A Special Youth Sanction

Under the label ‘youth sanction’ (ungdomssanktion) a new type of sentence for juvenile offenders has been enacted by a 2001 amendment to the Danish Penal Code. The study reported here is an analysis of the 55 sentences imposed over the first year. Widespread disparity and disproportionality in sentencing was found. Statutory requirements regarding the seriousness of the individual case have not in all instances been satisfactorily established. The emergence of the new sanction implies a considerable increase in the intensity of intervention. Being based on a revitalized treatment ideology, the new criminal sanction legitimizes a vast widening of the control measures directed against troubled youth, in particular such offenders who has another ethnic background than Danish. No comprehensive programme or coherent vision regarding treatment methods has been stipulated, and professionals are bewildered and in disagreement regarding such issues. Nothing indicates that the costly efforts will prove to be adequate as rehabilitative and crime preventive tools. The introduction of the youth sanction is part of a contemporary criminal policy agenda dominated by a broad political coalition with an urge to demonstrate ability and readiness to cope with juvenile street crime by employing more ‘consequent’ measures, involving tougher and swifter punishment combined with coerced rehabilitation.     

Crime and Punishment in Sweden: Historical Criminal Justice Statistics 1750–2000

The article is a summary of a book in Swedish on the development of crime (that is, violence and theft) and punishment in Sweden in a historical perspective. The data stem mostly from conviction statistics. Following a discussion of the reliability of conviction statistics, trends in these statistics are described and various criminological explanations for these trends are discussed.     

论中国式量刑模式之构建——以规范化量刑为视角

在司法审判活动中,如何设计与构建科学、合理的量刑制度、制定规范的量刑标准、减少量刑偏差和量刑失衡,不仅直接关乎到实体正义的实现与否,是保证法的衡平与权威的根本,更是世界各国刑事法学研究与刑事司法实践亟待解决的重大课题.通过考察、借鉴域外法律的相关量刑模式,我国未来的量刑程序模式应当是层次式和分解式相结合的一个整体,即以...     

Why Do the Finns Trust the Police?

Ideological trends in the criminal policy of the Nordic countries since the 1960s are analysed. Although criminal policy in these countries is not unified, one can argue for the existence of a 'Scandinavian criminal policy' characterized by several common features concerning historical tradition, intensive cooperation and a similar approach to crime prevention and control. The following trends and characteristics are examined in some detail: the cycle from criticism of the treatment ideology to a reappraisal of the role of the criminal justice system and the function of penal sanctions; the differentiation of criminal policy strategies (e.g. social and situational crime prevention, cost-benefit thinking, criminal law policy, sanctions policy). Discernible tendencies towards more unified or, at least, more harmonized criminal policies on the international and European level are also examined. Active participation in this developmental process is encouraged to ensure that the fundamental principles of Scandinavian criminal policy are properly utilized.     

论约定受贿的犯罪形态

约定受贿在我国刑法中并无规定,不是一种单独的受贿类型。理论和实务界对约定受贿是否构成犯罪,以及属于受贿罪的哪种犯罪形态,分歧颇多。通过对中外受贿犯罪的立法比较,以符合构成要件的法益的解释论为立场,"约定"应当被认为是"收受"的"着手",约定受贿是受贿罪的未遂形态。从体系解释和量刑纠偏的角度出发,约定受贿应当认定为犯罪未遂,而"达成合意既遂说""代为保管既遂说""将来交付既遂说"等观点并不具备合理性。     

The Silence of the Lambdas: Deterring Incapacitation Research

This essay provides an economist’s perspective on criminological research into incapacitation effects on crime. Our central argument is that criminologists would do well to substantially scale back the enterprise of trying to estimate the various behavioral parameters central to a micro-level approach to measuring incapacitation effects, including the annual rate of offending outside of prison (λ) and the lengths of criminal careers. One problem with this line of research is practical: for example, mean estimates of self-reported criminal activity by incarcerated prisoners are quite sensitive to reports by the most criminally active offenders. But the larger concern is conceptual—the incapacitation effects from a given change in sentencing policy may be undermined by the possibility of replacement effects, and at the same time omit other benefits that may arise from deterrent effects on crime. A more promising approach is to identify plausibly exogenous changes in sentencing policy in order to estimate the net impact on crime from the combined effects of incapacitation, deterrence and replacement.

Measuring and Explaining Charge Bargaining

Charge bargaining is a potentially important form of discretion in criminal sentencing that is obscured in many studies of sentencing outcomes. Our procedure to measure the difference in sentencing outcomes caused by plea bargain emphasizes the amount, in months, that the sentence length is reduced. Using this measure, we compare prosecutorial discretion across counties in two different states. We conclude that charge bargaining plays an empirically important role in determining sentencing outcomes. Furthermore, we find that measuring the distance (in months of prison time) moved during a charge bargain may provide a very different estimate of the discretion than is given by the rate of bargaining, which is the usual measure used. Although the rate of charge bargaining was higher in the voluntary guidelines state, its impact on sentences was greater in the presumptive guidelines jurisdiction, as predicted by Reitz (1998). We further observe a dramatic difference in predictions from shifting the case characteristics underlying the summary measure. This result reveals that distributional differences (either due to the underlying criminal activity or due to the overall level of severity of punishment) can easily obscure the inferences necessary for understanding the operation of the systems. Our finding of differential charge bargaining in these two jurisdictions should provide a caution when comparing the results of studies of disparity in sentencing across jurisdiction types.

重新犯罪控制问题的再思考

转型社会存在重新犯罪与转型社会之间深层矛盾的关系:有计划的产业结构调整与无序、无保障的人员迁徙;迁徙、变动、初偶犯急增与单纯的"严打"方针;短刑犯、在押犯的构成与传统以重刑犯为重点的行刑体制……因此,实行营造和谐的社会政策,以治本、创新、以人为本的罪犯改造技术,以治恶、完善配套法律是实现重新犯罪有效控制的重要手段。     

Remorse, Reform and the Real World: Reply to Lippke

This article replies to some of Richard Lippke’s criticisms of my earlier article on the issue of whether remorse should mitigate sentence. I query whether remorse-based mitigation must always wait for signs of moral reform, and re-affirm that remorse is worthy of recognition in itself and not just for the moral reform it may bring. I also argue that, where delayed mitigation is appropriate, the task of ascertaining moral reform is not as dubious, practically or in principle, as Lippke maintains. I then confirm that my defence of the principle that remorse should mitigate sentence is not necessarily a defence of current practice.     

论前科效应的理论基础

前科导致的刑罚从重评判效应 ,属于世所公认的量刑惯例 ,但是对其理论基础问题却见仁见智 ,众说纷纭。前科效应的理论根据 ,应当是立足于社会危害性之上的人身危险性 ,这有其经济学价值与规则合理性 ;同时 ,前科效应从其所导致的刑罚构成特点来分析 ,具有双重复合性 ,而其法律属性 ,只能定性为对前罪刑罚效果的配套评估体系。