Graduated penalty scheme

Evaders of any dues such as local council tax, motor vehicle tax, tv license fees, etc., if detected, can pay promptly the dues plus any fine or postpone, which usually means a larger fine, and potentially imprisonment if payments are not made in full. Dominant among the likely reasons for this graduated penalty scheme are ‘default tracking costs’ and ‘imprisonment costs’. Although in conflict with the state’s basic objective of deterring evasion, a graduated penalty scheme may emerge as an optimal balance between the dual objectives of deterrence and settlement delay minimization. Based on a welfare-maximizing objective where the state determines optimal monitoring intensity and time profile of fines, an intuitively plausible condition is derived such that the fine scheme is of the graduated type.     

Life Imprisonment Without Parole: The Compatibility of Serbia’s Approach with the European Convention on Human Rights

In this article, the author deals with the issue of life imprisonment without parole. Life imprisonment represents a new type of penalty in Serbian criminal law, in addition to standard imprisonment. The present state of the Serbian criminal legislation provides the possibility of parole for most criminal offences after 27 years of imprisonment served, while simultaneously explicitly prohibiting the possibility of parole for certain offences. The author elaborates the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights regarding life imprisonment, emphasizing rehabilitation as the primary goal of criminal sanctions. After that, the author explains the legislative solutions outlined in the Criminal Code of Republic of Serbia. Through the analysis of the crucial provisions of the Criminal Code, as well as other important and relevant laws, the author points out the shortcomings of the existing regulations in Serbia regarding life imprisonment, which flagrantly threatens to violate the offenders’ human rights.

     

Structuration Theory and Wrongful Imprisonment: From ‘Victimhood’ to ‘Survivorship’?

Building on existing research from a zemiological approach, this article seeks to contribute to a more ontological understanding of the production and reproduction of harms associated with wrongful imprisonment in England and Wales. Drawing from Anthony Giddens’s theory of structuration, it is argued that whilst the harms of wrongful imprisonment are both complex and devastating, victims need not be perceived as entirely passive. Rather, victims of wrongful imprisonment can be viewed as knowledgeable agents with the intrinsic capacity and agency to strategically cope with and even survive the harms that they experience. The article concludes with personal accounts by victims of wrongful imprisonment that form an identifiable ‘survivor’ discourse to highlight some of the key critical factors that are vital in helping victims of wrongful imprisonment to re-structure their lives after release.     

Race and Women’s Imprisonment: Poverty, African American Presence, and Social Welfare

Female imprisonment rates have increased proportionately more than male imprisonment rates over recent decades. There are substantial race differences in women’s rates, as is the case for men. Yet, there has been little quantitative research on the correlates of women’s imprisonment using data over time, or on potential race differences in those correlates. The present research analyzes data on black and nonblack female imprisonment rates in the 50 states for the period 1981–2003. The analyses are guided substantively by existing research on race, social threat and criminal punishment, and theory and research on the penal-welfare hypothesis. The study uses bivariate-response multilevel modeling to simultaneously examine the factors associated with black and nonblack women’s imprisonment rates. The results show that black female imprisonment rates increase when the concentration of African Americans in metropolitan areas and poverty rates grow, whereas nonblack female imprisonment rates are unaffected by poverty rates and actually decrease when African American populations become more concentrated in metro areas. Both black and nonblack women’s imprisonment rates increase when welfare spending declines. The results are consistent with social threat perspectives and the penal-welfare hypotheses.     

Beating a dead horse: Is there any basic empirical evidence for the deterrent effect of imprisonment?

