“Good moral characters”: how drug felons are impacted under state marijuana legalization laws

This article examines how drug felons will be impacted by marijuana legalization in the United States. What will happen to drug felons whose charges would be legal under current law? Can drug felons work in the newly developing legal marijuana industries? In this article we will overview the statistics on arrests and convictions with their high rates of racial disparities. The war on drugs has inspired the development of more repressive criminal justice tactics such as asset forfeiture, high rates of re-incarceration during parole for marijuana violations, drug courts and their further reach into lifestyles, and the difficulties of prisoner reentry, especially for drug felons, who are barred from many jobs and social services. We will look at the regulations of felony offenders working in the cannabis industry. And we will consider the outcomes of retroactive ameliorative relief for this case of marijuana possession felonies under legalization.     

Assessing and managing risk for intimate partner violence: Police employees’ use of the Police Screening Tool for Violent Crimes in Scania

Relapse into intimate partner violence (IPV) can potentially be predicted and counter-measures applied. This study examines the predictive validity of a violence risk assessment tool: the Police Screening Tool for Violent Crimes (PST-VC) among a sample of 65 offenders. All PST-VC assessments regarding IPV that were conducted at the Scania police department in 2010 were included in the sample. Follow-up time was 16–28 months, and all reported incidents with the same victim and suspected offender were recorded. The PST-VC demonstrated limited effect in the ability to identify high-risk offenders and predict repeat victimization. Interventions against the offender and victim protective actions were more often recommended in high-risk cases but did not lower the number of IPV relapses. The study suggests that the PST-VC is not a promising instrument.     

Acculturation and fear of crime among Hispanics

Fear of crime has attracted significant attention in academic research. One area that has largely been overlooked concerns fear of crime correlates among Hispanics, the largest ethnic minority group in the United States. Their unique cultural background as immigrants make them different from Non-Hispanic Whites and African Americans, and they all go through the acculturation process to some degree. However, the influence of acculturation has seldom been incorporated into the analysis. The current study attempts to use the acculturation thesis to examine two different types of fear among Hispanic residents in Houston, Texas. The findings suggest that acculturation is a significant predictor of crime-specific fear at home, but not of fear of crime in the neighborhood.     

Perceived risk of crime: A tale of two immigrant groups in Metro Detroit

A particular source of anxiety for many immigrants is personal safety. This study examines the levels and correlates of perceived risk of crime among two understudied immigrant groups, Arab and Chinese immigrants, who resided in an understudied geographic area, the Detroit metropolitan area. Results suggested several universal and immigrants-specific correlates that are significant predictors of Arab and/or Chinese immigrants' perceptions of crime, including self-defense ability, police effectiveness, neighborhood collective efficacy, language proficiency, expectation of U.S. crime condition prior to arrival, and perception of home society crime. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Research note: career stage and job satisfaction among southern correctional officers

The career stage theory postulates that employees go through different career stages, and each career stage has different effects on various outcomes, such as job satisfaction. There has been empirical support for the career stage theory from other disciplines, but there has been limited research relating to this theory to corrections. To expand the literature, the current study examined whether different career stages were significant predictors of job satisfactions, while including the personal characteristics and the workplace place variables among Texas correctional officers. The results supported the career state theory: job satisfaction was highest during the entry stage (0–2 years), but was lowest during the second career stage (2–5 years). In career stages three (5–15 years) and four (16+ years), job satisfaction rose. Possible interventions that correctional administrators can undertake to encourage job satisfaction from their staff during the second career stage are discussed.     

裁判请求权保障与法院审判人员的优化配置

在实行法官员额制改革过程中,必须一并考虑法院审判人员的分类管理和优化配置问题。在民事诉讼中,为保障公民的裁判请求权,对于民事纠纷案件的审理,必须配置入额法官;对于非讼案件的审理、诉前或审前的法院调解以及立案登记等程序事项的处理应交由司法实务官进行,从而让法官专注于民事纠纷案件的审判,以更好地落实公民的裁判请求权保障之宪法理念。司法事务官不同于助理审判员,其不能审理所有的民事案件;司法事务官也不同于法官助理,司法事务官不是法官的助手,其可以依法独立行使职权。司法事务官不是宪法意义上的处理民事纠纷的法官,司法事务官不必进入法官员额。     

Narcomessages as a way to analyse the evolution of organised crime in Mexico

Drug-related homicides in Mexico have increased to levels never before seen and organised crime has evolved accordingly, becoming more fragmented and diverse. This work analyses the evolution of organised crime and drug-related violence in Mexico by examining how drug trafficking organisations (DTOs) communicate through the messages left next to executed bodies from 2007 to 2011. Results suggest that the use of narcomessages has changed and developed in parallel with the evolution of organised crime. In the beginning, DTOs used their victims merely to position themselves. Over time, as the organisations became stronger, they began to direct and sign their narcomessages. By 2009, rivalries were firmly entrenched between several criminal groups, even while the increasing violence led to the creation of new groups with the stated purpose of defending citizens. The evolution of organised crime is observed by the fragmentation of existing groups, the consolidation of new alliances, and the creation of new groups.     

罪刑法定与刑法机能之关系

社会保护机能与人权保障机能的统一是刑法的整体价值目标,而不是刑法某一个构成要素的价值目标。认为相对罪刑法定原则具有人权保障和社会保护双重机能的观点,实际上是混淆了刑法的机能与罪刑法定原则的机能,错把刑法的整体机能当成了其构成要素的机能。罪刑法定原则虽然应当服务于刑法的整体价值目标,但是,它却不应该、也不可能直接承载社会保护的价值内容。我国《刑法》第3条从正反两个方面规定罪刑法定原则,将社会保护的内容附加给罪刑法定原则,在一定程度上消解了这一原则的社会法律意义,不利于现代刑法观念的培植。     

政治对刑法犯罪理论体系的影响和制约

通过对德国从纳粹时期开始至今的犯罪理论体系的发展变化的历史的分析,阐明了政治对于犯罪理论体系的影响和制约,并以日本、前苏联和中国的事例论证了善政、恶政存在,对法律和法律理论都起着支配和控制作用,这样一个世界性的问题。