Incorporating index offence analysis into forensic clinical assessment

Purpose. Assessment is a core skill of clinical and forensic psychology practice and forms the basis of all ongoing engagements with offender/patients. In forensic settings, assessment involves the systematic gathering of reliable data on the characteristics of offenders and the offences which they have committed in order to develop understanding of the dynamics of offending and relevant intervention strategies. However, whilst the assessment process is aided by various protocols, no such instrument appears to exist for the assessment of an offender/patient's index offence. This paper presents a draft ‘index offence analysis guide’ designed by the present authors for this purpose and which has been piloted on prisoners and patients in secure settings. Argument. Evidence suggests that for various reasons, many clinicians do not routinely review crime scene data while working with offenders. However, this practice is arguably questionable, because how can decisions about admission, amenability to treatment, risk of reoffending, and discharge be made if there is limited awareness of what the offender/patient has done? The present authors argue that knowledge of the index offence is important to understanding the offender and suggest this can be obtained using a guide such as the one presented here. This is illustrated with an anonymous case. Conclusion. Index offence analysis should be a core task of any forensic clinician engaged in the assessment of offender/patients as it can provide a better understanding of crime scene actions and offence motivations. This can help guide treatment planning and improve risk assessments.     

Sustainability through an integrated approach to decision making? A law and regulation case study

Many legal fields are relevant to all kinds of problems; however, decision makers often take a narrow approach, looking only at the base of the claim or the issue they are established to consider. This can led to imbalanced outcomes. There is a particular risk of this in respect of decisions regarding key societal challenges, which might be the subject of law and policymaking from several different perspectives. This paper explores the need and bases for a more integrated approach to decision making. It does so using a case study, and explores a range of laws that could be relevant to a business seeking to use technology and resources that could address climate change, the different decisions that courts can make (with a focus on the nature of the action, outcome and forum), and the resulting conflicts, synergies and areas of enquiry.     

Twenty years of operational use of a risk prediction instrument: The United States parole commission's salient factor score

Although empirically-based recidivism prediction instruments were developed as far back as the 1920s, the adoption of the Salient Factor Score by the federal parole board in 1972—as part of a system of explicit parole decisionmaking guidelines—marked the first time that such an instrument was used in a way that had a definite, measurable impact on paroling decisions. The Salient Factor Score has been used in federal parole decisionmaking continuously for the past twenty years. It is axiomatic that a prediction instrument, particularly an instrument used in actual case decisionmaking, be revalidated periodically to ensure that it has retained predictive accuracy. In this article, the predictive accuracy of the Salient Factor Score over time is examined using data on three, large random samples of federal prisoners released in 1970–1972, 1978, and 1987. In addition, the relationship of the Salient Factor Score to the Criminal History Score of the new federal sentencing guidelines—which apply to defendants convicted of federal offenses committed on or after November 1, 1987—is discussed.     

Reconocimiento del matrimonio religioso contraído en el extranjero (perspectiva mexicana)

The author presents the legal and doctrinal decisions about religious marriage recognition abroad. He finds that the “form” (the qualification) has not been the instrument to recognize the marriage. It is questionable whether that marriage in Mexico is a problem of form.     

Action oriented strategic planning: The concepts of infrastructure and functional domains

The problem is how to translate limited and uncertain knowledge about the future environment into operational strategic policy decisions. Because the strategic policy decisions must be made with a long time perspective in mind (10 to 10 years), planners tend to formulate strategies which are overly broad. A solution to the broad and uncertain approach is to employ a system that relys upon the use of the infrastructure. When the infrastructure is divided into permanent and complete societal functions, then specific opportunities can be presented to the organization. Examples of functional domains that may be relevant to strategic long-range planning are: industrial capabilities, pieces of legislation, regulation and training. Our knowledge about evolving world trends is usually available in functional terminology (i.e., the evolving “information society”, the “leisure society”, the “energy crisis”, and the “food crisis”, etc.) Knowledge about the future behavior of the Functional Domains may enable organizations such as governments and/or corporations, to create the required infrastructure for capitalizing on possible opportunities.     

