Environment: Commission Calls for a Shakeup in EU Biodiversity Policy∗

A European Commission conference on biodiversity in Athens has issued a forward-looking message regarding the future biodiversity policy of the European Union. Key findings include the need to improve communication about the loss and its consequences, the importance of thinking about ecosystem protection rather than species protection, and the need to ensure that available funds are indeed channelled towards nature protection projects. Scientists acknowledge that biodiversity is in crisis around the world, and that too little is being done to protect it. Europe has a target date of 2010 for halting biodiversity loss in the EU, and while some progress has been made in halting the decline, the original target is unlikely to be met. The Commission called a conference in Athens to examine ways of improving its performance.     

The Victim as Policy Agent? Exploring a Single Case from Denmark

European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research - Criminal policy processes often appear abstract and illusive, but sometimes a single criminal incident causes traceable policy impact. This...     

What Can We do to Engender a More Rational and Less Punitive Crime Policy?

This paper examines the question of what can we do, at a practical level, to respond to penal populism. It is argued that a comprehensive understanding of the nature of penal populism provides the best base for considering a range of responses across the full spectrum of precipitating factors. The paper begins with a sketch of the main understanding of penal populism articulated in earlier works, principally Roberts et al. (2003), then the putative causes of penal populism are expanded considering the contributions of precipitating factors at six levels. A number of suggestions and strategies at each of the six levels is then provided. Rather than being competing these strategies at different levels are seen as complementary although some will be more realizable than others. The paper finishes with a focus on the topic of public inclusion into the development of policy. A democratization of policy, it is argued, is crucial and, ultimately, the most profound way of addressing the challenge of penal populism.     

Do a Law’s Policy Implications Affect Beliefs About Its Constitutionality? An Experimental Test

Although a substantial empirical literature has found associations between judges' political orientation and their judicial decisions, the nature of the relationship between policy preferences and constitutional reasoning remains unclear. In this experimental study, law students were asked to determine the constitutionality of a hypothetical law, where the policy implications of the law were manipulated while holding all legal evidence constant. The data indicate that, even with an incentive to select the ruling best supported by the legal evidence, liberal participants were more likely to overturn laws that decreased taxes than laws that increased taxes. The opposite pattern held for conservatives. The experimental manipulation significantly affected even those participants who believed their policy preferences had no influence on their constitutional decisions.     

Why are Forest Owners Satisfied with Forest Policy Decisions? Legitimacy,Procedural Justice,and Perceived Uncertainty

The perceptions of 460 Finnish forest owners regarding national forest policy were examined with a questionnaire measuring institutional legitimacy, procedural justice, perceived uncertainty, and satisfaction with decisions. Research hypotheses, which were derived from the group-value theory and the system justification theory, were tested. The results showed that high institutional legitimacy reduced the effect of procedural justice on the satisfaction with political decisions. Procedural justice predicted the acceptance of decisions only when institutional legitimacy was low. Moreover, perceived uncertainty increased the perception of legitimacy. The implications of these findings for a social psychological theory of legitimacy and policymaking are briefly discussed.     

"Natural death" of a patient with a deactivated implantable-cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD)?

A 66-year-old patient with terminal heart insufficiency (NYHA IV) received maximum medical therapy, but was also in need of an implantable-cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). The ICD functioned flawlessly for the whole duration of implantation. It reverted several ventricular tachycardias with anti-tachycardial pacing alone, whereas some needed cardioversion as well. The patient died on the fourth day of hospitalization for a routine check of his ICD. The post-mortem examination revealed, that the ICD was deactivated and that the data had been erased after the patient's death. By reading off the raw data still stored within the ICD, the erased information could be restored. The stored EGMs showed traces of old ICD interventions as well as a permanent deactivation provoked by exposition to a magnetic field just hours before the patient's death. The problem of archiving and documenting the volatile electronic data inside the ICD is discussed. The need of a full autopsy after telemetric reading of the ICD data, including the explantation of the ICD aggregate and electrodes, as a means of quality assurance and under forensic aspects is emphasized.     

