认罪认罚阶梯式从宽量刑精准化研究——兼评《关于适用认罪认罚从宽制度的指导意见》

《关于适用认罪认罚从宽制度的指导意见》细化了认罪认罚的从宽规则,肯定了阶梯式从宽量刑的指导思想,但其在从宽量刑精细化方面仍有不足。认罪认罚客观上存在一个与教育改善难易度和办案价值量相对应的阶梯式等级体系。在设定认罪认罚阶梯式从宽量刑幅度时,应当以教育改善的难易度、办案价值量两个因素为主线。根据教育改善难易度的大小,可以将认罪认罚划分为自首型、坦白型、功利型三个类别;根据办案价值量的大小,可以将认罪认罚划分为三个价值级别。根据认罪认罚的"三个类别"和"三个级别"之间的组合,认罪认罚形成九梯度的等级体系。九梯度的等级体系,最高从宽幅度可以减少基准刑的70%至免除处罚,最低从宽幅度可以减少基准刑的5%以下。     

Missed Opportunities and New Risks: Penal Policy in England and Wales in the Past Twenty‐Five Years

This paper discusses trends in criminal justice and penal policy over the past twenty‐five years. This period has been characterised as a time of penal populism, which originated in the failure of the 1991 Criminal Justice Act, and the competition between the main political parties to be ‘tough on crime’. However, this is not the only trend to be found in penal policy. There has continued to be a strong undertow of support for rehabilitation and community penalties, including restorative justice. There has been pressure from the left as much as the right to take domestic violence, sexual offences against women and children, and hate crimes more seriously. There have been pressures to meet performance targets—which gradually transformed into calls to build the legitimacy of the justice system. Finally, there have been pressures to privatise criminal justice agencies. These various impulses have sometimes amplified and sometimes counteracted the pressures towards tough penal policy. If the period of intense penal populism ran from 1993 to 2007, inertia in the system has ensured that there have been no significant attempts to row back from tough policies, and to reassert the values of penal parsimony. Given that money has been tight since 2007 and crime has continued to fall, this must amount to a lost opportunity of significant proportions.     

刑事辩护视野下量刑情节的考量

量刑辩护是刑事辩护的一种重要辩护类型。要想做好量刑辩护,刑辩律师首先要学会如何发现并正确运用量刑情节;量刑情节与犯罪情节、定罪情节不同,其与被告人是否构成犯罪无关,主要影响被告人的量刑。在我国刑法体系中,量刑情节可以分为法定量刑情节与酌定量刑情节、从宽情节与从严情节、"应当"情节与"可以"情节等类型;在刑事辩护中,不同的量刑情节有不同的运用方法,多种量刑情节并存时也有不同的运用方法。不仅要全面考虑所有的量刑情节,还要注意刑事政策对量刑情节的影响。     

刑事被害人过错责任细化研究——兼评《人民法院量刑指导意见（试行）》之有关内容

近日开始试点的《人民法院奄刑指导意见（试行）》将被害人过错责任粗略地界定为“重大责任和一般责任”。这并没有真正解决细化量刑、准确量刑的问题，也没有为“被害人过错责任上升为法定量刑情节”这一呼声带来希望．从理论的角度考虑，以刑事被害人过错程度为区分标准，应该将被害人的过错责任分为完全责任、重走责任、较大责任、一般责任和“拟制责任”。过错责任的细致、明确划分．是人民法院恰当准确量州的基础，也是被害人过错责任上升为法定量刑情节的必要准备和重要前提。     

酌定量刑情节法定化研究

酌定量刑情节是指法官在量刑时应当考虑并且能反映行为人人身危险性及其社会危害性的主客观事实。酌定量刑情节非法定性不仅违背了刑法基本原则,更导致法官滥用自由裁量权等问题。基于罪刑法定原则的要求和酌定量刑情节对量刑的普遍性意义,有必要对《刑法》第62条和第63条进行相应修改。     

构建检察机关量刑建议制度之探讨

察机关作为国家的法律监督机关，行使量刑建议权是强化法律监督职能作用、维护社会公平正义的重要手段。文章从分析量刑建议的存在根据入手，从构建量刑建议制度的认识基础，完善立法与配套制度，以及构建保障机制、科学测评机制和运行机制等多方面探讨制度构建。     

Disproportionate Sentences as Human Rights Violations

The article explores the concepts of disproportionality and gross disproportionality in sentencing. Several constitutions or human rights documents prohibit grossly disproportionate sentences, either expressly or impliedly. The draft constitution of the European Union has a Charter of Fundamental Rights that includes the right not to be subjected to a disproportionate sentence. The possible meaning and application of this are discussed by reference to the development of related constitutional jurisprudence in other jurisdictions.     

量刑建议制度运作构思

为规范法官的自由裁量权，实现公平与正义，有必要实行量刑建议制度。量刑建议制度运作的核心在于，量刑规则的建立、量刑建议内容的详细而具体且在判决书中予以全部表达、量刑建议的庭审吏锋这三方面内容的确立。     

Reactions to Mandatory Sentences in Relation to the Ethnic Identity and Criminal History of the Offender

This study investigated the responses of 181 participants (87 men, 94 women), from Adelaide, South Australia, to scenarios describing mandatory sentences for perpetrators of a property offense committed in the Northern Territory, Australia. Four scenarios that were randomly distributed varied ethnic identity (White Australian, Aboriginal Australian) and criminal history (first-time offender, third-time offender). Participants completed attitude measures for both mandatory sentencing and capital punishment, a right-wing authoritarianism scale, and a scale concerned with sentencing goals (retribution, deterrence, protection of society, and rehabilitation). Results showed strong effects of attitude toward mandatory sentencing on scenario responses for variables such as perceived responsibility, deservingness, leniency, seriousness, anger and pleasure, and weaker effects of ethnic identity and criminal history. Participants were generally more sympathetic when the offender was an Aboriginal Australian. Results of a multiple regression analysis showed that attitude toward mandatory sentence was predicted by right-wing authoritarianism and by sentencing goals relating to deterrence and the protection of society.     

Assertions of “Future Dangerousness” at Federal Capital Sentencing: Rates and Correlates of Subsequent Prison Misconduct and Violence

The federal prison disciplinary records of federal capital inmates (n=145) who were sentenced to life without possibility of release (LWOP) by plea bargain, pre-sentencing withdrawal of the death penalty, or jury determination were retrospectively reviewed (M=6.17 years post-admission). Disaggregated prevalence rates were inversely related to infraction severity: serious infraction =0.324, assaultive infraction =0.207, serious assault =0.09, assault with moderate injury =0.007, assault with major injuries or death =0.00. Frequency rates of misconduct were equivalent to other high-security federal inmates (n=18,561), regardless of infraction severity. Government assertions of "future dangerousness" as a nonstatutory aggravating factor were not predictive of prison misconduct. These findings inform federal capital risk assessments and have public policy implications for procedural reliability in death penalty prosecutions.