刑事案件事实认定的常识、常理、常情化

刑事案件事实认定是刑法司法活动的一项极其重要而又复杂的内容。刑事案件事实认定的常识、常理、常情化,是刑事案件事实认定符合经验法则的直接体现。运用常识、常理、常情可以对刑事案件的客观事实包括关键情节或重要情节和因果关系进行认定,也可以对刑事案件的主观事实包括罪过形式、犯罪倾向和犯罪动机等进行认定。刑事案件事实认定之所以应该常识、常理、常情化,是因为常识、常理、常情本来就是人们日常生活的行为规则或指引,故刑事案件事实认定的常识、常理、常情化能够在一种方法论和价值论中确保刑事案件事实认定以及以之为基础的刑事裁判的正当性。     

A microfluidic device for presumptive testing of controlled substances

A simple microfluidic device (MFD) has been developed to perform multiple color and crystal tests for controlled substance analysis. The MFD method uses less sample and reagents and generates less waste than traditional spot plate methods while performing several tests simultaneously. This methodology provides significantly more analytical information for a single sample analysis. The current generation device is the size of a microscope slide with four analytical channels: one for microcrystal tests and three for color tests. The optimized devices were subjected to a rigorous validation study using comparative replicate analyses and several operators. Target analytes were methamphetamine, amphetamine, cocaine, and oxycodone and color test reagents used were the Marquis, Simon, and cobalt thiocyanate. For the crystal tests, platinic chloride was used. The validation study showed the MFD's limits of detection to be in the picogram range. Positive tests results were observed in complex mixtures in which the controlled substance was present at concentrations of 5-10% (w/w). The microcrystal reagents showed greater sensitivity than color test reagents when used in the device. Reagent use and waste generation using the devices was 95% less that that used and generated using the traditional methods. The device performance was also shown to be operator independent.     

Legitimacy in corrections

Research Summary
To extend research on legitimacy to the correctional system, we study a sample of 202 adult inmates randomly assigned to serve their 6-month sentence at one of two institutions—a traditional prison or a military-style correctional boot camp. Findings show that perceptions of justice system legitimacy changed during the course of incarceration, that the prison (but not the boot camp) proved delegitimizing, and that certain regime characteristics explained why.
Policy Implications
Across academic disciplines, studies continue to link compliance with perceived legitimacy. Compliance with the law, for instance, is related closely to the legitimacy of the justice system and its actors. These findings suggest implementing legitimacy-building policies such as procedurally fair treatment and decision making by police officers and judges. This article, by finding legitimacy to be malleable even at the final stage of the justice process, proposes the efficacy of similar policies in the correctional system. As research from England and Wales has shown, legitimizing strategies in this context could increase compliance both during and after incarceration.     

THE NEW BEGINNINGS PROGRAM FOR DIVORCING AND SEPARATING FAMILIES: MOVING FROM EFFICACY TO EFFECTIVENESS

This article describes a program of research on effectively transporting the New Beginnings Program (NBP), a university-tested prevention program for divorced families, to community settings. The four steps in this research are described: (1) selecting a community partner, (2) developing effective methods of engaging parents, (3) redesigning the NBP to be easily delivered with high quality and fidelity in community agencies, and (4) adapting the NBP to meet the needs of the full population of divorcing families. The article concludes with a discussion of plans for an effectiveness trial to evaluate the NBP when delivered in community settings.     

Identification of 1‐(2,3‐dihydro‐1H‐inden‐5‐yl)‐2‐(ethylamino)pentan‐1‐one (bk‐IVP) in a Seized Drug Exhibit

To circumvent the law by evading regulation and obscuring their identities in routine analyses, numerous substituted cathinones have entered the illicit drug market. These compounds have been coined “bath salts” by users. In the described case, the laboratory received an unknown white powder for controlled substances identification. The sample could not be immediately identified using standard methods and procedures. Ultimately, the structure was elucidated using GC‐MS, NMR, FTIR, GC‐SPIR, UV, and color tests to be 1‐(2,3‐dihydro‐1H‐inden‐5‐yl)‐2‐(ethylamino)pentan‐1‐one (bk‐IVP), a cathinone analog with a rarely observed nonoxygenated bicyclic ring system. Features of spectra and chemical tests are reported that distinguish this class of cathinones from heterocyclic analogs.     

