PRISON GUARDS' ATTITUDES TOWARD COMPONENTS OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Only recently has there been very much interest in prison guards, their behavior, or their attitudes. Although prisons and their prisoners have been the subject of many investigations, the keepers have been overlooked. This article reports guards’attitudes toward the criminal justice system and suggests what these attitudes may mean.     

FACE-TO-FACE INTERACTION IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Abstract Management of face-to-face social interaction is not limited to a micro-perspective, as some critics have argued, but is equally valid as an explanatory model in macro-organizational settings. A "differential leverage interaction model" is presented, which demonstrates that organizations determine, to a great extent. the nature of face-to-face interactions that take place. The application of the model to the courts and criminal justice system casts a new light on conventional explanations of the processes. powers, alignments, and activities of individuals who come to be enmeshed in the legal institution.     

INTERORGANIZATIONAL UTILITY OF WELFARE STIGMA IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM*

The appropriation of “welfare stigma” or stereotypes about poor people's overreliance and abuse of public aid in two core criminal justice functions is examined: felony adjudication in a court system and space allocation in a jail. Through a comparative ethnographic study in which an abductive analysis of data (20 months of fieldwork) was used, we show that criminal justice gatekeepers utilize welfare stigma to create stricter eligibility criteria for due process in criminal courts and occupancy in jails. Specifically, the number of court appearances, motions, trials, jail beds, food, showers, and medical services is considered by professionals to be the benefits that individuals seek to access and abuse. Professionals view their role as preventing (rather than granting) access to these resources. The comparative nature of our data reveals that welfare stigma has interorganizational utility by serving two different organizational goals: It streamlines convictions in courts, which pulls defendants through adjudication, and conversely, it expands early release from jails, which pulls inmates out of the custody population. In the context of diminishing social safety nets, our findings have implications for understanding how discretion is exercised in an American criminal justice system increasingly tasked with the distribution of social services to the urban poor.     

CRIMINOLOGY, CRIMINAL JUSTICE, AND THE WAR ON CRIME

This detailed assessment reviews the nation's “war on crime” during the past ten years, examines what has heen accomplished in that period, and outlines the likely prospects for the future. Although important and tangible progress in improving criminal justice has been made. it has not produced relief from high crime rates. In fact, “things are worse than ever.” For the future, there will be both more advances and frustrations in the war on crime. It is emphasized that the progress achieved so far has been to create a more efficient and fairer rystem of justice and that we should take pride in this. If not eclipsed by the quarterly release of crime statistics, we can maintain our momentum and gain even more significant improvements in the next decade.     

以行为为中心，还是以犯罪人为中心 关于犯罪论体系根基的思考

<正>迄今为止,无论是大陆法系还是英美法系的犯罪论体系,以及源自于前苏联的我国传统的犯罪论体系,都是以行为立论,将行为人放逐于体系之外。正如罗克辛教授在《德国刑法学     

犯罪控制视野下的刑事审判 模式、功能与法官的态度

<正>刑事诉讼中的审判,是指人民法院对人民检察院提起公诉的或者自诉人提起自诉的案件进行审理和裁判的诉讼活动。从犯罪控制的观点出发,如果刑事审判完全不注重通过审理弄清刑事案件的主要事实,而只是被动、消极地单纯依赖裁判解决争端,无视社会秩序被犯罪破坏的事实,那么争端能否彻底解决的确令人怀疑,相反犯罪却可能越来越处于失控状态,各种争端此伏彼起,刑事审判的效率大为降低,最终解决争端的目的并不能达到。这当然又涉及到刑事审判中犯罪控制的"度"的问题,因此有必要为刑事审判确立一些原则,赋予现代刑事审     

THE SPECIALIZATION OF JUSTICE ORGANS AND PROFESSIONALIZATION OF JUSTICE PERSONNEL IN CHINESE JUVENILE CRIMINAL CASES

Juvenile criminal cases should be investigated, prosecuted and judged by specialized organs and full-time personnel China should follow international criminal judicial criteria and implement the relevant laws, such as the Chinese Criminal Procedure Law and the Law on Protection of Minors in China, to promote the specialization of justice organs and the professionalization of justice personnel involved in juvenile criminal cases.     

