Juvenile Justice in Scandinavia

The main issue is the legal protection of children and juveniles suspected of or convicted for crime. The age of criminal responsibility is 15 years in the countries concerned. Particular juvenile justice systems do not exist in Scandinavia. There are, however, exceptions from the general system in order to maintain needs, interests and rights of children and juveniles. Some common characteristics are described, for instance diversion of juveniles from prison into social welfare measures and the prohibition of placing children in jail. Individual characteristics are pointed out as well. Introduction of secure social institutions as an alternative to imprisonment in Sweden and Denmark is one, mediation processes with children as parties in Finland and Norway is another. It is argued that from the point of view of legality the demands for legal rights are of greatest importance in prosecution and punishment matters, whereas social welfare support is not to the same degree concerned about such questions. Furthermore it is argued that in spite of good intentions the Scandinavian countries challenge the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, by not definitely prohibiting the possibility of a juvenile serving a prison sentence together with adults. It is stated that the distance between constructive pragmatism and destructive loss of principles as legality, equality and proportionality may be short. Crime trends are not linked to the politics: there is no relation between crime rates and political attention to crime. Juvenile justice has increasing political attention these years while the crime rates tend to be stable. In relation not solely to the economy and the Convention but first and foremost in the interest of children and juveniles more thought should be given to scientific experiences about early and appropriate prevention.     

The Needs of Women Offenders

Abstract

Recent corrections research indicates that programs and community services providing assistance and training for women offenders are lacking. Using a sample of 402 female felony offenders, women's needs, including those thought to be criminogenic (i.e., characteristics and circumstances that heighten an individual's recidivism risk), are examined to determine whether certain groups of women possess similar sets of needs. Cluster analysis is used to identify combinations of needs shared within subgroups of female felons. Identification of common and co-occurring needs, particularly those associated with high risk for recidivism, can assist program staff, advocates for women offenders, and correctional administrators in determining what combination of program elements should be available to women, and the degree to which programming must address multiple domains.     

Ghosts in the Shell: On South Africa,the USA and Japan

This article surveys American literary responses to the rise of Japan as an economic power during the period from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, and examines how these responses were anticipated in the writings of the South African author Laurens van der Post. Paying particular attention to van der Post’s autobiography, Yet Being Someone Other (1982), I suggest that the author’s formative experiences aboard a Japanese trading vessel in 1926, coupled with South Africa’s close-knit trading relationship with Japan in the 1980s, enabled a perspective on Japan’s economic ascendancy that was markedly less reactionary than those in the USA. By emphasizing the historical contexts that held true at the time of publication, I situate Yet Being Someone Other in a framework that deliberately circumvents—without necessarily confronting—van der Post’s preferred version of his life story. Rather than “recovering” the author’s ‘place in the canon of South African literature, this article is intended to incorporate the author’s work into ongoing discussions of the representation of Japan and the Japanese in twentieth-century Anglophone writings.     

Denigrating the local,glorifying the foreign: Malawian language policies in the era of African Renaissance

ABSTRACT

Malawi's Vision 2020 document, a national document that serves as a vehicle to project a future for a more developed, secure and democratically mature nation, laments the tendency of Malawians to denigrade local products and glorify all things foreign. Yet, paradoxically, the document does not address the important issue of promoting Malawi's indigenous languages. This silence can be interpreted as reflective of the population's inclination to ascribe greater value to foreign culture. In Malawi, as in many other African countries, indigenous languages are not considered worthy as media of education, subjects of advanced study or critical vehicles for national development. They are still victim to a discrimination rooted in Africa's 500 plus years of European enslavement and colonisation. Against the backdrop of the pursuit of an African Renaissance, this article looks at Malawi's language policies since independence in 1964, and at how, ten years short of an idyllic national vision, Malawi measures up on the important issue of language.     

