法国检察院的面孔

法国检察院的历史发展受本国政治运动的影响深刻，并且一直是该国权力体系中的重要组成部分。1958年的宪法确立了当前法国检察院同时具有司法机关和行政机关双重属性的混合地位，但随之引发了多年的争议和一次又一次试图使检察院的公诉活动摆脱行政权干预的运动。进入21世纪之后，法国检察院的权限表现出明显的扩张趋势，甚至在某些领域内开始分享传统上只能由法官享有的自由裁量权。另一方面，检察院内部的层级化特征越发明显，而其在行政机关面前的自主性也进一步丧失。     

Gambling among offenders: results from an Australian survey

This article outlines the results of a recent Australian survey of gambling, problem gambling, and gambling-related crimes among offenders. The research found that 34% of participant offenders had some form of gambling problem. This figure is 18 times higher than that found in the general population in the same Australian location. Many problem gamblers identified in the survey had not sought help for gambling and felt they didn't have a problem or were in control of their gambling. In addition, many survey participants said that their gambling was not problematic despite some admissions that they had committed gambling-related crimes. A significant implication of this study follows that offenders with gambling problems need to be offered therapeutic services while in the correctional system to reduce the prevalence of gambling problems and the commission of gambling-related offences.     

When Does Quality Count?: Perceptions of Hearsay Testimony About Child Sexual Abuse Interviews

This study assessed how the quality of a sexual abuse investigative interview with a child and the age of the child influence jurors reactions to either the original interview with the child or to testimony by an adult hearsay witness (the interviewer). Participants (N = 360) were randomly assigned to 1 of 12 conditions in a 2 (type of testimony:hearsay testimony vs. child interview) × (interview quality: poor, typical, or good) × (age of the child: 4 years old vs. 10 years old) factorial design. Participants reached individual verdicts, answered a series of questions, and then deliberated in a group with five other participants. As predicted, jurors in the child interview conditions were more likely to find the defendant guilty if they read the good interview than if they read either the poor or the typical interview, but in the hearsay conditions verdicts did not significantly differ by interview quality. These findings suggest that there is a significant loss of information when the testimony of a hearsay witness is used in place of the actual interview with the child, and call into question the appropriateness of admitting hearsay testimony by interviewers.     

Lugol's test reexamined again: buccal cells

Lugol's iodine staining technique was used to examine oral samples from 10 men and 10 women. Examination of saliva samples before and after extraction with water shows that the low levels (49 positive cells and 3,951 negative cells) of glycogen in buccal epithelial cells become even lower after water extraction (0 positive cells and 4,000 negative cells). In addition to the 20 samples used in this paper, 40 oral swabs extracted with water were examined under classroom conditions with much less than 1% of the epithelial cells being positive for glycogen. Furthermore, 119 saliva samples from chewed gauze in sexual assault kits were extracted with water and all of them yielded less than 1% glycogen positive cells. This paper proposes that when more than 1% of the nucleated squamous epithelial cells are glycogen positive with Lugol's test after extraction in water, it is reasonable to eliminate the mouth as a source of these glycogen positive cells.