender's ability to pay must be taken into account in ordering restitution.     

Restitution in America: Why the US Refuses to Join the Global Restitution Party

In the past generation, restitution law has emerged as a globalphenomenon. From its Oxbridge home, restitution migrated tothe rest of the Commonwealth, and ongoing Europeanization projectshave brought the common law of restitution into contact withthe Romanist concept of unjust enrichment, further internationalizingthis movement. In contrast, in the United States, scholarlyinterest in restitution, in terms of books, articles, treatises,symposia and courses on restitution, is meager. Similarly, whilerestitution, equity and tracing cases receive considerable treatmentat the highest levels of the English judiciary, US courts seemuninterested in these issues, rarely producing the theory-ladenopinions that have become quite common in the House of Lords.The situation is particularly curious because restitution isgenerally thought to be the invention of late nineteenth-centuryAmerican scholars. This article explains this divergence. Iargue that the Commonwealth restitution discourse is largelya product of pre- or anti-realist legal thought which generatesscepticism within the American academic-legal establishment.The article identifies the two dominant camps in American privatelaw thought—left-leaning redistributionalists and thecentre-right legal economists—and shows that neither hasany use for the Commonwealth's discourse. I conclude by analysingthe emerging drafts of the Restatement of Restitution and forecastthe future of American restitution law.     

The Role of Victim-Related Factors in Victim Restitution: A Multi-Method Analysis of Restitution in Pennsylvania

Mandatory statutes do not always produce change, but a 1995 Pennsylvania statutory change making restitution mandatory dramatically increased the proportion of cases in which restitution was imposed. There are three possible reasons for this generally successful implementation: (a) judges agreed with the victim-centered goals of the statute, (b) there were mechanisms in place to implement the goals of assisting victims, and (c) there was a context supportive of victims that made it easier to follow the law. Two studies investigated these possible explanations. First, a statewide survey of trial court judges suggested that they agreed with the statute's goals of compensating victims. Second, hierarchical logistic models of 55,119 statewide restitution-eligible decisions indicated that a victim-related contextual factor, the nature and location of the victim/witness assistance office, was significantly related to the imposition of restitution, although a more general contextual factor relating to funding for victim programs had only small effects.     

现代性危机与政治实践:托克维尔的历史救赎

现代性危机是马克思、恩格斯和托克维尔那代思想家面对的共同问题。托克维尔政治社会学思想的独特性在于:他不是从现代社会本身寻求对现代性危机的症结所在,而是将这一危机的原因、结果以及解救之道放入了几个世纪以来法国乃至欧洲的旧制度传统之中。通过对法国旧制度与大革命之间潜在关联的深入剖析,托克维尔向我们表明,现代性危机的根源在于公民政治空间的萎缩和政治日常实践的缺失。     

Damages for Breach of Contract: Compensation, Restitution and Vindication

In this article we examine the role which vindication playsin contract damages. Vindication describes the making good ofa right by the award of an adequate remedy. We argue that, whilethe primary purpose of compensation is to provide an indemnityfor loss, an award of compensatory damages will neverthelessgenerally vindicate the right to performance of the contract.We go on to consider a distinct measure of damages, vindicatorydamages. These, we argue, are neither compensatory nor restitutionary,neither loss-based nor gain-based: they are a rights-based remedy.We then identify various situations in which the courts maybe seen to have awarded what are, in substance, vindicatorydamages. We conclude by considering the benefits which may followfrom recognition of the availability of vindicatory damagesas a contract remedy.     

Redemption and reproach: Religion and carceral control in action among women in prison

Criminologists are increasingly interested in how a variety of justice-adjacent institutions scaffold surveillance and punishment in the U.S. criminal justice system. A relevant but understudied institution within the carceral state is that of religion. Drawing on 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork inside a U.S. state women's prison, I interrogate how religion—predominately conservative and evangelical Protestantism—served dual purposes in light of carceral control. Religion offered redemptive narratives to counter punitive carceral narratives promulgated by the state. At the same time, this narrative shift from “flawed” to “faithful” prescribed particular forms of embodiment: avoiding fights and rejecting sexual relationships with women. These forms of Protestant embodiment aligned with carceral purposes, such that women who reprimanded others for breaching religious norms were simultaneously enforcing prison rules. Although rhetorically challenging official prison narratives on the meaning of incarceration, Protestant narratives in practice regulated women's emotional and sexual behaviors and fostered a system of informal surveillance among incarcerated women. These findings illuminate how organizational narratives are linked to individual action. More broadly, they suggest how an institution such as religion can undergird state authority within an intractable context of carceral control.     

Juvenile Delinquency Guidelines: Improving Court Practice in Juvenile Delinquency Cases SIXTEEN KEY PRINCIPLES

This article is excerpted from the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges' landmark JUVENILE DELINQUENCY GUIDELINES: Improving Court Practice in Juvenile Delinquency Cases, Chapter I, Foundations for Excellence, published in 2005. Beginning with a basic discussion of why separate courts for juveniles and adults continue to be necessary, the article describes the goals and key principles of a juvenile delinquency court of excellence.     

Sentencing Juvenile Offenders to Life in Prison: The Political Sociology of Juvenile Punishment

Sentencing juvenile offenders to life in prison is the most severe criminal penalty available, yet we know little about the factors that produce jurisdictional differences in the use of such sanctions. Political explanations emphasize conservative values and the strength of more conservative political parties. Threat accounts suggest that this sentence will be more likely in jurisdictions with larger minority populations. After controlling for many explanations using count models, the results show that larger numbers of juvenile life sentences are handed out in more politically conservative states with a stronger Republican Party. Findings also show that racial politics is a factor in juvenile life sentences. Those jurisdictions that have the most blacks and have judicial elections sentence the most juveniles to life terms. By highlighting the explanatory power of public ideologies, these findings support political explanations for the harshest criminal punishment directed towards juveniles.     

《西游记》中的救赎问题:猪八戒的法意识局限

四部古典小说里面,<西游记>恐怕是我最喜欢闲看的.不止是语言活泼,更是它意趣幽深.按照书中自陈,是甚么"曹溪路险,京岭云深,此处故人音杳","试问禅关,参求无数,往往到头虚老.