Under construction: Brain formation, culpability, and the criminal justice system

Should adolescents be held as culpable for their behavior as adults? Adolescence is a tumultuous time, full of change and transformation. This paper examines the development of brain functions and cognitive capabilities of teenagers. It explores the effect of alcohol use on brain development and the fundamental cognitive differences between adolescents and adults. This knowledge, coupled with the assessment of developmental perspective, suggests that the adultification of youth (or waiver to adult court) is unduly harsh for youth whose brains have not fully formed.     

Guilty but mentally ill: Reform of the insanity defense in Illinois

In 1981 Illinois joined several other states by passing a “guilty but mentally ill” statute. Passed as a response to perceived inadequacies in the existing insanity defense, the statute was intended to protect society better, to provide treatment for offenders, and to compel the offender to assume greater responsibility for his or her criminal acts. This study, based on court data and responses to a survey of state prosectors, suggests that the statute has not been successful in reaching its major objectives. GBMI offenders often may be placed on probation, infrequently receive treatment when institutionalized, and may use the plea to absolve themselves of responsibility for their acts.     

Fitness to be sentenced: a historical, comparative and practical review

A Canadian judicial decision recently held that a person convicted of a criminal offence who suffered a substantial deterioration in mental condition since the trial could be found unfit to be sentenced. The court based its conclusion on both historical arguments and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. There are compelling justifications for recognizing this concept. The paper looks at the history of fitness and how the sentencing phase became disconnected from claims of unfitness in the late 19th century. It then considers theoretical justifications based on fairness, viewing sentencing as a moral discourse, and the effect of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Because of the number of practical questions that need to be addressed before implementing a concept of unfitness at the sentencing stage, the paper looks at some common law jurisdictions for guidance: Australia, New Zealand, and the American states of New York, Illinois, Connecticut, and Ohio. From these comparisons comes the idea of a "provisional cap". That is, the recognition of unfitness at the sentencing stage should be followed by a form of sentencing that takes into account the gravity of the offence, the prosecutor's position, any relevant aggravating or mitigating factors that can be adduced, and then results in a "provisional" sentence, whether custodial or community-based, which stays in effect until the offender becomes fit. The paper ends with a model that incorporates this approach while providing both that offenders will be confined, if necessary, in hospitals and not prisons, and also that the dispositions will be reviewed annually to ensure that the least restrictive and least onerous sanctions are imposed.     

Effects of inconsistent eyewitness statements on mock-jurors' evaluations of the eyewitness,perceptions of defendant culpability and verdicts

In attempting to discredit an eyewitness, it is a common strategy for an attorney to highlight inconsistencies in the eyewitness's recall testimony during cross-examination and encourage the jurors to infer, based on those inconsistencies, that the eyewitness's memory is faulty. An experiment was conducted to examine the effectiveness of this cross-examination strategy. Subjects viewed a simulated cross-examination and rendered judgmenets about the eyewitness and defendant. The type of inconsistent testimony was manipulated between subjects. Subjects exposed to inconsistent recall testimony about either central or peripheral details perceived the eyewitness as less credible (as evidenced by ratings on multiple dimensions) and the defendant as less culpable. Inconsistency on central details led to fewer convictions. Results point to the effectiveness of this cross-examination strategh.     

Those crazy transaction costs: on the irrelevance of the equivalence between monetary damages and specific performance

The Coase theorem tells us that monetary damages and specific performance remedies for breach of contract have identical effects when transaction costs are zero. This has become a standard part of the literature on the economics of contract law. This note argues that the traditional view is somewhat misguided, as monetary damages and specific performance remedies are unnecessary in a zero transaction costs world. We go on to show how the presence of transaction costs impact the decisions of contracting parties as between the inclusion of liquidated damages clauses in contracts and resorting to litigation that could result in the application of either monetary damages or specific performance remedies.     

