Good guys, bad guys: transnational corporations, rational choice theory and power crime

While its scope and scale can be exaggerated, the power transnational corporations (TNCs) exert in the contemporary world is considerable. This is often at the expense of states, or at least is exercised in a way that can undermine states. Some interactions between corporations and states or their officers constitute prime examples of power crime. A blatant form is where corporations either offer or else agree to pay bribes to state officials in order to secure a major contract. This capacity to corrupt state officials via large scale bribes gives corporations significant potential power. This article begins by citing allegations of active corruption of state officials by TNCs, as well as counter-examples (i.e. where TNCs have taken a stand against rent-seeking officials). It then argues that active corruption by corporations constitutes a major dimension of power crime, and seeks to explain apparently contradictory behaviours by TNCs, relating these to rational choice theories and neo-liberalism. It is argued that recent changes in corporate governance and behaviour have made rational-choice models and simplistic neo-liberalism either questionable or redundant. Bu at the same time, globalisation and its stable mate neo-liberalism encourage improper behaviour–various forms of power crime-by corporations.     

Good cop, bad cop: federal prosecution of state-legalized medical marijuana use after United States v. Lopez

The Supreme Court's recent decisions in United States v. Lopez and United States v. Morrison articulate a vision of federalism under which Congress's regulatory authority under the Commerce Clause is severely limited in favor of returning traditional areas of state concern, particularly criminal law enforcement, to local or state control. The Court's decisions in these cases coincide with ballot initiatives legalizing the medical use of marijuana garnering a majority of the vote in California, Arizona, Alaska, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Maine, and Washington D.C. Those who use marijuana for medical purposes under sanction of state law, however, still face the threat of federal prosecution under the Controlled Substances Act. Medical marijuana proponents have traditionally, and unsuccessfully, contested federal prosecution using individual rights arguments under theories of equal protection or substantive due process. This Comment argues that after Lopez and Morrison, the federal government's authority to regulate intrastate use of marijuana for medicinal purposes is not the foregone conclusion it once was. The author suggests that proponents of medical marijuana use should invoke the federalism arguments of Lopez and Morrison and argue for state legislative independence from the federal government on this issue.     

Reporting sensational trials: Free press,a responsible press,and cameras in the courts

It is common today to criticize the media for the way in which they report sensational trials. Lawyers often join in this criticism, claiming that the portrayals harm their public image. This article examines such complaints and demonstrates that including cameras in the courts need not lengthen a criminal trial, nor substantially affect the judicial process. Using the O.J. Simpson criminal case as a backdrop, the article shows how delays in that case were caused not by cameras, but by the judge's inconsistent rulings that signaled to the defense lawyers that they were under a different and more lenient standard than the prosecutors. Surveys of American judges show that those who have experienced cameras in their own courtroom have come to the conclusion that such media coverage does not impede justice, aids the public in understanding the judicial process and has little effect on American's perceptions of lawyers. Those judges who have the urge to play to the cameras should ban them, but if they do not, the blame lies with them and not the media, which simply report what is happening.     

Facing rejection: new relationships, broken relationships, shame, and stalking

This study provides a preliminary examination of the relationship among shame-proneness, emotions, and persistent, unwanted courting or pursuit behaviour. A total of 222 undergraduates completed a questionnaire measuring responses to the termination of a relationship or the declining of a date. The Test of Self-Conscious Affect was used to measure shame. Although shame was unrelated to types of intrusive behaviour, individuals who engaged more repetitively in covert pursuit tended to ruminate more over their love interest than did those who rarely engaged in such behaviour. Rumination was positively correlated with shame. Self-harm behaviours and harm toward others were associated with feelings of sadness and depression, and those who engaged more often in harm toward others also reported feelings of anger and jealousy. Conclusions are made regarding the function of shame and other emotions in intrusive behaviour and their potential relevance to treatment of stalkers.     

The good, the bad, the ugly, and the Colombian peace plan

Among the many wars thatColombia is fighting, there are two that itis definitely losing – those forgovernment legitimacy and against poverty.Although the country has always shown anearly infinite capacity to turn itselfaround, its traditionally praised democracyshows fresh signs of erosion that lookalmost impossible to reverse. With solidinstitutions no longer standing, theguerrillas, the paramilitary, the corruptjustice system, and the drug producerscontinue to thrive like perennial weeds.Massacres, bombings, kidnappings and thedestruction of infrastructure continue toproduce a devastating effect on theColombian psyche. The good, the bad and theugly mix together in a pitiable realismbetween civil society and state. Theoutcome is poverty, dissatisfaction, andlack of legitimacy and hope.     

