Street justice: A moral defense of order maintenance policing

The conventional wisdom of liberal due process maintains that it is the primary function of the judicial system to provide for incapacitation, punishment, and or treatment of offenders. However, the reality is that police officers perform all of these functions as a community-based institution. Despite administrative and legal due process, superficial professionalism, and constant exhortations which deny the validity of these functions, i.e., “street justice,” it remains an important and essential role of the police institution. This article explores the functional role of “street justice” and the related factors which require this kind of policing.     

Examination of newspaper coverage of Hate Crimes: A moral panic perspective

The role of the media in the construction of social problems is well documented in the social science literature. In some cases, the process of constructing social problems creates a moral panic. In this paper, we contend that a moral panic occurred in the late 1990s regarding hate crimes because of the disproportionate amount of media attention given to the issue. From this panic grew a movement to enact the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 1999. We quantify Goode and Ben-Yehuda’s (1999) indicators of a moral panic by triangulating sample data, official statistics, and editorials/opinion polls. Results suggest that a moral panic over hate crimes occurred in America during 1998 and 1999.     

Crime in the streets — A moral panic: Understanding “get tough” policies in the criminal justice system

There is more to the crisis of violent crime in the streets than simply citizens being increasingly victimized, becoming alarmed and demanding that public officials do something about it. The. fear of crime, a central theme in diologue surrounding the movement toward “tough on crime” legislation, may exceed by far the actual threat which exists. preliminary eviddnce suggests that indeed a “moral panic” has developed around violent crime in the united States — a “panic” which cannot be explained by dramatic increases in the crime rate. A social structural explanation is required if this lack of fit between the fear of crime and the crime rate is to be understood.     

A detailed and rigorous examination of moral rights

‘A book may be good for nothing; or there may be onlyone thing in it worth knowing; are we to read it all through?’(Samuel Johnson) This section is dedicated to the review of ideas, articles,books, films and other media. It will include replies (and rejoinders)to articles, the evaluation of new ideas or proposals, and reviewsof books and articles both directly and indirectly related tointellectual property law. Elizabeth Adeney begins this work with the observation thatmoral rights     

Unmanaged care: towards moral fairness in health care coverage

Health insurers are generally guided by the principle of "actuarial fairness," according to which they distinguish among various risks on the basis of cost-related factors. Thus, insurers often limit or deny coverage for vision care, hearing aids, mental health care, and even AIDS treatment based on actuarial justifications. Furthermore, approximately forty-two million Americans have no health insurance at all, because most of these individuals cannot afford the cost of insurance. This Article argues that Americans have come to demand more than actuarial fairness from health insurers and are increasingly concerned by what I call "moral fairness." This is evidenced by the hundreds of laws that have been passed to constrain insurers' discretion with respect to particular coverage decisions. Legislative mandates are frequent, but seemingly haphazard, following no systematic methodology. This Article suggests an analytical framework that can be utilized to determine which interventions are appropriate and evaluates a variety of means by which moral fairness could be promoted in the arena of health care coverage.     

Satanism: Myth and reality in a contemporary moral panic

In the last decade, there have been many allegations about the prevalence of occult or Satanic criminality, which is believed to be involved in many offenses ranging from vandalism to child abuse and serial murder. Some have advocated the creation of specialized police units to combat the supposed threat. On the other hand, most of the alleged evils are very poorly substantiated, and highly questionable statements have been widely circulated. In fact, the current concern about the occult appears to have all the hallmarks of a classic moral panic, where a peripheral issue is suddenly perceived as a major social menace. This paper discusses the limited foundation of truth underlying the present crime-wave; and suggests that the panic reflects the moral and political agenda of extremists from the fundamentalist religious Right. *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** AW502017 00005     

法官的司法伦理基础探析

司法制度设计本身及司法运行实践表明中国法官地位不高 ,这与法官本应具备的极高社会威望相悖。而出现司法不公时 ,公众往往对法官进行道德先究 ,法官整体的司法伦理匮乏又使公众道德先究的结果更加不利于司法公信力。因此要想使中国法官也具有西方法官神坛的地位 ,司法伦理可谓之基础。司法伦理具有底位、中位和高位三个层面 ,它要求法官具备良好的司法伦理道德素养并使之制度化 ,从而构建一个规范、养育及运用它的理性环境。