Law,the State,and the Dialectics of State Crime

Drawing on material from a study of civil society and state crime in six countries, this article reflects on two themes from Chambliss’s work: the debate between state-centred and more pluralistic views of law, and the “dialectical” approach to the analysis of state crime. It argues for a more pluralistic approach to law than Chambliss and Seidman adopted in Law Order and Power, along with a broader approach to the definition of state crime as a form of deviant behaviour. Case studies from the civil society research illustrate how the strategies adopted by organizations challenging state practices can be understood in terms of an interplay between different forms of law. With some qualifications, we support Chambliss’s dialectical approach, and attempt to clarify just what the term “dialectical” means. Finally we bring together the two strands of the argument to propose an approach to state crime founded on “dialectical legal pluralism”.     

An Implementation and Process Evaluation of the Louisiana 22nd Judicial District’s Behavioral Health Court

The national offender reentry movement, Second Chance Act, and the widespread transfer of offender programming to community corrections have coalesced to substantially increase treatment for mental health and substance disorders within the criminal justice system. Intervention commonly entails program evaluation for accountability and empirical evidence by which to specify what works. Though mixed methods evaluation is preferable to a singular qualitative or quantitative approach, process steps are commonly overlooked. This paper relates an implementation and process design and evaluation midpoint findings for the Louisiana 22nd Judicial District’s Behavioral Health Court program, a post-conviction treatment initiative for mental health offenders. Interview guides and a fidelity instrument facilitated site visit data collection. Findings inform program implementation intensity, performance, improvement opportunities, and related fidelity research.     

Big Brother as a Contract Monitor: An Assessment of the Use of Contract Staff to Monitor Offender Communications

The privatization of prison services is a growing trend in the field of corrections; however, this growth has not been matched by evaluative research. This study examines the use of contract staff to supplement state intelligence investigators’ efforts to monitor outgoing offender telephone communications for evidence of illicit activity at 18 adult institutions in a Midwestern department of corrections. Percent-change models and Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) modeling are used to examine aggregates of intelligence reports documenting drug, expressive, instrumental, and administrative violations. Our findings indicate that the introduction of contract services was associated with substantial increases in the number of intelligence reports filed within each of these categories. Furthermore, these results suggest that the use of privatized services that supplement rather than replace public efforts appear to be an ethical, efficient, and cost-effective alternative to comprehensive privatization.     

Long-term effects of two childhood psychosocial interventions on adolescent delinquency,substance use,and antisocial behavior: a cluster randomized controlled trial

Objectives

Examine the long-term effects of two childhood universal prevention programs on adolescent delinquency, substance use, and antisocial behavior.

Methods

The cluster randomized controlled trial involved 56 schools and 1,675 children in Zurich, Switzerland. Two evidence-based interventions, namely the social-emotional skills program Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) and the cognitive-behavioral parenting program Triple P, were implemented during the first two years of primary school, at ages 7 and 8 years. Outcomes were measured at ages 13 and 15 years, and included youth self-reports and teacher assessments. Multilevel models were used to account for the clustered nature of the interventions. Effects were estimated with the inclusion of baseline covariates.

Results

Across 13 outcomes related to delinquency, substance use, and antisocial behavior at ages 13 and 15 years, only two non-negligible effects were found. The first was a reduced prevalence of police contacts in the PATHS condition [effect size (ES)?=??0.225). The second was a difference in competent conflict resolution skills in the combined PATHS?+?Triple P condition compared to the context (ES?=?0.259), but in the unexpected direction: participants in the combined treatment appeared to be less competent than their control group peers. All other effects were either statistically non-significant or negligible in size (i.e., ES?<?|0.200|).

Conclusions

Even “evidence-based” interventions may have few long-term effects on delinquency, substance use, and antisocial behavior. Our findings add to the small literature on the long-term effectiveness of early universal prevention in field settings.

     

新时期党内民主建设的主要特点和经验

成熟的政党总是在总结历史的经验教训中不断前进的.十一届三中全会以来,中国共产党在发展党内民主方面取得了长足进步,积累了丰富的经验.这些经验与认真吸取改革开放前的教训密切相关.通过改革开放前后的比较,可以概括出中国共产党发展党内民主的主要特点和经验,即着重于党的集体领导,避免个人崇拜;着力于党内民主制度化、规范化,避免随意性、盲目性;着眼于党员主体地位和权利保障,注重权利与义务的统一;立足于民主政治建设,提高民主执政能力.     

An experimental study of responses to armed police in Great Britain

Journal of Experimental Criminology - This study tested whether the presence of a firearm changed the way people reacted to police among a British sample. In an online study, participants were...     

Responsible research and innovation training programmes: implementation and evaluation of the HEIRRI project

Responsible research and innovation, or RRI, is a concept that aims to bring together society and science for a better future. There are six key elements of RRI: public engagement, gender equality, science education, open access, ethics and governance. Higher Education Institutions and Responsible Research and Innovation (HEIRRI) project aimed to bring the concept of RRI into the educational system. Using state-of-the-art review of good practices, HEIRRI team developed 10 training programmes on RRI for different higher education institution educational levels, including a summer school and a massive open online course (MOOC). We conducted pilot of the trainings and evaluated participants' experiences. Satisfaction with HEIRRI training programmes on responsible research and innovation was high, both for participants and for the trainers, and trainings raised awareness of RRI. Participants' feedback was used to identify areas that need improvement and provided for recommendations for final versions of the HEIRRI training programmes. In order to equip researchers with skills to recognize and apply RRI values, RRI should be included in their education. HEIRRI training is suitable for a range of different disciplines, including forensic science, and is free to use and adjust for specific contexts (available from: https://rri-tools.eu/heirri-training-programmes).     

STR data for the AmpFlSTR profiler plus loci from Macau (China).

Allele frequencies for the nine STRs included in the AmpFlSTR profiler plus kit (D3S1358, VWA, FGA, D8S1179, D21S11, D18S51, D5S818, D13S317 and D7S820) were estimated from a sample of 87 unrelated individuals living in the region of Macau, a territory located in the southeastern coast of China.