Enforcing Social Europe through Labour Inspectorates: Changes in Capacity and Cooperation across Europe

Despite its central importance for the implementation of EU social policy, the issue of member state enforcement of European regulations has attracted little academic attention. This paper analyses changes in national enforcement systems and horizontal cooperation between them by comparing labour inspectorates in the EU-15 member states over time (2000 versus 2010). Starting from the assumption that, as administrations, enforcement systems are strongholds of national sovereignty, it is argued that member states’ interest in creating a level playing field and in enabling free movement in accordance with the ‘four freedoms’ should nevertheless bring about change. The results show insufficient enforcement capacity overall, but also that important changes have taken place regarding the coordination, steering and pressure capacity of national labour inspectorates, and also regarding cooperation amongst them. This points to the emergence of horizontal cooperation as a distinct feature of the European Administrative Space.     

Influencing expert judgment: Attributions of crime causality

Purpose. The present research aimed to investigate the effects of attribution on expert clinical judgment in comparison to semi‐experts and laypeople. Two research questions were addressed. First, would experts be less subject to attributional manipulations, in terms of their perceived ratings of dangerousness, than would semi‐experts or laypeople? Second, would experts be less subject to attributional manipulations, in terms of their assessments of offender responsibility, than would semi‐experts or laypeople? Method. A 3×3×2 mixed groups design was implemented. Participants read nine crime scenarios that had been internally or externally manipulated. For each scenario, participants were asked to rate offender dangerousness, offender responsibility, and the seriousness of the crime and to suggest a suitable sentence length. Targeted recruitment was employed, yielding 12 experts, 21 semi‐experts, and 22 laypeople. Results. Offenders were considered to be more responsible for their actions and more dangerous to others in the internal manipulations than in the external ones across all crime types and by all levels of expertise. Findings indicate that semi‐experts are less subject to the influence of attributional manipulations than both experts and laypeople. Marked similarities in the pattern of expert and lay person judgments can be observed from the present analyses. Conclusions. The current findings lend support to previous research in the area in that similarities between expert and lay person judgment were observed. However, through expanding and clarifying the levels of expertise investigated, the current findings highlight the need for greater research into the distinct ‘semi‐expert’ group.     

Human Dignity of “Offenders”: A Limitation on Substantive Criminal Law

The paper argues for attaching a significant role to the dignity of offenders as a limitation on the scope of substantive criminal law. Three different aspects of human dignity are discussed. Human dignity is closely connected with the principle of culpability. Respecting the dignity of offenders requires that we assign criminal liability according to the actual attitudes of the offenders towards the interests protected by the offence. The doctrine of natural and probable consequence of complicity, which allows us to assign liability for mens rea offenses to a negligent offender, violates the dignity of the offender; it treats the incautious offender as if she had willfully expressed disrespect towards the protected interest. The human dignity core of privacy is invaded by criminalizing the private possession of child pornography. By extending the prohibition of the creation, sale and distribution of child pornography to the private possession of pornography, the State attempts to control the way the individual expresses an essential part of the self—his sexual fantasies—within himself. Dignity demands that our actions convey an attitude of respect towards human beings. The expressive meaning of disrespect is culture-dependent. The historical association with totalitarian regimes explains our reluctance to impose a legal duty to report past crime: the individual who is legally required to turn a suspect into the police is viewed as an “informant.”     

The Legitimacy of Judicial Responses to Moral Panic: Perceived vs. Normative Legitimacy

In some instances, the criminal justice system is affected by a moral panic; that is, by an exaggerated social reaction to an assumed threat to moral values. When influenced by moral panic, courts demonize defendants and aggravate punishments. Are such responses legitimate? This article argues that by contrast to legitimate condemnation of criminal conduct, demonizing defendants ought never be legitimate. The legitimacy of aggravating punishment requires distinguishing between the sociological concept of legitimacy (“perceived legitimacy”) and the moral concept (“normative legitimacy”). Aggravation of punishment in response to moral panic might be perceived as legitimate since it expresses public perceptions about the severity of the threat to a social value, even when these perceptions are exaggerated; however, punishments that are proportionate to such a perceived, exaggerated, threat to a social value are unjust and unfair, and therefore are normatively illegitimate. When the panic subsides, courts tend to return to lower levels of punishment. The subsidence of the panic enables one to realize that a gap between perceived and normative legitimacy has been created during the panic. Should and can the gap be bridged retroactively in order to gain full legitimacy? One way to bridge the gap is to grant clemency that will reduce the punishment of defendants whose sentences were exaggerated unduly during the panic. The article proposes a more radical mechanism that allows for sentence re-evaluation in cases of moral panic.     

Sudden death associated with a cardiac diverticulum.

We describe the unusual case of a 20-year-old Aboriginal man who was admitted to hospital with chest pain. He died 1 day later. Necropsy showed extensive anterior myocardial infarction in the left ventricle. An isolated diverticulum arising from the subaortic valve region of the left ventricle had compressed the left main coronary artery.     

Cross-National Adolescent Multidimensional Life Satisfaction Reports: Analyses of Mean Scores and Response Style Differences

Although numerous cross-national studies have assessed life satisfaction among adults, similar studies using adolescent samples have been rare. To address this shortage of research, a total of 1338 youth adolescents from two individualistic nations (Ireland, USA) and two collectivistic nations (China, South Korea) were administered the Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS: Huebner, 1994) to assesses general life satisfaction and satisfaction with family, friends, school, self, and living environment. Responses were analyzed to assess potential cross-national differences in (a) mean levels of life satisfaction, and (b) response styles, specifically acquiescence and extreme responding. Mean scores revealed positive ratings by adolescents from all four nations across all domains, with the exceptions of satisfaction with school experiences (Ireland, South Korean, USA), living environment (China, South Korea), self (South Korea), and general life satisfaction (South Korea). Results also revealed significant response style differences across all MSLSS domains. Significant gender and gender-by-nation effects were observed for both mean score and response style differences, although the effect sizes were small. The implications of these findings were discussed, particularly with respect to “individualistic” vs. “collectivistic” cultural differences. Rich Gilman is Associate Professor in the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology at the University of Kentucky. His research interests include positive well-being among youth, perfectionism, and socially ostracized adolescents. Scott Huebner is Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of South Carolina. His research interests involve the conceptualization, measurement, and implications of positive psychological well-being constructs among youth. He is a fellow of Division 16 of the APA and the International Society for Quality of Life Studies. Lili Tian is Associate Professor at South China Normal University. She received her Ph.D. in psychology from Beijing Normal University. Her major research interests include adolescent's school well-being, acculturation of immigrant children and personality assessment. Nansook Park is Associate Professor at the University of Rhode Island. She received her Ph.D. from University of South Carolina. Her major research interests among youth include character strengths and virtues, positive experience and life satisfaction and how they are related to well-being, family functioning, health and education. Jenny O’Byrne received her BA in the Department of Counselling & Psychotherapy from the Dublin Business School. Recent research interests focus on child and adolescent development, and she recently completed her pre-clinical training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy with the Lincoln Centre in London. Dina Sverko is a research assistant at the University of Zagreb (Croatia). She received her Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Triest (Italy). Her major research interests include personality assessment and health psychology. Miriam Schiff is lecturer (equivalent to Assistant Professor) at the Hebrew University School of Social Work and Social Welfare in Jerusalem. Her major research interests include trauma and substance use, and general mental health among adolescents in clinic settings. Heather Langknecht received her Ed.S. from the University of Kentucky in 2004. She currently works as a school psychologist at Virginia Beach Public Schools (Virginia). Her primary research interests are cross-national quality of life issues among children and youth.