Sentencing rationales, judicial discretion, and the practice of criminal fines in Israel

Much attention has been paid over the last three decades to the examination of the criminal fine, its administration, enforcement policies, and effectiveness. Yet, one research topic has often been overlooked: the link between sentencing rationales, judiciary discretion, and fining policy. The present research, based upon ninety hours of phenomenological semi-structured interviews undertaken in a random sample of forty active Israeli magistrates, six hundred verdicts, and quantitative data regarding the fining policy in Israel, analyzed the degree of harmony/disparity between these variables. The main findings revealed lack of confidence in the ability of the criminal fine to successfully achieve different penal objectives, scarcity of knowledge of actual fining administration procedures, and a high degree of harmony between fining rationales and ideology.     

Ethical, professional and legal regulation of medical practice

Moral or ethical codes of practice represent one of the oldest forms of medical regulation. Legislation such as the Medical Practice Act 1992 (NSW) enables regulatory bodies to create codes of practice for medical practitioners. Such codes can become an important aspect of disciplinary proceedings by providing the yardstick against which practitioners' conduct is evaluated. An important aspect of the New South Wales Board's Code of Professional Conduct 2005 is the obligation for doctors to report adverse events which reflect on the performance or conduct of colleagues. This is part of an increasing impetus to report adverse events in the interest of public safety. In the long- term this is a constructive development as it is likely to lead to improvements in identification of risks and hazards and thereby to result in better service provision and community health.     

关于乡村医生非法行医刑事案件移送的分析与思考

本文就一起乡村医生非法行医案件移送进行分析和思考,就此类案件在移送中出现的问题做一些探讨和研究,以期减少行政争议,提高依法行政的能力和水平。     

Psychiatric history,due procedural safeguards,and the use of discretion in the criminal justice process

Using a stratified random sample of all male inmates released from one state's correctional facilities during a 13-month period (N = 550), this research investigates the impact of an extralegal variable (history of psychiatric hospitalization) on decisionmaking in stages in the criminal justice system at which defendants are granted more and fewer due procedural safeguards. On the basis of the work of Goffman and Green, it is hypothesized that this variable will not equally affect decisions made at various points in the criminal justice process. Instead, psychiatric history will have less impact at points in the process where the defendant is granted more due procedural safeguards (e.g., sentencing), with its significance increasing where the defendant receives fewer due procedural safeguards (e.g., parole). The results are consistent with the hypothesis: A history of psychiatric hospitalization was not significant in the decision regarding sentence length, though it became highly critical in the decision to parole, even after other legal and extralegal variables were controlled. The context in which these decisions are made may also be relevant to a fuller understanding.     

Transcarceration: Notes on a psychoanalytically-informed theory of social practice in the criminal justice and mental health systems

The application of Lacanian psychoanalytic semiotics to the intersecting categories of criminal justice and mental health is relatively novel. In this paper the phenomenon of transcarceration or the repeated channeling of disordered defendants (subjects) through institutional regimes of discipline and coercion is outlined. Attention is directed at the intra-psychic and intersubjective mechanisms responsible for the structuring of discourse. Lacan's schematization on the constitution of master narratives through the Discourse of the Master is also delineated. The author concludes by demonstrating how transcarceration is fundamentally about language and privileged speech patterns which agents of both systems as well as subjects themselves perpetuate. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

论犯罪侦查中的程序性违法

侦查程序是刑事诉讼中一个重要的程序,是刑事诉讼公诉案件的第一个程序。现在社会对侦查程序的关注越来越多,侦查程序中的各种现象已经引起了极大的关注,如刑讯逼供、超期羁押、非法搜查、扣押等。由此产生出各种危害,如对法治国家建设、程序正义、基本人权等。这些现象的出现主要在于“重实体、轻程序”观念的影响;侦查权的构造不合理,抗辩严重失衡;传统文化的不良影响;侦查程序性违法的制裁机制存在缺陷;内部考核机制不健全,片面强调破案率;侦查人员、监督人员素质有待提高等。侦查程序的程序性违法包含很多的内容,本文主要是从其表现、危害以及原因等几个方面加以探讨。     

大兴区借助行刑衔接机制治理非法行医情况分析简

目的：了解大兴区非法行医治理现状,为制定整治对策提供依据。方法：对2011-2012年大兴区非法行医整治工作情况进行综合分析。结果：2年间共取缔427户次,立案处罚151起、移送公安机关追究其刑事责任12人、申请法院强制执行93起,与行刑衔接开展前相比差异有统计学意义（P〈0.01、〈0.05）,综合治理使得非法行医初步得到遏制。结论：借助行刑衔接机制,初步解决了在打击非法行医工作中经常遇到的调查取证难、行政处罚与执行难等一系列制约卫生行政执法的难题。应将行政处罚作为目前治理非法行医的有效手段,以提高办案质量与效率和案件移送的成功率为切入点,及时将那些明知故犯、无视病人生命与健康权而再次非法行医者绳之以法。     

Reducing criminal recidivism: evaluation of Citizenship, an evidence-based probation supervision process

‘Citizenship’ is a structured probation supervision program based on ‘what works’ principles, designed for offenders on community orders or licenses supervised within the UK National Probation Service. The program was evaluated using survival analysis comparing the reconvictions of a cohort of all offenders in one probation area eligible for Citizenship over a 2-year period (n = 3,819) with those of a retrospective cohort of all eligible offenders in the same probation area receiving ‘traditional’ probation supervision (n = 2,110), controlling for risk related factors. At the 2-year stage, 50% of offenders in the comparison group had reoffended compared to 41% in the experimental group, and the difference between the survival curves was statistically significant. The hazard ratio was 0.69, which represents a 31% reduction in reconvictions in the experimental group over the proportion in the comparison group at any given time. Time to violation of a supervision order or post custody license was also statistically significantly longer in the experimental group. A key element of the program, promoting contact with community support agencies, was statistically significantly related to reduced reoffending in the Citizenship group. The overall effects remained after controlling for differences in risk scores although effectiveness varied by risk level. Contrary to other ‘what works’ research findings, the program was found to be most effective across the low–medium and medium–high risk thresholds, and was not effective with the highest risk group. This difference can be explained and is discussed in terms of risk, need, and responsivity principles. The Citizenship program was found to be cost-beneficial.     

Criminal process record Winckelmann (Triest, 1768). Comments on the criminal process dealing with the murder of Johann Joachim Winckelmann from the forensic historical and legal medicine viewpoint

Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German historian of ancient art and archaeologist, was born on 9 December 1717 in Stendal, a town in Saxony-Anhalt. At the age of 50 he was murdered on 8 June 1768 in a Trieste hotel. The voluminous original record of the criminal proceedings against his murderer, Francesco Arcangeli, was presumed lost for about 150 years. A new edition in the wording of the original text appeared in 1964. This long sought historical document gives cause for forensic-historical reflections under consideration of the autopsy protocol about Winckelmann, which is likewise a historical document. A considerable change of paradigm in comparison to current autopsy protocols is observed with regard to the evaluation of injuries and the circumstances of death.