话语权博弈下司法判决的形成

近年来,新媒体的迅速发展为民众表达话语权提供了广阔的渠道,致使个别案件的审判被演变为“媒体审判”、“民意审判”,判决往往成为不同话语权博弈后的结果.其实,无论是媒体监督的无序失范、司法独立性价值的消弱还是民意与判决的冲突,都可归结为媒体所代表的民意话语权与相关利益主体所代表的话语权、法律阶层所代表的话语权之间的冲突.面对该困境,文章通过典型、热点案例,从话语权选择主体、话语权表达主体两方面为困境中的理性判决提供了合理性建议.     

Forensic mental health assessment in France: Recommendations for quality improvement

The quality of forensic mental health assessment has been a growing concern in various countries on both sides of the Atlantic, but the legal systems are not always comparable and some aspects of forensic assessment are specific to a given country. This paper describes the legal context of forensic psychological assessment in France (i.e. pre-trial investigation phase entrusted to a judge, with mental health assessment performed by preselected professionals called “experts” in French), its advantages and its pitfalls. Forensic psychiatric or psychological assessment is often an essential and decisive element in criminal cases, but since a judiciary scandal which was made public in 2005 (the Outreau case) there has been increasing criticism from the public and the legal profession regarding the reliability of clinical conclusions. Several academic studies and a parliamentary report have highlighted various faulty aspects in both the judiciary process and the mental health assessments. The heterogeneity of expert practices in France appears to be mainly related to a lack of consensus on several core notions such as mental health diagnosis or assessment methods, poor working conditions, lack of specialized training, and insufficient familiarity with the Code of Ethics. In this article we describe and analyze the French practice of forensic psychologists and psychiatrists in criminal cases and propose steps that could be taken to improve its quality, such as setting up specialized training courses, enforcing the Code of Ethics for psychologists, and calling for consensus on diagnostic and assessment methods.     

加强对新闻舆论监督的司法保护

舆论监督在民主政治生活和市场经济中具有巨大的作用,但由于有关舆论监督的立法薄弱,新闻媒体合法正当的舆论监督权得不到法律的应有保障,记者被推上被告席的现象逐年增多.因此,对舆论监督必须立法予以保护,并在司法实践中为舆论监督留下足够的法律空间,以疏畅舆论监督的渠道.     

公安机关应对负面报道策略初探

新闻媒体个别不负责任的负面报道较大地影响和损害了公安机关和人民警察的形象。对于公安机关而言,要从四个方面采取应对措施:内强素质、外塑形象;加强正面宣传,构建与新闻媒体的良性互动关系;建立事前应对机制,遏制负面新闻的产生;主动出击,最大限度地降低负面报道产生的负面影响等。只有这样,才能消除和降低由此类报道带来的负面影响,维护人民警察的良好形象。     

Victims and Offenders in Two Crime Statistics Programs: A Comparison of the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)

The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) overcomes a basiclimitation of the traditional summary Uniform Crime Reporting program (UCR)by collecting victim information. Using this new victim information tocompare National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and NIBRS results, wefind some similarities as well as some differences in the characteristics ofvictims and offenders suggested by the two programs. Similarities appear inthe proportions of men and women involved as victims and offenders forrobbery and assault. Comparisons are more difficult and the proportions lesssimilar for property offenses. Nevertheless, the results suggest that whenthe NIBRS is fully developed, it will be an important source of informationon the characteristics of both victims and offenders. Even before theredesigned program is fully implemented, one of the most important featuresof NIBRS reports will be their ability to provide local area victimizationinformation. In addition, the NIBRS will provide much more information onarrests and the characteristic of offenders than any existing program.     

Using the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) to Test Estimates of Arrestee and Offender Characteristics

National-Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) information for 1993 iscompared with two other sets of homicide data to assess the acuracy ofprocedures for estimating age-, sex-, and race-specific arrest counts fromtraditional Uniform Crime Report (UCR) data. The simultaneous age, race, andsex characteristics of offenders provided in the NIBRS arrest and offender segmentsare compared with estimates of the same characteristics derived from summaryUCR arrest data. The results suggest that using UCR marginal totals toestimate arrest counts by race and sex produces reasonably accurateestimates of the number of black and nonblack male arrests for murder andother offenses. Estimates of arrests of females by race and sex are lessaccurate, probably because of the relatively small number of arrests ofwomen and girls. Estimating male arrest counts for specific age groups alsoproduces reasonably accurate estimates. The results suggest that previousresearch employing such estimates may have been misleading in the estimatesof female arrests by race but accurate in the estimates of male arrests byrace. Although the use of summary UCR-based estimates in futurecross-sectional research will become increasingly unnecessary as the NIBRSreplaces the current UCR program, time series research designs on arrest andcrime trends will continue to require estimates.     

