The role of set-shifting ability in differentiating between subgroups of female violent offenders

The aim of the present study was to extend the current understanding of the relationship between executive functions and violent crime in women. This was done by investigating whether set-shifting ability differentiated between subgroups of female violent offenders, with regard to criminal diversity and frequency of violent offenses. The study was conducted in a nationwide sample of 42 women imprisoned for violent crimes. Important characteristics common in violent offenders, such as certain personality disorders and substance abuse, were taken into account. The results indicated that offenders who only committed violent crimes had poorer set-shifting ability and less frequently personality disorders than offenders who had also committed non-violent crimes. Set-shifting ability was not connected to violent crime frequency.     

论行政首长出庭制

行政首长坐在被告席上,既是对原告的尊重、对法庭的尊重、对法律精神的尊重,也反映了政府对依法行政和政治文明更深层次的思考和理解。当前,行政首长出庭有其理论依据及现实意义,但也有多方面障碍制约行政首长出庭应诉,系统构建行政首长出庭制显得尤为必要。     

反腐败应注重发挥社会力量的作用

政府执行力是政府工作的生命力,任何政府都必须重视和提升它的执行力。     

Shifting the Risk: New Employment Patterns, Informalization, and Women's Work

The paper argues that the processes of informalization of jobs observed during the past decades have affected both high and low income countries. Starting at the micro level of the firm, the emphasis is on how economic restructuring and globalization have generated the growth of informal activities—resulting in the vicious circle of poverty and economic insecurity for an important proportion of the population. The second part of the paper analyzes the growth of women's participation in informal activities, emphasizing that there are contradictory forces at work regarding women's employment. Despite a stubborn persistence of gender discrimination and obstacles to women's advancement, progress has taken place on several fronts, such as in the education field and in the absorption of female labor in many production processes. The paper concludes by pointing out that poverty eradication programs must emphasize the need to generate decent jobs without which these programs will continue to be ineffective. In addition, re-distributive mechanisms and different forms of social protection are needed to counteract the forces and policies generating economic insecurity.     

行政命令与行政处罚程序和谐关系之构建

行政命令与行政处罚是两种不同的具体行政行为,二者在实体上相互区分的同时,在程序上又相互联系,这种联系建立在二者都可针对相对人的违法行为作出的基础上,表现为程序上的排他关系、并行关系或优先关系,其中以命令前置为原则的程序优先关系是一种和谐的程序关系．它不仅体现了执法手段从轻到重的和谐,也体现了行政主体与行政相对人之间的和谐,构建这种和谐的程序关系对保障相对人的合法权益具有重要的意义。     

劳动担保合同存废论——兼论确立劳动人事一般保证制度

对于劳动担保合同,言废者有之,言存者有之。从现实来看,一方面,《劳动合同法》关于不得要求劳动者提供担保的规定未能消除大量存在的劳动担保合同;另一方面,劳动担保合同领域存在的乱象亦亟需疏导规制。因此,劳动担保合同既不可简单废除,也不能轻言存续。正确的选择是既要从严控制劳动担保合同的订立和适用,也要在立法上留有余地,确立特定行业岗位的劳动人事一般保证制度,不实行连带保证制度。     

Police Use of Less Lethal Force: Does Administrative Policy Matter?

Scholars have long theorized that constraining police officer discretion via organizational policy improves decision-making. Empirically, prior research shows that more restrictive lethal force policies result in a reduction in the number of police shootings and in racial disparity. Yet, researchers have never examined the impact of less lethal force policies in relation to the full spectrum of less lethal force tactics. In addressing this research void, we examine 3,340 use of force incidents from three US agencies, each varying in terms of policy direction and restrictiveness. The results consistently show that officers working within the most restrictive policy framework used force less readily than officers who operated within more permissive policy environments. Hence, police administrators wishing to reduce coercion should consider the potential effect that a more restrictive policy may have on such behavior.     

Police officer involved shootings – retrospective study of situational characteristics

Abstract

The study analyzed the situational characteristics of 112 incidents where police used firearms to handle high threat situations. Most shooting incidents emanated from usually uneventful tasks, e.g., handling burglaries or disturbances. The assailants were commonly armed with firearms (26%), sharp (27%) or blunt objects (10%). The incidents were regularly short-lasting (in 39% were shots fired ≤3 s from threat emerged) and occurred at short distances (in 42% at distances ≤3 m). Predominantly, the first responders had to address the situation and did so with warning shots or, equally common, with fire-for-effect shots (40%) or a combination thereof. Psychological stress was manifested as feelings of panic at some point and as motor skill alterations, e.g., firing without using sights and with one hand only. Analysis of these incidents shows that all field duty police officers should receive training in handling potentially life-threatening, sudden, close-range attacks.     

Ensuring the validity of police use of force training

This research examined the skills and abilities required of officers to effectively manage situations where the use of force may be required. The research also considered the nature of training required to facilitate the development of these skills/abilities. Seventy Western Australia Police officers participated in focus groups. Identified skills/abilities fell into seven categories: Aware, Assess, Approach, Act, Automatic, Appraise and Adapt. With regard to developing proficiency in these skills, officers emphasised the importance of relevant, applied and dynamic training, debriefing and the use of scenarios/role plays. The research highlights the need to change the scope of annual refresher training from the appropriate and effective application of force to the effective management of situations in which the use of force may be required, in their entirety. Findings also highlight the need to change the focus of training from performance and assessment to continued skill development (i.e. practice and learning).     

Enhancing Community Leadership Negotiation Skills to Build Civic Capacity

Most intra‐ and interorganizational decision making entails negotiations, and even naturally talented negotiators can improve with training. Executive trainings for managers and leadership programs for publicly elected officials, public managers, and nongovernmental organizations frequently include negotiation modules. These efforts, however, have yet to reach community leaders who also need to develop their negotiation skills. We propose that members of disadvantaged low‐income communities who lack educational and economic opportunities, and are less able to advocate for their own interest, need to build and strengthen their civic capacity, including their negotiation skills, to become more effective parties to decisions affecting them. While many professionals and executives have access to training, such opportunities are less accessible to the leaders of these disadvantaged communities. Although such leaders draw from their own heuristic knowledge, skills, and abilities, they could also benefit from sharpening their negotiation skills. We propose that the multidimensional understanding of their community that members accumulate through direct experience is indispensable, nontransferable to outsiders, and not teachable through in‐class activities. Leaders with the ability to leverage knowledge and assets to connect effectively to community insiders as well as to outside people, institutions, and resources, however, possess some specific inherent personality traits as well an understanding of social structures, strategies, and agency, which can be taught and learned. Such skills as how to conduct negotiations around the table and away from it and how to identify community members who can help and how to rally them are also teachable. The cases were chosen to illustrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) that make these leaders effective in and beyond their communities. We highlight those KSAs that we think are teachable in the framework of a negotiation module in community leadership training to enhance civic capacity for community betterment.