Body Height Measurements in Images

Abstract:  For any measurement of a person's height in an image, a difference exists between the actual height of the person and the image measurement. In order to gain knowledge about statistical behavior of differences between actual and measured heights it is necessary to make reference recordings, e.g., of test persons under the same recording conditions. To test whether the differences are dependent on camera and further circumstances, an experiment was set up which involved the measurement of 22 test persons using three cameras of varying quality. Reproducibility of measurements per image appears to be strongly dependent on the camera (quality), whereas systematic bias differs with the view point of the camera. Operator dependency of the measurement process is found, so its repetition by different operators is recommended.     

犯罪心理测试人员素质要求分析

犯罪心理测试作为＂人机结合＂特点明显的一项技术,其主体必须是经过专门技术培训,熟练掌握专业理论知识和基本技能,具备心理学、生理学、刑事侦查、物证技术、法律等相关知识背景,具有良好的职业道德、个性品质和举止衣着等素质的犯罪心理测试技术人员,测试人员的专业化是该技术发展的必然要求。     

论自然人签章的民法意义

签章是指某一自然人在民事法律性文件上签名或加盖印章或者签名并加盖印章的行为。其作用在于：一是“要式”作用;二是证据作用。自然人签章会发生在不同的场合,并且,随着签章人担任的社会角色的变化,其法律上的身份不尽相同,签章的法律效力也因此而有区别。故对于签章所产生的法律后果,必须结合签章行为人在某一具体法律关系中的法律身份才能加以界定。签名与盖章不能混为一谈,两者不能在法律上划等号,依据现行立法,一般而言,签名与盖章有同等的法律效力。当事人可以签名,也可以盖章代替签名。但法律有特别规定的,二者就有了严格的区别,不能相互替代。自然人签章存在的问题,一是立法上的。二是法律适用上的。对于问题的解决,笔者的建议是：完善有关签章的相关立法,做好法律宣传。     

Hate,Threats, and Violence. A Register Study of Persons Suspected of Hate Crime

This article focuses on individuals suspected of hate crimes with xenophobic, Islamophobic, and homophobic motives. The objective is to fill a gap in the knowledge left by existing research, which has primarily focused on victims and definitional problems. This article's genuine contribution to new research is the comparative perspective and the study of co-offending and specialization in offences for persons suspected for hate crimes. To find persons suspected for hate crimes, register data relating to hate-crime-motivated assault and unlawful threats/molestation offences from 2006 have been used. The study is based on a total of 1,910 offence reports together with information from the Registers of Suspected and Convicted Offenders for 558 persons suspected for hate crimes. Xenophobic hate crimes are over-represented in the material by comparison with homophobic and Islamophobic hate crimes. In the reports that have information about the relation between victim and perpetrators, it is more common for the perpetrators to be known than unknown to the victims. In cases where a suspected person has been identified, males are in a clear majority. Those suspected of homophobic hate crimes have the lowest mean age. Only a small number of offence reports include information on suspected co-offenders. Fifty-five per cent of the suspected people have prior registered convictions. It is very uncommon for them to be specialized in violent offences or unlawful threats/molestation, however. It is not possible to generalize the results to perpetrators of hate crimes, because 70% of the offence reports did not have information of suspected persons.     

论法官的知识

我国目前正在推进司法活动专门化的进程,受社会的变化、法官与学者的作用以及国家策略等因素的影响,法官的知识也必将发生结构性的变迁。现代社会中法官的知识对法官及社会都会产生重要影响。因此,在法官知识的转型过程中,在关注法律专业知识的同时,不应忽略法官的生活知识及生活理性。     

侦查“会诊”探析

侦查中的“会诊”是指案件主办者为了推进疑难案件侦查,通过寻求外部协作、协助,邀请若干专家、学者、办案能手和其 它具有专门知识、技能的人参与,共同探究案情并提出相应的侦查方案。会诊与案件主办者自行开会探究案情相比较,有相同之处也 有明显特点。会诊的意义主要在于为侦查提供知识、思维方法和信心、意志等方面的支持。在新形势下,侦查机关应通过建立会诊人才 库、推行网上会诊和建立会诊制度等举措,充分发挥会诊的作用。     

Sometimes Ignorance is Bliss: Investigating Citizen Perceptions of the Certainty and Severity of Punishment

Deterrence lies at the heart of the criminal justice system and policy. There is a lack of information on citizen??s perceptions regarding a critical element of the deterrence process as it manifests through the communication of sanction threats. This study uses data from over 400 adults to examine their knowledge regarding the probability of detection and the average punishments for DUI, and also assesses the contribution of demographic and theoretical variables in predicting perceptions of detection probabilities and punishment estimates. Results show that persons over-estimate the likelihood of detection and provide higher estimates for average sentence lengths, but very few variables predict deterrence perceptions. An investigation of the resetting effect shows that persons tend to lower the estimated likelihood of punishment after experiencing a punishment. Deterrence may work better if researchers and policy officials understand what influences these perceptions and how they may be modified.     

