International Policy Formation: The Development Of Restorative Justice Policy Within The United Nations

Restorative justice and its related terms moved from the background of ancillary sessions to the floor of the United Nations Congress. This article documents and discusses the transfer of local policy to the international arena using the UN forum and restorative justice as a case study. First, a historical timeline traces the three influential forces, (1) the United Nations forum, (2) the non-governmental organization (NGO) activities, and (3) the individual Member States’ activities, behind the restorative justice movement onto the UN agenda. An integrated modification of Blumer’s process of collective problem definition is used as a framework to analyze the policy formation. Finally, the context of how future researchers may make use of the process is analyzed by comparing the traditional research development framework to Blumer’s policy framework. A need for wide spread implementation and outcome evaluations are needed as the policy is implemented is among the key findings.     

Competence to Waive Interrogation Rights and Adjudicative Competence in Adolescent Defendants: Cognitive Development,Attorney Contact,and Psychological Symptoms

Although there is growing evidence of developmental differences in competency to waive interrogation rights and adjudicative competence, the correlates of adolescents' legal capacities remain unclear. This study examined the relationship of legal capacities to cognitive development, legal learning opportunities, and psychological symptoms. Participants were 152 male and female defendants aged 11–17, who completed Grisso's Instruments for Assessing Understanding and Appreciation of Miranda Rights, the Fitness Interview Test (Revised Edition), the Woodcock-Johnson III Cognitive Assessment Battery, and the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale for Children. Legal capacities relevant to interrogation and adjudication increased with age. These developmental differences were partially mediated or explained by cognitive development. Of the specific cognitive ilities examined (general intellectual ability, verbal ability, reasoning, long-term retrieval, attention, and executive functioning), verbal ability was a particularly strong predictor of performance on competency measures. Also, defendants obtained lower scores on competency measures if they showed evidence of attention deficits or hyperactivity, had spent limited time with their attorneys, and/or were from low socioeconomic backgrounds.     

Justice in Health Care Decision-Making: Patients’ Appraisals of Health Care Providers and Health Plan Representatives

This study describes the development of two versions of a Health Care Justice Inventory (HCJI). One version focuses on patients interactions with their providers (HCJI-P) and the other focuses on patients interactions with the representatives of their health plans (HCJI-HP). Each version of the HCJI assesses patients appraisals of their interactions (with either their Provider or representatives of their Health Plan) along three common dimensions of procedural justice: Trust, Impartiality, and Participation. Both the Provider and Health Plan scales assess indices that are relatively independent of patients demographic characteristics. In addition, patients appraisals of their interactions with their provider were only moderately related to their appraisals of their interactions with representatives of their health plan, indicating that the Provider and Health Plan scales tap distinct aspects of patients overall experience with the health care system. Overall, procedural justice dimensions were significantly related to patient satisfaction in both the Provider and the Health Plan contexts. As predicted, procedural justice factors were more strongly tied to patient satisfaction in the Provider than in the Health Plan context, and health care decisions based on distributive justice principles of Need (rather than Equity or Equality) were most closely tied to patient satisfaction in both contexts.     

Effects of Parental Differential Treatment on Relationship Quality with Siblings and Parents: Justice Evaluations as Mediators

Based on equity theory, the present study analyzes to what extent justice evaluations mediate the effects of perceived parental differential treatment (PDT) on relationship quality with siblings and parents as experienced in middle adulthood. Middle-aged adult offspring (N = 709) rated how often they and a sibling received parental recognition, nurturance, and demands for assuming filial responsibility. In addition, they indicated their justice evaluations of PDT and completed measures of relationship quality to sibling and parents. Justice evaluations emerged as either partial or complete mediators between PDT and relationship quality. Moreover, justice evaluations turned out to be more powerful predictors of relationship quality to parents than PDT per se. Implications are discussed concerning factors contributing to justice evaluations and the role of PDT within the context of other justice issues in families.     

职务侵占犯罪案件的甄别与认定

职务侵占犯罪的司法认定中,"其他单位"的外延应确定,犯罪主体中非国家工作人员以外的人员范围、犯罪对象中的"本单位财产"、犯罪主观方面"非法占为己有"等有关法律问题应进一步明确。     

离婚损害赔偿制度之探析

离婚损害赔偿制度是我国《婚姻法》修正案中首次确认的一项制度,实施这项制度必须具备法律规定的要件。这些要件的认定是法院在审理离婚案件适用该制度时的关键所在。离婚损害赔偿制度作为一项新的制度,在实践中尚存在一些困惑和亟待解决的问题,需不断总结和完善,以更好地保护无过错方的利益。     

慎用死刊——刑事司法实践中死刑适用问题探讨

慎用死刑是刑事司法中一个十分重要的问题,慎用死刑必须正确掌握死刑的适用条件“罪行极其严重”。如何判断“罪行极其严重”是一个难题,应该加强立法和司法的解释。与此同时,正确地适用“死刑缓期二年执行”是正确适用死刑的又一个重要课题。     

斡旋受贿犯罪浅析——有关国家工作人员与家属共同受贿问题

斡旋受贿是一种特殊形式的受贿犯罪。在斡旋受贿罪的案件之中,国家工作人员利用职权为他人谋利,由其家属收受他人财物的情况屡见不鲜,成为某些国家工作人员规避法律制裁的手段,本文将对这类共同受贿如何定罪处罚等问题谈谈个人见解。     

Restorative Sentencing: Exploring the Views of the Public

Within the past decade, restorative justice has emerged as a truly global phenomenon. Although retributive justice has dominated the penal landscape, more recently, restorative principles at sentencing have attracted increased attention. Restorative sentencing emphasizes the importance of compensation and reconciliation between victims and offenders and pays less attention to establishing proportionality between the seriousness of the offense and the severity of the sentence imposed. Although voluminous (and proliferating), the scholarly literature on restorative justice has to date neglected one critical issue: public opinion with respect to this justice paradigm. Public opinion researchers too, have generally overlooked this topic. The goal of this paper is to determine which elements of the new paradigm generate public approval, and which features are likely to encounter or provoke public opposition, drawing upon related international research published in English over the past 20 years (1982–2002). The review reveals widespread support for restorative sentencing options, such as community service, compensation, and restitution, particularly when applied to young offenders. However, it also seems clear that public support for these alternatives to punitive sentencing options declines as the seriousness of the offence increases, suggesting strong public adherence to the retributive principle of proportionality in sentencing.     

进退维谷的刑事诉讼制度及其困境超越

刑事诉讼制度保障人权与控制犯罪的两个目标之间的冲突难以化解,由此引发了公正与效率的矛盾,进而使我国刑事诉讼制度陷入进退维谷的困境。西方国家的经验表明,"不同的案件适用不同的程序"也许能使诉讼制度摆脱僵局,而这正是我国所缺乏的。