论口供的证明力

口供是犯罪嫌疑人、被告人的供述和辩解,包括犯罪嫌疑人、被告人承认有罪的供述,关于自己无罪、罪轻的辩解和揭发同案被告人的攀供。口供具有一定程度上的客观性,这也是口供得以发挥证明作用的基础。由于口供的来源———犯罪嫌疑人、被告人在刑事诉讼活动中处于绝对的劣势,因此必须对口供的证明力加以限制。     

我国未成年证人服务制度探究

未成年人正处于身心成长的特殊时期,与成年人作为证人参加诉讼不同,未成年人更容易在心理上受到伤害。构建我国未成年证人服务制度,应根据其特点进行机构设置和内容设计,以利于未成年人的身心发展。     

论对向犯之“对向关系”简

对向犯是一种特殊的犯罪类型,其“对向关系”的界定在国内外争议较大.通过对向犯的上位概念必要共犯的理论分析,可以揭示对向犯的本质,考量我国对向犯相关理论,并从对向犯的行为主体出发,得出对向犯的“对向关系”即为其行为主体除了是各该行为事实的行为主体外,同时以相互对立的行为主体为其行为的对象.     

重复供述排除问题研究

一次非法取供,是否要对重复供述一排到底?重复供述问题在我国尤为突出,然而,法律和司法解释中并未明确重复供述的可采性。重复供述排除与否取决于先前的非法取供手段对重复供述的实际影响。基于我国实际,应当实行重复供述的分阶段排除方式,即原则上只排除非法取供发生后至确认前在同一诉讼阶段获取的重复供述。为了克服排除重复供述的障碍,应当允许重复取供,理顺公、检、法的关系,减少三机关的同质性。当然,最根本的举措是要建立激励为主的取供机制,调整形式主义的口供运用模式,怯除对非自愿供述的依赖。     

On the power of secondary confession evidence

Research on primary confessions has demonstrated that it is a powerful form of evidence. The goal of the current research was to investigate whether secondary confessions – the suspect confesses to another individual who in turn then reports the confession to the police – could be as persuasive. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants read a murder trial containing an eyewitness identification, a secondary confession, and character testimony, and made midtrial assessments of the evidence. Results indicated that the secondary confession was evaluated as the most incriminating. In Experiment 3, participants read summaries of four criminal trials, each of which contained a primary confession, a secondary confession, eyewitness identification, or none of the above. The two confession conditions produced significantly higher conviction rates. Our findings suggest that secondary confessions are another powerful and potentially dangerous form of evidence.     

Individual differences in interrogative suggestibility: life adversity and field dependence

Since the turn of the century much research has explored the concept of interrogative suggestibility, with recent research highlighting a sizeable link between the reported experience of negative life events (NLEs) and performance on the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale 1 (GSS1). The present study sought to reinvestigate the previously found novel relationship, as well as explore the role of field dependence as a possible coping mechanism implemented during interview by such vulnerable interviewees. As expected, highly significant correlations between NLEs and the suggestibility components of the GSS emerged. Field dependence, however, failed to correlate significantly with either NLE or GSS scores. Nonetheless, some additional findings relating to age, NLEs, and shift scores on the GSS were noted, which may help further our understanding of the NLE to interrogative suggestibility relationship. A new group of vulnerable interviewees, who are as yet unrecognized by the police or courts, has also been identified.     

Going beyond data collection in ethnography: Options for bridging the gap between researchers and archivists

Abstract

This article investigates options for bridging the missing link between ethnographic field research and archiving. It interrogates the place of archiving in the entire fieldwork process and the roles played by researchers and archivists in promoting access. While a number of reasons explain the gap between research and archiving, the article identifies lack of collaboration as the main challenge. Borrowing from the postmodernist theoretical framework, the article argues that archivists cannot detach themselves from data collection, because the decisions they make are not objective but personal and subjective. The conclusion and main message are that digital technology, in spite of its many advantages, may not deliver all that it promises to data collection and archiving. There is a need to complement digital technology data collection and archiving with traditional archiving methods because of the latter's reliability and cost effectiveness.     

The Possibility of Liminal Colonial Subjecthood: Yayutz Bleyh and the Search for Subaltern Histories in the Japanese Empire

ABSTRACT

This article examines whether writing histories of colonial subjects is possible. Traditional colonial histories subsume the colonial subject's individual history under a larger narrative of subjugation, which often does not allow room for people to exist outside the dichotomized role of collaborator/resister. This approach has left a gap in the scholarship for histories of colonial subjects whose lives do not easily fit either category. This article addresses this gap by detailing the life of Yayutz Bleyh, an Atayal woman who became one of the most important participants in the Japanese colonial administration of Aboriginal Affairs in Taiwan. For over six years, the author gathered fragmented pieces of information regarding Yayutz from a multitude of sources – visuals, as well as oral and written materials from inside and outside the colonial archive – in order to sketch the contours of an extraordinary woman and her life. Through the process of filtering these disparate sources, it was the silences regarding certain issues and the discrepancies that emerged among sources that proved to be the most revealing about Yayutz as someone who straddled both the world of the colonizer and the colonized.     

The Central Park Jogger Case-Police Coercion and Secrecy in Interrogation

Abstract

The prosecution and recent legal reversals in the New York “Central Park Jogger” case are discussed with a focus on the preoccupation with crime in US society and concerns regarding racial discrimination in the legal system. It is argued that the inherently coercive nature of interrogation, and the secrecy that surrounds custodial interrogation, create conditions that are ripe for abusive treatment. The phenomenon of false confession is presented and discussed with regard to the Central Park Jogger and other cases. The author advocates the recording and preservation of the entire period of custodial questioning so that there is an objective record of the interrogation methods that lead to “confession” statements.     

自白任意性规则的中国运用

自白任意性规则是刑事诉讼应该遵循的基本证据规则.该规则以追求真实、保障人权和排除违法为理论基础,具有促进讯问合法化和维护审判制度良性运作的功利价值.我国法律从文本上看已有成型的自白任意性规则,但在实践中仍存在对该规则的背离现象,刑讯逼供和非法取供仍时有发生.欲改变此种状况,观念的变革是首要条件,自白任意的程序保障是控制手段,排除规则的完善是救济途径.只有在这三方面下手,才能促进自白任意性规则在我国的有效实施.