论我国的刑罚结构改革——以宽严相济的刑事政策为视角

刑事政策是刑罚结构调整的重要依据,我国适时提出了宽严相济的刑事政策,与此适应,刑罚结构也应做出相应的调整。我国刑罚结构主要存在刑罚种类过少、刑种在刑罚结构中的地位和比例不合理这两大问题,应采取相应的调整措施,以促进我国的刑罚结构改革。     

“To establish a community of property”: Marriage and race before and during the Haitian Revolution

The Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) was the greatest social upheaval in the Age of Atlantic Revolutions. The paper presents results from the first systematic study of marriage during this event, which included slave rebellion (1791), general emancipation (1793) and political independence from France (1803). The article focuses on a single colonial parish, leveraging a sample of roughly 1000 contracts by comparing them with similar documents from same region in the 1760s and 1780s. Ironically, amid a revolution that was ostensibly eliminating slavery and racism, the interracial marriages that had once been common in this parish virtually disappeared. The wealthy “mulatto” families who had been free long before 1791 intensified their pre-Revolutionary pattern of endogamy and cousin-marriage. In the meantime, French male immigrants of the sort who, before the Revolution, had allied with these established clans, now shunned these marriages.     

Race relations,nationalism and the humanitarian Rohingya crisis in contemporary Myanmar

ABSTRACT

The recent ethnic tensions in Myanmar especially in the Rakhine state has once again placed the country onto the centre stage of global media attention. The aim of this paper is to look at race relations in contemporary Myanmar with a special focus on the Rohingya community. The paper argues that problematic race relations in the country today should be analysed within a certain historical context and should be seen as part of a historical continuum. This paper places a lot of importance on this historical continuum. In this connection, the British colonial policies of divide and conquer, politicians and their obsession with Buddhism and trying to make it the state religion shortly after independence in 1948, and the xenophobic policies followed by the military junta after 1962 deserve special mention. The paper further argues that the current state of affairs and escalation in violence has happened recently because of the convergence of the activities and ideologies of certain political groups like the military junta, the National League for Democracy, the Arakan League for Democracy, and the role played by certain Buddhist extremist groups like the MaBaTha in Burmese politics. To ease the existing tension in the Rakhine, the central government would need to take a more federally minded approach and introduce meaningful democracy and development in the frontier parts of the country where there is a strong ethnic minority presence.     

Punishment or therapy? The ethics of sexual offending treatment

Abstract

The claim that sex offender treatment is a form of punishment and as such cannot be covered by traditional ethical codes is a controversial one. It challenges the ethical basis of current practice and compels clinicians to rethink the work they do with sex offenders. In this paper I comment on Bill Glaser's defence of that idea in a challenging and timely paper and David Prescott and Jill Leveson's rejection of his claims. First, I consider briefly the nature of both punishment and treatment and outline Glaser's argument and Prescott and Levenson's rejoinder. I then investigate what a comprehensive argument for either position should look like and finish with a few comments on each paper.     

Prisoners,Prisons and Punishment in Small Societies

This paper aims to analyse the subject of prisoners, prisons and punishment in small societies. An attempt is made to compare the prison system in a small society (Iceland) with those of other larger societies, in particular those of other Nordic countries. Small institutions function better in many respects than larger ones. The problems that emerge, and there are problems in all prisons, are more visible and can therefore more easily be discussed and solved.     

The ‘Usual Suspects’

Abstract

A key issue in contemporary criminology is the role that social status, and particularly race, plays in legal processes. Previous research suggests that criminal justice proceedings-including arrest, conviction, and sentencing rates-are influenced by victim and offender race, but rarely examines the role of race in reporting events to the police. The following research uses data from the rape sub-sample of the National Crime Victimization Survey of households 1992-2001; logistic regression analyses are conducted to determine how victim and offender race influence reporting of rape to the police, controlling for other incident characteristics. The findings suggest that rapes with a Black perpetrator are much more likely to be reported to police, regardless of whether the victim is white or Black.     

Interpreting “Percent Black”

Abstract

Time series analysis is employed to assess the relationship between “percent Black” and violent crime in Washington D.C. over a 40-year period. Race-disaggregated violent crime arrest data are also examined. It is concluded that while there is some indication of a positive relationship between violent crime and “percent Black” over time, that relationship is not robust when disaggregated by race and crime type and may be limited to Black robbery offending. Further, it appears that “percent Black” may be serving as a proxy for other social problems. An exploration of possible correlates of racial disparity in violent arrests suggests that they are associated with a variety of factors, including social problems and their disparities.     

Race and Ethnic Differences in Punishment and Death Sentence Outcomes

Abstract

A review of the capital punishment literature shows evidence of differential treatment of defendants at two separate levels: commutations and executions. However, since most prior studies have followed a dichotomous approach, little is known about other death sentence outcomes, that is, sentence declared unconstitutional, sentence overturned, and conviction overturned and Latino/a defendants have either been excluded or treated as a monolithic group. Hence, little is known about death sentence outcomes for Latinos/as, whose experiences differ from those of African Americans and Caucasians. The main objective of this study, then, is to expand on the existing data by analyzing death sentence outcomes data for California, Florida, and Texas between 1975 and 1995. Logistic regression, controlling for time under the sentence of death, prior felony convictions, age at the time of the offense, marital status, and education, shows that disparities in death sentence outcomes is not a phenomenon of the past or restricted to commutations and executions. The findings suggest that race and ethnicity and several legal variables still play a role in the legal decision-making process.     

轻罪时代的犯罪治理方略

当今中国的犯罪现象正在经历从自然犯到法定犯、从重罪到轻罪的历史转换,犯罪治理的策略也需要与时俱进,顺势而变。具体而言,轻罪时代的犯罪治理应该彻底摈弃严打重刑思维,从宽严相济转向以宽为主的刑事政策,刑罚应整体趋轻,更多关注出刑和制裁多元化,更加注重常态治理和依法治理,刑事程序制度也应更加轻缓与灵活,同时营造更为宽容的社会环境。