The Prosecution Service Function within the Hungarian criminal justice system

The national criminal justice system of Hungary is described. Special attention is paid to the Prosecution Service Function within this framework and its relationship to police and courts. The article not only refers to legal provisions but to the factual handling of criminal cases as well.     

Election through complaint and controversy for political power in Chile, 1874–1925

SUMMARY

This article offers reflections on the power relations between the executive and legislative branches of the Chilean state by examining the way political parties leveraged the electoral system to balance the weight of each branch in the configuration of government. The period from 1874 to 1924 is framed by a cycle of reforms to Chile’s 1833 constitution that were pushed through by liberal sectors to limit the power of the executive under the country’s presidential regime, efforts that contributed to a final breakdown of the presidential regime following civil war in 1891. That year the victorious revolutionary forces implemented a parliamentarian system that remained in place until it was overthrown by a military coup. The literature on this process has studied the use of legislative manoeuvres such as obstruction, accusation and filibuster by political parties to weaken the executive power. Little has been written, however, about the way parties exploited the rules and procedures of the electoral system and, specifically, the use of official complaints and the process known as calificación (qualification) by which congress audited final election results. This article will help fill that void, focusing on understanding how both practices worked and the effects that the election reforms of 1874, 1884 and 1890 had on them.     

Profile of Men Who Are Victims of Physical Violence by an Intimate Partner

The objective of this study was to characterize the profile of men who are victims of interpersonal physical violence (IPV) by an intimate partner. This study is a retrospective analysis of suspected cases of male victims of IPV by an intimate partner, aged 18 years or older, treated at a Forensic Medicine and Dentistry Center in Brazil. Sociodemographic variables of the victims, the types of violence and the patterns of injuries were evaluated. Over this period, 1520 suspected victims of IPV by an intimate partner were examined; 14.6 % (n = 222) of them were men. Based on Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) two dimensions were formed: the first dimension (internal reliability = 0613) was primarily formed by the relationship between aggressor and victim, the marital status and the type of IPV, and the second dimension (reliability = 0509) by the day of week, the period of day and the marital status.     

Residence patterns of the elderly in early eighteenth-century Iceland

In this article the 1703 Icelandic census is used to shed light on the living arrangements of the elderly during a period of harsh climatic and social conditions. The census is unique in the sense that it includes an entire population of a country at an early date. It was taken on the initiative of the authorities in Denmark with the objective of examining the dire conditions of the Icelandic population and, in particular, assessing the number of paupers and vagrants. The census therefore provides interesting possibilities to analyse the situation of the most vulnerable groups of the society. In a society with low nuptiality rates and a low sex ratio, the risk of becoming dependent on poor relief increased with age. Elderly persons who were not able to retire in the household of an offspring ran the risk of spending their last years as paupers. In the 75 and older age group, no less than 43.5% of women were in the position of a pauper. In line with other recent studies on intergenerational co-residence, this study indicates that the elderly preferred to co-reside with their offspring. Even though elderly couples preferred to remain in the position of head of household, most would co-reside with their children. As regards widowed persons, there were noticeable differences between elderly men and women. Elderly widows were thus more likely than widowers to resign from headship on entering widowhood in order to retire in the household of one of an offspring.     

Hot spots policing in a high-crime environment: an experimental evaluation in Medellín

Journal of Experimental Criminology - Test direct, spillover, and aggregate effects of hot spots policing on crime in a high-crime environment. We identified 967 hot spot street segments and...     

Las funciones de los consejeros independientes de las sociedades en México: Recomendaciones para el cambio a partir de las asimetrías existentes entre la práctica y la ley

The legal notion of an independent board member was introduced to the Mexican legislation in 2005. The goal was to improve the corporate governance of the corporations listed on the stock exchange. It was thought that including the independent board members would help to better represent the interest of the minority holders, as well as to increase the level of accountability. This article challenges these ideas based on 10 interviews carried out with independent board members. It finds that what the law says is far from what actuatly occurs: they lack of an adequate level of knowledge to perform their tasks, their degree of independence is severely limited by the criteria used to appoint them and they usually ignore essential corporate information, which impede them from participating effectively in the board sessions. The article suggests the creation of an independent board member’s association, a mechanism that, along with a mandatory certification system, would improve the way in which they perform their duties.     

Fiscal policy responsiveness, persistence, and discretion

This paper analyzes the different characteristics of fiscal policy using a two-step estimation procedure. First, we decompose both government spending and government revenue into three components: responsiveness, persistence and discretion. Second, we assess the determinants of these characteristics. Using data from 132 countries, our results show that fiscal policy is more persistent than responsive to economic conditions, which implies that the authorities may have less leeway in the short-run notably to curb spending behavior. In addition, countries characterized by greater fiscal persistence have less discretion and responsiveness. Finally, macroeconomic, institutional and geographic variables explain cross-country variation in fiscal characteristics.