Social Welfare and ISIS Foreign Fighters

European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research - We provide empirical support for a positive relationship between social safety spending and the phenomenon of ISIS foreign fighters, particularly...     

Lawyers, Legislation and Social Welfare

Efficiency considerations have played an increasing role in the development of legal doctrine over the last decades. Our paper investigates the consequences of the efficiency doctrine for the long run allocation of human resources between the legal profession and other professional activities. It is argued that a short run pursuit of the efficient scope of legislation may create an inefficient oversupply of lawyers under free entry into the legal profession. Self-regulation of entry into the legal profession by the bar association may provide higher aggregate welfare. Liberalization of professional entry can explain both the expansion of legislative activity and the unprecedented growth rate of the legal profession in many countries.     

From Bail to Jail: The Effect of Jail Capacity on Bail Decisions

One of the more important decisions made by judges in the criminal justice system is the bail decision. Factors that judges take into consideration when making a bail decision, such as seriousness of the offense, flight risk, and public safety, are typically seen by researchers as the primary determinants of such a decision. However, one aspect that researchers have not studied extensively—rated jail capacity – could play an important role in a judge’s decision. Overcrowding in jails leads to numerous problems, both for the offender and the system itself, so judges may be more willing to release offenders into the community during the pretrial period if the local jails are overcrowded. The current study examines the effect of rated jail capacity on decisions regarding bail amounts, release on recognizance (ROR), financial release, and conditional release in eight Florida counties. Results indicate that rated jail capacity plays a role in judges’ bail decisions, suggesting that judges are concerned about housing more pretrial offenders in crowded jails.     

Social Exclusion and the Welfare of the Child

The 'best interests of the child' is a pervasive notion in law, and the welfare discourse within which it acquires meaning has become increasingly dominant in our culture's stock of 'common sense'. Because this discourse positions children as dependent and vulnerable, it underpins images of children that can perpetuate the social, legal, and political marginalization of children. This paper uses the area of children and divorce to explore the ways in which this exclusion of children persists alongside both an ostensible commitment to the welfare of children and an increasingly strong rights discourse. We argue that constructions of the child as victim have both political and psychological dimensions: they serve to legitimize state intervention into 'private' family life, and they help assuage social anxieties about the alleged demise of 'the family'. At an individual level, they facilitate a process whereby children can become the repository for feelings with which adults cannot cope. We then suggest that two fundamental changes are required in order to address children's exclusion: the development of a more psychodynamically informed view of personhood and a new image of the child to inform policies.     

美国的保释制度

美国的保释制度是在继受英国的保释制度的基础上发展而来的。以保释是原则,羁押是例外为指导思想,并把保释权上升到宪法的高度,反对预防性羁押。近年来,随着犯罪率高升,美国开始对保释权有所限制。一、保释制度在美国的缘起美国学者关于保释内涵的理解直接来源于英国。从17世纪中叶开始,英国政治学、法学思想对美国的法律制度的确立产生很大的影响。尤其是有关自由、民主、法治、分权与制衡等学说与理论深深刺激了酷爱自由清教徒移民者,鉴于对政治国家仍然心有余悸以及对其不信任心理依然存在,注重个人基本权利的保护和反对酷刑的思想意识迅…     

Bail and Pretrial Release Decisions

Abstract

The racial threat perspective is tested using data from empirical studies of bail and pretrial release. Of the thirty empirical studies investigating race and bail/pretrial release, eighteen identified specific cities and counties, thereby permitting an examination of the effect of racial composition on the race and bail/pretrial release nexus. Results suggest a possible modification of the racial threat perspective as typically conceptualized. Other factors affecting this relationship are briefly discussed.     

The Effects of University Patenting and Licensing on Downstream R&D Investment and Social Welfare

A central argument behind the Bayh-Dole Act presumed that firms had no incentives to invest in downstream R&D aimed at developing university inventions committed to the public domain. The empirical evidence on university patenting and licensing is partly at odds with the premises of this argument. Non-exclusive licensing of university patents has been common and lucrative, and in the area of biomedical technologies university patents and licensing restrictions may be a hindrance to downstream R&D, rather than a stimulus. The paper presents a model of R&D competition based on a university invention where appropriability conditions are defined by the patentability of downstream innovations and imitation opportunities. A comparison of equilibria under “open access” to university inventions and under “university patenting” shows that only under restrictive conditions the latter regime results in increased R&D investment and social welfare. In general, university licensing royalties are therefore a poor gauge of social welfare gains from university patenting. This is an extensive revision of the paper “University Patents, R&D Competition, and Social Welfare” presented at the conference on University Spin-Offs at the Université du Québec à Montréal on February 27th, 2004. I would like to thank the conference participants and a referee from the journal for useful comments and suggestions.     

社会福利事业的发展与我国和谐社会建设

随着国家经济、社会的发展,逐渐加大社会福利事业的总支出,逐渐提高国民收入分配中的再分配比率,是当今世界发展的普遍规律.中国建设和谐社会,既要重视在初次分配领域深化分配制度改革,规范分配秩序和在再分配领域健全社会保障体系,又要充分发展社会福利事业."十一五"期间中国社会福利事业应当有一个"中等水平"的发展,增加社会福利的项目,增加财政资金的投入.     