Crime has declined over the past several years, renewing the belief that punishments such as imprisonment are useful mechanisms for deterring criminal activity. This article assesses this claim by examining data on U.S. crime and imprisonment trends from 1972 through 1993, a period that saw a continuous increase in levels of incarceration. This period was purposefully chosen because it represents a “natural” experiment concerning the impact of continuous increases in the rate of incarceration on crime rates. A second analysis examining cross-sectional, state level data for the period 1980-1991 is also presented. The findings from these analyses indicate that sentiments concerning the deterrent effect of imprisonment are overstated, and there appears to be no statistically significant relationship between imprisonment rates and crime rates for the period and areas under study. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Life imprisonment: recent issues in national and international law

This article notes that, because understandings of what life imprisonment means are often ambiguous, the life sentence is sometimes perceived to be relatively uncontroversial. Life imprisonment without the prospect of parole for children under the age of 18 years is the most extreme form of this sentence that can be imposed. However, in the United States of America even such sentences have only recently become the subject of public debate. In contrast, in a small but growing number of jurisdictions all life sentences are regarded as constitutionally suspect and contrary to human rights, whilst in the majority of jurisdictions the imposition of life imprisonment is strictly limited. The article traces recent developments in the imposition and implementation of life imprisonment that have evoked some controversy. It pays particular attention to attempts that have been made in practice to ensure that life imprisonment produces punishment that is proportionate to the crime. It points out, however, that a renewed focus on combating dangerous offenders through indeterminate preventive sentences has blunted even this modest safeguard. It warns that this tendency increases the risk of life imprisonment being an unfairly harsh penalty.     

Age,Role Changes and Gender Power in Family Relationships

Abstract

This article explores the effect of a prison sentence on an inmate's female partner, with particular reference to the impact on ‘older’ women. Drawing on the findings of an empirical qualitative research study and the existing literature, this article considers the gender role changes prompted by imprisonment, and the strategies utilized by women in coping with consequent strain. The gendered nature of the impact of imprisonment is explored, and the article concludes by drawing on multidisciplinary feminist perspectives in criminology and family studies to assess the centrality of institutionalized ‘traditional’ expectations of appropriate women's behavior to women's experiences of, and responses to, male imprisonment.     

Assessing the Impact of First-Time Imprisonment on Offenders’ Subsequent Criminal Career Development: A Matched Samples Comparison

Using data from the Netherlands-based Criminal Career and Life-course Study the effect of first-time imprisonment between age 18–38 on the conviction rates in the 3 years immediately following the year of the imprisonment was examined. Unadjusted comparisons of those imprisoned and those not imprisoned will be biased because imprisonment is not meted out randomly. Selection processes will tend to make the imprisoned group disproportionately crime prone compared to the not imprisoned group. In this study group-based trajectory modeling was combined with risk set matching to balance a variety of measurable indicators of criminal propensity. Findings indicate that first-time imprisonment is associated with an increase in criminal activity in the 3 years following release. The effect of imprisonment is similar across offence types.

No Evidence of Specific Deterrence under Penal Moderation: Imprisonment and Recidivism in Finland

International literature on prison effects on recidivism tends to find little evidence of specific deterrence. If anything, imprisonment seems more likely to increase than decrease rates of offending. The present study adds to this literature by examining imprisonment and recidivism in Finland, a nation characterized by an exceptionally moderate penal culture. It has been suggested that severe sanctions need to be imposed selectively in order for them to be effective. In this research, we estimated the impact of first imprisonment on recidivism in comparison with offenders sentenced to either suspended imprisonment or community service. Using data from government population registries, we controlled for a large number of legal and extra-legal confounding factors, including criminal history and socio-demographic characteristics. We found no evidence of reduced recidivism as a result of imprisonment. Instead, consistent with prior research, we find evidence of increased recidivism in certain offender categories. We conclude with a discussion of policy implications.     

A model for ranking the punitiveness of the states

There has recently been much interest in the measurement of imprisonment rates. Since this variable has such widespread importance in criminological research and policy, new methods are called for in expanding the procedures for evaluating levels of punitiveness as indicated by imprisonment rates. This paper presents a new model using logarithmic transformations to develop a system for ranking the punitiveness of the states. Comparisons are made between different approaches to specifying imprisonment rates including controls for crime rates and arrest rates. Results of the analyses indicate that the use of this model generates somewhat different rankings of punitiveness compared with those based on sample imprisonment rates or prisoner/arrest ratios.     