远程审判的程序正当性考察——以交往行为理论为视角

目前来看,远程审判具有实践上的正当性,而欠缺历史的正当性,在形式正当性上也不完备。我们考察远程审判的正当性时,应超越形式的正当性标准,而深入到实质正当性的层面。在实质正当性的层面,又要超越实践正当性与历史正当性的分歧,而在纯粹正当性层面来进行分析。由于诉讼在本质上乃是法律世界的主体化解异议的交往行为,因此我们应从交往行为所依赖的理想言谈情境出发,来分析远程审判的程序正当性问题。理想言谈情境要求主体的言语行为符合四个有效性要件,根据这四个有效性要件,我们可以建立诉讼程序的纯粹正当性标准。以此标准进行衡量,远程审判在程序上大体符合纯粹正当性的要求,但是也有个别具体障碍需要消除。     

受控承运人制度研究

受控承运人 ,即美国所监管的国有承运人。受控承运人制度是冷战的产物 ,目前受其影响最大的就是我国国有承运人。本文就受控承运人制度的历史、特征、监管、豁免、执行机构以及该制度下的我国国有承运人进行了研究 ,并对受控承运人制度进行了展望和思考。     

The impact of program developers as evaluators on criminal recidivism: Results from meta-analyses of experimental and quasi-experimental research

Using meta-analysis, we report on an investigation of the evaluator's influence in the treatment setting on criminal recidivism outcomes. Many evaluators and users of evaluation of social interventions worry that mixing of the roles of program developer and program evaluator may bias results reported in intervention studies in a positive direction. We first review the results of prior investigations of this issue across 50 prior meta-analyses, finding 12 that tested the impact of investigator influence in the treatment setting. Eleven of these reported that effect size increased positively, sometimes substantially so, when evaluators were influential or involved in the treatment setting. We followed this with a meta-analysis of 300 randomized field trials in individually focused crime reduction, also finding intervention studies in which evaluators who were greatly influential in the treatment setting report consistently and substantially larger effect sizes than other types of evaluators. We discuss two major views — the ‘cynical’ and ‘high fidelity’ theories — on why this is consistently the case, and conclude with a further agenda for research.     

The Ethics of Plea Bargaining in International Criminal Trials

The paper argues that contemporary theoretical and philosophical concerns relating to the practice of plea bargaining in international trials for crimes such as genocide should be seen in the broader context of the perceived legitimacy of international trial justice. The paper questions the capacity of international trial structures to deliver a form of truth which contributes to justice suggesting that the legitimacy of the truth available is conditioned by ideology and normative practice. The paper suggests that the key to transforming international trial justice lies in promoting the link between trial ideology and the perceived moral legitimacy of its outcomes through the exercise of judicial discretionary power. Ralph Henham is Professor of Criminal Justice, Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent University.     

VARIATION IN TRIAL PENALTIES AMONG SERIOUS VIOLENT OFFENSES*

We examine the differences in the sentencing of those who plead guilty and those convicted by jury trial among defendants convicted of serious violent offenses. Drawing from a focal concerns and court communities perspective on court decision making, we develop several hypotheses about jury trial penalties for serious violent offenders, and how such penalties may vary by offense characteristics, defendant characteristics, and court contexts. Our hierarchical models using Pennsylvania sentencing data from 1997 to 2000 reveal that defendants are substantially penalized if they exercise their right to a jury trial and then lose. Furthermore, this jury trial penalty is not evenly assessed, but depends on the seriousness and type of offense, defendant criminal history, and court contextual characteristics such as caseload, court community size, local violent crime rates, and the size of local black populations.