RESPONSES OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM TO LEGISLATION PROVIDING MORE SEVERE THREATENED SANCTIONS

In 1971, the Tennessee legislature enacted legislation providing for mandatory jail sentences and driver's license revocations for anyone convicted of driving while intoxicated. This new law had no demonstrable impact on the highway traffic fatalities rate-the intended objective. This paper explores the reasons for this apparent lack of impact. Data suggest that, while there was some increase in the severity of sanctions imposed on drunken drivers, there was still a consistent tendency to suspend the jail sentences and grant drivers restricted driving privileges. Nor is there any reason to believe that the police intensified their efforts to apprehend larger numbers of drunken drivers. Thus, the more severe sanctions threatened in the new law were generally mitigated in practice. Some possible interpretations for this are offered.     

PRESTIGE OF JOURNALS IN CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE

The prestige of professional journals is an important element in the academic world because of the relationship of journal prestige to the careers of individuals and to the reputations of academic institutions. This study investigates the system of journal prestige in the field of criminology and criminal justice, using the ratings of professional journals obtained from a sample of respondents who are members of professional associations in criminology and criminal justice. The results show that there is a relatively high degree of agreement about the relative prestige of journals in the field, despite the fact that criminology and criminal justice is a multidisciplinary field involving professionals from a wide variety of occupational settings.     

EQUITY IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE:

This research examines the punishment decisions of 166 respondents, 36 of whom are employed in criminal justice occupations. Comparison of the decisions of criminal justice respondents and non-criminal justice respondents provides a test of two constructs in equity theory: inequity between offenders and victim and inequity between offender and accomplice. Results strongly, support the first construct and equivocally support the second.     

THE YOUTH CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT

In April 2003, the face of Canada's youth criminal justice system changed considerably. The Young Offenders Act (YOA) was repealed and the substitute legislation, the principle-laden Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA), came into effect. It is not an entirely new act but was designed to build on the strengths of the YOA and address its weaknesses. The biggest criticism of the YOA was its lack of clear legislative direction; through the numerous principles and additional provisions, the YCJA proposes a remedy. The focus of this article is on two areas of the Act in particular, extrajudicial measures and sentencing, as these areas experienced the most change in the process of reforming the legislation. Specifically, these sections of the Act are analyzed in relation to four of the perceived problems under the YOA, all of which tie into the lack of clear legislative direction. If the provisions contained in these segments of the YCJA are adhered to in the manner and sentiment intended and if the principles are made a priority, then 1) the rate of youth incarceration in Canada should decrease, 2) the courts should no longer be overused, 3) there should be proper distinction between various degrees of seriousness of crimes, and 4) there should be more consistency in youth sentences across the country.     

THE POTENTIAL FOR CRIME OVERREPORTING IN CRIMINAL VICTIMIZATION SURVEYS

A critique is offered of’ the methodology of the criminal victimization survey and several sources of error that may result in artificially inflated crime rates based on such data are identified. It is argued that much information about crimes given by respondents may be incorrect due to misunderstandings about what transpired, ignorance about legal definitions, memory failures about when crimes occurred, and outright prefabrication. Organizational imperatives that may cause interviewers and coders to skew the data toward a showing of greater criminality are analyzed. Some ideas for measuring response error more precisely are presented.     

PAROLEES' PERCEPTION OF THE JUSTICE SYSTEM

The parolees in this sample viewed the police rather negatively, were reluctant to label contacts with the police as harassment, and experienced a great deal of pluralistic ignorance about the extent of the police harassment of ex-offenders. They also had a very negative opinion of the courts and lawyers. When asked general questions about the courts and police harassment, blacks responded more negatively than whites; but when asked about their personal experiences with these organizations, no racial differences were found. Those interviewed were somewhat positive toward the parole system and very positive toward their parole agents. Possibly this is because the agents employ a strategy of ingratiation in that they do not enforce all of the existing rules, or possibly it is because the Illinois parole agents are doing a good job of being counsellors rather than policemen. This study also found: (1) on opinions of the police and the courts, the black-white differences which have been found in the community were also found here; namely, blacks were more negative than were whites. (2) On opinions of lawyers and the parole system, no black-white differences existed among respondents. (3) There was no evidence of a disconfirmed expectancy effect; that is, in no case was there more negativity among white parolees than among black due to whites' higher expectations of the justice system.