论法律的惯性

法律的惯性是衡量法律优劣的标准,法律的惯性对指导立法、指导修改法律以及指导法院判案具有重大意义。法律的惯性与一定的社会状态相对应,在法律的实施中,法律与社会相互作用、相互影响,当社会出现不和谐状态时,应及时修改相应的法律,法律的惯性最终会引导法律走上有序状态。     

市场、政府与经济法——对经济法几个流行观点的质疑与反思

经济法是对经济社会化的一种法律回应,计划经济和市场经济体制下都可能存在经济法 经济法干预的经济,应当是一国的经济体而不仅仅是市场。就经济法与政府的关系而言,政符是主体,经济法是手段     

New construction as a solution to jail overcrowding: Some policy and funding considerations

Summary and Conclusion The problem of overcrowding in jails will not quickly go away. it is a safe prediction that there will be a trickle down effect on jail populations from increased incarcerations derived from gettough policies on drug offenders, for example. Whatever the reasons for overcrowding, the issue of new jail construction over the nation as a whole will be an on-going one, emphasizing the obvious valuein the sharing of information in the professional community. Those involved in the construction decisions must be alert to the long-term consequences of those construction decisions, and planning methods. It is one thing for the jail to stand there as a testimony to correctional architecture. It is every bit as important that everyone affected by the decisions appreciates what was involved, since the conceptual legacy of the (new) jail is ultimately just as important as the building itself.     

The European Arrest Warrant and the Sovereign State: A Marriage of Convenience?

The article aims to analyse the extent to which mutual recognition and mutual trust in the criminal law area are developing in the EU in the context of the implementation of the European Arrest Warrant (EAW). First, an overview of the decisions of the Constitutional Courts in Germany, Poland, Cyprus and Czech Republic will be given. These decisions are evidence of a tension, on the one hand, between mutual recognition and state sovereignty and, on the other hand, between the powers of the European institutions in criminal matters and the fundamental rights of the individual. Second, national case‐law in the UK, Belgium, Spain and Italy will be examined. Third, an analysis of the recent decision of the European Court of Justice of 3 May 2007 will be carried out. Finally, a global assessment of the EAW will be made. Is this instrument effectively promoting normative mutual trust among the judicial authorities in the EU? Should it be amended or is it the wrong response at the wrong time? Some suggestions will be put forward, in light of what is considered to be the nature of the EAW and the birth of this instrument as part of the mutual recognition agenda.     

Analyzing the Performance of Risk Assessment Instruments: A Response to Vrieze and Grove (2007)

In a recent article, Vrieze and Grove (Law Hum Behav, doi: 10.1007/s10979-007-9092-x , 2007) argue that, because of low recidivism base rates and limited predictive accuracy, an actuarial risk assessment instrument (ARAI) may produce decisions about sex offenders that are worse than simply predicting that no one will commit another sex offense. This article examines: (1) the construction and potential overfitting of ARAIs; (2) the meaning, value, and limitations of ROC areas; and (3) the relationship between the operating point that maximizes an ARAI's correct classifications and the legal criterion-"likely to reoffend"-used for sex offender designations. Contrary to what Vrieze and Grove suggest, ARAIs of modest accuracy yield probabilistic information that is more relevant to legal decision-making than just "betting the base rate."     

国土规划制度的一个跨国比较

以我国现有的国土规划体系和正在进行中的全国主体功能区规划为背景,系统比较国际上两种重要的规划模式:美国模式和德国模式。这两种规划模式有着截然不同的目标、体制和手段,并导致了国土开发的不同结果,但是都较好地坚持了民主、科学与法治原则的有效统一。同时依据本国特点,实现了个人利益与社会利益不同取向的平衡。我国有必要借鉴两种不同规划模式的经验,建立一个充分体现了科学、民主与法治原则的国土规划制度。     

Detained: A Study of Immigration Bond Hearings

Immigration judges make consequential decisions that fundamentally affect the basic life chances of thousands of noncitizens and their family members every year. Yet, we know very little about how immigration judges make their decisions, including decisions about whether to release or detain noncitizens pending the completion of their immigration cases. Using original data on long‐term immigrant detainees, I examine for the first time judicial decision making in immigration bond hearings. I find that there are extremely wide variations in the average bond grant rates and bond amount decisions among judges in the study sample. What are the determinants of these bond decisions? My analysis shows that the odds of being granted bond are more than 3.5 times higher for detainees represented by attorneys than those who appeared pro se, net of other relevant factors. My analysis also shows that the detainees' prior criminal history is the only significant legally relevant factor in both the grant/deny and bond amount decisions, net of other relevant factors. This finding points to the need for further research on whether and how immigration courts might be exercising crime control through administrative proceedings.     

