Hannah Arendt's Moral Ontology: Comments on David Luban's Arendt on the Crime of Crimes

David Luban identifies a tension between Arendt's conception of ethnic identification in a context of persecution and her conception of humanity. That tension pertains to the reality—or realities—that Arendt addresses: the moral reality of her Bildung that appears throughout her work, and is centered on the “dignity of man,” on the one hand, and the divisive, “political” reality that she was forced to face when “attacked as a Jew,” on the other. By implicitly accepting that in a context of persecution one cannot escape the framing relevance of the “political” —an idea that is also present in her imaginary condemnation speech of Eichmann—Arendt betrays a fundamental theme of her work: “forgiveness” and the inherent possibility of a “new beginning.”     

The cognitive distortions of child molesters are in need of treatment

Abstract

This paper forms the second part of a debate led by Marshall, Marshall, and Kingston (2011) regarding the need to address so-called cognitive distortions in sexual offender treatment. In their paper, Marshall et al. argue that so-called cognitive distortions may not necessarily require intense and focused attention or challenge throughout treatment. In evaluating Marshall et al.'s arguments, we highlight some inherent differences in how both Marshall et al. and ourselves choose to define the term “cognitive distortion”. We surmise that these key definitional differences appear to account for many of the issues that we “debate”. In particular, for example, Marshall et al. focus their arguments regarding cognitive distortions more explicitly upon excuses, denial and minimisations, whereas we choose to focus upon schemas and higher-order belief structures. Thus, we argue that the broadness and vagueness of the term “cognitive distortion” can lend itself to quite different interpretations and research foci. We offer some alternative views to Marshall et al.'s position and advocate the consideration of cognitions with an aetiological role in offending. We conclude with some suggestions for future research and treatment.     

Does the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Engage in “Trial by Media”?*

In recent years, heated debate has arisen concerning the media practices of Australia's competition and consumer regulator (“the ACCC”), with a number of industry leaders asserting that the ACCC engages in “trial by media.” The public disquiet surrounding the ACCC's use of the media was so significant that the Australian Parliament established an independent committee of inquiry (“the Dawson Inquiry”) to investigate (amongst other things) whether Australian competition legislation “provides adequate protection for the commercial affairs and reputation of individuals and corporations.” In its report, the Dawson Inquiry observed that widespread misgivings about the ACCC's media practices had emerged from the submissions that it had received. In its recommendations to the Australian Parliament, the Dawson Inquiry recommended that the ACCC should develop a media code of conduct to govern its use of the media, particularly in relation to enforcement proceedings. In making these recommendations, the Dawson Inquiry drew from a hitherto unpublished research study conducted in 2002 that sought to identify the extent to which the ACCC engages in “trial by media.” This article documents the design, methodological bases, and findings of that study in order to facilitate broader dissemination of the research findings upon which the Dawson Inquiry's policy recommendations concerning the ACCC's use of the media were based.     

Women's Accounts of Domestic Violence

Abstract

Critiques of behavioral inventories, qualitative studies of battered women's experiences, and communications research all suggest that women's accounts of violence contain information and a more complex structure than is captured by checklist measures that focus on types of abuse. We conducted a quantitative thematic analysis of 162 women's accounts of domestic violence to assess structure and content. Most women presented domestic violence as a “story” with an introduction, body and a conclusion: 59% presented a “complete story” and 33% a “near story.” Background information and problem statements were the most prevalent content statements in the “introduction,” and relationship issues and explanations were most common in the “conclusion.” Bivariate analyses revealed that accounts did not vary by socio-demographic factors and severity of the incident. Men were less likely to present complete stories, had far briefer narratives, and never discussed relationship issues. Knowledge of the structure and content of women's accounts provides greater understanding of women's responses to violence.     

