Environmental Considerations for Trauma‐Responsive Juvenile and Family Courts: A Review of the Literature with Recommendations for Practice

Juvenile and family courts serve some of our most vulnerable populations, many of whom have experienced some traumatic event. People suffering with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are known to be more sensitive to environmental stimuli, and many of the environmental conditions within courts can be challenging for those suffering traumatic stress. Trauma‐responsive practices help foster conditions of healing, which can benefit both the court user and those who work within the court. Research reviewed in this article demonstrates the likelihood of negative behavioral and emotional responses to specific environmental factors for people suffering PTSD and other stress reactions, and offers recommendations to minimize environmental stressors.     

司法之所以为司法的组织结构依据——论中国法院改革的核心问题之所在

司法之所以为司法,在于其功能不同于立法和行政,更在于它有一种不同于立法和行政的组织结构来保障。组织结构决定了组织中人的行为的基本指向及其沟通和互动方式。中国法院以等级结构为主的组织结构,造成了所有进入法院的人的行为表现为以以垂直指向、纵向沟通和服从型互动为主;在审理阶段所有参与人的交流不积极,也不深入;判决权可能在法院内部被处于各等级结构的法官分享,也可能在法院以外被瓜分;还表现为"审"与"判"分离,判决书缺乏说理性,审判缺乏公开性、公正性和权威性等方面。中国法院改革的核心问题,就是将这种以等级结构为主的组织结构变为以同等结构为主,将法院内可与审判分离的等级结构因素从法院中分离出来,进行更加集中化、行政化和等级化的管理。     

Transferring Pre‐Teens to Adult Criminal Courts: Searching for a Justification

This research examined the demographic and offense‐related characteristics of 1,488 children who were 12 years of age or younger when transferred by juvenile court judges to criminal courts in the United States from 1985 to 2009. Juvenile court statistics show a twofold increase in the number of these children transferred between 2005 and 2009, compared to the five‐year era between 1985 and 1989. Examination of the data revealed that the major offense that precipitated most of these transfers was a nonviolent act. Given these facts, a number of key questions emerged from this study: (1) Are these transfers desirable given the potential lifelong consequences of a criminal conviction for these youngsters; (2) Do these practices accomplish a legitimate crime control function; and (3) Are these transfers just and fair given the developmental status of these children?     

Problem‐Solving Courts: A Brief Primer

This essay traces the history of problem‐solving courts (including drug courts, community courts, domestic violence courts and others), outlines problem‐solving principles, and answers a basic set of questions about these new judicial experiments: Why now? What forces have sparked judges and attorneys across the country to innovate? What results have problem‐solving courts achieved? And what – if any – trade‐offs have been made to accomplish these results?     

A Randomized Comparative Effectiveness Trial of Two Court‐Connected Programs for High‐Conflict Families

Parents who experience great amounts of legal conflict as they dissolve their relationship and arrive at their parenting arrangements require an outsize proportion of courts’ time and resources. Additionally, there is overwhelming evidence that conflict has a deleterious effect on their children. We partnered with the family court to conduct a study comparing the effectiveness of two programs for families deemed by their judge to be high conflict and thereby mandated to a program. Both involved one 3‐hour session; the existing program, Parent Conflict Resolution (PCR), used exhortational lecture and video; the newly designed experimental program, Family Transitions Guide (FTG), based on motivational interviewing, employed exercises attempting to get parents to decide for themselves what they needed to do for the sake of their children. Parents were assigned at random to one of the two programs (the literature often terms this a randomized clinical trial) and were interviewed just before it began and 9 months later, as was a child. Results showed that child's report of their own well‐being was significantly improved by FTG as compared to PCR and that these effects were mediated by children feeling less caught in the middle. On several variables, parent report showed that parents in PCR as compared to FTG felt decreased problems in co‐parenting and less interparental conflict, although the effects were not consistent across mother and father report. There was also evidence of diminished legal conflict over 9 months in FTG as compared to PCR.     

Beyond Therapy: Problem‐Solving Courts and the Deliberative Democratic State

Problem‐solving courts (drug courts, community courts, domestic violence courts, and mental health courts), unlike traditional courts, attempt to get at the root of the individual and social problems that motivate criminal behavior. Theoretical understandings of problem‐solving courts are mostly Foucauldian; proponents argue that these new institutions employ therapeutic techniques that encourage individuals to self‐engineer in ways that subtly increase state power. The Foucauldian approach captures only some elements of problem‐solving courts and does not fully theorize the revolution in justice that these courts present. Problem‐solving courts, domestic violence courts in particular, orient not just around individual change but also around social change and cultural transformation. Combining the Foucauldian idea of a therapeutic state (as developed by James Nolan) with an understanding of the deliberative democratic mechanisms of larger‐scale structural transformation (found in Habermas and others) leads to a more balanced and empirically open orientation to the actual motivations, goals, and achievements of problem‐solving courts.     