Reexamining the cruel and unusual punishment of prison life

It has been widely assumed that prison is destructive to the psychological and emotional well-being of those it detains. However, this assumption has rarely been critically examined. The present report evaluated the evidence pertaining to the effects of imprisonment. Studies on the effects of prison crowding, long-term imprisonment and short-term detention, solitary confinement, death row, and the health risks associated with imprisonment provide inconclusive evidence regarding the “pains of imprisonment.” Rather, the evidence points to the importance of individual differences in adapting to incarceration. As the use of incarceration is unlikely to decrease in the near future, research on its effects is urgently needed and a situation-by-person approach may be the most fruitful research strategy.     

废除无期徒刑的思考——兼论相对不定期刑的替代性价值

长期以来，在我国有期徒刑和死刑之间存在着广袤的“刑期真空地带”，无期徒刑的刑期已名不副实。从制度主义的视角来看，保留死刑也好，抑或是废除死刑设立终身监禁刑也罢，都存在着如何合理地解决好“有期”与“无期”之衔接的问题。从刑罚价值上看，无期徒刑既失去了其存在的正当性基础，也不具有了可行性，理应废除。为此建议，应在刑法上确定一种新的刑种——“相对不定期刑”替代现行“无期徒刑”，以弥补我国现行刑法制度设计上的罅隙。     

The Incapacitation Effect of First-Time Imprisonment: A Matched Samples Comparison

Objectives

The logic of incapacitation is the prevention of crime via the forced removal of known offenders from the community. The challenge is to provide a plausible estimate of how many crimes an incarcerated individual would have committed, were s/he free in the community rather than confined in prison. The objective of this study is to provide estimates of the incapacitation effect of first-time imprisonment from a sample of convicted offenders.

Methods

The data are official criminal records of all individuals convicted in The Netherlands in 1997. Two different analytical strategies are used to estimate an incapacitation effect. First, the offending rate of the imprisoned individuals prior to their confinement in 1997 provides a “within-person counterfactual”. Second, imprisoned offenders are paired with comparable non-imprisoned offenders using the method of propensity score matching in order to estimate a “between-person counterfactual”. Incapacitation estimates are provided separately for juvenile imprisonment (ages 12–17) as well as adult imprisonment (ages 18–50), and for male and female offenders.

Results

The best estimate is that 1 year of incarceration prevents between 0.17 and 0.21 convictions per year. The use of additional data sources indicates that this corresponds to between roughly 2.0 and 2.5 criminal offenses recorded by the police.

Conclusions

The current results suggest that, insofar as imprisonment is used with the primary goal of reducing crime through incapacitation, a general increase in the use of incarceration as the sanction of choice is not likely to yield major crime control benefits.     

The Will to Change: Lessons from Canada's Successful Decarceration of Youth

In 1997, Canada's youth custodial facilities held 3825 sentenced youths. Eighteen years later, this number was 527—an 86 percent reduction. Overall youth imprisonment (sentenced + pretrial detention) decreased by approximately 73 percent. This paper uses Canada's successful decarceration of youths to understand what might be learned about decarceration more broadly. By examining the reforms that transpired in Canada's treatment of young offenders since the 1960s and the political/cultural shifts that occurred since the 1990s, we demonstrate that the decline resulted from changes occurring in various parts of the system. Finally, we contrast this decarceration with more than 60 years of relative stability of Canadian adult imprisonment rates as well as Canada's failure to substantially decrease youth pretrial detention in order to identify those factors seemingly necessary to reduce imprisonment more generally.     