Comparing Self-Reports and Official Records of Arrests

We compared measures of self-reported arrests and official arrests for 676young adults with a history of child abuse and/or neglect and 520 nonabusedand nonneglected controls matched on age, sex, race, and approximate familysocial class. Findings reveal considerable concurrent validity between thetwo sources overall. But there is also evidence of differences by gender,race/ethnicity, age at time of arrest, conviction status, and type ofoffense. Abused and neglected subjects did not appear to differ from thecontrol group in the extent of underreporting of known offenses, however,the groups did differ in the degree of positive bias—offensesnot found in arrest records. Abused/neglected subjects self-reportedproportionately more offenses not known to police compared to controls. Thisresult suggests that findings from previous studies on the relationshipbetween childhood victimization and later criminality, as measured byarrests, may have underestimated the magnitude of this relationship.     

Popping the cultural bubble of violence risk assessment tools

Violence risk instruments are administered in medico-legal contexts to estimate an individual’s likelihood of future violence. However, their ostensible limitations; in particular their mono-cultural and risk-centric composition, has drawn academic attention. These concerns may facilitate erroneous risk evaluations for certain non-white populations. Yet it remains unaddressed how cultural differences will be appraised in a risk assessment framework and which specific cultural factors should be considered. Provisions under the Canadian Criminal Code allow for Gladue Reports, to be sought by judicial officers prior to sentencing Indigenous people. Gladue Reports provide insights into an Indigenous person’s unique circumstances that may have led to their offending as well as community-based options for rehabilitation. We proffer that there may be value in augmenting the risk evaluation with culturally relevant Gladue style considerations identified by relevant Indigenous people to provide a more holistic account of an Indigenous individual’s circumstances.     

The approach in Scotland to child contact disputes involving allegations of domestic abuse

ABSTRACT

This article considers the approach taken in Scotland to the processing of child contact cases in which there are allegations of domestic abuse. Four key features of the processing of cases which may facilitate outcomes that prioritise safety are considered. These are: the availability of legal aid; the cautious process of successive child welfare hearings; the use of child welfare reports; and the taking of the child’s views. All these features occur within a policy context that recognises domestic abuse as gender-based violence and where courts have a statutory duty to protect a child from abuse. Drawing on the author’s court based analysis of papers from 208 child contact disputes and from interviews with sheriffs, this article discusses the strengths and limitations of all four process features in terms of protecting women and children, and the risks to these features posed by perpetually reducing government budgets.     

Parent and child reports of animal cruelty and their correlations with parent and child reports of child delinquency

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to determine whether child and parent reports of animal cruelty in children correlated with child- and parent-reported delinquency in these same children. A group of 3397 children (1778 boys and 1619 girls; age?=?9 years) from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing sample [FFCW: Reichman, Teitler, Garfinkel, & McLanahan (2001). Fragile families: Sample and design. Children & Youth Services Review, 23, 303–326] served as participants in this study. The prevalence of animal cruelty as reported by the child (4.7%) and parent (3.0%) were both low and the zero-order correlation between the two estimates was non-significant, suggesting that they were measuring different constructs. A two-equation multiple regression analysis was conducted, controlling for child gender, domestic violence within the home, mother hitting/spanking, and father hitting/spanking. Findings indicated that parent-reported animal cruelty correlated significantly with child-reported delinquency, controlling for child reports of animal cruelty and the four control variables. Child-reported animal cruelty, however, failed to correlate with parent-reported delinquency, controlling for parental reports of animal cruelty and the four control variables. These results suggest that parental reports of animal cruelty may be more useful as indicators of delinquent involvement than child reports. Possible reasons for these findings are discussed.