Child Maltreatment and the Acquisition of Identity Capital: A Retrospective Exploration of a Transformative Social Justice Experience

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore whether secondary classes foster the acquisition of certain agentic capacities for formerly maltreated adolescents. We utilized the identity capital model (ICM) to explore the identity capital acquired by a socioeconomically diverse group of 40 Black former students in a mandatory, high school transformative social justice (TSJ) class. All participants disclosed some form of child maltreatment. The most prominent IC acquired for all participants included purpose, social perspective taking, moral-ethical reasoning, and resilience. Implications are discussed.     

对“客观真实观”的几点批判

"客观真实说"尽管确实有一定的合理性,但它仅仅将刑事审判看做一种认识活动,抹杀了诉讼中的认识活动与哲学家、历史学家、自然科学家视野下的认识活动之间的界限,并且将这种以"重构已然事件"为目标的认识活动绝对化,不仅不符合认识的发展规律,也排除了人的主观性以及其他诉讼价值存在的可能性.因而,"客观真实说"的缺陷是极其明显的.相比而言,"法律真实说"能够较为恰当地表述刑事审判所认定事实的准确性程度,符合刑事审判的性质,能合理地解决实体公正价值与程序公正价值之间的冲突.尤其是,"法律真实说"具有可操作性,符合认识发展的规律.     

中国传统的司法和法学

近来祖国大陆的法学界流行着两种对于中国传统的批评:其一指责中国传统司法者不遵循法律和先例,仅仅就事论事,凭天理人情作成判决;其二声称中国传统文化里几乎没有法学可言。二者都与事实不符。第一,中国自秦汉时起,法律已极繁多,在有明文可以适用或有成案可以比照的情形下,司法者都乐于遵循,不会自找麻烦另寻判决的依据。如果没有法律或成案可用,任何法制里的司法者都该先仔细分析案情(“就事论事”),然后探索法的精义(“天理人情”)而作成一个合乎公平正义的判决;中国传统司法者的做法并非例外。第二,中国历代都有许多学者不仅以纯理性的观点和方法对于当代的法律加以注释、批详,并且从历史背景和社会经验中去深究其渊源、目的和效能,以及法与其它社会规范的关系、法的正当性,法律条文不足时应该如何补救等法学上的重要问题,留下许多著作,对于这些问题提出了精辟的见解。只因他们的观点、方法和所用的语言及陈述方式与近人习见的不同,所以被忽略了。中国传统法制自成一系,与世界另几个重要法系并立,各有短长。如要加以检讨,应该先对它作一番整体的、深入的研究;如果想用另一法系的某些规定作为他山之石以改善中国法制,则更须对那些规定甚至整个法系作一番同样的研究,看清了二者的优劣,慎为取舍,不可以轻易地将中国目前的问题一概归咎于传统,更不该盲目地仿效他人。     

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。