New Forms of Damage in Negligence

Although damage is an essential component of negligence liability, important extensions of the categories of actionable damage occur with little or no analysis or even acknowledgement of the fact. In this article, consideration is given to a number of new forms of actionable damage which appear either to have received recognition by the courts in recent years, or to be close to receiving such recognition. The article is divided into three core sections, dealing with negligent imprisonment, wrongful conception and educational negligence. The principal conclusions are that redress for negligent imprisonment is best achieved through recognition of imprisonment as actionable damage in negligence; that an unwanted pregnancy is a form of personal injury, albeit an unusual one; that the conventional sum award in wrongful conception cases is best analysed as compensation for a diminution in the parents' autonomy; and that while untreated learning disorders are now treated by the courts as a form of personal injury, in the absence of such a disorder educational under-development ought not to be recognised as actionable damage in its own right.     

未成年人犯罪非监禁化理念与实现

监禁处遇对于未成年犯罪人而言更意味着消极性,而不是积极性。对于未成年犯罪人尽量避免监禁,已经成为各国少年司法制度共同的理念。非监禁化应当包括三个紧密联系的环节:市前的非监禁化、刑罚选择(量刑)的非监禁化(包括监禁刑的避免适用和虚置)、刑罚执行的非监禁化(行刑社会化)。实现未成年犯罪人非监禁化理念应当推行转处制度;建立健全少年保释制度,提高未成年人取保候审率;尽量适用非刑罚处理方法和非监禁刑,提高缓刑适用率;行刑社会化,开展社区矫正。在推行未成年犯罪人非监禁化理念改革中,应当完善风险评估与责任制度,完善非监禁化的社会支持系统。     

Why longer prison terms fail to serve a specific deterrent effect: an empirical assessment on the remembered severity of imprisonment

For a prison sentence to exert a specific deterrent effect, the ultimate question is that imprisonment is remembered as aversive once the offender is released, and is contemplating future criminal activities. Drawing on insights from social psychology and cognition, this study assessed (1) how inmates remember the severity of their imprisonment following release, and (2) how the severity as experienced while being incarcerated (e.g. the worst or the last moment) affects its recollected aversiveness among a sample of Dutch inmates who were released for approximately six months (n?=?696). The findings indicated that the severity as experienced while being incarcerated is strongly related to the severity as recollected following release, net of the duration of confinement. Strikingly, to the extent that the length of imprisonment affected its recollected aversiveness, it did so in the opposite direction than traditional deterrence research presumes. Implications for correctional policy and future research are discussed.     

非法拘禁罪若干问题研究

成立非法拘禁罪,不要求被害人认识到自己被剥夺自由的状态.非法拘禁罪是一种典型的继续犯,其行为应在一定时间内处于持续状态.对于非法限制他人人身自由的行为,必要时可以按照非法拘禁罪论处.非法拘禁罪与绑架罪界限的关键区别在于主观目的的不同.     

Crime and Imprisonment Trends: An Analysis by Individual Crime-Types

This research was done while the author was visiting the Max-Planck-Institut, Freiburg, West Germany. Thanks are due to the Humboldt Foundation for a Fellowship, and to Baruch College for a Scholar Incentive leave of absence that made this research possible.

In this paper, the relationship between crime and imprisonment rates is explored in more detail by examining the rates for individual crime types. Given the observation that aggregate crime rates have increased far more rapidly than imprisonment rates in many countries, the possible existence of an adaptive mechanism is explored, where the imprisonment rates increase with the crime rates for serious offenses but not for minor offenses. Analysis of data from West Germany appears to support such a hypothesis.     

Assessing the impact of imprisonment on recidivism

Objectives  

There is debate about the extent to which imprisonment deters reoffending. Further, while there is a large literature on the effects of imprisonment, methodologically sound and rigorous studies are the exception due to problematic sample characteristics and study designs. This paper assesses the effect of imprisonment on reoffending relative to a prison diversion program, Community Control, for over 79,000 felons sentenced to state prison and 65,000 offenders sentenced to Community Control between 1994 and 2002 in Florida.