Measuring the subjective perceptions of risks and rewards of Chinese juvenile thieves

Offenders’ readiness to engage in changes that will reduce their risk of reoffending is now recognized to be as important as the design and delivery of programmes that support such change. Interest is growing in both how to increase engagement in change processes, and how to measure any improvements in engagement. This study evaluated the effects of a brief offending-focused motivational interviewing (MI) intervention on reconviction in male prisoners serving sentences for diverse crimes. Men who undertook MI were significantly less likely to be reconvicted than those who did not. The results also served to validate a stage-based measure of readiness to change derived from Prochaska and DiClemente's Transtheoretical Model. Prisoners who were offered MI increased their readiness to change by an average of one stage, while the scores of men who were not remained unchanged. Furthermore – whether men undertook MI or not – change in stage of change predicted reconviction. This was a high-risk sample, making the results intriguing for at least two reasons. First, reductions in recidivism are usually achieved only with much more intensive programmes for high-risk men. Second, according to ‘traditional’ cognitive–behavioural rehabilitation theory, programmes need to target change in dynamic risk factors directly to reduce reconviction risk. That these results were obtained with men whose initial motivation was low, and in the absence of any ‘traditional’ criminogenic rehabilitation, raises questions about whether there is more than one mechanism involved in desistance.     

Integrating risk,the Good Lives Model and recovery for mentally disordered sexual offenders

Abstract

Personality disordered and mentally disordered sexual offenders (MDSOs) with complex diagnoses such as schizophrenia, developmental disorders and mood disorders face challenges of restoring their mental health, living more safely with personality- and offence-related risks, while addressing concerns about their capacity to reintegrate into society; this has been termed “secure recovery”. This paper reviews the literature on recovery, demonstrating its commonality with the Good Lives Model (GLM) as applied to MDSOs' offending treatment. GLM appears to provide a better fit with the recovery needs of MDSOs than the Risk–Need–Responsivity model because it emphasises approach goals, enhanced responsivity and skills acquisition. Recovery needs to integrate coping with mental disorders with risk management and a healthy, future lifestyle. Both secure recovery and GLM support the need for client–clinician collaboration, promoting self-determination and a shared narrative about coping with enduring risk and the hope of sustained well-being.     

China and the middle-income trap: toward a Post Washington,Post Beijing Consensus

Abstract

Over the last 30 years, China has experienced tremendous growth, with many commentators attributing the rapid development to the ‘China Model’ (CM) or the ‘Beijing Consensus’ (BC). However, in recent years growth has slowed and an ever-increasing number of bears are predicting a financial crisis, economic collapse, and a very hard landing, perhaps even a lost decade a la Japan. All of this has led to heated debate about whether the CM is now exhausted, whether China is caught in ‘the middle-income trap’ (MIT) and whether a new model is needed for the next phase of development where China attempts the difficult transition from middle-income country to high-income country status. This article addresses the following five sets of issues. First, is there a CM or BC? If so, what does it entail, and does it differ from the model followed by other successful countries in East Asia? Second, is there a MIT? Is China stuck in the MIT or perhaps multiple MITs? Third, what adjustments to the economic model are required for China to continue its long march toward becoming a high-income country? Fourth, are political, legal and social reforms also required? If so, will all reforms proceed simultaneously or are reforms likely to be sequenced, with adjustments to the economy preceding reforms in other areas? Fifth, is there now a global convergence on a new model of development for developing countries – a Post-Washington, Post-Beijing Consensus?     