Bail decision making and pretrial detention

Bail practices became the target of reform efforts during the 1960's and 1970's not only because of issues concerning economic bias against indigent defendants but also because of criticism of the bail decision itself. Questions were raised about the appropriate uses of bail (e.g., to prevent flight or pretrial crime, or to inflict pretrial punishment), the rationality of the criteria relied on by judges in deciding bail, and the discretionary allocation of pretrial detention through high cash bail. In this article, case law and statutes governing bail practices in the United States are reviewed first to characterize the ambiguous legal framework from within which bail judges must operate. Then bail decisions in a large urban jurisdiction are analyzed as a case study to discover the factors most influential in determining pretrial release options. It is inferred that, even after years of reform, community-ties measures do not play a major role in the bail decision or the determination of pretrial custody; rather, the nature of the charged offense appears most influential. A finding of special significance is that a large proportion of these decisions could not be explained systematically (i.e., a large share of variance remained unexplained). The article concludes by suggesting a guidelines approach to bail that could narrow disparity in bail options and the use of detention, enhance the rationality of the decision process and contribute to more equitable pretrial practices.Revised version of a paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Toronto, August, 1978. This research was supported, in part, by a grant from the Statistics Division of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration to the Criminal Justice Research Center. Points of view or opinions stated are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.     

社会福利权益法制化中的政策

在传统法治理论中,政策应当从自足的法律系统中被排除出去。但在当代社会,法律必须依靠政策的支持才能承担起促进公民各项福利权益的重任。在立法领域,不同利益主体间的政策博弈为福利立法的正当性提供了基础,而国家政策的政治抉择则奠定了福利立法的基本方向。在行政领域,合理的政策规范有利于建构有效的福利权益实现机制。在司法领域,科学的政策能够不断完善保障公民福利权益的法律机制。     

How Situational Crime Prevention Contributes to Social Welfare

Situational crime prevention has been met with considerable scepticism from academic criminologists primarily for its indifference to social welfare. It has been seen as contributing to a law-and-order agenda with its focus on making public places secure for business and as supplanting social welfare policies as means of responding to crime. But situational crime prevention contributes more to social welfare than sceptics allow and its advocates (may) believe. Situational crime prevention has enjoyed its fullest and robust expression, not in the free-market, neo-liberal environment of America, but within the leading welfare states of Norway, Sweden and Denmark. This essay considers the politics of the situational approach, the alleged benefits of social crime prevention, criminalisation of social policy, unplanned social welfare benefits, assumptions about the role of business, and concerns about privacy, surveillance and control. The discussion centres on the European experience: the UK, France, The Netherlands and the Nordic countries.

Domestic Violence, Character, And Social Change In The Welfare Reform Debate

This article addresses the recently discovered connection between domestic violence and welfare dependency." Empirical research among welfare populations shows that over 50% of women receiving welfare are or have recently been battered, and that partner abuse is a major reason for the continuing poverty of many women.
The question the author asks and begins to answer is why this connection has not previously been identified or publicized by either the battered women's movement or the anti‐poverty movement, and what the challenge may be to both movements as they attempt to address it in the context of welfare reform. The author argues that the connection has not been previously addressed because of the somewhat conflicting ideologies underlying both movements. The battered women's movement is defined in part by its strong moral denunciation of male abusers and assertion of the victimization of women by men. The anti‐poverty movement is reluctant to demonize half of the poor population, particularly in light of the conservative welfare reformers' emphasis on "character" as the main cause of poverty. The article argues that we must – and can – find a way to synthesize the feminist emphasis on interpersonal justice and morality with the anti‐poverty movement's recognition of the larger social causes of poverty. The perspectives of both movements must be enlarged to recognize the multiple layers of victimization which poor women and men endure; and both movements will be revitalized by this cross‐fertilization.     

保释制度的诉讼价值分析

诉讼价值是诉讼制度的灵魂所在;从程序正义、实体正义以及诉讼效率价值三个角度来看,保释制度既有科学合理的一面,也有其不完善的一面;但保释制度作为一项确认、保障被追诉人人身自由的制度仍然是值得肯定和借鉴的.我国有必要借鉴国外的做法并结合我国实际,在现行取保候审制度的基础上确立科学规范的保释制度.     

社会福利保障的宪法路径选择

世界各国宪法保障社会福利有两种模式,一种是在宪法中列举各种社会权利的社会权保障模式,另一种是仅在宪法中明确建设社会国家的原则或者类似条款的社会国保障模式。从我国《宪法》的现有规定及其变迁、宪法的解释与学界的解读看,我国属于社会权模式。社会权保障模式的缺陷是随着民众追求平等意识的成长、市场机制的扩展和公民权利意识的增强,社会福利可能借助宪法无序、无限地扩张。通过淡化社会福利的权利性质、转变社会权的合宪性审查的方向、扩展反射利益推进社会福利以及贯彻宪法设立的可承受性、适度性原则,可以推进我国社会福利宪法保障模式由社会权模式向社会国模式转换。