POLICE SUSPICION AND DISCRETIONARY DECISION MAKING DURING CITIZEN STOPS*

This study examines the influence of racial, demographic and situational variables on types of police suspicion and the ancillary decision to stop and question suspects. Data were drawn from an observational study of police decision making in Savannah, Georgia. Based on the literature, we hypothesized that minority suspects will be more likely to be viewed suspiciously by the police for nonbehavioral reasons. We also hypothesize that minority status will play a significant role in the decision to stop and question suspicious persons. The findings from this study provide partial support for these hypotheses. The results indicate that minority status does influence an officer's decision to form nonbehavioral as opposed to behavioral suspicion, but that minority status does not influence the decision to stop and question suspects. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding race and its role in police decision making.     

Lethal Outcome in Sexual Assault Events: A Conjunctive Analysis

This paper examines violent sexual assaults and the factors associated with those assaults with lethal outcomes. It utilizes a criminal events perspective in conceptualizing the nature of these assaults and divides the event into three domains: victim characteristics, situational characteristics, and crime characteristics. Using a method developed by Miethe, Hart, and Regoeczi, conjunctive analysis of case configurations, we find that certain characteristics of the crime itself and certain characteristics of the victim appear strongly associated with fatal outcomes in sexual assaults, while situational characteristics appear relatively weakly associated with lethality.     

An estimate of the proportion of drug-facilitation of sexual assault in four U.S. localities

In recent years, drugs including flunitrazepam, gamma-hydroxybutyrate, ketamine, and ethanol, have become popularly associated with drug-facilitated sexual assault. Other drugs are also candidates as factors in "drug facilitated sexual assault" (DFSA). The true extent of DFSA is not known, and is difficult to estimate. We recruited sexual assault complainants at four clinics in different parts of the U.S. to anonymously provide urine and hair specimens, and to answer questions about suspected drugging, drug use, and the sexual assault incident. Urine and hair specimens were tested for 45 drugs, including ethanol, and those pharmacologically capable of inducing sedation, amnesia, or impairment of judgment. Analytical test results were used to estimate the proportion of subjects, and the proportion of all complainants to the clinic in the same time period, who were victims of DFSA. Overall, cases of 43% of 144 subjects, and 7% of 859 complainants, were characterized as DFSA. Subjects underreported their use of drugs. The role of toxicological results and history in characterizing DFSA cases is discussed.     

中国式检警关系问题改革与践行理路——以英国实践为参照的选择

英国的检警关系模式经常被论述所引用或作为司法改革的参照目标,但各国法律制度的设计或者形成都有其赖已存在的土壤和环境,所以,英国的检警关系模式不一定会适合我国国情,但其运行程序的有效性、科学性仍然是探索我国检警关系制度模式的重要参照。     

论侦查权配置的内在原理

刑事侦查权的配置应当围绕检察官为中心而进行.作为侦查权的法定主体,检察官具有控制警察活动的合法性,负有防止警察国家重现的重要使命.我国目前一定程度上存在着警察权恣意、失范,侦查程序缺乏监督、制约的情况,在这样的背景下,强化检察机关的权限和地位,将其塑造成为审前程序的主导者和警察权力的控制者,就成为必然的路径选择.     

ALCOHOL AND THE RISK OF PHYSICAL AND SEXUAL ASSAULT VICTIMIZATION*

We examine the effect of alcohol consumption on an individual's risk of victimization for physical and sexual assault. Analyses of the National Violence Against Women Survey suggest that the frequency and amount of alcohol people consume has strong effects on their risk of victimization when drinking, but is not associated with their victimization while sober. This evidence suggests that drinking has a situational causal effect on victimization, and cannot be attributed to opportunity factors associated with drinking. This effect is particularly strong for men and young adults, who may be more likely to behave provocatively when under the influence. Victims of sexual assaults and men assaulted by their female partners are also particularly likely to be drinking.     

Distributing Adventitious Resources: The Effects of Relationship and Grouping

This study examines the effect of two variables—relationship and grouping—on the distribution of resources which are unearned, or adventitious. Strangers and acquaintances made decisions about the distribution of an adventitious resource either as individual decision makers or as members of a small group. Results indicate that acquaintances were more likely to share the resource than were strangers, and that group members were more likely to share than were individual allocators. Equality received the highest overall rating as a norm for distributing the adventitious resource. At the same time, subjects expected allocators to keep the resource instead of applying an equality distribution norm.     

