American politics,British policy: whole of life imprisonment and transatlantic influence

Since the abolition of the death penalty, life imprisonment in England and Wales has had a literal meaning with exceptional rarity. Now though, in the rejection of perceived interference by the European Court of Human Rights in domestic sentencing, the politics of whole of life imprisonment have become exposed, specifically, in the widening applicability of the tariff to those who kill police officers or prison guards. Borrowing from the politics of capital punishment in the United States, in both “acting out” after a particular crime, and the prioritising of victim groups, the most severe penalty in England and Wales is increasingly beginning to mirror how the most severe punishment across the Atlantic is used, represented, and politicised.     

死刑替代位阶上无期徒刑的改良

死刑替代措施就是在不适用死刑的情况下应该采取的、用来代替死刑的刑罚方法。死刑替代措施应以现行刑罚体系为基础,以废除或限制死刑实际适用为前提进行考察,选择能够直接担当"最严厉"法定刑角色,保持足够的威慑力的刑种。死缓不是刑罚种类意义上的死刑替代措施;不得假释的终身监禁不符合"人总是可以改造的"的基本理念;无期徒刑是中国刑罚体系中仅次于死刑的刑种,蕴含有较强的威慑力,通过适当改良,能够产生足够的类似于死刑的威慑力。作为替代死刑的方法,设置无期徒刑先予关押期是上乘选择。考察无期徒刑在有期徒刑与死刑中的衔接地位,借鉴国外实际执行无期徒刑的经验,确定10年的先予关押期较为适宜。     

未成年人犯罪刑罚适用区域性考察及其罚则改革研究(下)

对云南省若干地区的实证考察表明,在未成年犯罪人的刑罚适用中存在诸多问题,例如,有期徒刑适用过多,管制、拘役刑基本空置;缓刑适用比例过低且存在很大的地区差异,司法分流的合法性有待确认等等。造成上述问题的原因很多,既有立法方面的,如立法不明确或缺乏弹性;也有司法或执法方面的,如考察机关负担过重,无力进行有效考察;还有地方因素的干扰,如过分强调刑罚的威慑作用等。为此,要解决上述问题,必须从立法、司法与执法三方面着手。在立法上须根据《联合国儿童权利公约》规定的确保未成年人最大利益的原则行事,增加处罚中的弹性规范;增设已在国内外被证明行之有效的某些刑罚制度,例如,缓诉制度、缓缴罚金制度、刑事前科报告免除制度、前科消灭制度等;在司法与执法中应完善相关机制,以扩大缓刑等制度的适用范围,并采取有效措施,加强部门合作,消除地区差异。     

未成年人犯罪刑罚适用区域性考察及其罚则改革研究(上)

对云南省若干地区的实证考察表明,在未成年犯罪人的刑罚适用中存在诸多问题,例如,有期徒刑适用过多,管制、拘役刑基本空置;缓刑适用比例过低且存在很大的地区差异,司法分流的合法性有待确认等等。造成上述问题的原因很多,既有立法方面的,如立法不明确或缺乏弹性;也有司法或执法方面的,如考察机关负担过重,无力进行有效考察;还有地方因素的干扰,如过分强调刑罚的威慑作用等。为此,要解决上述问题,必须从立法、司法与执法三方面着手。在立法上须根据《联合国儿童权利公约》规定的确保未成年人最大利益的原则行事,增加处罚中的弹性规范;增设已在国内外被证明行之有效的某些刑罚制度,例如,缓诉制度、缓缴罚金制度、刑事前科报告免除制度、前科消灭制度等;在司法与执法中,应完善相关机制以扩大缓刑等制度的适用范围,并采取有效措施,加强部门合作,消除地区差异。     

The discipline of difference: Ethnolinguistic heterogeneity and corporal punishment

The minority threat hypothesis contends that growth in the size of a given minority population along with the ensuing competition for social and political resources will threaten existing social power arrangements. Regarding punishment specifically, the hypothesis states that dominant groups will support coercive measures to keep minority populations sufficiently oppressed. Using the minority threat hypothesis as our theoretical foundation, we posit that the more heterogeneous a population, the more social control will be necessary to maintain societal equilibrium for those in power. In effect a more personal, physical, and visceral response to criminal behavior will be deemed necessary in countries with high levels of fractionalization. This more focused form of social discipline will manifest as corporal punishment. Comparing modalities of punishment against varying population characteristics, we find that countries with higher levels of ethnic, linguistic, and religious fractionalization are more likely to employ corporal punishment against criminal offenders.     