Validity Beliefs and Ideology Can Influence Legal Case Judgments Differently

Jurors sometimes enter a case both with prior beliefs about its likely validity and with more general ideologies that are relevant to the case. Although prior validity beliefs may serve as heuristics, directly biasing decisions when cognitive capacity is low, we hypothesized that ideology may bias systematic thought even when cognitive capacity is high. This experiment studied simulated individual juror decisions in a sex-discrimination case, measuring validity beliefs about such cases as well as feminist ideology, and exposing participants to 1 of 3 case versions under time pressure or no time pressure. Validity beliefs had a direct, heuristic impact on judgment only under time pressure. However, feminist ideology had a mediated influence on judgment via valenced thoughts about the evidence, even under no time pressure. Also, people with initially proplaintiff beliefs judged a woman's sex-discrimination suit more negatively than did prodefendants if the evidence was weak. The results suggest that when jurors can fully process information, validity expectancies might backfire if not supported by case evidence, but ideology can have a more pervasive influence on the decision-making process.     

A vulnerability analysis: Theorising the impact of artificial intelligence decision-making processes on individuals,society and human diversity from a social justice perspective

The article examines a number of ways in which the use of artificial intelligence technologies to predict the performance of individuals and to reach decisions concerning the entitlement of individuals to positive decisions impacts individuals and society. It analyses the effects using a social justice lens. Particular attention is paid to the experiences of individuals who have historically experienced disadvantage and discrimination. The article uses the university admissions process where the university utilises a fully automated decision-making process to evaluate the capability or suitability of the candidate as a case study. The article posits that the artificial intelligence decision-making process should be viewed as an institution that reconfigures the relationships between individuals, and between individuals and institutions. Artificial intelligence decision-making processes have institutional elements embedded within them that result in their operation disadvantaging groups who have historically experienced discrimination. Depending on the manner in which an artificial intelligence decision-making process is designed, it can produce solidarity or segregation between groups in society. There is a potential for the operation of artificial intelligence decision-making processes to fail to reflect the lived experiences of individuals and as a result to undermine the protection of human diversity. Some of these effects are linked to the creation of an ableist culture and to the resurrection of eugenics-type discourses. It is concluded that one of the contexts in which human beings should reach decisions is where the decision involves representing and evaluating the capabilities of an individual. The legislature should respond accordingly by identifying contexts in which it is mandatory to employ human decision-makers and by enacting the relevant legislation.     

From European Integration to European Integrity: Should European Law Speak with Just One Voice?

Abstract: This article examines whether and how the moral principle of legal coherence or integrity, which has recently been developed further as a response to disagreement in the national legal context, applies to European law. According to the European integrity principle, all national and European authorities should make sure their decisions cohere with the past decisions of other European and national authorities that create and implement the law of a complex but single European legal order. Only by doing so, it is argued, can the European political and legal community gain true authority and legitimacy in the eyes of the European citizens to whom all these decisions apply. Although European integrity is primarily a product of European integration, it has gradually become one of the requirements of further integration. The article suggests that the principle of European integrity would help dealing with the growing pressure for common European solutions under conditions of increasing diversity. It places disagreement at the centre of European politics, as both an incentive and a means of integration by way of comparison and self‐reflectivity. It constitutes therefore the ideal instrument for a pluralist and flexible further constitutionalisation of the European Union.     

