The role of moral disengagement in the execution process

The present study tested the proposition that disengagement of moral self-sanctions enables prison personnel to carry out the death penalty. Three subgroups of personnel in penitentiaries located in three Southern states were assessed in terms of eight mechanisms of moral disengagement. The personnel included the execution teams that carry out the executions; the support teams that provide solace and emotional support to the families of the victims and the condemned inmate; and prison guards who have no involvement in the execution process. The executioners exhibited the highest level of moral, social, and economic justifications, disavowal of personal responsibility, and dehumanization. The support teams that provide the more humane services disavowed moral disengagement, as did the noninvolved guards but to a lesser degree than the support teams.     

Successor Liability and Asymmetric Information

The doctrine of successor liability transfers tort liabilityarising from the seller's past conduct from the seller to thebuyer. If the buyer has as much information about the liabilityas the seller, all beneficial acquisitions take place and theseller takes the efficient level of precaution. However, ifthe seller has more information about the liability than thebuyer, not all beneficial acquisitions are consummated and theseller takes a suboptimal level of precaution. I argue that,in the presence of information asymmetry, the courts shouldincrease the damages against the (potential) seller to providebetter incentives to take precaution while decreasing the damagesagainst the buyer to encourage more beneficial asset sales.     

Changing Stalking Patterns and Prosecutorial Decisions: Bridging the Present to the Future

This article reviews sixty cases from prosecutor's files in two New Jersey counties. These cases are used to examine and help better define the phenomena of stalking. Selected sample case examples are presented and described in regard to the typology of stalking behavior originally proposed by Dziegielewski and Roberts (1995). Based on these cases, application, modification and refinement of the typology criteria are suggested. The critical need for crisis intervention protocols and specialized anti-stalking units and training are emphasized. It is hoped that this information will help the criminal justice and forensic professional to better understand, assess the dangerousness of, and intervene rapidly and effectively in the phenomena of stalking, and to provide technology to protect victims.