“It’s Like Standing on a Beach,Holding Your Children’s Hands,and Having a Tsunami Just Coming Towards You”: Intimate Partner Violence and “Expert” Assessments in Australian Family Law

The ways in which postseparation parenting disputes are managed has undergone significant change in Australia since the Family Law Act (Cth) was first enacted in 1975. The best interests of children have always been paramount in children’s cases and over the last 20 years, this concept has been legislatively shaped to include ongoing beneficial post separation parental relationships and protection from harm. A critical piece of evidence to inform a Family Court’s decision making in such matters is a family report, which is an expert assessment compiled by a social science professional. The authors report findings from an Australian based qualitative study exploring the experiences of family report assessment practice from the perspective of victim mothers who have separated from men who perpetrate intimate partner violence. The authors conclude that reforms are necessary to improve the practice and procedure of family report writing in Australia. Such reforms should ensure that the lived experience of victims of intimate partner violence is validated, assessment processes have victim efficacy, and the outcomes of such reports do not put women and their children at ongoing risk of harm.     

如何解读东京审判对南京大屠杀遇难人数的认定

50多年来,我国学术界部分学者认为,东京审判的《判决书》对南京大屠杀遇难人数虽作出了"20万人以上"的总体估计,但连同文件中所称被毁尸灭迹者及其他因素,对中国法庭关于"30万人以上"的判定本质认可或并不排斥.2005年出版的《南京大屠杀史料集·东京审判》对《判决书》作了新译,进一步明确了其认定人数,连同毁尸灭迹的数字为"超过20万".因此,学术界有必要实事求是地重新解读东京审判的判词.对《判决书》判定屠杀人数作出新的解读,并不影响我们对南京大屠杀死难人数继续坚持既往的认识与判断,也并不影响对东京审判的总体评价;但是,不宜再过份强调东京法庭与南京法庭在判定南京大屠杀遇难人数上的一致性,应当如实地承认这两者之间事实上存在的差别.     

浅议刑事被害人权利的保护

我国被害人权利的保护,在立法规定和司法实践中相差较大,加强被害人对刑事诉讼程序的参与,寻找被害人权利救济的有效途径是构建和谐社会、开展和谐司法的本质要求。文章分析了我国刑事诉讼中对被害人的有关规定及当前的现状,并提出了刑事被害人权利保护之构想。     

论交通肇事罪中的被害人过错

交通肇事罪中的被害人过错是指在交通肇事犯罪案件中,因肇事行为人与被害人的共同过错行为造成重大事故时,被害人对损害结果的产生具有原因力的过失违章行为.它具有不同于其它类型案件被害人过错的特点.其不影响罪的构成,最高人民法院的司法解释规定,被害人在事故中负主要责任以上的,被告人不承担刑事责任,实际上是夸大被害人过错在定罪中的作用,并违背了犯罪构成理论.交通肇事罪中的被害人过错影响量刑,并且对加害人刑事责任大小的影响是相对确定的,应将其作为交通肇事罪的从轻情节予以法定化.     

Four Challenges in the Future of Restorative Justice

Abstract

Restorative justice (RJ) emerged in the late 1970s as an alternative to conventional youth and criminal justice practices. Since this time, RJ has experienced rapid growth in theory and practice. At the same time, much of this growth has come from expansion in lower-end criminal justice responses to crime, and in the increasing use of the term “restorative” for a widening host of practices and interventions. RJ has also faced problems related to its increasing institutionalization, resulting in divergence from earlier aims and goals. In this article, we set forth what we see as the four biggest challenges facing the future of RJ, namely problems related to definition, institutionalization, displacement, and relevance of RJ practices. We follow with discussion of possible future directions of RJ.     

Life-cycle effects on social pressure to vote

Recent scholarship reveals social pressure can compel citizens to conform to social norms like voting in elections. In this study, we investigate heterogeneity in the impact of social pressure to vote. We find that age, a key demographic characteristic, moderates the impact of social pressure. Using evidence from a large-scale randomized field experiment conducted in August 2006, we show that older voters are significantly more responsive to social pressure compared to younger voters. Given the emerging consensus that social pressure can be marshaled effectively to stimulate voting in elections, such investigations yield critical insights of both practical and theoretical significance.     

Adolescent Females' Attraction to Male Adolescent Bullies and Victims of Bullying

Abstract

This study assessed adolescent females' self-reported attraction and interest in dating adolescent male bullies and victims of bullying. Thirty-six 9th and 10th grade female adolescents (mean age = 15 years; 69.2% White; 30.8% Non-white) from a city high school in the Mid-Atlantic United States examined three photographs and listened to a verbal account portraying two adolescent males in an episode of physical and verbal bullying. Participants were significantly more likely to be attracted and interested in dating a male victim of bullying than a male bully.     

Community of care from a victim-perspective: a qualitative study

Even if there has been some theoretical debate on the role of what has been called the ‘community of care’ in restorative justice (RJ) there has not been much research on, or analysis of, the implications of the role of significant others in its practice. This lack of reflection is especially evident in the case of the victims’ community of care, despite findings that would indicate a systematic lack of participation of victim’s supporters in restorative practices. Through the qualitative analysis of 35 interviews with victims of crime who consented to attend mediation (direct and indirect), an attempt to describe and discuss the characteristics of victim’s communities of care that may become relevant for the practice of RJ is made. Results indicate that, despite a victims’ need for company or support, victims tend to disclose few details about the offense, its consequences and the mediation offered as a way to protect their loved ones or to avoid possible negative reactions from their communities. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are offered.     

The truth and the trial: victim participation,restorative justice,and the International Criminal Court

In the field of international criminal justice, the international criminal court (ICC) has been lauded for its integration of victim participants into its legal proceedings. In particular, the ICC’s framework of victim participation has been understood to figure as a balance between retributive and restorative justice as it enables the actual voices of the victims to be heard. However, there has been little research that considers how victim participation works in practice as a form of truth-telling. In order to begin to address this gap, the integration of the ‘voices of the victims’ into the proceedings and outcome of The Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is explored. The forms of harms and experiences that comprise the truth of the events under adjudication put forward by the victim participants are considered, and then how the truth-telling functions of the ICC represent these states of injury. While the ICC’s legal proceedings enable victims to speak of their harms and experiences, their ‘voices’ are largely absent from its judgment. To address this issue, the ICC needs to develop and maintain a level of ‘restorative justice coherence’ to manage victims’ expectations of its justice approaches.     

Psychological effects of criminal proceedings through contact with the judge: the moderating effect of legal system structure

Psychological effects of criminal proceedings on victims have often been the focus of victimological research. The criminal justice system is repeatedly acknowledged as a source of additional harm for victims. Such a generalization, however, cannot be made to all legal systems universally to the same degree. This article compares the adversarial and inquisitorial structures of criminal justice and examines how the latter may in fact be beneficial to victim's well-being. More specifically, contact with the judge and presence at trial may be one positive form of victim participation in its most informal sense. Hierarchical regression analysis is conducted using victims of serious crimes in the Netherlands and New South Wales (NSW), Australia, to test this hypothesis. The type of legal system (i.e., inquisitorial versus adversarial) is used as a moderating variable on the relationship between contact with the judge and psychological effects. The findings indicate that victims in the Netherlands report a significant relationship, where contact with the judge is predictive of a less negative impact on psychological effects, while a non-significant relationship is found for victims in NSW.