The Role of Woman's Explanations for Refusal on Men's Ability to Discriminate Unwanted Sexual Behavior in a Date Rape Scenario

This study examined the impact of types of women's verbal refusals, and the timing of her refusal, on men's discrimination of when a female wants her partner to stop making sexual advances. Male students were randomly assigned to 1 of 6 conditions (Explanations × Intimacy Levels). Before listening to an audiotape of a date rape, participants were told they would be listening to an interaction between a man and a woman who had just returned from a date. They were instructed to indicate when the woman wanted the man to stop making sexual advances by pressing a switch that synchronously stopped a timer (yielding the measure of latency). In the vignette, the woman provided an explanation for not engaging in sexual intercourse on the date either during kissing or when the man attempted to touch her breasts. She offered one of three reasons for refusing his sexual advances; fear of pregnancy, waiting until marriage, too early in the relationship. Results revealed an interaction in which participants in the too early in the relationship explanation at the level of breast contact condition displayed significantly longer latencies than individuals in the other groups. The implications of the findings are discussed.     

回溯与前瞻——女性性自治权的刑法保护

性侵犯罪的历史是一个从财产到权利的演变过程,从性侵犯罪的沿革来看,刑法对于性自治权的保护呈上升趋势,侵犯性自治权犯罪的起刑点在不断降低。我国刑法在性侵犯罪中仍然存在对女性的歧视,这不符合国际公约的标准。当前,应当进一步降低性侵犯罪的入罪起点,将婚内强奸、疏忽性侵犯规定为犯罪,同时设立新的同意标准。     

Liberating Discretion: The Effect of Rape Myth Factors on Prosecutors’ Decisions to Charge Suspects in Penetrative and Non-Penetrative Sex Offenses

Abstract

In sexual assault cases, prosecutorial charging decisions may be influenced by legal factors like offense seriousness and convictability and extralegal rape myths. We use data on sexual assaults in Los Angeles, to test for the effects of victim behavior, victim credibility, and “real rape” stereotypes on the decision to file charges. We also test the liberation hypothesis, examining whether rape myths influence the charge decision more in less serious nonpenetrative cases then in penetrative cases. Results show that victim credibility and behavior, but not consistency with real rape stereotypes, affect charging decisions, even after controlling for legally relevant factors, and they influence prosecutors’ charging decisions equally in penetrative and nonpenetrative cases. Rape myths also influence the charging decision indirectly via victim cooperation. We conclude that rape myths are incorporated into the criminal justice system’s definition of and response to sexual violence, so cannot be addressed by changing case screening policies.     

Arbitrary Chivalry:

The sparing use of the death penalty seemingly supports the myth of chivalrous treatment of women by the criminal justice system. It is widely believed that the few women who are executed must be "monsters" who deserve their fate. This historical study of the operation of the death penalty in Victoria, Australia, demonstrates that politics rather than law influences the sentencing outcome for women. Public, press, judges and politicians alike use chivalry as a way of proving that the death penalty successfully balances the competing aims of "justice" and "mercy." Chivalry, however, is sometimes dramatically discarded in the face of competing political pressures. Thus, chivalry towards women is inconsistent and inevitably arbitrary. Gender analysis is another useful strategy in undermining claims that the death penalty can ever be made fair.     

我国侦查主体与侦查权的合理设置与配置

我国现行侦查主体设置与侦查权配置的二元化模式不符合国际"侦查主体一元化"的潮流,因此后者必然成为我国在此方面改革的借鉴。"检警一体化"的侦查模式由于其存在特定缺陷也难以与我国历史情况与现实国情契合,因此按"警察一体化"的侦查模式重新调整我国现有的检警关系成为我国对此改革的方向。独立、垂直的职务犯罪侦查局的设置可以将剥离出来的检察机关对职务犯罪的侦查权和纪委对党员干部涉嫌职务犯罪的调查权或称之为"准侦查权"合并吸纳,有利于对职务犯罪的实际预防、控制和惩处。