Evolution of the Russian Judicial System in 2014

After the mass protests that took place in 2011–12 and the annexation of Crimea in 2014, all of the negative tendencies that have existed in Russia's judicial system became more prominent, while the few positive tendencies have largely disappeared. Acquittal has become even rarer than it already was, even as the courts' tendency to hand down sentences short of incarceration has been reversed.     

Patterns of Practice in Mental Health Courts: A National Survey

Mental health courts (MHCs) represent an important new development at the interface of the criminal justice and mental health systems. MHCs are criminal courts for persons with mental illness that were in part created to divert this population from jail/prison into community treatment. MHCs are proliferating rapidly despite limited knowledge regarding their characteristics or their efficacy. We surveyed the entire population of adult MHCs in the United States, n = 90. In the past 8 years, MHCs have been created in 34 states, with an aggregate current caseload of 7,560 clients in MHCs nationally. Most courts (92%) reported using jail as a sanction for noncompliance, if only rarely. Further, jail sanction use was significantly predicted by increased judicial supervision and number of felons in the court. Implications for MHCs and social monitoring are discussed.     

Restrictions on legal aid in family law cases in England and Wales: creating a necessary barrier to public funding or simply increasing the burden on the family courts?

The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) resulted in significant cuts to the availability and scope of legal aid in family law proceedings. Some four years after the cuts were implemented, there has been a great deal of research about their devastating impact on vulnerable groups and individuals. This paper considers the other victim of the cuts, the family court itself. It is currently bulging under pressure from both an increase in applicants who have been forced to represent themselves in family proceedings and also from a rise in applications for injunctions linked to domestic violence. This paper will draw on case law to demonstrate that the reforms implemented through LASPO have seemingly only succeeded in passing the burden from one publicly funded agency, the Legal Aid Agency, to another, HM Courts and Tribunals Service. The family court system is currently at breaking point and further government review is urgently needed if people are going to be able to continue to use the system effectively.     

Mental illness in the eyes of the law: examining perceptions of stigma among judges and attorneys

In response to the increasing numbers of mentally ill persons placed under the care of correctional institutions, community-based diversion programs have been established to address the unique needs and challenges of this vulnerable population. Given that legal personnel may serve as gatekeepers in placement decisions, and the lack of existing research examining their attitudes toward offenders with mental illness, the present study aimed to evaluate perceptions of dangerousness and treatment need among a sample of judges, prosecutors, and public defenders across the state of Mississippi. While controlling for age, results of a factorial MANCOVA revealed that public defenders, relative to both judges and prosecutors, endorsed more compassionate attitudes about defendants with mental illnesses. Furthermore, political ideology did not significantly influence attitudes toward mentally ill offenders. While judges and prosecutors endorsed more negative stereotypes about mental illness and perceived mentally ill defendants as a greater risk to the community, mean scores across groups suggested moderately positive attitudes overall. Study limitations, implications for correctional mental health providers, and directions for future research are discussed.     

“Juvenile Drug Courts and Recidivism: Results from a Multisite Outcome Study”

This study reports findings from a study of nine juvenile drug courts (JDCs) from across the US. A quasi-experimental design, with one-to-one matching on possible confounders and sociodemographics, was used for the outcome assessment (n?=?1372). Baseline and outcome data were drawn from justice system records. Although there is variation across sites and, to some extent, outcomes, these JDCs were generally ineffective in reducing recidivism. Similar findings have emerged in other recent studies of JDCs. Given the results of this study and others, it is essential that juvenile courts work to improve the effectiveness of JDCs by increasing adherence to known principles of effective intervention.     

The Effect of Pretrial Detention on Sentencing in Two Federal Districts

While a substantial body of research indicates that legal variables, such as offense severity and criminal history, principally shape sentencing decisions, other studies demonstrate that extralegal factors such as race, gender, and age influence sentencing outcomes, as well. The handful of studies focusing upon the effect of pretrial detention/release on sentencing outcomes indicate that pretrial detention is associated with greater lengths of incarceration. This study—the first to empirically examine the sentencing consequences of pretrial detention in the United States federal courts—employed a sample of 1,723 cases from two district courts (New Jersey and Pennsylvania Eastern). Pretrial detention and, to a lesser degree, revocation of granted pretrial supervision were associated with increased prison sentences; on the other hand, successfully completing a term of pretrial services supervision was associated with shorter sentence length. Implications for the federal criminal justice system are discussed.     

Empathy and objectivity in the legal procedure: the case of Swedish prosecutors

The role of empathy, the capacity to read someone else’s emotions, in the legal context has previously been studied in relation to primarily judges’ decision-making, often with a concern for objectivity. Our purpose is to study professional emotion management in the legal process through an analysis of Swedish prosecutors’ use of empathy. An ethnographic data collection took place between 2012 and 2015, including shadowing, observations and interviews with 36 prosecutors from 3 prosecution offices. The analysis shows that during the investigation, empathy helps identify the prerequisites of a crime and deciding if and how to prosecute. When preparing for trial, empathy is used to anticipate the situation in court. During the trial, the empathic process includes management of the emotions of others in order to stage credible testimonies, convince the judge and calm victims. The empathic process is oriented and restricted by the emotive–cognitive judicial frame through which prosecutors are rewarded by emotions of comfort and pride in demonstrating expertise of legal coding. We conclude that empathy is integral to prosecutors’ professional performance, including the requirement to be objective. The study points to the problems with silencing emotions and maintaining a positivist notion of objectivity in the legal system.     

析民事调解和仲裁裁决法律监督的论争

从对法院的民事调解和仲裁机构的仲裁裁决能否进行检察抗诉论争入手,从法律依据、立法精神和法理基础进行分析,结合实践的情况,检察机关对民事调解可以进行抗诉而对仲裁裁决不能抗诉.     

新刑诉法实施后简易程序开展现状、存在问题、原因及完善对策——以四川省M市Q县为例

基层法院审理全国80%~90%的案件,新刑诉法将适用简易程序案件范围扩大到基层法院管辖的案件,可以预见,未来审判程序将逐步由普通程序为主转变为以简易程序为主。因此,在新刑诉法实施半年多之际,关注简易程序开展现状,发现其存在的问题,分析问题存在的原因,寻求解决问题之道,对于下一步更好地开展简易程序有重要的意义。     

论死因裁判制度在我国的建构与前景

我国2012年修改后的刑事诉讼法在鉴定意见部分作了较大改动,包括引入专家证人制度,加强鉴定人的出庭等等,这会对提高我国死因结论的质量产生明显的促进作用,但游济安等案件暴露出了一个尖锐的问题:如果警方得出了一个意外事件的结论,案件根本不会进入刑事诉讼程序,那么,我们在刑事诉讼法中为解决此类问题所作的一切设计和努力都将落空。因此,在中国的现实语境下,非常有必要将死因结论的形成作为单独的前置程序明确加以设定,这就是死因裁判制度。应当在现有法律框架下就陪审制度,报告制度,责任制度等一系列内容予以明确立法,通过程序化的设计,有效地吸收社会不满,提高民众的公正感和伸张社会正义。