Effect of Psychopathy, Abuse, and Ethnicity on Juvenile Probation Officers’ Decision-Making and Supervision Strategies

Probation officers exercise substantial discretion in their daily work with troubled and troubling juvenile offenders. In this experiment, we examine the effect of psychopathic features, child abuse, and ethnicity on 204 officers’ expectancies of, recommendations for, and approach to supervising, juvenile offenders. The results indicate that officers (a) have decision-making and supervision approaches that are affected by a youth’s psychopathic traits and history of child abuse—but not ethnicity; (b) view both abused youth and psychopathic youth as highly challenging cases on a path toward adult criminality; and (c) have greater hope and sympathy for abused youth than psychopathic youth. For abused youth, officers are likely to recommend psychological services and “go the extra mile” by providing greater support, referrals, and networking than is typical for their caseload. For psychopathic youth, officers expect poor treatment outcomes and are” extra strict,” enforcing rules that typically are not enforced for others on their caseload.     

An Examination of the Outcomes of Various Components of a Coordinated Community Response to Domestic Violence by Male Offenders

With recognition that police intervention by itself is not entirely effective, in recent years there has been a shift in public policies towards the implementation of a coordinated community response to domestic violence incidents. This article examines the impact of participation in several aspects of a coordinated community response (CCR) in a mid-sized city in the Midwest. Specifically, recidivism was examined using information on officially recorded re-arrests for 131 male domestic violence offenders involved in a CCR type intervention. In addition, exploratory analyses attempt to determine if certain offender characteristics are related to their likely of progressing through each of several post-conviction components of this CCR-type intervention. Limitations of the research and suggestions for policy responses to domestic violence are discussed.

青少年罪犯心理矫治方式探索

青少年罪犯本身的特性决定着青少年罪犯的心理矫治必须着眼于不同于其他人群之处,这是研究青少年罪犯心理矫治的价值与意义所在之处。我国针对青少年罪犯的心理矫治措施仍然处于起步阶段,普遍存在着眼宏观而缺乏针对性的现象。从“大词法治”转向“具体而微”,应是考察与反思我国现有矫治举措的基础和方向。     

三十年来中国犯罪现象发展态势

改革开放近30年来,中国进入了新的历史发展时期,政治、经济、文化等各方面都发生了巨大的变化。随着市场经济的逐步确立与发展,影响犯罪的各种因素也不断突变,犯罪现象的发展变化亦出现了前所未有的新特点。犯罪率的急剧上升与高位徘徊并存,犯罪的地域重心逐渐发生偏移,犯罪主体日益多元化,新的犯罪类型不断涌现。本文即封改革开放以来中国犯罪案件的诸多特点进行考察,以期对犯罪预防政策的制定提供参考。     

本质的还是建构的?——论性倾向平等保护中的“不可改变”进路

性倾向和性别、种族一样,属于因出生而获得的"不可改变"特征,所以应该得到严格审查,得到宪法的平等保护。这一进路遭到了批评,因为关键问题在于政府立法和性倾向之间是否具有关联性。自然科学关于同性恋生物基础的研究对"不可改变"提供了强有力的支持,而这种本质主义的研究遭到了社会建构主义者强有力的批判,身份政治中的这一争论提醒我们,从"我也无能为力"的诉求中,同性恋权利不能获得真正的力量。     

DNA recovery from different evidences in 300 cases of sexual assault

Almost 60% of the DNA evidences analyzed in our laboratory correspond to sexual assault cases. With the aim to assess the efficiency of the DNA IQ System (Promega) in recovering the perpetrator DNA profile, the statistical analysis of results obtained in 300 casework was performed. In such cases, 850 evidence samples were processed. In 71% of the cases the perpetrator DNA profile was detected in at least one of the submitted casework samples, with a minimum of 13 STRs markers typed using the AmpFlSTR Identifiler PCR amplification kit (Applied Biosystem). When the suspect DNA profile was available, 67% matched with the evidence.With regard to the type of evidence, the best performance corresponded to panties, with more than 70% of success in recovering male profile, whereas the efficiency of vaginal swabs was almost 60%, with a higher incidence of victim/perpetrator mixed profiles.     

个案管理服务:适合于社区矫正的社会服务方式

社区矫正个案管理服务,是帮助社区服刑人员中面临多重问题、且无法有效使用社会资源的当事人顺利回归社会的一种社会工作专业方法。其目的。是帮助社区服刑人员发展社会资源网络及培养运用这个网络的能力,建立与社会环境及其规范的复和(和解)。它是一个通过合理使用社会资源而抑制社会服务成本的社会服务方式。在现行基层社区矫正工作中．引进这种方法,可以有效使用社会资源为当事人提供优质服务。     

Changing institutional culture in the wake of clerical abuse – the essentials of restorative and legal regulation

The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse completed its final report in December 2017 after five years of hearings. The Royal Commission was the culmination of pressure from a series of public inquiries about institutional sexual abuse and sustained advocacy from victims and survivor support groups. The Commission made recommendations designed to change institutional leadership, governance and culture. The challenge is to have that change embedded in institutional culture. This paper considers how this might be done in a specific institution, the Catholic Church given that more than two-thirds of reported abuse in faith-based institutions occurred within its ranks. Regulatory theory suggests effective regulation must be responsive to past institutional behaviour. In the case of the Church, the task is profound given its strong self-protective culture which has long shielded abusers. The form of regulation must provide a balance where criminal sanctions loom large in the background while redress processes proceed in the foreground to repair both the harm suffered by survivors and renew Church culture.     

Coping with Imprisonment: Testing the Special Sensitivity Hypothesis for White-Collar Offenders

This study uses nationally representative prison data to test two competing theories of how white-collar offenders experience prison. The first perspective, referred to as the special sensitivity hypothesis, assumes that because of their social and demographic background characteristics white-collar offenders are more susceptible to the pains of imprisonment than other inmates. The second perspective, referred to as the special resiliency hypothesis, is based on the idea that these same background characteristics may reduce the pains of imprisonment for white-collar offenders. Ordinal and binary logistic regression models are used to estimate the effect of white-collar inmate status on several indicators of psychological adjustment. The current study finds partial support for the special resiliency hypothesis, but not the special sensitivity hypothesis. The results for each outcome are discussed regarding both theoretical and practical applications. The study’s limitations are also addressed and suggestions for future research on incarcerated white-collar offenders are given.     

Evaluation of usefulness of further Y-STR analysis in sexual assault cases on PSA positive samples resulting in female autosomal STR profiling

Samples from male to female sexual assault cases that are positive for the presumptive prostate specific antigen (PSA) test often do not result in a male autosomal STR profile. Due to highly unequal proportions of female and male DNA in typical sexual assault samples, routine autosomal STR analysis often fails to detect the DNA of the assailant, even after differential extraction of the samples. Previous studies have already shown the value of Y-STR analysis in such cases [1]. In Belgium, forensic DNA laboratories are only allowed to perform Y-STR profiling on sexual assault samples by a specific requisition, after routine autosomal STR analysis has been performed. However, a request for additional Y-STR analysis is rather exceptional.In this study, we evaluated the usefulness of further Y-STR analysis. For 100 PSA positive rinses and swabs from male to female sexual assault cases resulting in female autosomal STR profiling, 7% resulted in a full or partial Y-STR profile useful for comparison, using the 23-loci Y-STR PowerPlex Y23 System (Promega). The success rate raised to 12.5% with a higher DNA input in the PCR mix. In conclusion, these results support the usefulness of performing Y-STRs analysis on the sperm DNA extracts to identify the alleged assailant in sexual assault cases.