Lay persons' versus psychologists' judgments of psychologically aggressive actions by a husband and wife

Literature assessing knowledge of and attitudes toward social issues has demonstrated that mental health professionals and lay persons often differ greatly. To add to the normative information in the field of psychological abuse and to determine whether the differences previously found between mental health professionals and lay persons extend to this field, a sample from each group rated psychologically aggressive items by a husband toward his wife. For the 102 items, psychologists were more likely to label the behaviors as "psychological abuse," but this tendency was due to psychologists considering the behaviors as either "always" or "possibly" abusive, whereas lay persons demonstrated a bimodal response pattern of rating the behaviors as "always" or "never" psychological abuse. Lay persons were much more likely than psychologists to rate items high in terms of severity level, however. The two groups used different contextual factors for determining that a behavior was psychological abuse when they initially were uncertain that it was abusive.     

The first year of operation under the new Patuxent law

To summarize briefly, it can be said that the new Patuxent admissions are approximately in the same age range, but more often black and from urban areas. The seriousness of their crimes is significantly higher than in the old Patuxent population. It may be said with some assurance that the change of the law has been a positive step towards making the Patuxent Institution a more treatment-oriented place, since there is no more mandatory indeterminate incarceration of persons unwilling to participate in the program. On the other hand, a number of persons who could eventually be reached by the prolonged stay at the Institution under the indeterminate sentence are now lost to the treatment process and they will be eventually released as potentially dangerous persons into society.     

Attempted suicide by cop: a case study of traumatic brain injury and the insanity defense

Over the years, there have been a number of well-publicized incidents involving persons who seemingly maneuver police officers into shooting them. Such cases, while relatively rare compared with most forms of violence, nevertheless pose difficult challenges to law enforcement agencies. Relatively little is known about persons who engage in suicide by cop incidents. To our knowledge, there has been no published indepth research on instigators of suicide by cop who survived. In this paper, we present a case study of an individual who engaged in and lived through three separate "attempted suicide by cop" incidents. After describing relevant history as well as events of the most recent incident, we compare the case with the extant literature on suicide by cop and analyze commonalities and differences. Finally, we examine the legal considerations involved, with particular attention devoted to the role the individual's traumatic brain injury played in applying the insanity defense.     

Facilitating technology transfer in education via paradigms for planned change

The technology (product) in education is knowledge. Therefore, one would expect that disseminators of knowledge (educators) would be on the forefront of change (creators and distributors of new knowledge). There is little evidence to show that the education system in the United States is receptive to future-oriented knowledge and methods. Therefore, this paper presents models to facilitate a receptive mind-set to the creation and transfer of technology in education.     

法律职业与法律人才培养

法律职业与法学教育之间制度性联系的缺乏 ,一方面导致了法学教育主要局限于高等院校内部法学学科体系的自我完善、自我发展 ,另一方面致使法律职业未能走上职业化的发展轨道 ,存在泛政治化、行政化和大众化的倾向。从事法律职业的人员应当掌握法学学科体系的基本知识 ,具备法律职业的基本素养 ,具备从事这一职业的基本技能。为了使法律人才的培养符合法律职业的基本要求 ,必须从法律职业与法学教育的整体出发 ,结合统一司法考试制度 ,重构法律人才宏观模式。     

完善刑事司法鉴定体制的新思考

新修改的《刑事诉讼法》对与司法鉴定有关的人身安全保护问题、鉴定人出庭作证问题以及有专门知识的人出庭等问题予以了规定。这不仅对司法鉴定管理工作具有积极意义,而且也具有一定的挑战性。据此,就新《刑事诉讼法》对司法鉴定管理体制、机制改革相关工作提出建议。     

