On Justifying Punishment: The Discrepancy Between Words and Actions

This article reveals a discrepancy between the actual and stated motives for punishment. Two studies conducted with nationally representative samples reveal that people support laws designed on the utilitarian principle of deterrence in the abstract, yet reject the consequences of the same when they are applied. Study 1 (N = 133) found that participants assigned punishment to criminals in a manner consistent with a retributive theory of justice rather than deterrence. The verbal justifications for punishment given by these same respondents, however, failed to correlate with their actual retributive behavior. Study 2 (N = 125) again found that people have favorable attitudes towards utilitarian laws and rate them as “fair” in the abstract, but frequently reject them when they are instantiated in ways that support utilitarian theories. These studies reveal people’s inability to know their own motivations, and show that one consequence of this ignorance is to generate support for laws that they ultimately find unjust.

Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones: Grassroots Democracy with Chinese Characteristics

China’s policy of reform and opening has led to extraordinary economic and societal changes during the past 30 years. One aspect of this progressive, incremental change has been the remarkable development of democracy—both at the grassroots level and within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The CCP, recognizing that political reforms must accompany economic reforms, began to pursue a distinctively Chinese path to political reform and modernization—a socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics. Inspired by leadership from Deng Xiaoping to Hu Jintao, Chinese citizens living in the countryside and townships have held competitive elections for local leadership for over a decade. This paper posits that the rise and institutionalization of competitive, popular local elections is indicative of how the CCP, in fostering a Harmonious Socialist Society, has created a viable, Confucian, and uniquely Chinese alternative to Western liberal democracy in local governance.     

Screening offenders for risk of drop‐out and expulsion from correctional programmes

Purpose. The goal of the present research was to develop a screening measure to assist in identifying offenders at risk for drop‐out or expulsion from correctional programmes. Methods. Non‐Aboriginal male offenders (N = 5,247) were randomly divided into a development sample (N = 2,617) and a validation sample (N = 2,630). In the development sample, individual predictors were identified through univariate and multivariate analyses, weighted based on their relationship with drop‐out/expulsion, and combined into a composite measure we called the drop‐out risk screen (DRS). Results. The DRS consists of five items, including static and dynamic risk factors for recidivism as well as motivation for intervention. It significantly predicted drop‐out/expulsion in the development sample (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUC]= .72) and performed similarly in the validation sample (AUC = .70). Conclusions. The results indicate that the DRS is a valid screening instrument for risk of drop‐out/expulsion. Prior to commencement of a treatment programme, offenders with high scores on the DRS could be more thoroughly assessed and, if necessary, targeted with pre‐treatment efforts to increase their motivation and general readiness for treatment.     

Exploring the consequences of soft law and hard law: implementing international nutrient commitments in Norwegian agriculture

The study of hard law and soft law in international environmental cooperation has mainly focused on why, and under what conditions, states choose one form of law in preference to another. This article develops an analytical framework for exploring the consequences of such choices. This framework is applied to implementation of international nutrient commitments in Norwegian agriculture from 1987 until 2007. Agriculture is the most important source of nitrogen inputs and eutrophication problems in the marine environment in Norway and Europe. It is concluded that, first, the consequences of hard and soft international law depend heavily on how they interact with changing national conditions. Some of these conditions can be deliberately changed to facilitate synergetic interaction between national conditions and international law. Secondly, under favorable conditions soft law can have a significant impact even when costly action is required, and resistance from target groups are strong. These observations are particularly interesting in light of the recent decision to end the soft law North Sea Conference process.     

Resiliency against victimization: Results from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health

Investigating the causes of why individuals desist from, or are resilient to, delinquency, crime, and other problem behaviors has captured the interests of scholars. Within the context of criminology, much of this research focused on resiliency against offending; that is, understanding how and why some individuals within high-risk environments do not engage in serious criminal offenses. The extant scholarship, however, has not fully explored the effects protective factors might have on fostering resiliency against victimization. Using a sample of respondents drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study investigated how individual protective factors and the accumulation of protective factors contribute to the explanation of resiliency against victimization. Analysis of the data revealed that commitment to school was the only statistically significant independent predictor of resiliency for at risk-individuals. Additional analyses indicated that a protective factor index measuring the accumulation of protection was significant across multiple measures of resiliency. The policy and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Inmate homicides: Killers, victims, motives, and circumstances