论社会化行刑的根据和方式

社会化行刑既包含非监禁刑、半监禁刑替代监禁刑的含义,也包括对被监禁罪犯在行刑过程中的社会化措施,社会化行刑的表现形式有三种。社会化行刑的理论依据有:一是体现了人道主义观念和文明行刑的基本理念,包含有维护人权的思想;二是社会化行刑较之单纯的监禁行刑,其经济性和功利性价值日渐彰显;三是它顺应了现代行刑以监禁刑为中心向以非监禁刑为中心发展的时代趋势。     

我国无期徒刑制度改革探析

无期徒刑因不需要剥夺犯罪人生命即可永久剥夺其犯罪能力的特点而比死刑有着公认的优势。但在实际执行中。由于减刑、假释标准宽泛而使判处无期徒刑的犯罪人实施终身监禁的可能性几乎不存在，大大削弱了刑罚的严肃性及权威性，并使人们对无期徒刑丧失了应有的信赖感与认同感。对此，我们可以根据犯罪人案件性质、犯罪后果、判决确定之日的年龄、有无劳动能力、悔改表现等因素来分别适用不同的减刑、假释标准；提高被判处死刑缓期执行犯罪分子减为无期徒刑的条件；增加有期徒刑中数罪并罚的最高刑期，限制无期徒刑的适用。     

未成年人犯罪非监禁化理念与实现

监禁处遇对于未成年犯罪人而言更意味着消极性,而不是积极性。对于未成年犯罪人尽量避免监禁,已经成为各国少年司法制度共同的理念。非监禁化应当包括三个紧密联系的环节:市前的非监禁化、刑罚选择(量刑)的非监禁化(包括监禁刑的避免适用和虚置)、刑罚执行的非监禁化(行刑社会化)。实现未成年犯罪人非监禁化理念应当推行转处制度;建立健全少年保释制度,提高未成年人取保候审率;尽量适用非刑罚处理方法和非监禁刑,提高缓刑适用率;行刑社会化,开展社区矫正。在推行未成年犯罪人非监禁化理念改革中,应当完善风险评估与责任制度,完善非监禁化的社会支持系统。     

Punishment within Prison: An Examination of the Influences of Prison Officials’ Decisions to Remove Sentencing Credits

Despite considerable research directed toward understanding the factors that affect punishment decision‐making leading to imprisonment, few studies have examined the influences of punishment decisions within prisons. Punishment decisions made within prisons can affect an individual's liberty during their imprisonment and/or the timing of their release from prison if the punishment results in the loss of sentencing credits or influences parole decision‐making. Moreover, if punishment disparities result from these decisions, then some offender groups may endure a greater loss of liberty relative to others. In this study, we examine the factors that influence prison officials’ decisions to remove sentencing credits in response to prison rule violations. Analysis of collected data from a Midwestern state prison system reveal that prison officials are primarily influenced by the seriousness and type of the rule violation, along with an inmate's violation history. Other relevant factors include those proximately connected to an inmate's risk of subsequent misbehavior such as gang membership and those that are linked to practical consequences and constraints associated with the organizational environment and particular inmates such as the proportion of their sentence an inmate has served and whether an inmate has mental health problems.     