知识产权变动登记效力模式探析——以专利权为例

专利权作为绝对权,在变动过程中关涉不特定多数人利益,因此其在变动中的公示方式及其效力模式的选择至关重要。通过分析,在我国现行法律体系下,专利权变动宜采登记证明主义和登记生效主义,但在应然层面上,或许采登记证明主义和登记对抗主义更为合适。专利权变动登记模式可以适用于整个知识产权。     

A comparison of Chinese judges' and US judges' knowledge and beliefs about eyewitness testimony

Abstract

We surveyed 170 Chinese judges about their knowledge and beliefs about eyewitness testimony, and compared their answers to a prior survey of 160 US judges. Although the Chinese judges were less knowledgeable than the US judges, both groups had limited knowledge of eyewitness testimony, including for such important issues as whether lay people can distinguish between accurate and inaccurate eyewitnesses. Unlike the US judges, greater knowledge of eyewitness factors for the Chinese judges was not related to beliefs that may be necessary to reduce eyewitness error. Compared to the US judges, the Chinese judges were much less likely to believe that they needed additional eyewitness training and that they knew more about eyewitness testimony than lay persons. We also discuss the impact of culture, legal systems, investigative procedures, and judges' function on the Chinese judges' responses, and the legal reforms that China may need to implement to reduce eyewitness error.     

Legal Knowledge about What?

We assume—in contrast to many "legal realists"—that law is a part of reality. Law exists because people believe in law, but law is not identical with beliefs. Law supervenes on human beliefs, preferences, actions, dispositions and artefacts. Moreover, the morally binding personal interpretation of the law supervenes on two things together: on the individual's knowledge of legal institutions and on moral obligation. The first supervenes in its turn on mutual beliefs; the second supervenes on motivations and dispositions of the individual, provided that she is morally sensitive and rational. Personal interpretation of law converts into social law, if other persons on the basis of overriding reasons do not contest it. Morally binding social law supervenes on moral motivation that is triggered by institutions that supervene on mutual beliefs.     

For Whom Do Sanctions Deter and Label?

Deterrence and labeling theories make opposing predictions regarding the effect of sanctions on subsequent crime. Deterrence anticipates that sanctions deter, while labeling anticipates that sanctions amplify future crime. The knowledge base with respect to this question is vast, and while a handful of studies provide evidence of a deterrent effect, the majority of studies indicate a null effect. Our study examines whether an arrest leads to an increase in subsequent crime, but extends the knowledge base by considering whether an arrest has the same effect across offender trajectories and by employing techniques that deal with sample selection bias. Thus, we assess for whom sanctions deter or exacerbate subsequent offending. Results indicate that for greater risk youth, arrest amplifies subsequent delinquency, net of other effects, but not among lower risk youth. Thus, experiencing an arrest aggravates subsequent delinquency among some but not all persons. Implications and directions for future research are identified.     

人权概念复杂性探析

人权概念的开放性、包容性和延展性决定了人权概念的动态变化,人权是对抗性权利、道德权利、习惯性权利、普遍权利,同时也是法律权利.人权的本质在于对弱势方的权利保护.     

How Strong Is Public Support for the Death Penalty in Singapore?

Singapore is well known internationally for its uncompromising stance towards law and order and its use of the death penalty in particular for murder and drug trafficking. Until 2012, it was one of the few countries in the world where the death penalty was mandatory for persons convicted of these two crimes. The law was amended in 2012 to give a judge the choice to impose the death penalty or life imprisonment (with caning) for non-intentional murder and drug trafficking in some situations. What do Singaporeans think of the use of the death penalty in their own country? This article reports on some findings of a survey conducted in 2016 on 1500 Singaporeans to assess their knowledge and support of the death penalty.     

台湾法学教育之可能性解释

法学教育与法制背景之间息息相关。台湾近一百多年来,历经清朝、日治、民国三次不同政权更迭。1980年,台湾解除戒严统治、终止动员戡乱时期后,政治趋于自由化、民主化,执政当局对于高等教育管制渐趋松绑,法律系所遂伴随大学数量上升亦呈现高速发展之盛况。但是,整体而言,台湾除法律人以外,社会法治化程度可谓不高。1990年以后,法律系、所虽然逐年增加,但因政策因素导致法律人予人之图像即为法曹,政府及社会大众似乎认为“法律知识乃法律人之事”。本文因此尝试提出台湾法学教育未来可能方向,以供参考、研议。