HIGH‐CONFLICT CONTACT DISPUTES: EVIDENCE OF THE EXTREME UNRELIABILITY OF SOME CHILDREN'S ASCERTAINABLE WISHES AND FEELINGS

This article challenges an increasing orthodoxy regarding the weight which courts might place upon the expressed views of children in a specific situation—high‐conflict contact disputes. I am a child psychiatrist who acts as an expert witness within the family courts of England & Wales. I have conducted a statistical analysis of cases in which I have conducted assessments of children caught in such disputes between their separated parents. Fifty‐eight children met the criteria for inclusion in the study—the child's consistent opposition to contact with the non resident parent (NRP), despite the court having determined that there was no good reason to constrain contact. My assessment routinely included attempted observation of the child at a visit with the NRP. Despite their stated views most children had a positive experience in those visits that took place, and despite the fact that most had not seen the NRP for a long time. Overall there was a statistical association between increased resistance to contact and the greater age of the child and the longer the time during which no contact had occurred. However, the responses of children and young people were unpredictable and it was impossible to conclude that apparent maturity or intelligence was a guide to the reliability of their expressed resistance. The possible reasons for this unreliability are discussed. I emphasize that my sample of children is unusual as many of the cases had involved serious, though unfounded, allegations of abuse. In addition most of the children showed indications of having become “alienated” from the NRP. I conclude that courts might exercise caution when evaluating the views of children and young people in this situation, and emphasises that assessors should consider including at least one observation of the child at a prolonged visit to the NRP. Because of the new orthodoxy some parents may be tempted to misuse their child's right to a “voice” in court in order to achieve their own ends. Practitioners who advise courts may need to be more aware of these difficulties.     

Invitation or Ambush: The Scope of an Insured's Duty to Cooperate and the Slippery Slope of Information Sharing

The policyholder's “duty to cooperate” is built into every liability insurance policy, either expressly or through the application of a state's common law. The scope of an insured's duty to cooperate is often difficult to discern, however, in terms of the type and extent of information that the insured should provide as part of the insurer's investigation of the underlying matter for which coverage is being sought. Traditionally, the duty to cooperate was intended to encourage information sharing to allow the insurer to afford the policyholder a comprehensive, informed defense to the underlying claimant's allegations. This article examines the scope of the duty to cooperate and how that duty impacts the insured's obligation to share some reasonable amount of information as part of the insurer's investigation and defense of the underlying claim, noting potential pitfalls and risks that may arise from information sharing.     

Policyholder Litigation Challenging the Claims-Handling Conduct of Resolute Management

Over the past decade, Berkshire Hathaway has engaged in numerous “retroactive reinsurance” transactions whereby it takes on another insurer's long-tail environmental and asbestos coverage obligations in exchange for payment of a large sum of cash by the insurer. The cash that Berkshire receives from the insurer typically is the amount of cash that the insurer had reserved to pay policyholder claims on these coverage obligations. Warren Buffet has referred to these large sums received from an insurer as “float,” characterized as “money that doesn't belong to us but that we get to invest for Berkshire's benefit.” The lure of holding on to float for investment purposes has led to aggressive efforts by Berkshire's claims-handling unit, Resolute Management, to reduce and delay claims payments to policyholders. In response, a number of policyholders have initiated lawsuits and other proceedings against Berkshire entities and their related insurers.     

Is There Touch in the Game of Twister®? The Effects of Innocuous Touch and Suggestive Questions on Children's Eyewitness Memory

Preschool children (ages 48–70 months, N = 48) experienced 2 to-be-remembered events (i.e., the games Twister^® and Shapes) that included either innocuous bodily touch or no touch. Participants were interviewed 7 days later and asked direct (“Did Amy kiss you?”) or suggestive “tag” questions (“Amy kissed you, didn't she?”) equated for content. Results indicated that children who were innocuously touched were no more likely to falsely assent to “abuse-related” touch questions (e.g., “Amy touched your bottom, didn't she?”) than were children who were not touched. However, children who were asked tag questions responded at chance levels, thereby making high errors of commission in response to abuse-touch questions relative to their no-tag counterparts who responded to “abuse questions” accurately 93% of the time. Children who were asked tag questions assented at a higher rate to general forensic questions (“Amy took your picture, didn't she?”) than did children asked direct questions, and children assented at higher rates to “abuse-touch” questions than to general forensic questions. Results are discussed in terms of prior research on interviewing techniques and adult influence on children's testimony.     

