论我国公民受教育权的法律保护

受教育权是公民的一项基本权利,入学就读权,教育平等权、终身受教育权、接受职业教育和职业培训权构成了公民受教育权的主要内容.在实践中,总的来说,我国受教育权实现的现状不容乐观,存在的最大的问题就是,在公民受教育权的实现上存在严重的不平等.有关受教育权利的纠纷正成为当前教育纠纷中的热点问题,因此,有关受教育权利的法律保护问题正受到愈来愈多的关注.     

论我国环境执法机制的完善——从规制俘获的视角

规制俘获是被规制者对规制机构的一种支配和控制。由于规制机构所享有的宽泛的自由裁量权、被规制对象与规制受益人对规制过程参与的非对等性以及规制主体与被规制对象的利益结盟等原因,我国环境执法过程中出现了＂规制俘获＂,其表现为环境执法不严。为破解这一迷局,必须规范自由裁量权、强化环境保护目标责任制,并在各环境单行法中引入环境公民诉讼。     

公共治理的理论基础:政府、市场与社会的三边互动

政府、市场与公民社会作为公共事务管理的制度与机制安排,有其各自独特的行动资源及行动逻辑,也各有其特定的行动范围和有效边界。在公共治理理论的视阈下,政府、市场与社会都不是惟一的治理主体,三者间的互动、合作成为必然选择。政府、市场与公民社会三种机制运行中各存在比较优势与不足,公共治理的理论基础是政府、市场与公民社会的三边互动。为了实现公共领域的良好治理,必须而且应当建立起三者良性互动的网络治理机制,在互动中开辟解决社会公共问题、增进社会公共利益的有效途径。     

“人肉搜索”下公民隐私权的保护

在网络的虚拟世界里,在发起＂人肉搜索＂的情形下,公民隐私权的保护有了新的特点：公民受保护的隐私权范围更广,公民隐私权被侵害的影响面更大,公民寻求救济的难度更高。在＂人肉搜索＂下保护公民隐私权,应完善我国的民事法律制度,明确隐私权的法律地位,制订专门的网络隐私权法律制度,明确网络隐私侵权的举证责任承担,明确电子证据的证明力,确保诉讼法能真正地保护实体权益。同时公民应加强自我保护意识。     

刑事司法审判中的公众参与及其改善

为提升司法改革的成效,一些地方法院革新观念,大胆尝试吸纳公众参与刑事司法审判过程．在取得实效的同时,也引发了法学理论界和实务界的争议。司法职业化是实现司法独立的有效保障,理所当然应当是刑事司法审判模式创新的主导方向。但司法职业化固有的一些弊端阻碍司法改革进程也不容忽视．社会公众对司法审判的有序参与则正好可以起到弥补作用。因此,有效改善公众参与机制,实现公众参与与司法职业化的协调发展,应当成为中国司法改革向纵深发展的一条新路径。     

论我国立法活动中的公众参与

＂公众参与＂的价值在于通过汇聚公众意志的方式增强项目、计划、规划或政策法律制定的民主性与科学性,以实现对公众利益的保障。文章分析了当前我国立法活动中公众参与的价值、实践情况及存在问题,并提出有针对性的改进建议。     

也谈责任政府的回应性

随着经济社会全面发展,公民的民主意识和法律意识不断增强,要求参与政治和提高政府回应的呼声越来越高,提高政府的回应性已成为大势所趋。做好责任政府的回应性工作,就要在深刻了解责任政府的重要性的基础上,有针对性地积极采取务实的措施,改进政府工作,最大程度地发挥政府职能,唤起民众的参与意识。     

An evaluation of the effectiveness of positive behavioural support within a medium secure mental health forensic service

A number of recent influential reports recommend the use of proactive and preventative approaches such as Positive Behavioural Support (PBS) in the management of challenging behaviours. Although evidence supporting the use of PBS is mainly drawn from studies of learning disability and child populations, it is recognised that PBS could have a much wider utility. In this study, PBS was implemented in a medium secure forensic mental health service, a novel context. Impact was evaluated using an adapted version of the Checklist of Challenging Behaviour at baseline and then at 3 monthly intervals for a year. Significant reductions were observed in aggression frequency, management difficulty and severity and other challenging behaviour frequency and management difficulty. Reductions in challenging behaviour were still evident after six months for the full group and twelve months for the sub-group with the exception of other challenging behaviour management difficulty. In contrast, no such significant differences were found for a control group. This study indicated that PBS was an effective intervention in the management of challenging behaviour in this forensic mental health context.     

Public confidence in the police: tests of instrumental and expressive models in a developing country city

This paper examines the effect of instrumental and expressive concerns on public confidence in the police in three different residential areas in Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana’s third largest city. The study was important because of the knowledge vacuum that existed in regard to the empirical validity of the instrumental and expressive theoretical framework within the Ghanaian context. Data for the study was drawn from a baseline survey conducted in three residential areas in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis. The findings revealed that instrumental factors played a more significant role in influencing confidence in the police in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis compared to expressive factors. More importantly, instrumental factors played a more significant role in influencing confidence in the police at Anaji compared to the other two residential areas used in the study. The paper recommends that there should be more investment in police infrastructure and services to enhance police effectiveness and efficiency. Additionally, the authors also suggest that interventions aimed at improving security at the community level should be guided by periodic safety audits since this will provide a better understanding of the criminogenic problems within these residential settlements.     

HOW COLLECTIVE IS COLLECTIVE EFFICACY? THE IMPORTANCE OF CONSENSUS IN JUDGMENTS ABOUT COMMUNITY COHESION AND WILLINGNESS TO INTERVENE

Existing studies have generally measured collective efficacy by combining survey respondents’ ratings of their local area into an overall summary for each neighborhood. Naturally, this approach results in a substantive focus on the variation in average levels of collective efficacy between neighborhoods. In this article, we focus on the variation in consensus of collective efficacy judgments. To account for differential consensus among neighborhoods, we use a mixed‐effects location‐scale model, with variability in the consensus of judgments treated as an additional neighborhood‐level random effect. Our results show that neighborhoods in London differ, not just in their average levels of collective efficacy but also in the extent to which residents agree with one another in their assessments. In accord with findings for U.S. cities, our results show that consensus in collective efficacy assessments is affected by the ethnic composition of neighborhoods. Additionally, we show that heterogeneity in collective efficacy assessments is consequential, with higher levels of criminal victimization, worry about crime, and risk avoidance behavior in areas where collective efficacy consensus is low.