South Australia's Judicature Act Reforms of 1853: The First Attempt to Fuse Law and Equity in the British Empire

In South Australia in 1853, 20 years before the judicature system was introduced in England, legislation was passed to fuse the administration of law and equity. This article first describes the South Australian reform and then considers the sources from which it might have emanated and the motives behind its enactment. It shows that, however boldly the reform may have been conceived, the practical impact of the reform on the administration of justice in South Australia was very slight. Reasons suggested for this fact include the predominance of English ideas in nineteenth century Australia and the sudden but at the same time voluntary nature of the change introduced by the legislation.     

The Merhav-Pasinetti approach to industrialization

This article attempts to develop a non-marginalist approach to the process of industrialisation, by combining Pasinetti's theory of Vertical Integration with Merhav's analysis of the structural causes of underdevelopment. This is then integrated with the structuralist/redistribution economics of Dutt to both dismantle the mainstream emphasis on factor proportions, static comparative cost doctrine, the need to maintain low wages to sustain price competitive (industrial) exports, and to develop a new paradigm of industrialisation.     

Intervening in gun markets: an experiment to assess the impact of targeted gun-law messaging

The objective of this study was to assess whether targeting new gun buyers with a public safety message aimed at improving gun law awareness can modify gun purchasers’ behaviors. Between May 2007 and September 2008, 2,120 guns were purchased in two target neighborhoods of the City of Los Angeles. Starting in August 2007, gun buyers initiating transactions on odd-numbered days received a letter signed by prominent law enforcement officials, indicating that law enforcement had a record of their gun purchase and that the gun buyer should properly record future transfers of the gun. The letters arrived during buyers’ 10-day waiting periods, before they could legally return to the store to collect their new gun. Subsequent gun records were extracted to assess the letter’s effect on legal secondary sales, reports of stolen guns, and recovery of the gun in a crime. An intent-to-treat analysis was also conducted as a sensitivity check to remedy a lapse in the letter program between May and August 2007. The letter appears to have no effect on the legal transfer rate or on the short-term rate of guns subsequently turning up in a crime. However, we found that the rate at which guns are reported stolen for those who received the letter is more than twice the rate for those who did not receive the letter (p value = 0.01). Those receiving the letter reported their gun stolen at a rate of 18 guns per 1,000 gun-years and those not receiving the letter reported their gun stolen at a rate of 7 guns per 1,000 gun-years. Of those receiving the letter, 1.9% reported their gun stolen during the study period compared to 1.0% for those who did not receive the letter. The percentage of guns reported stolen in these neighborhoods is high, indicating a high rate of true gun theft, a regular practice of using stolen-gun reports to separate the gun buyer from future misuse of the gun, or some blend of both. Simple, targeted gun law awareness campaigns can modify new gun buyers’ behaviors. Additional follow-up or modifications to this initiative might be needed to impact the rate at which guns enter the illegal gun market and ultimately are recovered in crimes.     

Diversifying State Supreme Courts

Why do some states diversify their supreme courts sooner than others? Using original data on the first black and female state supreme court justices, I contend that political and institutional pressures influence when states diversify their high courts. The results suggest that selection systems, institutions affecting turnover, and the appointment of political minorities to the United States Supreme Court are associated with states seating their first black and female justices. The findings have implications for our understanding of the political and institutional circumstances that promote judicial diversity.     

Addressing identity crime in crime management information systems: Definitions,classification, and empirics

Identity fraud as a term and concept in its formative stages was often presumed to be identity theft and visa versa. However, identity theft is caused by the identities (or tokens) of individuals or organisations being stolen is an enabling precursor to identity fraud. The boundaries of identity fraud and identity theft are now better defined. The absence of specific identity crime legislation could be a cause of perpetrators not classified as breaching identity crimes but under other specific entrenched law such as benefit fraud, or credit card fraud. This metrics overlap can cause bias in crime management information systems. This study uses a multi-method approach where data was collected in both a quantitative and qualitative manner. These approaches are used as a lens for defining different classes of online identity crimes in a crime management (IS) security context. In doing so, we contribute to a deeper understanding of identity crime by specifically examining its hierarchical classes and definitions; to aid clearer structure in crime management IS. We seek to answer the questions: should current law around identity fraud continue to be reinforced and measures introduced to prevent identity crime; should laws be amended; or should new identity crime laws be constructed? We conclude and recommend a solution incorporating elements of all three.     

The Intention Debate in German Criminal Law

Abstract.  This article considers the various suggestions that have been put forward by German scholars to replace the traditional concept of intention, which the author has criticised elsewhere ( Taylor 2004 ). The debate on this topic has become a minor academic industry in Germany, and should be better known as the English-speaking world struggles with its own concepts of intention. Despite the great amount of effort and ingenuity devoted to this topic in Germany, however, the author concludes that only one theory of intention, that put forward by Professor Wolfgang Frisch, shows any substantial degree of promise.     

Studying the reach of deterrence: Can deterrence theory help explain police misconduct?

This article reports the first perceptual deterrence study of a sample of police officers. The study investigated the influence of traditional deterrence considerations, extralegal sanctions, and impulsivity on the intention to commit several hypothesized acts of police misconduct. The results were largely consistent with perceptual deterrence findings from samples of college students, experienced offenders, and corporate managers. In particular, this study found that both legal and extralegal sanction threats potentially deter police misconduct. Further, it found that impulsivity diminished the deterrent influence of both sanction forms. The study also found that some of the effects of the explanatory variables depended on whether officers had prior punishment experience. The article discusses the implications of its findings for combating police misconduct and for deterrence research generally.