Exploring the Positive Punishment Effect Among Incarcerated Adult Offenders

The vast majority of offenders released from prison will re-offend, about two-thirds will be re-arrested with three years, most current prison inmates have prior prison experience, and many repeat offenders are devoted to what has been termed a criminal lifestyle. Findings from a survey of over 700 incarcerated adult offenders explore the effect of different measures of past punishment on inmates’ perceptions of the certainty and severity of future sanctions, and self-reported likelihood of re-offending after release. Results are mixed, with measures of current imprisonment being associated with a deterrent effect, while measures of past imprisonment (juvenile and adult) and experience with alternative sanctions being associated with a criminogenic effect. Recognizing that the data are not longitudinal and contain no measures of actual re-offending, the implied positive punishment effect is explained by applying social learning dynamics and insights from ethnographic studies. Specifically, a) non-social reinforcers-particularly affective costs and benefits experienced through offending, b) association with criminal reference groups in and out of prison, and c) a lack of legitimate, reintegrative opportunities upon reentry all serve to promote re-offending. Findings have implications for the study of offender decision-making processes, and speak to the efficacy of imprisonment as a deterrent to crime.     

暂予监外执行的本质：功利人道与公正人道的统一——兼论我国暂予监外执行制度的完善

暂予监外执行是本应在监禁机构行刑的犯罪人暂时变更到监禁机构外进行刑罚执行，其本质特征应为行刑人道主义，行刑人道主义分为功利的人道与公正的人道两种不同理念。建议我国暂予监外执行制度变更为暂停监禁刑罚执行制度。在构建我国暂停监禁刑罚执行制度中，遇到保护个体的功利人道与保障社会整体的公正人道冲突时，应做出保障个体功利人道的价值选择。     

Race and Women’s Imprisonment: Poverty, African American Presence, and Social Welfare

Female imprisonment rates have increased proportionately more than male imprisonment rates over recent decades. There are substantial race differences in women’s rates, as is the case for men. Yet, there has been little quantitative research on the correlates of women’s imprisonment using data over time, or on potential race differences in those correlates. The present research analyzes data on black and nonblack female imprisonment rates in the 50 states for the period 1981–2003. The analyses are guided substantively by existing research on race, social threat and criminal punishment, and theory and research on the penal-welfare hypothesis. The study uses bivariate-response multilevel modeling to simultaneously examine the factors associated with black and nonblack women’s imprisonment rates. The results show that black female imprisonment rates increase when the concentration of African Americans in metropolitan areas and poverty rates grow, whereas nonblack female imprisonment rates are unaffected by poverty rates and actually decrease when African American populations become more concentrated in metro areas. Both black and nonblack women’s imprisonment rates increase when welfare spending declines. The results are consistent with social threat perspectives and the penal-welfare hypotheses.     

经济犯罪之刑罚结构研究

刑罚在经济犯罪中的运用需要理想的刑罚结构。为此,可结合经济犯罪的特点分析各刑种在调整经济犯罪时的利弊得失,并以此为基础设计出一种以罚金刑和有期徒刑为主体,以无期徒刑和没收财产刑相结合为辅助,以拘役刑作为罚金刑替代措施处于次要地位的“三角形”式的刑罚结构模式。以此为指导,以破坏社会主义市场经济秩序罪为例,对我国现行经济犯罪的实然刑罚结构进行分析,可以发现我国现行经济犯罪的刑罚结构由于死刑、管制刑的存在,而使其具有不合理性,因此,要优化现行经济犯罪的刑罚结构,必须废除死刑,取消管制刑,并对其他刑种进行微调。     

死刑存废的立场

死刑作为一个国家的伦理文化积淀 ,其存废不能脱离某一国家特定时期的具体国情。当代中国之死刑需要在理性与感性的互动过程中渐入现代化之路 ,绝不能人为地强行废止 ;现实的妥当举措乃顺沿一般之强化、限制再到废止之轨迹 ,通过立法与司法双重限制之机制 ,达于最终废止之目的。     

JAPANESE AND AMERICAN ATTITUDES TOWARD THE ABOLITION OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

Japanese and Americans are compared in terms of the extent each sample believes that capital punishment should be abolished, Blacks and white American females are more likely to approve of the abolition of capital punishment. No differences by sex were found in the Japanese sample. For both countries, those who are younger and more educated hold less punitive attitudes The Japanese as a whole are less likely than Americans to approve of the abolition of capital punishment. Problems found in cross-cultural secondary analysis are discussed.     