Dangerous decisions: the impact of first impressions of trustworthiness on the evaluation of legal evidence and defendant culpability

Abstract

There is little support for the long-standing assumption that judges and jurors can accurately assess credibility. According to Dangerous Decisions Theory (DDT; Porter & ten Brinke, Legal and Criminological Psychology, 14, 119–134, 2009), intuitive evaluations of trustworthiness based on the face may strongly bias the interpretation of subsequent information about a target. In a courtroom setting, the assessment of evidence provided by or concerning a defendant may be fundamentally flawed if its interpretation is influenced by an initial, spontaneous assessment of trustworthiness. In an empirical test of DDT, participants were presented with two vignettes describing major or minor crimes, accompanied by a photograph of the supposed defendant, previously rated as highly trustworthy or untrustworthy in appearance. Participants evaluated culpability following the presentation of evidence in each case. Participants required less evidence to arrive at a guilty verdict and were more confident in this decision for untrustworthy-appearing defendants. The current evidence supports DDT and has implications for legal decision-making practices.     

重构婚姻判断标准的理论价值和实践意义

中国尚未建立科学的婚姻判断标准体系，判断婚姻的主要标准，就是单一的婚姻效力判断标准。不论是什麽形态的婚姻，都用婚姻有效无效标准判断。这种婚姻判断标准，不能满足理论与实践的需要，容易造成对不同婚姻形态的误判。因此，应当建立以婚姻的属性要件、形成要件和效力要件为评判标准的科学评判体系。     

从行政机关应诉看行政执法应注意的问题

重视合法性、轻视合理性;重实体、轻程序;执法效率意识滞后、行政服务观念淡薄,仍在行政执法中存在。加强行政执法,提高行政执法水平任重道远。     

From Rogers to Rivers: the rights of the mentally ill to refuse medication

Many individuals with mental illness wish to avoid psychotropic drugs, a type of treatment that may relieve their symptoms only at the risk of unpleasant, even permanent, side effects. In marked contrast to the widely-held view that most patients may refuse any treatment and that even patients with mental illness may reject other psychoactive interventions such as electroconvulsive therapy and psychosurgery, the courts and legislatures have been slow to recognize any right to refuse psychotropic drugs. This Article demonstrates that many of the justifications offered for forcing patients to take unwanted medications are inadequate and that unless treatment refusals are reviewed outside mental institutions, patients' rights will rarely receive appropriate deference. The author analyzes the federal and state litigation to determine whether the courts have fashioned meaningful relief for the mentally ill. The Article concludes that two recent United States Supreme Court decisions have made it impossible for the federal courts to provide adequate protection. By contrast, several state courts have responded to the needs and rights of patients with mental illness.     

Knowledge flows between universities and industry: the impact of distance,technological compatibility,and the ability to diffuse knowledge

The Journal of Technology Transfer - This paper uses citations to university-issued patents to investigate the knowledge flow from 91 US research universities to businesses assigned to...     

Enuresis, firesetting, and cruelty to animals: the significance of two thirds of this triad

The full childhood triad of enuresis, firesetting, and cruelty to animals is seldom reported by patients in acute care psychiatric facilities. Two of the three elements have been reported with greater frequency and constitute useful diagnostic information. Literature on the triad has been reviewed and data from three studies have been presented. The authors concluded that a history of two thirds of the triad is significantly associated with aggressive behaviours directed against people.     

Firearms regulation,violence and the mentally ill: A contemporary Antipodean appraisal

As recent cases of mass murder at Utoya Island in Norway, and in the United States (US) at Virginia Tech, Virginia; Tucson, Arizona; Aurora, Colorado; and Newtown, Connecticut all illustrate, acts of extreme violence involving high powered weapons and committed by persons with a presumed or confirmed mental illness tend to arouse intense public and political debates about the efficacy of firearm regulation and control. Following these tragedies, in the US at least, various law reform measures have been proposed and in some cases implemented designed principally to make it more difficult for mentally ill persons to gain access to firearms. In this article it is contended that measures like these are at best tinkering with the margins of gun control and also have the tendency to reinforce the stigma and discrimination experienced by persons with a mental illness, while perpetuating stereotypes of them as dangerous to themselves and others. Despite these limitations, and while firearm regulation policies and practices vary widely across the globe, most nations still seek in some way to limit access to guns by persons with a mental illness. This article explores in more detail how such policies and practices have been applied in the Australian State of New South Wales and the lessons to be learned elsewhere from this experience.