现代英国家事案件审判体制的变迁及其启示

英国家事案件审判体制的变革顺应了社会发展,反映了民众呼声,从最初由宗教法院审理离婚案件发展到20世纪末建立完整的三级家事案件审判体制,即家事程序法院——治安法院中由家庭问题专家开庭审理案件;郡法院;高等法院家事法庭。英国家事案件审判体制变迁的司法理念包括建立专门的家事法庭;设立专门的保护儿童权利的机构;重视和解和调解工作。对我国未来司法体系变革的启示是：建立专门的家事合议庭;建立配套的儿童保护机构;完善家事纠纷中的法院调解。     

The Effect of Incarceration on Marriage and Work Over the Life Course

The current study adopts the life course framework to examine the effect of incarceration on the likelihood of becoming married and attaining full‐time employment. It is hypothesized that men who have been incarcerated will be less likely to marry and to gain full‐time employment. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth are used to test the hypothesis. Results from the growth‐curve models support the life‐course theoretical model. Across all models estimated, incarceration is negatively associated with marriage and employment. In addition, positive milestones (e.g., education) are associated with improved chances of employment and marriage. The findings reinforce the importance of considering a multitude of life events when estimating life trajectories.     

涉外同性婚姻法律适用问题研究

世界范围内,同性婚姻为一些国家法律认可的事实,与中国大陆对该身份领域的变化,仅存于学者呼吁应保护少数人人权的现状,则提出了在中国大陆涉外同性婚姻的法律适用问题。依据我国"涉外民事关系法律适用法"的有关规定,同性结合存在的客观事实,医学上界定其不是一种疾病的科学论断,及公平与正义、且具有全球视野的、与时俱进的现代意识,我们在法律观念与法律制度上应倾注切实可行的法律人文性。在一定的条件和法律环境下,适宜的冲突法或者直接调整方法运用于该领域,是保障人的自由权、契约身份权,维护依法设立的民事关系的稳定性,内外有别地对待与处理涉外民事身份关系的需要。     

The relationship between investigative interviewing experience and open-ended question usage

We present three studies examining the role of prior job experience in interviewing and interviewers' ability to learn open-ended questions during a training program. We predicted a negative relationship such that more experienced interviewers would perform worse after training than less experienced interviewers, and that (irrespective of baseline performance) the more experienced interviewers would improve the least during training. These predictions were made for two reasons. First, specific questions are commonly used in the workplace (i.e. open-ended questioning constitutes new learning). Second, experience in the use of specific questions potentially interferes with newly learned open-ended questions. Overall, our predictions were supported across different participant samples (including police officers specialized in child abuse investigation and social workers from the child protection area), time delays, and modes of training. The results highlight the need for investment in ongoing investigative interviewing training commencing early during professionals' careers, prior to the establishment of long-term habits in the use of specific questions.     

Fatal Child Abuse Presenting with Multiple Vertebral and Vascular Trauma

This case study involves the unexplained death of a previously healthy 30‐month‐old child. Reportedly, she was found unresponsive by her foster father following a 2‐hour nap. She was transported to the hospital and died in the emergency room of unknown causes. Blood drawn in the ER showed hemoglobin of 4.3 mg/dL. Postmortem skeletal survey, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain, and retinal examinations were negative. The medical examiner assumed jurisdiction of the body. The autopsy showed massive retroperitoneal hemorrhage, transections of the abdominal aorta, and inferior vena cava, and complete tears of the anterior longitudinal ligament of the spine at C5/C6 and L1/L2 with diastases of the vertebral bodies at the corresponding intervertebral disk spaces. The case is believed to be extraordinary due to both the extent of injury that does not match the reported history and the mechanism of vertebral and vascular injuries.     

Child protection as surveillance of African American families

The over-representation of black children in US out of home care results from racial bias in placement decisions and a political choice to address startling rates of child poverty by investigating parents instead of tackling poverty's societal roots. The impact of state disruption and supervision of African American families is intensified when it is concentrated in inner-city neighbourhoods – the system's ‘racial geography.’ A small case study of a black neighbourhood in Chicago with high rates of out of home placement found profound effects on both family and community social relationships, as well as reliance on child protective services for financial assistance, linking surveillance of black families to the neoliberal shrinking of public programmes. The surveillance of African American women by the child welfare system is also intensified by these women's disproportionate involvement in the prison system. Acknowledging racial bias in child welfare reveals the need to radically transform the system from one that relies too much on punitive disruption of families to one that generously supports them.     

U.S. child custody outcomes in cases involving parental alienation and abuse allegations: what do the data show?

ABSTRACT

Family court and abuse professionals have long been polarized over the use of parental alienation claims to discredit a mother alleging that the father has been abusive or is unsafe for the children. This paper reports the findings from an empirical study of ten years of U.S. cases involving abuse and alienation claims. The findings confirm that mothers’ claims of abuse, especially child physical or sexual abuse, increase their risk of losing custody, and that fathers’ cross-claims of alienation virtually double that risk. Alienation’s impact is gender-specific; fathers alleging mothers are abusive are not similarly undermined when mothers cross-claim alienation. In non-abuse cases, however, the data suggest that alienation has a more gender-neutral impact. These nuanced findings may help abuse and alienation professionals find some common ground.     

Weighing Ethical Considerations in Proposed Non-recent Child Sexual Abuse Investigations: A Response to Maslen and Paine’s Oxford CSA Framework

Questions about when it is right for police forces to investigate alleged offences committed in the more or less distant past have become increasingly pressing. Recent widely publicized cases of child sexual abuse (CSA) and exploitation, sometimes involving high profile individuals, have illustrated the ethical, psychological, and forensic complexities of investigating non-recent child sexual abuse. Hannah Maslen and Colin Paine have developed the Oxford CSA Framework to assist police to weigh the various ethical considerations that militate for and against initiating a CSA investigation. While such a tool is to be welcomed, and while there is much that is helpful in Maslen and Paine's approach, we suggest that the Oxford CSA framework could be strengthened. Our first suggestion is to abandon a proposed distinction between a set of considerations that is said to generate a “presumption” in favor of investigation and other considerations that may supplement or oppose this presumption. Our second suggestion is to review the weightings applied to the considerations within the model, which lack clear justification and create problematic effects. Finally, we suggest that referring the Oxford CSA Framework to a panel with lived and professional experience of CSA could serve important procedural justice goals and enhance the Framework's recommendations.     

Characteristics of children with problem sexual behaviour and adolescent perpetrators of sexual abuse: a systematic review

ABSTRACT

People who commit sexual offences are a heterogeneous group, with research suggesting that children and young people commit a large proportion of all sex offences, especially those committed against other children. This systematic review provides a synthesis of literature concerning the characteristics of children and adolescents who exhibit harmful sexual behaviour. There is a particular focus in this review on studies that examine the characteristics of children and young people exhibiting these behaviours within institutional and organisational settings or which take a situational and/or developmental approach to understanding sexually abusive behaviour. Using a developmental and life-course criminology lens, this review explores implications from the literature for the prevention and response to child sexual abuse, with a particular focus on institutional contexts where the perpetrators are children and adolescents.