THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE CHILD

Despite heavy use of the concept of the "best interests" of the child, there is little consensus about what criteria constitute a child's best interests or how these criteria should be applied. This article explores some of the problems of the best interest concept, from the developmental and psychological perspective, and suggests that the concept is a worthwhile one if decision makers are able to go beyond cliches and superficial definitions.     

The Danish peasant village

Danish folklorists in the nineteenth century, in the interests of nationalism and cultural chauvinism, made extensive investigations of the culture of the peasant population. At first this was literary only — ballads, myths, tales and proverbs — but was presently extended (especially by Evald Tang Kristensen) to include all aspects of peasant life. From this interview material it has been possible to retrieve a coherent picture of the morphology and dynamics of the village: the economic, political and social structures; the characteristics of a ‘peasant cosmology; relationships with other groups — other villages, the manor, a caste of ‘untouchables'; and to obtain some hints as to the etiology of these social phenomena.     

Sustainable economic development: A criminal justice challenge for the 21st century

The environmental challenges of the 21^st century require co-operation between criminal justice experts and economists. Three different economics perspectives are relevant for the discipline of criminal justice in general and for adressing environmental problems in particular: neo-classical econoics, political economics and the economics of sustainable development. Criminal justice pays a role in the effort to attain sustainable development because the limitations of market based decision making necessitate a role for law and regulation in addressing environmental degradation. Sustainable development itself is relevant to the general discussion of crime. Issues of sustainable development are already discussed in criminal justice literature. While criminal law has limitations as a tool against environmental crime, it will necessarily suplement the tools of the market and civil regulation in coping with environmental problems. The inherently multidisciplinary undertaking of sustainable development will be most effectively met if experts in both economics and criminal justice understand more of one another's fields. Suggestions for including the three perspectives of economics in the criminal justice curriculum are provided.