在我国建立以“假释为主、减刑为辅”的罪犯出狱新模式

我国重减刑、轻假释的现状源于刑法规定中的逻辑悖论,由此影响了减刑假释制度对罪犯更新改造、重返社会、预防和减少重新犯罪、降低刑罚成本功能的有效发挥,影响了假释的广泛适用,不利于监狱和社会秩序的稳定。我国应适当降低假释标准,提高减刑标准,以此来完善我国的减刑假释制度。     

社会整合与人民法庭的功能定位

随着乡村社会转型,乡民与国家、家庭、传统规范之间的纽带早已松懈,个人对社会保有的团结情感和道德责任感随之淡薄,乡村社会的整合问题将越来越突出.人民法庭的司法运作在修复国家与乡民之间的关系,加强社会整合方面的功能越来越重要.虽然不少研究对人民法庭能动的、便民的司法运行模式持否定态度,但若立足于整体分析的方法与视角,从人民法庭对乡村社会整合的功能意义出发却可以发现,这其实是人民法庭的功能性必要条件.     

Relationships Between Adult Women’s Mental Health Problems and their Childhood Experiences of Parental Violence and Psychological Aggression

We used the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scales (M. A. Straus, S. L. Hamby, D. Finkelhor, D. W. Moore, & D. Runyan, 1998) to assess retrospectively women’s childhood experiences of both mother and father physical abuse and psychological aggression, and assessed mother and father alcohol problems based on criteria derived from the Family History Research Diagnostic Criteria (N. C. Andreasen, J. Endicott, R. L. Spitzer, & G. Winokur, 1977). Data were collected from 447 women (age 18 or higher) from seven domestic violence programs and five substance use disorder treatment programs in a midwestern state. Using OLS regression with backward elimination (p < .10 as criterion for removal from the equation) we found that higher levels of mother physical abuse, father psychological aggression, and presence of mother alcohol problems predicted higher scores on the Beck Anxiety Inventory and Trauma Symptom Checklist. Higher levels of mother physical abuse and father psychological aggression predicted higher scores on the Beck Depression Inventory. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Land conflict and Mayangna territorial rights in Nicaragua's Bosawás reserve

Abstract— This paper examines conflicts over land and resources in Nicaragua's Bosawás rainforest reserve between Mestizos and Mayangna Indian people. Mestizos are people of mixed Indian and European descent who speak Spanish and do not consider themselves to be Indians. Bosawás is one of the last refuges of the Mayangna indigenous group and is also the largest area of protected tropical rainforest in Central America. The Mayangna village of Sikilta, in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region, is used to illustrate the nature of land conflicts in the region. Such conflicts–between economic development and conservation, between livelihoods and conservation, and between peasant livelihoods and indigenous territorial rights–are symptomatic of rainforest areas in other parts of the world. Land conflicts in Bosawás are examined within the broader economic, political and institutional context. Potential solutions to land conflict in Sikilta are explored. The paper illustrates the complexities surrounding the demarcation and upholding of indigenous land rights. It highlights the institutional complexities and weaknesses which have allowed Sikilta's land problem to go unresolved. It is argued that until national problems of unequal access to land and unsustainable forms of forest use are addressed, communities like Sikilta will continue to suffer invasion of their land.     

Insecure Attachment Mediates Effects of Partners’ Emotional Abuse and Violence on Women’s Relationship Quality

Men’s emotional abuse and violence have a broad and pervasive impact on women that may include long-term effects on women’s attachment and relationship quality. In this longitudinal study, women’s Wave 6 ratings of their insecure attachment were hypothesized to mediate the relationship between partners’ Wave 5 abuse (emotional and physical) and Wave 6 relationship quality, with differences in associations by women’s Wave 5 self-classification as secure or insecure. Mediation was tested with data from a sample of 574 African American, Euro-American, and Mexican American community women who had completed at least three waves of a six wave study. Differences occurred in the final structural equation models by women’s Wave 5 attachment style, with direct paths from emotional abuse to insecure attachment and from violence to relationship quality for both groups, but direct effects of violence on relationship quality only for insecurely attached women.     

关于赋予检察机关量刑建议权的思考——从许霆盗窃一案说起

最近，许霆盗窃案引起了人们持续的关注和深入的思考，在强大的舆论压力下，此案的被告人许霆最终经历了从被判处无期徒刑到5年有期徒刑的惊险蹦极，一审重审判决的刑期大大缩短，似乎舆论、民意在与司法的较劲中获得了胜利。这种度身订做的判决涉及一系列的问题，并从中读到了赋予检察机关量刑建议权的可行性和必要性。