(Dis)order in the Court: Examining Neighborhood Disorder Prosecutions in Miami-Dade County

Abstract

This study examines race, space, perceptions of disorder, and nuisance crime prosecution in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Research has examined nuisance policing, yet little attention has been devoted to nuisance crime prosecutions, especially at the neighborhood level. Aggregating data on defendants arrested for nuisance offenses from 2012 to 2015 up to the neighborhood level, we estimate count models for pretrial detention, case acceptance, conviction, and sentencing outcomes in neighborhoods. We find two patterns of nuisance crime prosecution. Drug disorder prosecutions are concentrated in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods with large Black defendant populations, suggesting a more suppressive treatment of these “marginalized” spaces. In contrast, greater enforcement of homelessness and alcohol nuisance crimes in White non-Hispanic neighborhoods suggests disorder prosecutions are also used to impose order and containment in more economically “prime” spaces. These countervailing patterns highlight the spatial contingency of nuisance enforcement, whereby prosecutors differentially enforce nuisance crimes in prime and marginalized spaces.     

Public Satisfaction with Police Control of Disorder Crime: Does the Public Hold Police Accountable?

This study expands the research on public satisfaction with the police by attempting to disentangle the relationships among disorder crime incidents reported to the police, residents' perceptions of disorder, and citizen satisfaction with police performance on order maintenance. The police accountability model and the demographic model are utilized to predict the variation of public satisfaction with police control of disorder (SWPD). The data used in this analysis were derived from a random-sample telephone survey of 1,215 Houston residents. Crime data were provided by the Houston Police Department and further extracted from the area surrounding each individual respondent's residence surveyed by using Geographic Information Systems technology. The main findings are that while the actual incidence of disorder crime had no direct impact on residents' perceptions of police performance on order maintenance, it did have a significant direct impact on their perceptions of disorder. This shows the utility of the accountability model in future research. Moreover, it was found that global satisfaction with police crime prevention was an important predictor of public SWPD in their immediate neighborhood.     

Schools,Neighborhoods, and Adolescent Conflicts: A Situational Examination of Reciprocal Dynamics

Youths' exposure to school violence is ecologically patterned, occurring disproportionately in public schools located in urban disadvantaged communities. We know less, however, about how situational processes and environmental contexts shape school violence. In addition, limited research has examined the reciprocal nature of school and neighborhood conflicts. Here we draw from a qualitative study of violence in the lives of African American youths from a disadvantaged inner‐city community to examine young men's experiences with school‐based violence. Specifically, we investigate two questions: (1) how conflicts are shaped by the school setting, and (2) how and when such conflicts unfold and spill over between neighborhoods and schools. Our findings highlight the importance of examining the situational and ecological contexts of youth violence to further illuminate its causes and consequences.     

农村公共文化的“衰弱”与“滞后”——以甘肃省为例

农村公共文化事业的发展,不仅是新农村建设的重要方面,也是构建和谐社会的重要议题。以甘肃为例,审视农村文化建设现状,不难发现,其存在着"公""私"文化发展不对称、公共文化总量短缺和结构失衡等问题。从体制层面来考察,主要原因是农村文化发展机制的"偏移"。为此,应当通过体制、机制的完善和创新,逐步实现城乡文化的一体化发展。     

The use of neuroscientific evidence in Canadian criminal proceedings

This article addresses the question of how neuroscientific evidence is currently used in the Canadian criminal justice system, with a view to identifying the main contexts in which this evidence is raised, as well as to discern the impact of this evidence on judgements of responsibility, dangerousness, and treatability. The most general Canadian legal database was searched for cases in the five-year period between 2008 and 2012 in which neuroscientific evidence related to the responsibility and recidivism risk of criminal offenders was considered. Canadian courts consider neuroscientific evidence of many types, particularly evidence of prenatal alcohol exposure, traumatic brain injury, and neuropsychological testing. The majority of the cases are sentencing decisions, which is useful given that it offers an opportunity to observe how judges wrestle with the tension that evidence of diminished capacity due to brain damage tends to reduce moral blameworthiness, while it also tends to increase perceptions of risk and dangerousness. This so-called double-edged sword of the biological explanation of criminal behavior was reflected in this study, and raises questions about whether and when the pursuit of such evidence is advisable from the defense perspective.     

