General and maladaptive traits and anger in a combined forensic psychiatric and general population sample

The present study examines the associations between anger and general and maladaptive traits in a combined forensic psychiatric and community sample of men. Thirty-four male forensic psychiatric patients and 219 men from the general population completed the Novaco Anger Scale (NAS; Novaco, 1994), the NEO-PI-R (Costa & McCrae, 1992), the ADP-IV (Schotte & De Doncker, 1994) and the VKP (Duijsens, Haringsma, & EurelingsBontekoe, 1999) at two measurement occasions with a one-year interval. The results of a series of multiple regression analyses showed that general and maladaptive traits accounted for a substantial amount of variance in anger scores. Neuroticism, Agreeableness and Externalizing traits were most prominent in the prediction of anger, while Conscientiousness was acting as a suppressor variable in the regression models. Strengths and limitations of the present study and implications for further research and clinical practice are discussed.     

两岸无单放货场合下责任竞合的比较

对承运人而言,交货时收回正本提单具有双重法律意义,即物权意义与债权意义。承运人无单放货往往会同时侵犯提单持有人基于货物占有关系的物权与基于运输合同关系的债权,其依侵权法应承担侵权责任,而依合同法则应承担违约责任。这就涉及传统民法中一个长期争论的重要问题,即如何处理违约责任与侵权责任的竞合关系。以海峡两岸海上货物运输中的无单放货现象为研究背景,从两岸民法和海商法的现行规定、判例出发,逐一探讨责任竞合基础、承运人承责方式、责任竞合内涵与竞合模式评价等四个问题。     

A simulation for exploring the effects of the "trait list" method's subjectivity on consistency and accuracy of ancestry estimations

The nonmetric "trait list" methodology is widely used for estimating ancestry of skeletal remains. However, the effects of the method's embedded subjectivity on subsequent accuracy and consistency are largely unknown. We develop a mathematical simulation to test whether variation in the application of the "trait list" method alters the ancestry estimation for a given case. Our simulation explores how variations in (i) trait selection, (ii) number of traits employed, and (iii) ancestry choice thresholds affect the ancestry estimation of an unidentified skeleton. Using two temporally and geographically diverse samples, the simulation demonstrates that trait selection, trait quantity, threshold choices, and the exclusion of high-frequency traits had minimal effect on estimation of general ancestry. For all data sets and Runs, Accuracy(AS) was maintained above 90%. The authors close with a discussion on the logistical issues present when choosing traits, and how to avoid ancestry bias.     

Validating TrueAllele® DNA mixture interpretation

Abstract: DNA mixtures with two or more contributors are a prevalent form of biological evidence. Mixture interpretation is complicated by the possibility of different genotype combinations that can explain the short tandem repeat (STR) data. Current human review simplifies this interpretation by applying thresholds to qualitatively treat STR data peaks as all‐or‐none events and assigning allele pairs equal likelihood. Computer review, however, can work instead with all the quantitative data to preserve more identification information. The present study examined the extent to which quantitative computer interpretation could elicit more identification information than human review from the same adjudicated two‐person mixture data. The base 10 logarithm of a DNA match statistic is a standard information measure that permits such a comparison. On eight mixtures having two unknown contributors, we found that quantitative computer interpretation gave an average information increase of 6.24 log units (min = 2.32, max = 10.49) over qualitative human review. On eight other mixtures with a known victim reference and one unknown contributor, quantitative interpretation averaged a 4.67 log factor increase (min = 1.00, max = 11.31) over qualitative review. This study provides a general treatment of DNA interpretation methods (including mixtures) that encompasses both quantitative and qualitative review. Validation methods are introduced that can assess the efficacy and reproducibility of any DNA interpretation method. An in‐depth case example highlights 10 reasons (at 10 different loci) why quantitative probability modeling preserves more identification information than qualitative threshold methods. The results validate TrueAllele^® DNA mixture interpretation and establish a significant information improvement over human review.     

Survival analysis: A survey

This paper is a survey of statistical methods used to analyze the length of time until a specified event occurs. These models have often been used to analyze the survival times (i.e., time until death) of medical patients, and so the term survival analysis is natural. In criminology, the main application of these models has been to analyze the time until recidivism, but many other applications are possible. The paper summarizes the statistical literature on survival analysis, and describes its applications in criminology. The methods are illustrated by an application to the prediction of time until recidivism for a sample of North Carolina prison releasees.     

证券投资的理性分析——关于风险化解的思考

证券投资充满了不确定性,不确定性是导致证券投资风险的基本原因。本文诠释证券投资中的风险及其衡量指标,探讨证券投资组合的效果和最佳证券组合的选择问题,分析证券组合对投资风险的化解作用。     

Data Protection: An Opening Door?

Swedish public law has incorporated a general rule of public access to documents, and to information in the wider sense, since the Freedom of the Press Act of 1766. On the Community level, the relationship between Regulation (EC) 45/2001 on data protection and Regulation (EC) 1049/2001 on public access to documents exemplifies the tension between the public's interest in scrutinising the administration carried on in its name, and the integrity of the individual. However, a similar tension exists between Sweden's Personal Data Act of 1998, implementing Directive 95/46, and the Freedom of the Press Act. A misuse model of data protection law, by seeking to concentrate on serious rather than technical infringements of privacy, might serve to ease the tension. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and are not attributable to any Community institution. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Error minimization and deterrence in agency control

In the presented oversight model, in which a regulatory agency may collude with regulatees, a watchdog organization may scrutinize the agency’s decision-making and find evidence speaking for collusive behavior. Found evidence is of a specific, stochastic quality. Courts will overturn the administrative decision when the evidence presented in court exceeds a minimum quality standard set by the political principal. Lowering the quality standard increases the odds of finding evidence of sufficient quality and, hence, leads to increasing collusion deterrence and to a lower probability of acquitting collusive administrators (type I error), but also to a higher probability of convicting an innocent administrator (type II error). It is shown that, when welfare-maximization gives rise to an interior solution, the welfare-maximizing standard of evidence is lower than the one that merely minimizes the costs of legal errors without taking deterrence costs into account, but will imply incomplete deterrence. However, conditions can and will be identified under which both error cost minimization and complete deterrence coincide with welfare-maximization.     

基金会治理的法律道路——《基金会管理条例》为何遭遇“零适用”？

通过选择财产权构造、绩效观察度、资源依赖度和公共关联度来建立基金会治理机制的分析框架,并就相关要素如何影响法律规范的配置进行了研究。对全国性基金会年报资料的研究表明,中国基金会与政府的＂非对称依赖关系＂正在被打破,政府同时是社会慈善市场的推动者、监管者和垄断者,由此需要导入司法审查,建立多中心主义的法律治理模式。首先,未来的中国民法典需要借助＂转介条款＂实现公法规范与私法规范的对接;其次,强制性和禁止性规范的配置要以保护公众知情权为中心;最后,配置诱致性规范以激励基金会主动接受外部监督。     

英美国家企业刑事责任论的最新发展——以英国《2007年企业过失致人死亡罪法》为例

首先回顾英国{2007年企业过失致人死亡罪法》的出台过程与背景,分析该法的政策意义,并指出有效控制与处罚企业违法行为的政策目的是这一法案得以通过的重要原因。之后,在上述论断的基础上,介绍了英美国家企业刑事责任论近年的发展情况,并分析其中从个人到组织、从主观到客观的发展趋势。最后,提出在企业犯罪频发的现阶段,为了更好地发挥刑罚的预防功能,我国也需要对目前的单位刑事责任论进行反思。