Book reviews

COMPANY LAW by Mary C. Oliver, (1967), published by MacDonald & Evans Ltd,, at 12s. 6d.

A CASEBOOK ON TORT by Tony Weir, published by Sweet and Maxwell Ltd. (1967). Bound: £3.17.6d. Paperback: £2. 2. Od.

PRINCIPLES OF PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW by Ian Brownlie, (1966), published by Oxford University Press, at 63/‐.

THE LAW OF CONTRACT by G. H. Treitel, Second Edition (1966) published by Stevens & Sons Ltd. Bound £3. 17. 6. Paperback £1. 18. 6,

CASEBOOK ON MERCANTILE LAW by E.R. Hardy Ivamy (1967) published by Butterworths: at 25s.

“COMMERCIAL LAW OF SCOTLAND”, by Campbell B. Burns, published by William Hodge & Company Limited, (1966), at 42/‐

BRITAIN AND EUROPE: AN INDUSTRIAL APPRAISAL, vol. 1. by the Confederation of British Industry (1966), published by C.B.I, at 10s.     

New Directions in Intersections,Inequality, and Sentencing

Intersectional approaches to sentencing move beyond simply predicting disparities to consider the ways in which social characteristics such as gender, age, race, ethnicity, and class combine to create even more pronounced inequalities. The current review examines research on intersectionality within the context of criminal sentencing. We identify some of the most promising recent trends in this literature, such as attention to family status in the context of focal concerns as well as the inclusion of immigration status in studies of federal sentencing outcomes. Moving beyond the sentencing stage, we also suggest that an intersectional approach can be extended to decision making within the context of postsentencing outcomes, such as gender-specific and culturally sensitive programming and treatment of offenders in institutional and community corrections settings.     

COOPERATIVES FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS: A PROSPECTUS

The author describes research that addresses the problem of organizational change associated with the use of new information and communication technologies. The author focuses on the change processes associated with the use of the World Wide Web by cultural heritage organizations: archives, galleries, libraries, and museums. This research note outlines the research problem and the theoretical perspectives and research methodologies to be used in the research.     

How American Commercial Bail Developed Differently from Other Common Law Countries

Outside the United States those countries sharing the common law tradition are pervasively hostile to commercialization of the bail process, whereas in the United States it is the typical approach. In some jurisdictions payment for bail is a crime; in others it is simply obstructed by various civil legal disabilities. How the American branch of the common law heritage came to deviate so strikingly from the rest on the matter of commercial bail is the topic of this article.

Beginning in the second half of the nineteenth century, courts principally in Ireland, England, and India began to act against payment to bail sureties on the concept that any indemnification of them—even partial—undermined their reliability. Irish courts took the approach that indemnified potential sureties were unreliable and should be rejected by courts. Where all potential sureties were indemnified, bail should be denied. In England courts declared agreements to indemnify sureties illegal contracts contrary to public policy, which would not be enforced by courts. While India took up the refinement of this position, England went on to declare agreements to pay bail sureties to be criminal conspiracies.

Meanwhile in the United States a circumscribed version of the position that indemnification contracts were against public policy—and therefore illegal and unenforcible—actually gained acceptance between 1870 and 1912. In 1912, however, Justice Holmes in Leary v. U.S. renounced the common law concept of bail sureties in favor of an “impersonal and wholly pecuniary” view. This terminated the anti-indemnification movement. Courts soon noted the detrimental effects of commercialism on bail.     

Moderating strict liability crimes in common law tradition countries

Strict Liability crimes require no proof of a mental element. Proving the forbidden act suffices for conviction. This is discomforting under the common law tradition, since defendants who intended no wrong or were even unaware of their misdeed may be guilty. New Zealand, Australia, and Canada have responded by dividing non‐mens‐rea crimes into those where liability is absolute and those where, although conviction requires proof of no mental element, a defense negating mental guilt can be proven by accuseds. Canada has furthermore abolished the former category and severely restricted the latter. Australia and New Zealand maintain a tri‐part classification of mens rea, absolute liability, and strict liability. Some Indian jurisdictions have reached a similar result by different means. Meanwhile, even the few American courts exploring similar solutions remain unaware of the ninety years of jurisprudence developing these concepts elsewhere.     

