Juvenile Arrest and Later Economic Attainment: Strength and Mechanisms of the Relationship

Journal of Quantitative Criminology - We tested the impact of juvenile arrest on asset accumulation, debt accumulation, and net worth from ages 20–30. We also examined whether indicators of...     

Moving Children through Private International Law: Institutions and the Enactment of Ethics

This article examines how the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co‐operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (Hague Adoption Convention) plays a central role in justifying the institution of legal adoption. The Hague Adoption Convention has often been regarded as a response to the challenges that the “global situation” brings to adoption practice. Based on private international law, the agreement contains protocols and norms to ensure the protection of the child in intercountry adoption. In the article, I propose that the Hague Convention can be understood as a “transparency device”; a complex assemblage working in pursuit of global “good governance.” The device, however, also operates as justification within the institutional domain, allowing adoption agencies to make distinctions between legitimate and illegitimate adoptions. Idemonstrate how the logic of transparency disguises as much as it promises to reveal. While the doctrine's aim is to validate adoptability and combat trafficking, it also helps to mainstream Euro‐American adoption knowledge to other parts of the world.     

The introduction of forensic advisors in Belgium and their role in the criminal justice system

Forensic advisors (FA) at the National Institute for Criminalistics and Criminology (NICC), generalists in forensic science, act as an advising body to the magistrate to improve communication between the various parties involved in the investigation: magistrate, police and crime scene investigators, and forensic experts. Their role is manifold, but their main objectives are to optimise trace processing by selecting the most pertinent traces in the context of the case and by advising magistrates on the feasibility of forensic analyses in particular circumstances in regards to the latest technical advances.Despite the absence of a legal framework governing their role and involvement in judicial cases, the demand for their services has increased over the years. Initially, forensic advisors were called for complex homicide cases. Due to the proximity with the Public Prosecutor's Office, the types of offences for which their expertise was sought have become more diverse (mainly including robbery, burglary and sexual assault cases), leading to a diversity in the types of cases handled by the forensic advisors (complex, simple and review).In many of the cases they are requested for, in addition to consulting on the best analytical strategy, forensic advisors also assume the role of case coordinator regarding the seized objects and their respective analyses. Indeed, in the majority of cases treated by the FAs, two or more types of expertise have been requested and performed, either at the internal laboratories of NICC or at external laboratories.This paper explains the role of the forensic advisors in Belgium, the path that let to their current status and problems encountered.     

War and Democratization: Legality,Legitimacy and Effectiveness

Promotion of democracy in post-war and post-conflict societies became a hot topic during the 1990s. External actors linked their peace-building efforts to the promotion of democracy. Four modes of promotion of democracy by external actors can be distinguished: first, enforcing democratization by enduring post-war occupation (mode 1); second, restoring an elected government by military intervention (mode 2); third, intervening in on-going massacres and civil war with military forces (‘humanitarian intervention’) and thereby curbing the national sovereignty of those countries (mode 3); and fourth, forcing democracy on rogue states by ‘democratic intervention’, in other words, democracy through war (mode 4). In this special issue we consider the legality, legitimacy, and effectiveness of the four modes where the international community of states not only felt impelled to engage in military humanitarian or peace-building missions but also in long-term state- and democracy-building. All cases analysed here suggest that embedding democratization in post-war and post-conflict societies entails a comprehensive agenda of political, social, and economic methods of peace-building. If external actors withdraw before the roots of democracy are deep enough and before democratic institutions are strong enough to stand alone, then the entire endeavour may fail.     

State Project Europe: The Transformation of the European Border Regime and the Production of Bare Life

Giorgio Agamben refers to a basic problem in the constitution of the modern nation state: the state as a nation implies that bare life becomes the foundation of sovereignty. With the loss of their citizenship, refugees lose not only all their rights, but more fundamentally the right to have rights (Arendt). This dilemma of modern statehood does not vanish under conditions of European integration; it is rather re-scaled. Applying a state-theoretical approach to the European border regime, we will concentrate on the two main techniques by which the EU produces bare life: the camp and the invisible police state. It will become apparent that the institutionalization of the right of every human being to belong to mankind is still lacking. Yet, in contrast to Agamben, we do not trace this constellation back to the collapse of the concept of human rights, but to hegemonies and power relations.     

Zur Zulässigkeit kommunaler Pflichtaufgaben im Bereich der Daseinsvorsorge

Verschiedene Bundes- und Landesgesetze verpflichten die Gemeinden zu daseinsvorsorgender T?tigkeit mit Mitteln des Privatrechts. Kommunale Pflichtaufgaben stehen jedoch in einem Spannungsverh?ltnis zu der den Gemeinden durch Art 116 Abs 2 B-VG garantierten Handlungsfreiheit im Bereich der Privatwirtschaftsverwaltung. Die Zul?ssigkeit dieser Bestimmungen wurde daher bereits vielfach diskutiert, aber bislang nicht abschlie?end gekl?rt. Der folgende Beitrag setzt sich mit dieser Frage anhand einer eingehenden Analyse der Entstehungsgeschichte des Art 17 B-VG und des Art 116 Abs 2 B-VG auseinander.     

?Managing Migration“ – Eine intersektionale Kapitalismusanalyse am Beispiel der Europ?ischen Migrationspolitik

This essay examines the Europeanization of migration policy on the basis of a materialist theory of the state that is extended by an intersectional approach. The analysis revolves around four dimensions of the international division of labour: class, sex, North-South relations and ethnicity. They provide the context for both the following analysis of actors inspired by reflections on hegemony and the illustration of the hegemonic project of ??migration management??, e.g. the European recruiting of highly skilled worker and national special regimes for domestic workers. In doing so, the essay argues that such an intersectional analysis of capitalism must not end with the study of individual policies; rather it has to treat the interwoven social power relations as a starting point for further research.