Innocent of the crime under investigation: suspects’ counter-interrogation strategies and statement-evidence inconsistency in strategic vs. non-strategic interviews

ABSTRACT

The study examines the counter-interrogation strategies applied by mock suspects (N?=?94), who are innocent of a mock crime under investigation but who were present at the scene, for different reasons, at around the time the crime occurred. Half were present at the crime scene to carry out a lawful act, the other half to carry out an unlawful act. Furthermore, this study examines the effect of the Strategic Use of Evidence (SUE) technique as a strategic interviewing technique (vs. a non-strategic technique), on suspects’ statement-evidence inconsistencies. Participants were randomly assigned to the two interview conditions (strategic vs. non-strategic) and were interviewed as suspects of a crime, which none of them had committed. The results show that the most commonly used counter-interrogation strategy in both groups was to be honest. However, 26.1% of the innocent suspects, performing an unlawful act, reported the strategy to be deceptive. In addition, the statements of suspects executing an unlawful act were significantly more inconsistent with the evidence in the strategic than the non-strategic interview condition. The increased statement-evidence inconsistency rates potentially put these suspects at risk of being assessed as guilty of a crime they did not commit.     

我国执行救助制度的构建

执行救助是在民事执行过程中,确因客观原因,申请执行人的债权尚未实现,且其生活又特别困难时,由法院提供一定物质帮助的救济行为。它受到中央和最高人民法院的热切关注。但是,国家层面的统一制度尚未形成。目前的执行救助主要是各地各级地方法院试点实践的产物,可谓五彩缤纷,形态各异。为了切实保障申请执行人生存权,实现社会和谐,长治久安,亟需构建统一、明确的执行救助国家制度。近年以来的司法实践,为该项制度的构建,廓清了理论基础和价值目标。在此基点上,分析目前执行救助存在的问题,归纳共通的救助范围、对象、程序和具体措施,乃是构建我国统一执行救助制度的理想途径。     

Searching for Livelihood Security: Land and Mobility in Burkina Faso

The incremental approach to land reform in sub-Saharan Africa constitutes a rapprochement between proponents of the introduction of private property regimes and their critics. The incrementalists recognise that local tenure regimes can change and that they should be the basis of any land-reform programme. This article argues that an important gap remains with regard to the dynamics of tenure arrangements observed in a highly insecure environment, because the incremental approach retains a western-type of tenure security as its ultimate goal. Geographic mobility of actors and fields is essential to the protection of livelihoods in the north-central region of Burkina Faso. This mobility not only is made possible by the prevailing land tenure regime but also underpins its flexibility and allows the merging and shifting of rights. All of this argues against the establishment of western-type tenure security and in favour of the maintenance of flexible resource tenure regimes - a model discussed in recent years in relation to pastoral land use in drylands. This would have the additional advantage of integrating understandings of, and approaches to, pastoralists' and crop-farmers' land use in regions where these population groups already intermingle.     

Steven Chaffee and the Future of Political Communication Research

This article discusses four basic characteristics of Steven Chaffee's research: going beyond the "common research wisdom," careful explication of concepts, avoiding unsubstantiated charges against the media, and investigation of the social aspects of communication. The evolution of political socialization research is used as an example of how these characteristics have strengthened Chaffee's contribution to that area and to the larger field of political communication. It is argued that the future of this field would benefit from emulation of these characteristics. Continuing problems of political communication research are noted, and various emerging problems are discussed.     

Attention to Counter-Attitudinal Messages in a State Election Campaign

Research following the "selective exposure" model has focused on avoidance of political messages with which a person might disagree. But positive attention to such "counter-attitudinal" messages is worthy of study, in part because normative theories of democracy value exposure to information that might disturb citizens' political predispositions. Surveys of youth (N = 417) and parents (N = 430) examine attention to newspaper, television, and Web messages about candidates. While there is somewhat more attention to messages about and for a person's favored political candidate or party, forms of political involvement (knowledge, curiosity, and discussion) that predict this "attitude-consistent" attention also predict counter-attitudinal attention at least as strongly. Parents' education and students' exposure to civics lessons also predict both kinds of attention. These results suggest that attention to counterattitudinal political messages is worthy of further study as an important goal of political socialization and a criterion of citizen performance in democracy.     

Shareholder value and Financialization: consultancy promises,management moves

In the pages of the daily financial press, 'shareholder value' is a loose rhetoric. For business consultants who sell financial metrics and implementation, shareholder value is also a product and a promise that purposive management action will be rewarded. This paper begins by considering the consultant's promise and the more guarded academic responses. It then presents empirics on micro performance and the meso limits to shareholder value and argues that most corporate managements cannot easily deliver what consultants promise and the capital markets demand. The paper ends by taking a broader view of value-based management as part of a process of financialization. If the results are contradictory and disappointing, a persistent gap between expectations and outcomes can nevertheless drive management behaviours, which change the world.     

对审判管辖中级别管辖的反思

审判管辖中的级别管辖解决的是上下级法院在受理第一审刑事案件上的权限划分。现行刑事诉讼法的级别管辖制度存在一些现实的缺陷,具体表现为管辖的标准过于抽象、客观上导致中国被告人和外国被告人诉讼地位的不平等以及法院的功能过于复杂。有许多学者和专家也提出了一些不同的修改意见,其中认为取消最高人民法院的一审管辖权是十分恰当的,对中级人民法院管辖的判处无期徒刑或者死刑的标准应当以法定刑格来确定。     

我国刑事诉讼中亲属拒证权制度的缺失与构建

亲属拒证权作为拒证权制度的一种,是亲属关系证据规则的重要组成部分,蕴涵着法律人文关怀、诉讼利益权衡、公民权利彰显的内在价值。我国刑事诉讼法应确立亲属拒证权制度,明确规定亲属拒证权的主体范围、拒证事项及其例外情况,并将告知申请程序、审核程序、救济程序、放弃权利程序作为程序设计予以构建。     

价值理性和工具理性视角下当代中国民主建设解析

民主的价值理性和工具理性可以取得理论上的和谐统合.然而,在民主实践中工具理性的张扬往往导致民主的价值理性遭受侵犯.表现在当代中国民主建设中即为工具理性和价值理性之间某种程度的冲突.在波澜壮阔的世界民主潮流中,中国应当顺应民主发展的趋势,转变侧重工具理性的民主观念,实现两种理性的平衡统一.     

论伪实证主义——试析福斯特霍夫公法学方法论

德国行政法学家福斯特霍夫将宪法解释为纯技术性的法治体系,从而抽空宪法价值内涵;从社会实证角度研究行政法,赋予当代行政生存照顾职能,但过于强调行政的价值实现和自主构建,造成行政法脱离宪法监督,破坏了整体法治。总结福斯特霍夫的公法学方法论有益于加强对法治国、社会国背景下公法学研究方法的认识。