The Impact of Deterrence Policies on Reckless Driving: The Case of Portugal

In this paper, we test the effect of three different criminal deterrence theory policy tools: criminal certainty, severity, and celerity of punishment. Whereas most criminal deterrence studies in this field focus on the former two components of deterrence theory, this study also examines the potential deterrent effect of the latter component. Using a time-series design with monthly data, we estimate the effects of an increase in the threat of punishment for traffic offenses resulting from a general increase in fines for traffic offenses, an increase in the probability of getting caught with a blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) level outside the legal limits, and the enactment of an “on-the-spot” fine payment policy in Portugal. We find strong evidence to support a severity effect. An increase in the statutory severity of sentence maxima for traffic violations leads to a decrease in accident and injury rates—approximately an average 0.5 percent reduction in monthly accident and injury rates. Changes in the BAC levels and the mandatory swift payment policy did not produce any convincing deterrence impact.

Human being eaten by his own dogs: Genetic confirmation through analysis of bones recovered in a dog's stomach content

A part of a decomposed human body from an individual was found at his home, together with the decomposed bodies of his 3 dogs. The disappearance of half of the human body was hardly explained. Hypothetically the dogs, starving, could have eaten their owner after his death. All the bodies were recovered for autopsy.Small bone fragments were recovered in one dog's stomach and identified as human by anthropological analysis. DNA was extracted and cytochrome b gene analysis was made in order to determine their origin, confirmed as human.Genetic identification allowed achieving an eight mini-STR profile with MiniFiler (Applied Biosystems) identical to the bone material collected at the victim's autopsy, confirmed that the dogs had effectively eaten their owner.The results showed that it is possible to obtain nuclear DNA in samples subjected to gastric acids and the combination of different techniques allowed us to determine, in each step, the most convenient workflow for the remains identification.     

Science Use in Regulatory Impact Analysis: The Effects of Political Attention and Controversy

Scholars, policy makers, and research sponsors have long sought to understand the conditions under which scientific research is used in the policy‐making process. Recent research has identified a resource that can be used to trace the use of science across time and many policy domains. U.S. federal agencies are mandated by executive order to justify all economically significant regulations by regulatory impact analyses (RIAs), in which they present evidence of the scientific underpinnings and consequences of the proposed rule. To gain new insight into when and how regulators invoke science in their policy justifications, we ask: does the political attention and controversy surrounding a regulation affect the extent to which science is utilized in RIAs? We examine scientific citation activity in all 101 economically significant RIAs from 2008 to 2012 and evaluate the effects of attention—from the public, policy elites, and the media—on the degree of science use in RIAs. Our main finding is that regulators draw more heavily on scientific research when justifying rules subject to a high degree of attention from outside actors. These findings suggest that scientific research plays an important role in the justification of regulations, especially those that are highly salient to the public and other policy actors.     

Correction to: Rethinking Critique: Becoming Clinician

Law and Critique - The article Rethinking Critique: Becoming Clinician, written by Leticia Da Costa Paes, was originally published electronically on the publisher’s internet portal (currently...     

Between Renewal and Stability: Party System Change from a Multi-Level Perspective in Brazil (1998–2018)

The growth of the far right and election results in Brazil are often associated with national or large-scale events. The multi-level features of these developments, namely party competition at the sub-national level, are overlooked in the literature. This article argues that changes in the Brazilian national party system – those observed from Bolsonaro's election, mainly – are rooted in sub-national political dynamics. Through a comparative and longitudinal analysis of multi-level executive and legislative elections, we find that, although there are distinct patterns of competition between the national-sub-national and within-country levels, this difference is not evident in volatility.