Implications of Pseudologia Fantastica in Criminal Forensic Evaluations: A Review and Case Report

Pseudologia fantastica, a psychological phenomenon that has been described in the literature for at least a century, is an understudied and poorly understood entity. Sometimes referred to as pathological lying, pseudologia fantastica involves disproportionate fabrication that may be present for many years or a lifetime. In a forensic context, it can significantly complicate the evaluation of capacity to stand trial and, in certain jurisdictions, criminal responsibility. We review the current literature regarding pseudologia fantastica and present a case to highlight the clinical and forensic challenges it may create. We specifically discuss the complications that pseudologia fantastica may have on the assessment of a defendant's rational ability to consult with an attorney, a required element of capacity to stand trial. In addition, we discuss the implications of pseudologia fantastica in the evaluation of criminal responsibility.     

Vectors of traumatic memories and mass-mediated representations of the ‘last’ Nazi trial of John Demjanjuk

This is an ideological critique of key vectors of memory that could have circulated during the Munich trial of John Demjanjuk. While many members of the mainstream press applauded the efforts of German prosecutors who seemed to be dispensing belated justice to Europe’s ‘second generation,’ the circulation of these select legal vectors left us truncated World War II histories. Moreover, the binary choices that were posed stood in the way of more comprehensive and nuanced studies of Stalinism, Nazi and collaborator culpability.     

我国特色的劳动争议仲裁终局化之理念和制度架构——《劳动争议调解仲裁法》第47条释正

《劳动争议调解仲裁法》第47条规定了一种有条件、有限制的终局裁决制度,它不仅引起了必要的条文上的规范分析,也带来了学术上的仲裁终局化畅想.从第47条出发来认识我国劳动争议仲裁的终局化,要认识该条文在实施中的制度性和技术性问题,要兼顾劳动仲裁制度的一般法理,更要把握住我国劳动争议仲裁终局化中给予劳动者倾斜性保护以及提升劳动争议解决效率的务实理念.在学理上,强拉硬拽的或裁或审、一裁终局观念只会弱化仲裁的作用,不符合我们强调调解、仲裁的国情.继续强调第47条背后仲裁和审判的平衡观念,有利于明晰独具我国特色的劳动争议仲裁终局化之理念和制度架构.     

Beyond normative constraints: Declining institutionalism and the emergence of substantive and procedural justice

Popular notions of what it means to be put on trial invariably generate thoughts of the adversarial criminal trial, most often before a judge and jury. However, the criminal trial as the site for the testing of evidence of wrongdoing via a model of proof that proceeds according to prescribed processes in a normative institutional milieu is in decline. Controversially, this decline has been met with resistance from the legal profession, academics, policy makers and other stakeholders seeking to preserve the due process model that defines the criminal trial as an adversarial exchange between state and defendant. While the due process model continues to dominate as popular conceptualisation, the twenty-first century criminal trial has changed to such an extent that it is no longer seen as the quintessential form for the meting out of procedural fairness and testing of state's evidence, that emerged toward the end of the seventeenth century. Rather, the rise of control orders, modifications to the law of evidence, and the right of the accused to confront their accuser, together with the inclusion of non-traditional agents of justice, specifically victims and the community, has brought forward an era of substantive and procedural justice that lies beyond the normative constraints of the criminal trial. Robed counsel and bewigged judges beware; the advent of substantive and procedural justice has allowed for greater innovation transgressing the orthodoxies of criminal law in common law systems of justice. This paper will consider the virtues of the introduction of a transgressive criminal procedure.     

减刑假释案件开庭审理程序的完善

减刑假释案件的审理并不是一种纯粹的诉讼,而是对执行机关提出的减刑假释建议的一种司法审查。文章指出减刑假释审理程序应从四个方面加以完善,特殊罪犯减刑假释案件的庭审程序与普通罪犯相比应有所差异。     

司法警察类院校开设警务技战术课程刍议

警察警务技战术教学与研究是现代警务教学与研究的重要内容之一。警务技战术课程应包括：体能训练、警察防卫与控制技术、射击、警务战术四个部分。提高监狱人民警察警务技战术能力,在司法警察类院校开设警务技战术课程十分必要。     

A typology of communication functions in ballot issue campaigns

The increased importance of ballot issue campaigns creates a need for communication and political science scholars to study the rhetorical strategies employed in such campaigns. This essay presents a typology of four communication functions employed in successful ballot issue campaigns: education, trust development, development of a positive message, and neutralization of the opposition. The typology is applied to an analysis of the 1986 campaign for liquor‐by‐the‐drink in Kansas.     

Alessandro Orsini. Anatomy of the Red Brigades: The Religious Mind-Set of Modern Terrorists

ABSTRACT

Those who study terrorism are familiar with the claim that suicide attacks are the most lethal form of terrorism today. Suicide attacks kill more people on average than non-suicide attacks, thereby justifying why terrorist organizations use this costly method of attack and explaining in part why suicide tactics have proliferated. However, extant empirical support for this claim is largely insufficient, focusing only on macro-level analysis of lethality data. Using data from the Global Terrorism Database, this study examines variation in lethality among suicide and non-suicide attacks based on geographic location, attack type, and target/victim type. It also introduces a new metric—the lethality ratio—to measure costs and benefits of attacks in terms of lives lost. It finds that, although suicide tactics are generally more lethal than non-suicide tactics, they also come at greater costs to the organization. This analysis also finds behavior that is inconsistent with the premise that terrorist groups are focused on maximizing lethality while reducing costs in all cases; that despite certain advantages, suicide attacks may remain a suboptimal tactic from the perspective of the terrorist group; and that additional criteria may help explain why suicide tactics are used.     

A Clinical Trials Recruitment Education Program for Immigrant Chinese Americans

Abstract

This study was designed to develop and evaluate a community-based education program to facilitate enrollment of immigrant Chinese into clinical cancer screening trials. The program included workshops with culturally tailored health education materials. It was piloted to recruit persons into an ongoing lung cancer screening trial from a senior citizen center in Manhattan's Chinatown and compared with a control program at a second senior center. Survey results from a convenience sample of seniors showed that the workshop raised awareness about cancer screening and clinical trials. However, it did not change attitudes towards cancer screening. The results highlighted prior focus group findings in which factors influencing participation in cancer screening and clinical trials are similar. Important facilitative factors include doctor recommendation, friend/family recommendation, the belief that early detection could “save lives,” no cost, and having an-interpreter.     

Criminal Court-Ordered Psychiatric Evaluations:Does Gender Play a Role?

This study examines potential gender differences among defendants referred by criminal courts for psychiatric evaluations by analyzing demographic, clinical, and criminal history variables and evaluation findings. This study offers a large sample size of 718 females, as well as 3,627 males. Bivariate logistic regression and heterogeneity analyses were utilized to assess potential differences. Females were older; diagnosed more with mood, anxiety, and borderline personality disorders; less likely to have prior felony convictions; and more likely to be in the community than jail at the time of the evaluation. In addition, when controlling for other factors, females were more likely to be evaluated as having a mental disease or defect, to need hospitalization pending trial, and to be incompetent to stand trial.