Comparison of outcomes of patients with personality disorder to patients with mental illness,following discharge from medium secure hospital: systematic review

Background: Medium secure hospitals (MSHs) are costly yet outcome studies, particularly regarding the differential effects of diagnosis, are scant. Research Question: Are there differences in outcomes after MSH discharge for patients with PD compared to patients with mental illness (MI): systematic review. Method: Systematically reviewed studies which distinguished outcomes for patients with PD from those with MI, regarding reconvictions, readmissions and/or mortality rates. Results: From eight studies, comprising 1017 patients, mean reconviction rates per 100,000 person-years for patients with PD were higher (14,369) than those with MI (7799). However, mean readmission and mortality rates were lower (8403 and 668 per 100,000 person-years) compared to those with MI (13,390 and 1083) per 100,000 person-years. Conclusions: Diagnosis appears to differentially impact on reconviction, readmission and mortality rates. Services could tailor pathways to prioritise symptom management and promoting healthy lifestyles for patients with MI, and reducing reoffending for patients with PD.     

Contrasting psychosocial outcomes in Chinese delinquent adolescents with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder symptoms and/or reading disability

Many studies reported high prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and reading disability (RD) among delinquent adolescents. Very few have examined their psychosocial outcomes. The present study compared the psychosocial outcomes and delinquency outcomes in Chinese juvenile delinquents with ADHD symptoms (AS) and/or RD. Delinquents with AS (n = 29), RD (n = 24) and their comorbidity (n = 35) were recruited from juvenile institutions along with typically developing controls (n = 29) from local schools; all completed questionnaire on psychosocial characteristics and delinquency outcomes. Participants with AS were associated with poor academic orientation whereas participants with RD were characterized with negative main effects across all psychosocial constructs being tested. The comorbid group performed similar to the RD group yet it exhibited a significantly higher delinquency severity. The present findings provide a better picture of the unique psychosocial profile associated with different groups, allowing for better matching for future identification and intervention programme.     

The Rise of Statutory Wills and the Limits of Best Interests Decision‐Making in Inheritance

This article addresses ‘statutory wills’ executed under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) for persons with impaired mental capacity. The article provides an overview of the historical development of statutory wills, before exploring their rising contemporary significance. It considers the shift from the previous ‘hypothetical substituted judgment’ test to the contemporary ‘best interests’ orientation of the MCA. The article assesses the problems that the best interests approach raises in this area, and its (in)compatibility with the right to equal recognition before the law under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, arguing that the pervasive reach of best interests in contemporary mental capacity law requires reconsideration. The paper concludes by suggesting that a more limited framing of the power to execute statutory wills is required in order to appropriately balance the rights of individuals with disabilities with practical considerations around the distribution of assets on death.     

少数民族地区基层检察干警健康状况调查分析——以会理县人民检察院为例

通过调查会理县人民检察院检察人员的健康状况、查阅相关文献,结合检察工作实际情况进行分析,发现工作量大、心理压力大是影响检察人员身心健康的主要因素,同时提出相应的对策.     

Compulsory mental health care in Norway: The treatment criterion

The Norwegian government has chosen to retain a treatment criterion in the Mental Health Care Act despite the opposition of several user organizations. From a critical user perspective, the only reason for using coercion to require mental health treatment is that the individuals are in a state where they are an immediate danger to themselves and/or their surroundings. This articles aims, first, to provide an overview of research studies concerning the benefits or harmfulness of involuntary treatment after coerced admission and, second, to evaluate studies that try to compare involuntary with voluntary treatment. A systematic overview of studies of compulsory mental health care with regard to treatment criteria, coercion in mental health, and involuntary admission published over the last decade was examined in detail, along with a secondary manual search of references cited in identified publications. Few studies have been conducted on the effect of compulsory mental health care, and the results have been contradictory. More randomized studies are needed to document the kinds of effects that the use of compulsory treatment has on treatment results. Another issue that needs further examination is whether the use of coercion should be transferred to legal bodies with an adjudicatory process.