Searching for Certainty: Rugby and Male Identity in a Former Model C School

This essay investigates the significance of rugby in a former “Model C” high school in South Africa. It examines the ideological and practical connections between rugby and disciplinary practices in this school under apartheid, and it traces those connections to the present day. By doing so, it argues that rugby owes much of its contemporary importance in such schools to the fact that parents, teachers, and coaches can watch as boys respond to the sport’s combination of immediacy and violence. In an era of desegregation and changing educational regulations, rugby’s structural dependence on immediacy and violence allows the sport’s disciplinary potential to remain tantalizingly stable and definitive. Recent concerns about “the scourge of steroids” in school rugby and schoolboys “playing for professional scouts rather than for their school,” however, present new threats to rugby’s apparent stability. These concerns are not random. Rather, they are born of a specific combination of the agentive decisions of schoolboys, the intense importance that adults place on rugby, and the economic and social contradictions that sustain former “Model C” schools. As such, this essay argues that the performance of schoolboy rugby produces an unexpected result in post-apartheid era: the greater the sport’s importance in these schools, and the more parents, teachers, and administrators depend on rugby for displays of discipline and certainty, the starker and more troubling the social contradictions within these schools could become.     

关于构建土地非诉行政案件“裁执分离”模式的调研报告

基于现行土地管理法律规范并没有赋予土地行政管理机关行政强制执行权,针对非法占地建筑物和设施所作的行政决定的强制执行,需要向人民法院申请,由人民法院强制执行。由于非法占地建筑物和设施形成的原因及强制执行,与其他非诉行政执行案件有诸多不同的特点,由法院进行审查并执行的"审执一体"模式,弊端日益凸显。为有效破解土地非诉行政案件"执行难",本文以数据、案例等为基础,在分析现有模式的前提下,对土地管理领域的非诉行政案件实践"裁执分离"模式,从适用范围、理论基础、法律依据、实践经验等方面展开论证,提出在宏观层面完善立法、中观层面建立协作、微观层面细化规定,构建土地非诉行政案件"裁执分离"新型模式。     

群体性纠纷解决机制的建构原理

群体性纠纷带来问题的根源在于它与两造诉讼结构的紧张关系,但是,不同类型的群体性纠纷带来的挑战并不完全相同,对纠纷解决机制的要求也不尽相同。通过对西方国家代表性的群体性纠纷解决机制进行结构的、功能的和技术的比较,可以发现,行政机关执法、社会团体与行政机关提起的不作为之诉、撇去不法收益之诉、加入制群体诉讼、退出制群体诉讼分别适合特定类型的群体性纠纷;群体性诉讼中的费用风险问题,则可以通过诉讼费用制度、律师收费制度的调整或者第三方资助的途径解决。     

现代西方国家议会创制良法的能力——兼与现代政府立法能力相比较

对一个政治机构在制定＂良法＂方面的表现做任何评估,都必须始于对什么构成＂良法＂问题的理解。＂良法＂至少应该满足以下五个标准：它应该是基于可靠的信息基础性,具有及时性、融贯性、有效性和回应性。议会的一般性特征,即议会都是集体合议性的、代表性的、公开性和非专业性的,既是其传统的优势所在,又是局限之所在。在现代社会条件下,正是这些体现议会传统优势的定义性特征,深深地影响和制约着其在促成符合最优标准的立法的能力。     

地方公共政策执行过程中利益主体的博弈分析

在市场经济条件下,存在多元利益主体相互竞争和博弈的情形下,公共政策的执行过程实际上就是各个利益主体的博弈过程。将地方政府置于核心地位,通过建立上级政府、其他地方政府、非政府组织机构、受益群体、目标群体这五方利益群体的“钻石”模型,全面分析公共政策执行过程中各主体的利益博弈,有助于深入探讨政策执行过程中的利益取向偏差现象,最大程度地实现合作博弈,维护社会利益均衡,推动社会整体利益的实现。     

《国际商事仲裁示范法》对临时性保全措施条款的修订

临时性保全措施是国际商事仲裁程序中的措施,旨在使仲裁程序顺利进行,保障裁决作出后得以执行。在阐述联合国贸法会2006年对其1985年《国际商事仲裁示范法》关于临时性保全措施规定修改要点基础上,结合我国现行法律对有关临时性保全措施的规定进行比较研究,进而对我国现行立法的修订提出自己的看法。