Programs for Men who Perpetrate Domestic Violence: An Examination of the Issues Underlying the Effectiveness of Intervention Programs

This review paper seeks to explore some of the reasons why rehabilitation programs for male perpetrators of domestic violence appear to be less effective in reducing recidivism than programs for other offender groups. It is argued that while the model of systems response to domestic violence has predominated at the inter-agency level, further consideration might be given to way in which men’s intervention groups are both designed and delivered. It is concluded that the program logic of men’s domestic violence programs is rarely articulated leading to low levels of program integrity, and that one way to further improve program effectiveness is to incorporate some of the approaches evident in more general violence prevention programs and from what is know about good practice in general about offender rehabilitation.

When Culture Means Gender: Issues of Cultural Defence in the English Courts

The use of cultural defence has been much discussed in the American context and has figured as one of the areas of concern in feminist assessments of multiculturalism. This paper examines two categories of cases from the English courts, those where cultural context has been seen as significant in interpreting the actions of female defendants, and those where 'culture' is invoked to explain severe acts of violence against women. It argues that cultural arguments become available to female defendants mainly when they conform to stereotypical images of the subservient non-Western wife. They have not, on the whole, been successfully employed by male defendants to mitigate crimes against women, though there are troubling exceptions. The larger problem is that mainstream culture itself promotes a gendered understanding of agency and responsibility, as when it perceives men as understandably incensed by the sexual behaviour of their women, or women as less responsible for their actions because of the influence of men. The conclusion is that the uses and abuses of cultural defence highlight issues that have wider provenance, for it is when cultural arguments resonate with mainstream conventions that they have proved most effective.     

A Need for Training: Preparing Juvenile and Family Court Judges on Military‐Related Issues

This brief report presents a study undertaken to better understand the training needs of judicial officers related to military issues. A snowball sample of judicial officers and court‐affiliated stakeholders were asked to identify the most critical training topics regarding military issues in juvenile and family court, as well as rate the importance of 13 potential training topics. The highest rated training topics for judicial officers (N = 129) were the (1) Welfare of spouses and children, (2) Protocols to consider when selecting kinship care for children of deployed parents, (3) Mental and physical health consequences of military service and deployment, (4) Reporting standards regarding Intimate Partner Violence or Family Violence, as well as implications for civil case investigation, and (5) Education support for children of deployed parents. Findings suggest a desire in the field for specific training on a multitude of issues related to serving/veteran men and women, spouses, and dependents. Recommendations for such trainings are discussed.     

影视作品链接者责任研究

现实生活中,存在未经合法授权通过信息网络进行传播影视作品的现象。而大量的链接服务提供者通过对影视作品设立链接更是扩大了侵权范围。通过分析影视作品提供链接服务侵权的性质,进而确立此类侵权行为的构成要件,尤其对过错要件进行深入探讨,提出了平衡和解决网络自由和权利人利益的相关建议。     

案外人权利救济制度之相关疑难问题辨析--以全国法院第九次民商事审判工作会议纪要为视角

作为并行的三大案外人权利救济制度,案外人申请再审、执行异议之诉和第三人撤销之诉既存在区别也存在交叉性的联系,对于案外人而言,在选择救济程序时,可以主体身份为前提,以诉讼程序阶段为基础,以两者的组合情况确定应适用的法律程序。第三人撤销之诉的本质在于救济因生效的判决书、裁定书、调解书致使民事权益受损的案外人,其所涉及的民事权益的种类应限定在《侵权责任法》第2条规定的范围之内,然亦不排除个别特殊性质的债权如建设工程价款优先受偿权等遭受侵害后所引发的第三人撤销之诉。执行异议之诉中,购房人的权利能否排除强制执行的规则判断,可以三种要素即执行债权种类、案外人身份和申请执行人受偿顺序为基础,进而再依据不同的组合模型确定权利的对抗结果。     

The Injustice of a Felony Conviction for Offenders Under Age Twenty‐One: A New Option for the Courts to Save Our Youths’ Futures

When the Criminal Justice System adjudicates an individual felony offender, it complicates many aspects of that individual's life; from applying for colleges, and jobs to attempting to become contributing member of society. In New York, to prevent seven‐ to sixteen‐year‐old youth who commit felony offenses from becoming felony offenders, the courts prosecute them as juvenile delinquents or juvenile offenders. In the United States, individuals under the age of twenty‐one cannot purchase alcohol or tobacco and cannot get married without parental consent, but they can be charged with a felony. Before and even after reaching the age of twenty‐one, individuals are still in need of guidance, support, education, employment, and stability as brain development is still ongoing. To help protect those who have not reached the age of twenty‐one, states should implement Senior Youthful Offender Hearings as proposed in this Note. This hearing is a two‐part hearing: (1) determine if an individual should be considered eligible for the protections under the current Youthful Offender Laws and (2) determine sentencing and alternatives to incarceration, focused on steering Senior Youthful Offenders on the right path.     

Co‐Parent Court: A Problem‐Solving,Community‐Based Model for Serving Low‐Income Unmarried Co‐Parents

The Hennepin County Co‐Parent Court Project was a 3‐year demonstration project for unmarried co‐parents. The goal of the project was to remove barriers to co‐parenting in low‐income, unmarried parents. The Co‐Parent Court Project encompassed a number of services, including educational workshops, individual case management, parenting plans, legal mediation, and, if needed, supports and treatment for domestic violence. There are published articles that highlight the participant outcomes of the Co‐Parent Project. This article, however, focuses on the background for why this project was developed, components of this project, and lessons learned from implementation.