Despite popular media depictions, prison homicides are quite infrequent, averaging only four per one hundred thousand inmates annually in U.S. prisons during the current decade and declining over 90 percent in the past thirty years. Only a handful of studies had examined this most serious form of institutional violence. This study examined thirty-five inmate homicides, involving fifty-two perpetrators, occurring in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for 2000-2008. The majority of homicides occurred in inmates’ cells, involved a single assailant, resulted from beatings, or was cross-racial. Often multiple motivations for the homicides were present. Hispanic inmates were overrepresented as perpetrators and victims. Perpetrators and victims were overwhelmingly male, and likely to have records of violent arrests and problematic prison adjustments. A substantial proportion of both perpetrators and victims had suspected or confirmed gang affiliations. Perpetrators were differentiated from victims by younger age, higher IQ scores, greater educational attainment, and sentences for armed robbery.     

Prevalence of Criminal Thinking among State Prison Inmates with Serious Mental Illness

To examine the prevalence of criminal thinking in mentally disordered offenders, incarcerated male (n = 265) and female (n = 149) offenders completed measures of psychiatric functioning and criminal thinking. Results indicated 92% of the participants were diagnosed with a serious mental illness, and mentally disordered offenders produced criminal thinking scores on the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) and Criminal Sentiments Scale-Modified (CSS-M) similar to that of non-mentally ill offenders. Collectively, results indicated the clinical presentation of mentally disordered offenders is similar to that of psychiatric patients and criminals. Implications are discussed with specific focus on the need for mental health professionals to treat co-occurring issues of mental illness and criminality in correctional mental health treatment programs.     

Public security versus privacy in technology law: A balancing act?

Technology invades a person's privacy but this has been justified in law on public security grounds. The more technology advances, the more difficult it is to control its privacy intrusive use. This paper argues that there are a number of difficulties posed by such use concerning the respect of one's privacy. The meaning of ‘public security’ is not entirely clear and there are various laws which authorise the invasion of privacy for public security reasons. Technology is developing at such a fast pace and in a more diffused manner without taking on board its privacy implications whilst technological privacy enhancement mechanisms are not catching up. The law of privacy is not sufficiently elaborate and is slow in coming to terms to deal with these novel situations posed by rapid technological advances. The paper thus develops universally legally binding minimum core principles that could be applied indiscriminately to all privacy intrusive technology.     

Image and the impact of public affairs management on internal stakeholders

This paper examines both the direct and indirect effects of images of corporate social performance on internal stakeholders. The authors suggest that public affairs managers must be particularly concerned about the ways in which images that are intended for and projected at external stakeholders are reflected back to internal stakeholders. In this new era of extremely tight labour markets, minimal corporate loyalty and high job mobility, public affairs efforts will increasingly impact upon a firm's employees. By monitoring this process, managers may more quickly identify the moment when internal stakeholders have developed a perception that differs from their original intent. This will allow managers to make a better job of maintaining a consistent image of the firm both inside and outside, and of managing the culture of the firm and its key human resources. Copyright © 2001 Henry Stewart Publications     

The present and future of public sector extension in Africa: contracting out or contracting in?

Public sector extension has come under increasing pressure to downsize and reform. Contracting out—the use of public sector funds to contract non‐governmental and private service providers—is often held up as a potential tool in reform efforts. Much has been written about the possible advantages of contracting out of agricultural extension and it is being encouraged and promoted by numerous international organizations. However, a look at field experience in Africa shows that contracting out is relatively infrequent, especially compared with the reverse—contracting in—where private sector and non‐governmental organizations finance public sector extension delivery. Case studies from Uganda and Mozambique indicate that on the ground attempts to come up with solutions to providing services to farmers are resulting in innovative contracting approaches and combined public and private institutional arrangements. Contracting in and public–private coalition approaches, in contrast to purely public sector extension (characterized by ineffectiveness and inefficiencies) and purely private for profit extension (which may ignore public goods and concerns), may help achieve extension services which are both demand led and which internalize public concerns such as environmental protection, food security and socio‐economic equity. These coalition approaches can be improved and facilitated. They deserve greater analysis and may contribute to a better understanding of extension contracting and the roles of private and public organizations. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.