How Can the European Union Contribute to a COP-6 Agreement? An Overview for Policy Makers

During the 6th Conference of Parties (COP-6) in The Hague, the Netherlands, November 2000, crucial progress on a number of outstanding issues related to the Kyoto Protocol will have to be made to open the way for its early ratification, if not to save it from complete failure. Given the present lack of internal US political support for the Kyoto Protocol, the EU may play a pivotal role in making the Kyoto Protocol agreement a reality even without initial ratification of the US, if its able to provide sufficient leadership. In this overview article we discuss the main issues under negotiation, the problems of finding agreement and opportunities for the EU to catalyse a compromise agreement at COP-6, building on key scientific papers as included in this issue and discussions at the European Forum on Integrated Environmental Assessment Climate Policy Workshop in Amsterdam. Key elements are the inclusion of sinks, the use of the Kyoto Protocol mechanisms as a supplement to domestic action and the international compliance system. Domestic implementation of climate policy is a major factor for the EU's credibility.     

Stigma and discrimination in mentally disordered offender patients – a comparison with a non-forensic population

High levels of stigma and discrimination are reported by individuals with mental health problems. Aim: To assess self-reported levels of stigma and discrimination in forensic psychiatric patients, with psychotic illness, compared with general adult psychiatric patients with psychosis. Hypothesis: Individuals with a history of violent offending, as well as severe mental illness, report more stigma and discrimination, than non offender patients, as a result of them being perceived as dangerous and unpredictable. Method: Experiences of stigma and discrimination were compared in 32 forensic and 32 non-forensic general psychiatric patients, with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, using the Stigma and Discrimination Scale (DISC). Results: Stigma and discrimination were widely reported by all patients, particularly affecting relationships with family, intimate relationships and friendships. No significant difference emerged between the forensic and non-forensic patients, in experienced or anticipated stigma. Conclusions: We suggest that the lower level of psycho pathology, longer inpatient stays and intensive rehabilitation for forensic patients may reduce the extent to which these patients experience stigma and discrimination.     

How do professionals experience working with offenders diagnosed with personality disorder within a prison environment?

To explore the different experiences of a Multidisciplinary Team working with offenders diagnosed with personality disorder (PD) and produce a substantive model of the Offender PD Pathway strategy from a staff perspective. Fourteen participants were recruited from ‘Unit A’ located within a high security prison. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants and the data collected were analysed using constructivist grounded theory. A model was constructed depicting the experiences of those working with offenders with PD. Main themes identified were: prison environment; synergy of the workforce; understanding of the client; individual perceptions; support; and personal change. Although there was enough similarity within the participants’ responses to consider them to be a homogenous population, there were some noticeable differences in trends of responses evident between the two sub-groups of health service-based clinical staff and prison staff as expressed in the model. There is interplay between factors which influence an individual’s experience of working with offenders with PD. How a member of staff experiences working with offenders with PD depends on more than just the nature of the client and the challenges they pose. These factors external to the client group appear to have a significant impact on the professional and their emotional experiences of their work.     

Intracranial sewing needle in a man with seizure: a case of child abuse?

Physical abuse in infancy can cause persistent neurological deficits. Although intracranial foreign bodies are generally secondary to penetrating trauma or surgical procedures, rarely they also occur as a result of child abuse. A 32-year-old man presented with the complaint of generalized tonic clonic seizures to the Neurology Department of Marmara, University Hospital. Computerized tomography (CT) scan revealed a sewing needle located within the temporal lobe. The location and the position of the needle suggested that it must have been introduced in infancy through the lamdoid suture before the closure of it, as an unsuccessful deliberate homicide attempt or accidental injury.     

Death caused by a chain saw--homicide, suicide or accident? A case report with a literature review (with 11 illustrations)

A 31-year-old farm worker was found dead beside a chain saw. Based on the testimony of a colleague and because of the situation at the site, the police very soon presupposed an accident. It was assumed that the victim had slipped on the sudden ground and had been killed by the subsequent swerving of the saw when starting the engine. The body presented with a deep lacerated wound at the right side of the nape of the neck, including the first cervical vertebra, the medullary canal and the right mandible as well as multiple fissures of the occipital bone, which were attributed to repeated forceful use of the chain by another person. A second wound with relatively sharp edges and a tangential fissure in the corresponding area of the skull raised the suspicion that an axe or some similar device had been used. Although the forensic medical findings seemed to give clear evidence of external violence, no further investigations have been carried out so far by the authorities.     