Implementing Prior Judicial Decisions as Precedents: The Context of Application and Justification

The paper concerns the conditions and methods of using previous judicial decisions as a kind of precedents in the processes of application of law within the statutory legal order. The use of such decisions, not announced by the legislator, depends on the courts, undertaking such actions on the grounds of similarity of cases or of decisional processes. Such decisions do not become an exclusive validation argument and may create a situation of their potential conflict with legal regulations as well as an inferential supplementation of their content. Dissemination of such activity of the courts leads to the development of precedential practice (relevant to the statutory legal order), though, its actual jurisdictional role depends on proper justification of decisions, within which reference to these decisions should be adaptive (in relation to the elements of the current case), generalizing (forming elements of ratio decidendi) as well as argumentative and discursive (in respect of the way in which the decisional reasoning and arguments expressed in the prior justification are used).

     

公众参与理念在美国土地规划票决中的实践及启示

美国的投票式分区管制将票决制度运用于土地规划,是一种最强程度的公众参与。实践表明,土地规划领域有适用票决制度的必要,票决制度体现的公众参与特征包括决策者与参与者之间的双向沟通关系,决策结果对公众参与具有高度的依赖性。在信息公开制度健全、议题限制、平等保护审查等条件下,居民投票不会沦为"愚众政治",与专业机构判断的对立也会缓解,而且也不会"压迫少数人的意见"。我国应在涉及健康、生命安全的公共项目选址决策中引入票决制度,并同时完善信息公开配套机制,以及加强对居民投票决策不违反公益要求的程序管控。     

Police response to domestic violence: making decisions about risk and risk management

Assessing and responding to risk are key elements in how police respond to domestic violence. However, relatively little is known about the way police make judgments about the risks associated with domestic violence and how these judgments influence their actions. This study examines police decisions about risk in domestic violence incidents when using a risk assessment instrument. Based on a sample of 501 risk assessments completed by police in Australia, this study shows that a limited number of items on the risk assessment instrument are important in police officers' decisions about risk. Statistical analyses show that the victim's level of fear contributes to police officers' judgment on the level of risk and their decisions on which risk management strategy should be used. These findings suggest that research on police responses to domestic violence needs to pay greater attention to situational dynamics and the task requirements of risk-based decision making.     

“有错必纠”的界限

通过行政法学界20多年的共同努力,有关行政决定确定力和撤销规则的学理框架已经相对成熟。这个学理框架内容是,行政机关作出的行政决定产生实质确定力之后,如行政机关认为它有错误必须予以撤销的,应当遵循若干撤销规则,不能基于"有错必纠"原则而随意行使撤销权。但是,从最高人民法院相关的行政裁判、批复和答复的内容看,最高人民法院一直秉持"有错必纠"原则,并没有受到这一学理框架内容的明显影响,直到作为指导性案例的"焦案"在《最高人民法院公报》上公布,它才改变了原有所持的观点。通过"焦案"所确立的规则是,依法作出的行政决定一旦生效,其法律效力不仅及于行政相对人,也及于行政机关,不能随意被撤销。已经生效的行政决定如果随意被撤销,不利于社会秩序的恢复和稳定。从"焦案"之后地方各级人民法院作出的相关裁判看,作为指导性案例的"焦案"其参考效力并不明显,"有错必纠"原则仍然有着相当大的影响力。这可能与指导性案例欠缺可操作性、强势的成文法传统等原因有关。尽管如此,"焦案"所确立的撤销规则仍然具有它的价值,这种价值不仅显示出学理对实务的影响力,也体现了法治观念的进步。     

Outsourcing,Discretion, and Administrative Justice: Exploring the Acceptability of Privatized Decision Making

This study explores what happens to administrative justice and to the acceptability of frontline decisions in privatized and marketized models of service. Through the case study of privatized welfare‐to‐work in Israel, it shows the fundamental tension between outsourced discretion and traditional conceptions of administrative justice in which the trustworthiness of decisions relies on the idea that decision makers have no personal interest in the outcome of their decisions. It finds that in the Israeli case, contractors' financial interests were widely perceived as putting their professionals into a conflict of interest, thereby undermining trust in their decisions. At the same time, the study finds the program's managerial performance mechanisms did not provide an alternative legitimacy argument for the acceptability of decisions. The study also analyzes the ways policy makers reconstructed the decision‐making systems to regain public acceptance of frontline decisions, while discussing both the potential and the limits of legitimizing outsourced discretion in such complex public services.