Explaining the Effectiveness of Heroin-assisted Treatment on Crime Reductions

This study examines the relationship between heroin-assisted treatment versus methadone maintenance and the criminal activity of 1,015 individuals participating in a German model project. The main objective is to investigate how these treatments contribute to a decline of criminal behavior. The analyses are based upon self-reported criminal offence and police data on alleged criminals. Logistic regression is employed to explain the variance in the 12-month prevalence 1 year after program admission. The results clearly show a decline of criminal offences among participants receiving maintenance treatment; this decline was significantly greater in the heroin group with respect to property crimes and drug offences. The multivariate analysis reveals that the effects are due to a decrease of illegal drug use and absence from the drug scene.     

不平等——农民问题的解读

平等是人类社会成员基于人的属性应当受到一致性尊重和满足的待遇,包括平等享有和平等对待两个方面。农民问题就是不平等的问题,表现为农民在资源享有上存在的差距超过了社会公平的底限,以及农民在生活中被不平等对待突破了道德标准。     

浅论毒品犯罪所侵害的法益

毒品犯罪法益研究对毒品犯罪的罪与非罪、此罪与彼罪的认定以及其他诸多问题的解决具有很大的意义。现有的关于毒品犯罪法益的诸多论述是错误的,会让我们在司法实践中产生混乱,也没有办法在理论上自圆其说。文章认为,毒品犯罪的法益是社会有机体的公共健康,我们的司法解释和司法实践应当在这样一个基本的认识之上进行。同时,毒品犯罪的法益又是随时间和空间而变化的,不能进行僵化的理解。     

WHEN IT HAPPENS IN A FAMILY: AIDING PARENTS OF SUBSTANCE‐ABUSING ADOLESCENTS*

This article first summarizes key data on the scope of teen substance abuse and the lack of teen access to needed treatment services. It then describes how and why attorneys may be helpful to parents who discover their teen's drug or alcohol problem and seek advice and counsel about the legal implications of various actions that can or may be taken. The article explores such issues as parents finding illegal drugs in the house or on their teen's person, various modalities of treatment and how family members are involved, how parents might secure residential evaluations for their youth without the necessity of juvenile court involvement (and why this is important), concerns about placing youth in unlicensed residential treatment facilities, health insurance coverage issues, home drug testing, and how past American Bar Association (ABA) policy on youth drug and alcohol abuse is being followed up with a new ABA project to aid parents of substance‐abusing teenagers and their families.     

反垄断从宽处理制度及其中国化

Aiming at attracting cartel members to surrender or expose illegal acts of others by reducing or exempting them from public law responsibilities, the leniency program in anti-monopoly law is an effective mechanism throughout the world to discover and crack cartels. The leniency program can be divided into various categories, all of which are based on three preconditions: Filing an application, providing effective information and fully cooperating with anti-monopoly authorities. China has a legal tradition similar to the program as well as legal grounds for establishing such program. However, implementation of the program in China may face potential problems arising from various factors including inner conflicts of the anti-monopoly legal regime, ambiguity of enforcement rights and weakness and lack of administrative law liabilities. Li Junfeng, Ph.D, is a lecturer at Shanghai University, an attorney-at-law, and a legal adviser of Shanghai Entrepreneur Coalition. His major research is on law and economy, competition law and commercial law. He presided or participated some projects funded by Shanghai governmental institutions. He has released over ten articles in academic journals, such as Studies in Comparative Legal Science, Economic Law Forum, Economic Review, etc. His monograph — Research on Private Enforcement of Anti-monopoly Law — is to be published.     

Heterogeneous effects of adolescent violent victimization on problematic outcomes in early adulthood*

Violent victimization—particularly when it happens to young people—can inflict a wide array of negative consequences across the life course. Nevertheless, some victims are more likely to suffer these consequences than others, and we do not have a very good understanding of why that is. One promising avenue of research is to examine how individuals’ differential risks of being victimized affect the extent to which they experience negative outcomes. By using propensity score matching and data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 8,323), in this study I estimate the heterogeneous effects of adolescent violent victimization on several problematic outcomes in early adulthood (violent and property offending, subsequent violent victimization, depressive symptoms, hard drug use, and low educational attainment). Individuals’ differential risks of adolescent violent victimization are estimated with a host of personal, social, and contextual factors, including prior experiences with crime and violence. The results show that the consequences of adolescent victimization in early adulthood are more pronounced for youth with the lowest risks of being victimized. These findings have important implications for theory, research, and practice, and they emphasize that the consequences of victimization cannot be understood separately from the sources of victimization.     

Unexpected Human Fatality Associated with Bed Bug (Hemiptera: Cimicidae) Heat Treatment

Thermal insect treatments can be an effective method of controlling cryptic insect pests, particularly bed bugs, in residential settings. The treatments require high heat over a sustained timeframe. Residents are not present during treatment but return after completion. An unexpected death was investigated following heat treatment for bed bugs in the home of an elderly female, found with a postmortem axillary temperature of 106.2°F (41.2°C) approximately 8 h after returning home. The cause of death was classified as hyperthermia with a contributory cause of hypertensive cardiovascular disease. The manner of death was an accident. The decedent had medical history and medications that could have impaired her ability to dissipate heat. Furthermore, the air conditioning inside the residence was not functional following treatment. Recommendations including education regarding heat stroke and treatment, re‐entry timeframes, and/or temperature thresholds are suggested to reduce the risk of heat‐related injury or death in vulnerable populations.     

论社区矫正分级处遇机制的完善

我国社区矫正工作实践已普遍实行分级处遇,但还存在分级前过渡期性质不明、分级标准模糊、分级动态调整评估机制不完善、处遇等级之间的差异过小等缺陷。完善分级处遇机制有利于节约社区矫正行刑资源、增强社区矫正的激励性与威慑性、帮助社区服刑人员回归社会。为此,应当明确分级前过渡期的性质,规范分级评估,完善分级动态调整评估,增强不同处遇等级的差异,对未成年人分级处遇作出特殊规定。     

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.     

Predictors of re-offending in German substance-abusers in legal detention: a prospective population-based cohort study

This study aimed to evaluate whether the elapsed time after release to first re-offense is longer for those who complete coerced forensic addiction treatment than for those who fail to complete the treatment. It is also aimed to identify predictors of re-offending for both those who complete such treatments as compared with those who do not. Two hundred and sixty-one patients discharged from five German forensic addiction clinics were investigated on 65 anamnestic, socio-demographic, and therapeutic process variables. One hundred and fifty-one patients were prematurely discharged and returned to prison (group A; time at risk [TAR] = 58.7 months), 110 finished treatment successfully (group B; TAR = 44.2 months). Federal Criminal Register data were used for follow-up. Univariate survival analyses and multivariate stepwise Cox-regression models were computed. Twelve predictors in group A revealed a four-factor model: age at admission to treatment, duration of concurrent prison sentence, number of entries in the criminal register, and attendance at prior substitution programs. The model for group B covered five out of eight predictors: regular working activities before first diagnosis of mental illness, type of main offense, (secondary) traffic offenses, outpatient rehabilitation treatments, and escapes during treatment. Successful completers of forensic addiction treatment are slower to re-offend than non-completers.