Long-term evaluation of a bimodal universal prevention program: effects on antisocial development from kindergarten to adolescence

Objectives

Only a handful of studies on developmental crime prevention contain very long-term evaluations and all these addressed high-risk groups in English-speaking countries. In contrast, this article investigates long-term outcomes of a bimodal universal prevention program within the Erlangen-Nuremberg Development and Prevention Study (ENDPS) in Germany.

Methods

The ENDPS is a combined prospective longitudinal and experimental project that originally consisted of 675 kindergarten children from 609 families who were nearly representative for the local area. In the prevention part of the project, a group-wise randomization and matched pairs design was used to evaluate a training of children’s social problem solving skills, a parent training on positive parenting behavior, and a combination of both programs. Originally, 239 children were each in the program group and control group. Outcomes were measured after ca. 3 months, and 2, 5, and 10 years. The outcome measures varied over time and contained, inter alia, reports on child behavior in the Social Behavior Questionnaire (SBQ) from kindergarten teachers, school teachers, mothers, and the youngsters themselves. The overall retention rates in the ENDPS were satisfactory (e.g., 90 % after 10 years), but missing data from various informants further reduced the groups over time. The outcome evaluation was mainly carried out by causal regression models.

Results

There were various desirable effects of the program not only in the short and medium term but also after 5 and 10 years, i.e. on externalizing behavior, property offences, and total behavioral problems. The significant effects were mostly small (d?=?.23–.59) and significances became rare over time. As a trend, the combined parent and child training and the child training alone were more effective; however, this was not consistent across all follow-ups. The outcomes did not only vary with regard to time but also between different measures and informants. The youth self-reports and teacher reports were more suitable to detect effects than the mothers’ reports. Children at higher risk seemed to benefit most from the intervention; however, this was also not fully consistent across measures and times.

Conclusions

The various desirable effects of a relatively short and inexpensive universal program are in accordance with a public health approach in developmental crime prevention. However, it should not be seen as an alternative to selective and indicated approaches, but as a ‘foot in the door’ for high-risk children and families that need more intensive and costly programs. The variations in results across time, outcome measures, informants, and program components confirm the heterogeneity of meta-analytic findings in the field. Therefore, one must be aware of ‘fishing for significances’ and research on ‘what works’ should go beyond the content of programs. More studies should investigate how characteristics of program delivery, contexts, participants, and evaluation methods contribute to effectiveness.     

Does Spending Time in Public Settings Contribute to the Adolescent Risk of Violent Victimization?

Objectives

Using data from a nationally representative survey of adolescents in Finland this research examined the influence of spending time in public settings on the risk of physical assault and robbery victimization.

Methods

Binary and multinomial regression models were estimated to disaggregate associations between hours spent in public settings and characteristics of the victimization incident. The amount of causality/spuriousness in the association was examined using a method of situational decomposition.

Results

Our findings indicate that: (1) an active night life (any time after 6 pm) has a strong effect on victimization for boys, whereas much of the association between night life and victimization is spurious for girls; (2) after-school activity is not a risk factor; (3) adolescents who frequent public places at night increase their risk of victimization by people they know as well as strangers; and (4) much of the risk of night time activity in public settings is alcohol-related.

Conclusions

Our research suggests that a good deal of the risk associated with spending time in public settings is a function of the victim’s own risky behavior rather than inadvertent physical contact with motivated offenders in the absence of capable guardians. In addition, this lifestyle is significantly more victimogenic for males.     

改写历史的两种手法:再论劳动教养制度改革

劳动教养的强制性质不足以表达教育的真谛;短期隔离式保安处分也未能实现预防再犯的目的;由公安机关聆询程序改为司法控制,确实有可能大幅减少被处分对象的数量,但这却引出了有无改制和立法必要的重大议题.改写历史的另一手法是:将收容教养、强制医疗、强制戒毒各自归属刑法、刑事诉讼法以及禁毒法调整,同时借刑法修正之势,通过有限犯罪化,分流那些处于犯罪边缘的原劳教人员.