INSTITUTIONAL AND POSTRELEASE BEHAVIOR OF FURMAN-COMMUTED INMATES IN TEXAS*

In 1972, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Furman v. Georgia that the death penalty as administered constituted cruel and unusual punishment. This ruling also invalidated the death sentences of over 600 inmates in the United States, who subsequently had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment. This article examines the institutional and postrelease behavior of the 47 Furman inmates in Texas from 1973 to 1986. Prior to the release of these inmates into the general prisoner population, prison officials and clinicians stated that they were dangerous and constituted a substantial threat to other inmates and to the security staff. The institutional and release behavior of the Furman inmates is compared with that of a cohort of like violent offenders. The Furman inmates committed few serious rule violations. They did not kill other inmates or staff. A minority of inmates in both groups committed the majority of prison rule violations. Of the 31 Furman inmates released on parole, 1 committed a new homicide. No cohort inmate killed again. The conclusion is that the execution of these 47 inmates would not have greatly protected society.     

Should the Late Stage Demented be Punished for Past Crimes?

The paper investigates whether it is plausible to hold the late stage demented criminally responsible for past actions. The concern is based on the fact that policy makers in the United States and in Britain are starting to wonder what to do with prison inmates in the later stages of dementia who do not remember their crimes anymore. The problem has to be expected to become more urgent as the population ages and the number of dementia patients increases. This paper argues that the late-stage demented should not be punished for past crimes. Applicable theories of punishment, especially theories with an appropriate expressivist, or communicative element, fail to justify the imprisonment of the late-stage demented. Further imprisonment would require a capacity for comprehension on the part of the punished, and, under certain narrowly specified conditions, even a capacity to be at least in principle capable of recalling the crime again.     

Further findings on the deterrence question and strategies for future research

Findings for recent data (circa 1970) are consistent with previous purported tests of the deterrence doctrine. For each of seven types of crime there is an inverse relation among the states of the U.S. between the rate and the certainty of imprisonment, but there is no significant relation between the rate and severity of imprisonment (length of sentence served). Although the findings justify reconsideration of the deterrence doctrine, the utility of further tests is questionable without first restating the doctrine as a systematic theory, one that incorporates (inter alia) perceptual variables pertaining to punishment (e.g. perceived certainty of punishment). However, several empirical question should be contemplated prior to stating a deterrence theory; and conventional data (e.g. published statistics on imprisonment) can be used to answer some of those questions.     

Disaggregating LWOP: Life Without Parole,Capital Punishment,and Mass Incarceration in Florida, 1972–1995

Over the past 40 years, life imprisonment without the possibility of parole (LWOP) has been transformed from a rare sanction and marginal practice of last resort into a routine punishment in the United States. Two general theses—one depicting LWOP as a direct outgrowth of death penalty abolition; another collapsing LWOP into the tough‐on‐crime sentencing policy of the mass incarceration era—serve as working explanations for this phenomenon. In the absence of in‐depth studies, however, there has been little evidence for carefully evaluating these narratives. This article provides a state‐level historical analytic account of LWOP's rise by looking to Florida—the state that uses LWOP more than any other—to explicate LWOP's specific processes and forms. Recounting LWOP's history in a series of critical junctures, the article identifies a different stimulus, showing how LWOP precipitated as Florida translated major structural upheavals that broke open traditional ways of doing and thinking about punishment. In doing so, the article reveals LWOP to be a multilayered product of incremental change, of many, sometimes disjointed and indirectly conversant, pieces. Presenting LWOP as the product of a variety of penal logics, including those prioritizing fairness and efficiency, the article more generally illustrates how very severe punishments can arise from reforms without primarily punitive purposes and in ways that were not necessarily planned.     

Inhuman and Degrading Punishment,Dignity, and the Limits of Retribution

The recent judgment of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Vinter and others v United Kingdom provides a much needed clarification of the parameters of the prohibition on inhuman and degrading punishment under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) as it applies to whole life orders of imprisonment under mandatory life sentences – essentially, life imprisonment without parole. The Grand Chamber's judgment refines Strasbourg doctrine on life imprisonment and the prospect of release and illuminates key principles concerning inhuman and degrading punishment under Article 3 of the ECHR. This article considers the judgment's profound significance in relation to both human rights and penology.