Body- and movement-based interventions with male offenders – a narrative review

Therapeutic and psychosocial accompaniment of offenders is increasingly being understood as a communal responsibility. Apart from recognised treatment batteries, an increasing amount of body- and movement-based interventions is carried out within the prison environment. Extensive literature searches were performed for this review. From a total of 2908, 23 publications were included. An increase in research interest in body- and movement-based interventions during the past 5 years was observed. Such interventions are being flexibly applied in detention contexts across western countries, transnationally. Effects of emotional nature as well as competence are being described. Body- and movement-based interventions may contribute substantially in the supervision within the prison regime and can be applied in different modalities as well as low- and high-threshold treatments. Scientific development in this field still is rudimentary and thus further research is necessary in order to provide more evidence for modification processes and efficacy from validated studies.     

Simply Criminal: Predicting Burglars’ Occupancy Decisions with a Simple Heuristic

Rational choice theories of criminal decision making assume that offenders weight and integrate multiple cues when making decisions (i.e., are compensatory). We tested this assumption by comparing how well a compensatory strategy called Franklin’s Rule captured burglars’ decision policies regarding residence occupancy compared to a non-compensatory strategy (i.e., Matching Heuristic). Forty burglars each decided on the occupancy of 20 randomly selected photographs of residences (for which actual occupancy was known when the photo was taken). Participants also provided open-ended reports on the cues that influenced their decisions in each case, and then rated the importance of eight cues (e.g., deadbolt visible) over all decisions. Burglars predicted occupancy beyond chance levels. The Matching Heuristic was a significantly better predictor of burglars’ decisions than Franklin’s Rule, and cue use in the Matching Heuristic better corresponded to the cue ecological validities in the environment than cue use in Franklin’s Rule. The most important cue in burglars’ models was also the most ecologically valid or predictive of actual occupancy (i.e., vehicle present). The majority of burglars correctly identified the most important cue in their models, and the open-ended technique showed greater correspondence between self-reported and captured cue use than the rating over decision technique. Our findings support a limited rationality perspective to understanding criminal decision making, and have implications for crime prevention.     

Substituting piracy with a pay-what-you-want option: does it make sense?

Rather than tolerating piracy or increasing sanctions, an artist can release his product directly to consumers by allowing them to download it under a ‘pay-what-you-want’ online strategy. We show analytically that this strategy can (1) be more profitable than a strategy with perfect or imperfect intellectual property rights enforcement for the artist and (2) change the organization and allocation of added value between artists and publishers along the supply chain. This higher profit result is achieved through an increased demand for live performance and positive voluntary contributions of downloaders directly pocketed by the artist. Indeed, a ‘pay-what-you-want’ strategy allows artists to reduce piracy without using sanctions while benefiting from a strategic negotiation ‘weapon’ in the relationship with record labels. Moreover, consumers draw procedural utility from the way the product is delivered. Counter-intuitively, rather than advocating for elimination of conventional releases at posted prices, pay-what-you-want strategies may need them to remain successful. A brief case study of Radiohead’s experiment and anecdotal evidence are developed to support these theoretical insights. Some implications regarding the re-organization of the supply chain and property rights regime are drawn.     

Super-national treatment: A misconception or a creation with Chinese characteristics?

The term “super-national treatment” is used as a popular legal term in China. However, its definition and relationship with national treatment obligations have been highly debated. After tracking its history, comparing with the general meaning of national treatment in the context of international law, especially of the law of WTO (World Trade Organization), it shows that super-national treatment is a misconception of national treatment. With the gradual repeal of the preferential treatment of foreign-funded enterprises in China, super-national treatment, as a misleading legal term, should come to the end.