Liberating Discretion: The Effect of Rape Myth Factors on Prosecutors’ Decisions to Charge Suspects in Penetrative and Non-Penetrative Sex Offenses

Abstract

In sexual assault cases, prosecutorial charging decisions may be influenced by legal factors like offense seriousness and convictability and extralegal rape myths. We use data on sexual assaults in Los Angeles, to test for the effects of victim behavior, victim credibility, and “real rape” stereotypes on the decision to file charges. We also test the liberation hypothesis, examining whether rape myths influence the charge decision more in less serious nonpenetrative cases then in penetrative cases. Results show that victim credibility and behavior, but not consistency with real rape stereotypes, affect charging decisions, even after controlling for legally relevant factors, and they influence prosecutors’ charging decisions equally in penetrative and nonpenetrative cases. Rape myths also influence the charging decision indirectly via victim cooperation. We conclude that rape myths are incorporated into the criminal justice system’s definition of and response to sexual violence, so cannot be addressed by changing case screening policies.     

Will the European Commission be able to standardise legal technology design without a legal method?

Privacy by Design (PbD) is a kind of precautionary legal technology design. It takes opportunities for fundamental rights without creating risks for them. Now the EU Commission “promised” to implement PbD with Art. 23(4) of its proposal of a General Data Protection Regulation. It suggests setting up a committee that can define technical standards for PbD. However the Commission did not keep its promise. Should it be left to the IT security experts who sit in the committee but do not have the legal expertise, to decide on our privacy or, by using overly detailed specifications, to prevent businesses from marketing innovative products? This paper asserts that the Commission's implementation of PbD is not acceptable as it stands and makes positive contributions for the work of a future PbD committee so that the Commission can keep its promise to introduce precautionary legal technology design.     

略论中国传统诉讼审判的判决依据

中国传统诉讼法律文化极具特色,与此相适应,中国传统诉讼审判的判决依据表现出特殊的风格.其判决依据主要有依律判决、判例与类推判决及依情理和礼判决等.对此作一分析研究,将有助于加深我们对传统诉讼法律文化的理解,并吸收借鉴其中的有益部分为当今法治建设所用.     

党代会决策中的积弊与治理

党代会是各级党组织的最高决策机关。充分发挥党代会的决策职能就必须对党代会决策中的积弊进行有针对性的治理,努力建立起与党代会所担负的决策职能和决策地位相适应的决策模式。     

地方公共产品供给中的民主决策——以桂林市“两江四湖”工程为分析背景

公共产品的特性决定了市场供给的稀缺，因而只能依靠政府出面组织生产和供应才有可能得以解决。面对单一利益主体的格局被多元化、多层次利益主体的新格局所取代，政府必须关注公民的利益诉求，实现民主决策尤其重要。桂林市“两江四湖”工程在决策过程中，形成了政府决策主导、专家决策咨询和社会公众参与决策的联合民主决策模式，为地方政府在提供公共产品的过程中实现民主决策提供了有益的启示。     

领导干部领导科学发展须具备的核心能力

领导干部领导科学发展须具备的核心能力是：以人为本为核心,构建领导干部领导科学发展的着力点;以全面协调可持续为要求,着力提高领导干部的决断和创新能力;以统筹兼顾为方法,着力提高领导干部的统筹兼顾能力。要具备这些核心能力,领导干部就必须按照科学发展的要求,提升领导干部的自身素质,建立科学的政绩考评机制和良好的用人机制。     

Visual attention and expertise for forensic signature analysis

Eye tracking was used to measure visual attention of nine forensic document examiners (FDEs) and 12 control subjects on a blind signature comparison trial. Subjects evaluated 32 questioned signatures (16 genuine, eight disguised, and eight forged) which were compared, on screen, with four known signatures of the specimen provider while their eye movements, response times, and opinions were recorded. FDEs' opinions were significantly more accurate than controls, providing further evidence of FDE expertise. Both control and FDE subjects looked at signature features in a very similar way and the difference in the accuracy of their opinions can be accounted for by different cognitive processing of the visual information that they extract from the images. In a separate experiment the FDEs re-examined a reordered set of the same 32 questioned signatures. In this phase each signature was presented for only 100 msec to test if eye movements are relevant in forming opinions; performance significantly dropped, but not to chance levels indicating that the examination process comprises a combination of both global and local feature extraction strategies.     

Emotions and Attributions of Legal Responsibility and Blame: A Research Review

Research on the effects of emotions and moods on judgments of legal responsibility and blame is reviewed. Emotions and moods may influence decision makers in 3 ways: by affecting their information processing strategies, by inclining their judgments in the direction of the valence of the emotion or mood, and/or by providing informational cues to the proper decision. A model is proposed that incorporates these effects and further distinguishes among various affective influences in terms of whether the affect is provoked by a source integral or incidental to the judgment task, and whether it affects judgment directly (e.g., by providing an informational cue to judgment) or indirectly (e.g., by affecting construal of judgment target features, which in turn affects the judgment). Legal decision makers' abilities to correct for any affective influences they perceive to be undesirable and normative implications for legal theory and practice are briefly discussed.     

试论治安管理处罚的执行——治安管理处罚程序研究之五

治安管理处罚决定的执行程序包括警告、罚款、行政拘留、吊销公安机关颁发的许可证以及限期出境、驱逐出境等治安管理处罚决定的执行。公安机关及其人民警察在治安案件调查和处理活动中,执行程序是最终程序,执行工作的完成标志着治安管理处罚程序的终结。     

建设创新型国家的战略决策与宗教工作的创新

建设创新型国家提出的理论创新是宗教工作创新与发展的先导和坚实基础;建设创新型国家提出的制度创新是宗教工作运行机制创新进而带动宗教工作实践创新与发展的切入点和突破口;建设创新型国家提出的其他各方面的创新,就宗教工作创新与发展而言,关键的问题是提高对宗教问题的认知水平,真正把创新意识定位在“社会主义的宗教论”的基点上;建设创新型国家提出的其他各方面的创新,就宗教工作创新与发展而言,根本问题还在于加强党对宗教工作创新与发展的领导。