Technology transfer in the navy: The historical background

This report reviews technology transfer in light of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980. Following a brief introduction, a section on “Definitions” explains the several meanings that the phrase “technology transfer” now carries in policy discussions. The next section, on “Passive Technology Transfer”, reviews traditional Department of Defense scientific and technical information programs that relate to technology transfer. A section on “Military Industrial Transfer” examines technology transfer from the Defense Department to private industry, expecially to defense contractors. A section on “The Stevenson-Wydler Act and Active Technology Transfer” describes the principal provisions of the new act and why Congress passed it. The next two sections, on “NASA’s Technology Transfer Program” and “The Federal Laboratory Consortium” outline the two existing Government programs Congress relied upon in developing ideas for the new law. A section on “Implementation of the Stevenson-Wydler Act”, discusses several important issues that must be considered by Navy laboratory management as the new law is put into effect in the Navy. Finally, a brief conclusion emphasizes the major point of the report: That Congress, in passing the Stevenson-Wydler Act, did not fully consider what relationship the new technology transfer programs it was requiring in the Executive Branch should bear to existing programs with similar purposes. If the public interest is to be served, the report argues, the Navy must consciously and carefully determine the proper nature of this relationship.     

Sovereignty and International Order

Abstract. Sovereignty may be threatened by obligations and relations with other nations, states or powers from either an “internal” or “external” perspective. In this paper, I argue that these obligations and relationships may be compatible with a state's sovereignty if we understand the proper nature of authoritative relationships. This requires a model of “rational authority” which places emphasis on the first-person perspective of the subjects to authority.     

El Título en la Mano: The Impact of Titling Programs on Low‐Income Housing in Texas Colonias

This article analyzes the impact of The Community Resources Group Receivership Program undertaken from 1998 to 2002 that provided clean property titles to residents in several informal housing colonias (subdivisions) in South Texas. Survey data were gathered from 260 low‐income households comprising two populations: those who had secure title from the outset, and those who were beneficiaries of the land titling program. Focus group interviews were conducted to explore how the beneficiaries construct the meaning of ownership before and after title “regularization.” Formal titling consolidates understandings of absolute property relations in comparison with de facto rights born of use (legal or not), which strengthens people's sense of self‐esteem and potential for political involvement. We found that, contrary to conventional wisdom, title provision per se appears to have little direct impact either upon home improvement or upon residents' receiving enhanced access to credit and financial services. We also found evidence that informality and illegality is likely to reemerge as owners die intestate, and as they revert to informal land market property transfers.     

A new horizon on organised crime: re-locating organised crime in America

Beginning in 1974, the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline Railway (BAM) dominated public life in the Soviet Union for the next decade. Declared complete in 1984, BAM was arguably the greatest and most costly construction feat in post-war Soviet history. Officially, the mainline was to serve as the “path toward communism” that would unite all Soviet citizens. This article explores the crime and corruption that surrounded the propaganda-driven world of the BAM. Although the railway led to few concrete accomplishments in either the industrial or social development of the USSR, the sociological and criminological consequences of BAM were profound. The highly visible presence of both petty and hard-core criminals on the railway revealed that life on the rails was not as progressive or futuristic as the state claimed. Instead, the dynamics of crime and control that intersected during the BAM's ten years of prominence revealed that the peculiarities of human nature, not what the state termed “communist morality,” defined those who worked on the project.     

In the eye of the beholder: Meaning and structure of informal status in women's and men's prisons*

Applying an abductive mixed‐methods approach, we investigate the informal status systems in three women's prison units (across two prisons) and one men's prison unit. Qualitative analyses suggest “old head” narratives—where age, time in prison, sociability, and prison wisdom confer unit status—are prevalent across all four contexts. Perceptions of maternal “caregivers” and manipulative “bullies,” however, are found only in the three women's units. The qualitative findings inform formal network analyses by differentiating “positive,” “neutral,” and “negative” status nominations, with “negative” ties primarily absent from the men's unit. Within the women's units, network analyses find that high‐status women are likely to receive both positive and negative peer nominations, such that evaluations depend on who is doing the evaluating. Comparing the women's and men's networks, the correlates of positive and neutral ties are generally the same and center on covariates of age, getting along with others, race, and religion. Overall, the study points to important similarities and differences in status across the gendered prison contexts, while demonstrating how a sequential mixed‐methods design can illuminate both the meaning and the structure of prison informal organization.     