Insurers, Claims and the Boundaries of Good Faith

This article examines the refusal of the English courts to award damages for consequential losses following unreasonable delay on the part of insurers in settling a claim. This has the potential to give rise to dire consequences for insureds. These difficulties have been addressed in North American jurisdictions where the concept of good faith has been developed and applied as a means of both compensating insureds and regulating the conduct of insurers. However, a hallmark of English law is that it fails to draw a bright line between the law of contract and the law of contracts. As a result, the policy issues that should inform insurance contracts are excluded by virtue of the notion, imported from the law of contract, that the contractual relationship is a matter of private law and is not, therefore, a means for public regulation of insurers.     

Examining the relationships between sub-clinical psychopathic traits with shame,guilt and externalisation response tendencies to everyday transgressions

Although many theories of psychopathy include reference to some form of emotional deficit, surprisingly little research has examined the relationships between psychopathic traits and important self-conscious moral emotions such as shame and guilt. The present study sought to examine these relationships in a sub-clinical sample, taking into account the important theoretical differences between the two emotions. Participants (N = 739) completed a measure of psychopathic traits and a measure of self-conscious affect style. Both primary and secondary psychopathic traits were found to be inversely related to guilt-proneness; however, the effect size was greater for primary psychopathic traits. Primary psychopathic traits were unrelated to shame-proneness, while secondary psychopathic traits were positively related to shame-proneness. Both primary and secondary traits were positively related to externalisation; however the effect size was greater for primary over secondary traits. The findings provide support for affective differences between psychopathy variants.     

Integrity,culture, and scale: an empirical test of the big bad police agency

Building on Klockars et. al. (2000) analysis of survey data on police agency integrity, this analysis develops an economic model of police corruption within police agencies. Empirical estimates of the economic model are consistent with Klockars et. al. (2000) in that there is no evidence to support the traditional theory that police agency corruption is attributable to the “individual bad-apple.” Independent of other factors, the present analysis shows that police culture fosters corruption. Furthermore, the present analysis shows that incentive structures within police agencies increase the problem of corruption as the scale of police agency operation increases. Policies that would promote higher levels of integrity are considered.     

The role of shame, anger, and affect regulation in men's perpetration of psychological abuse in dating relationships

This study determines the relationships between shame, anger, and men's perpetration of psychological abuse in dating relationships. The authors hypothesize the connection between shame proneness and men's use of psychological abuse with a dating partner, with anger's mediating in this relationship. In addition, the authors hypothesize that affect regulation would moderate the relationship between anger and men's use of psychological abuse. Results indicate that shame proneness and use of psychological abuse are significantly related and that anger mediates the relationship. However, affect regulation does not moderate the effects of anger on men's use of psychological abuse. These findings are consistent with theoretical conceptualizations of shame and have implications for intervention and treatment programs for perpetrators of psychological abuse in dating relationships.     

The good,the bad,and the (sometimes) ugly truths: American penal goals and perspectives

Conclusion Identifying correctional objectives and evaluative criteria is essential to facilitating smooth operational functioning of the correctional system. Complicating this necessity is the tremendous growth and responsibilities of the correctional system as budgets continue to suffer reductions or stagnations. Traditional evaluative studies producing valuable insights, have yet to, for the most part, move beyond recidivism and incarceration rates as performance indicators. This is due mostly to the fact that criminal justicians — scholars and practitioners — and the general public lack consensus regarding correctional goals. Instead, what we are experiencing is an ambivalence placing an unfair burden upon the correctional system to create and maintain effective rehabilitative programs, devise punitive strategies, and fulfill these countervailing missions with decreased financial resources than in the past (relative to case load). To be sure, wardens and correctional administrators are called upon today to do more with drastically fewer dollars. The correctional system, we argue, given its unique task of incapacitating people, demands that scholars, practitioners, and policymakers combine efforts to develop correctional goals. These goals once defined, however, are not to become fixed static categories. Instead, they must remain flexible and imitate or adapt to social and cultural conditions, which is not to say merely reflect public opinion. Rather, correctional goals must consider legal, normative, and other structural changes affecting the correctional system — as many scholars recognize these variables having greater impact on incarceration (see Christie, 2000; Dilulio, 1993; Garland, 2001). This joint effort should take advantage of research-based knowledge and examples of best practices to identify the good aspects, weed out the bad, and eliminate the ugly in the U.S. penal system. An earlier version of this paper was presented by the first author as part of the Presidential Address to the Southern Criminal Justice Association, September 24, 2003 in Nashville, Tennessee.     

加强行业职业能力培养建立一支高素质的国家公务员队伍

为完成新形势下政府职能规范的目标和任务,培养和提升公务员行政职业能力,不但十分紧迫,势在必行,而且是非常实际和实用的.它有利于行政工作,有利于树立政府形象和公务员形象;有利于控制和防范公务员越轨行为;有利于缓解压力,迎接挑战.所以,要求国家公务员要有一种紧迫感、使命感,转变观念,努力学习,通过内外两种机制来培养和提升行政职业能力.