How Many Offenses are Really Committed per Juvenile Court Offender?

This article compares juvenile court petitions and self-reported offending between ages 13 and 17 for 506 boys followed up in the Pittsburgh Youth Study. There were 2.4 self-reported offenders for every petitioned offender, and 80 self-reported offenses for every petitioned offense. The prevalence of self-reported offenders stayed constant with age, but the prevalence of petitioned offenders increased with age. Conversely, the individual offending frequency stayed constant with age according to court petitions but increased with age according to self-reports. Therefore, prevalence and frequency did not vary similarly with age, and did not vary similarly in self-reports and court records. With increasing age, more and more of the self-reported offenders were formally petitioned, but they were formally petitioned for fewer and fewer of their offenses. The probability of an offender being petitioned to court increased with the number of offenses that he committed, but the probability of each offense leading to a court petition decreased with the number of offenses committed. There was little overlap between self-reported and official chronic offenders. It is concluded that researchers should always measure both self-reports and official records in studying offending, and that the juvenile court should seek to intervene earlier in delinquency careers.     

口供的证明效力与补强

口供是指犯罪嫌疑人、被告人在刑事诉讼中就其被指控的犯罪事实以及其他案件事实向公安司法机关所作的陈述,具有真实性、自愿性.口供可划分为庭外供述和庭上供述,就审判阶段而言,庭外供述必须转化为庭上供述才能作为定案的根据.在共同犯罪中,同案被告人口供不能作为证人证言使用,即使同案被告人口供一致,仍需其他证据予以补强.     

LESSENING THE STING OF ASFA: THE REHABILITATION‐RELAPSE DILEMMA BROUGHT ABOUT BY DRUG ADDICTION AND TERMINATION OF PARENTAL RIGHTS

Congress passed the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA) as a response to children waiting in foster homes for years without permanent placement. In addressing the problem of permanency, however, Congress set a strict limit on how long a child could be in foster care (15 out of the most recent 22 months) before a state must either commence a proceeding to terminate parental rights or else lose valuable federal funding. Due to health care funding schemes and quality of treatment, this requirement, in particular, negatively impacts parents currently in drug rehabilitation whose parental rights may be permanently terminated before a realistic chance to recover is permitted. Although ASFA requires that states make “reasonable efforts” to keep families united, it does not define “reasonable efforts,” leaving parental rights and family unity subject to a chaotic interpretation of this requirement from state to state. “Reasonable efforts” should be interpreted to take into account current drug addiction and recovery research and drug court programs should be used to facilitate this goal. Research has shown that focusing on adequate treatment saves states money and improves the lives of children and their families, reducing the need for reliance on termination of parental rights.     

我国行政审判体制的缺陷及其重构

我国行政审判存在诸多令人担忧的问题,究其根源,在于行政审判体制的诸多缺陷。因此,我们必须对现行行政审判体制进行全面的审视和反思,从整体上进行结构化的改革,重新合理配置司法权与行政权,构建一种全新的行政审判体制。     

我国刑事诉讼中公检法三机关互相关系原则之考察

公检法三机关互相关系原则是我国宪法层面的刑事诉讼基本原则,在刑事诉讼实践中的作用不可低估。但该原则也存在着一些不科学性和缺失,主要表现在互相配合与实现刑事司法公正价值机制相冲突,妨碍人民法院在刑事司法中的中立性和独立地位;互相制约没有明显的主次之分,过于强调“平分秋色”而忽略了“递进制约”关系,抑制了检察、审判职能的发挥。对此,有必要予以科学的分析,并给予规范和整合。     

仲裁保密性问题初探

相较于诉讼而言,同为民商事争议解决方式的仲裁有诸多诉讼无法比拟的核心优势,仲裁的保密性就是其中之一。本文首先从宏观上强调了仲裁保密是仲裁的核心优势,然后对仲裁保密性在各国不同的法律地位进行了比较研究。第三部分则是从微观层面对仲裁保密性的几对矛盾进行了分析,包括与公告送达、法院干预、公共利益的关系,并得出一般性结论。最后本文检讨了我国相关立法的漏洞和缺失,并给出了制度性设计的若干建议。     

我国警察出庭作证的身份确定和程序设计

我国应尽快建立警察出庭作证制度。警察应以证人身份出庭作证,称之为警察证人。警察出庭作证并不违反证人的不可替代性特征。警察以证人身份出庭作证,其程序应包括:申请警察证人出庭作证程序;通知(强制)警察出庭作证程序;查明到庭警察证人身份程序;法庭向警察证人交代权利义务程序;警察证人宣誓程序;警察证人作证程序;控辩双方交叉询问质证程序;法庭补充询问程序;警察退庭程序。     

Optimal Pricing of Court Services

Litigants are generally charged for using court services. The charges involved are usually set to achieve a combination of efficiency, equity and funding goals. This paper presents a simple model, based on regulated monopoly pricing, to address the question of how these charges should be set. We find that fixed fees generally form part of the optimal charging package, despite concerns about their regressive nature. Per-unit fees will also be used though they may be set below cost; in this case, a trade-off emerges and the fixed fee is used to achieve funding goals. Our model is a useful one for developing extensions from the nonlinear pricing literature.JEL K40, L50     

美国与德国法院体制之比较

美国与德国都是联邦制国家也是奉行宪法至上的国家 ,两国的法院体制都必须适应这一特点。比较两国的法院体制的基本特征 ,分析这些特征产生的原因并进而探讨法院在维护联邦制中的作用。     

The Effect of Prior Youth Court Dispositions on Current Disposition: An Application of Societal-Reaction Theory

This paper tests hypotheses implicit in the societal-reaction perspective concerning the nature and pattern of the relationship between prior and current youth court dispositions. The dispositional stage is the most critical decision-making level which young offenders encounter in their contact with the youth court system. Previous research has produced inconsistent results in the attempt to determine which model or models of justice underlie dispositional decisions by youth court judges. Log-linear modeling is employed on 16,636 youth court cases in Canada in 1993/1994 to determine the nature and magnitude of the relationship between current and prior dispositions. The results indicate that prior youth court dispositions exert a significant impact on current dispositions, even when relevant variables are controlled. Evidence is found mainly of stabilization—the repetition of the same type of disposition—and also of escalation in dispositions. These findings provide support for the societal-reaction theory and possibly for the desert-based theory of sentencing.