INVENTING CRIMINOLOGY: THE “SCIENCE OF MAN” IN CESARE BECCARIA'S DEI DELITTI E DELLE PENE (1764)*

This paper challenges existing images of the context and object of Cesare Beccaria's (1764) Dei delitti e delle pene . It offers textual and other evidence that the chief object of Beccaria's famous treatise was the application to crime and penality not of humanism and legal rationality, as convention holds, but of the Scottish-inspired “science of man.” This latter was a deterministic discourse whose key principles—utilitarianism, probabilism, associationism, and sensationalism—implicitly defy, conventional assumptions about the volitional basis of classical criminology. The paper thus questions Dei delitti's proper place in the history of criminology and, in so doing, casts doubt on the very existence of a distinctive “classical criminology.”     

A note on taking account of the automatic death penalty jurors

The California Supreme Court'sHovey opinion identified a separate group of “automatic death penalty” (ADP) persons whose exclusion had been overlooked in previous studies of death qualification. Using data unavailable at the timeHovey was decided, this brief article estimates the effect of excluding this group on the attitudinal skewing and conviction-proneness of death-qualified jurors. It concludes that the impact of excluding the ADPs is negligible.     

Maternal Filicide in Turkey

Filicide occurs in every socioeconomic stratum around the world. This study was conducted to evaluate motives, psychopathological aspects, and socio-demographic factors of 74 filicide cases of women in Turkey. Mean age of mothers, most of whom committed infanticide, was 26 years, and breakdown of criminal offenses are as follows: “to get rid of unwanted babies” (24.3%), “acute psychotic-type filicide” (21.6%), “fatal child abuse and neglect” (17.6%), “to get revenge” (12.2%), “protect the lonely child from the harm and badness after suicide” (10.8%), and “pity” (9.5%) motives. Results showed that maternal filicide cannot be reduced to only mental instability or environmental factors and indicates deficiencies in the capacity of the mothers' role in connecting with their child and with parenting skills. Finally, with regard to defendants' motives, similar factors that contribute to committing maternal filicide should be considered while making an assessment of the data and determining employee risk groups.     

Sentencing in a free society: The failure of the President's Crime Commission to influence sentencing policy

The President's Crime Commission (1965–1967) made recommendations in corrections favoring the then leading ideas of rehabilitation and indeterminacy, shortly before a radical reappraisal led to the eclipse of the rehabilitative model in favor of “just deserts.” In coming to its conclusions, the Commission overlooked the potential growth of prison populations, the development of prisoners' rights, and research that pointed to the failure of rehabilitation. The inability of the Commission to anticipate this great change was due in part to the dynamics of and time pressures on a Presidential commission. The change was precipitated by a social and intellectual crisis analogous to “scientific paradigm” revolutions described by Thomas Kuhn (1970). The crisis that led to a change in thinking about punishment was part of the larger crisis of the political legitimacy of liberalism.     

“Identified”, “probable”, “possible” or “exclude”: The influence of task-irrelevant information on forensic odontology identification opinion

In a mass disaster situation, identification of the deceased utilising comparison of dental features is frequently heavily relied upon to facilitate rapid and accurate outcomes. The method consists of the comparison of clinical and radiographic records depicting oral structures and dentition to allow an opinion to be produced on a presumed identity. Current forensic odontology identification opinions are expressed as categories of levels of identification. Categories such as “Identified”, “Probable”, “Possible” and “Exclude” are used in various forensic odontology identification scales. The boundaries between the levels of the scales are not fixed; hence, category selection is highly subjective. It is uncertain how extrinsic factors such as exposure to contextual task-irrelevant information or operator experience influence category selection. In this study, forensic odontologist and dentist participants read task-irrelevant context case information containing either strong or weak identification or non-identification suggestions before evaluating and comparing pairs of true matching and non-matching dental radiographs. They were then asked to form an opinion regarding identification using one of four categories from the INTERPOL scale. Context information was found to influence categorical decisions. The magnitude and direction of influence depended on the type of participant, the true match status of the radiographs, and the strength and direction of bias of the context. The results of this study demonstrate the contextual effect and fluidity of the boundaries between the categories on the identification scale and highlight the need for stringent protocols to be developed regarding the use of these categorical scales to enable decision making to be more objective.