Rules and reasons,public and private on the use and limits of simple rules 25 years later

European Journal of Law and Economics - The basic “simple rules” thesis holds that most legal relationships can be reduced to questions of autonomy, property acquisition, contract and...     

A media violence-inspired juvenile sexual homicide offender 13 years later

No follow-up studies exist on how minors who commit sexual homicides adjust once released back into the community. This is an important question given the extreme nature of their crimes, lack of recidivism data, and the expectation that one-half of them will be freed from prison by mid-life. Likewise, no studies exist on the role our culture's pervasive media violence plays in these offenses. This report describes a 13-year-old boy who committed a witnessed media violence-inspired sexual homicide. Follow-up information is provided on his community adjustment as an adult four years after release from prison. He had multiple indicators of brain dysfunction, and watched a "slasher" film just before committing the blitz style crime upon a female neighbor. Media violence literature is reviewed--against a backdrop of developmental abnormalities, neuropsychiatric vulnerabilities, family dysfunction, and mental illness. This case illustrates how the confluence of such variables, combined with the tinder of erotic screen violence, may lead to sexual murder.     

The Macmillan Encyclopedia of Philosophy–40 years later

Journal of Indian Philosophy -     

An introduction: Fifty years later,Punishment and Social Structure in comparative analysis

Conclusions In the same way in which Durkheim explained the invention of imprisonment on the basis of a progressive secularization and mitigation of the criminal law, or Rusche related major penological changes to social structural changes, the discussion of sociological hypotheses regarding the quantitative production of imprisonment, allows us to return to a discussion of its quality, and modalities. My hypothesis is that the ongoing deep changes in the nature of the whole arena of social control, are connected to a decreasing role of imprisonment. We certainly know very little about the size of such arena, within which a process that appears to be of increasing carceration, at least in the United States and the other recarcerating countries, might instead represent a shrinking section of a much faster increasing arena of social control in general.We may accept as certain only that the course set by Georg Rusche and Otto Kirchheimer fifty years ago is still wide-open today to investigation by sociologists who, like Georg Rusche, dare step beyond the role of obliging technocrats of an unquestioned legal syllogism.     

Case report of a homicide resolved 15 years later: The robustness of Chelex extraction

DNA typing techniques is one of the most advanced tools for human identification. During the last 10 years, a great number of methods for DNA extraction and analysis have been introduced to forensic genetic, with considerable success but also with considerable controversy. The success and validation of a criminal investigation are very closely related to the process used for obtaining and preserving biological evidence.We report the strategy that we employed to analyze evidences belonging to a homicide happened in Brescia (Italy) in 1992, not resolved at that time, with the forensic genetic analysis. After 16 years the analysis were conducted on DNA samples extracted with Chelex maintained at −80 °C, bloodstain, and biological specimens of perpetrators. Standard autosomal and Y-chromosome STR analysis identified the persons involved and victim's profiles. This case is of interest as a demonstration of a more successful application of DNA typing in well conserved DNA samples than in bloodstains kept in the Court Office.     

“A summary of parole rules—Thirteen years later”: Revisited thirteen years later

Arluke conducted two surveys of American paroling authorities, thirteen years apart, in 1956 and 1969. He summarized and described the standard conditions or rules of parole then in force in America. His general conclusions to both surveys were that parole rules were too numerous to be of real value, that many were unrealistic and unenforceable, and that the basic rules were not uniform throughout the states.In summer 1981, thirteen years after Arluke's second study, his survey was replicated. Copies of the standard parole conditions imposed on parolees of all fifty states and of the federal and District of Columbia jurisdictions were received and summarized. Many of Arluke's conclusions from his 1956 and 1969 summaries are echoed in this study.     

Tinker, Tailor, Policy-maker ... ... ... The Wider Context of Prosecution Service Work

This article explores the wider ambit of prosecutorial work outside classic criminal proceedings in 11 European criminal justice systems. It provides an overview of the roles a prosecutor is expected to play, e.g. whether a contribution to national or local crime prevention policy or to act in victim’s interest is expected. It further provides detail as to the setting within which prosecutors work, describing in how far they are politically accountable and/or subject to orders in their daily work.     

Forensic pathology then and now. Retrospect and reflections

The past half-century has witnessed significant progress and multiple, meaningful changes in the day-to-day practice of forensic pathology as it has in all other branches of laboratory and clinical medicine. Associated with the welcome advancing "scientific" aspects of our work have been gratifying changes in the professional status of our much misunderstood area of medical activity, the latter most vividly and convincingly represented by American Board of Pathology certification in Forensic Pathology and the appearance of such growing, vital, national professional organizations as the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and our National Association of Medical Examiners and the creation of such highly respected periodicals as the Journal of Forensic Sciences and our American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology. Objective assessment of the foregoing accomplishments leads to the inescapable conclusion that forensic pathology has emerged from its previous role as the "invisible profession" and become a respected and productive branch of laboratory medicine.     

Cardiac death 25 years after successful treatment for Hodgkin's disease—Case report

In the following case, the authors are discussing a connection between treating Hodgkin's disease in childhood and later sudden cardiac death of the patient at the age of 37. Examined expert literature describes injuries of the myocardium because of therapeutic irradiation in the childhood.     

Reducing the legal consequences of a felony conviction: A national survey of state statutes ten years later

This study surveys all state and federal statutes in an effort to determine the current legal procedures available for restoring a convicted felon's civil rights, and then compares the findings with those of Burton et al. (1988). The findings report virtually no changes in legal codes over the past ten years by states to increase pardons, expungement, or automatic restoration of rights opportunities for former offenders. Southern states continue to be most restrictive of civil and legal rights, given the few existing legal mechanisms to remove the effects of a felony conviction. Explanations for this apparent legislative inactivity of legal remedies are discussed.