Putting risk factors in their place: an evolutionary-developmental approach to understanding risk

ABSTRACT

The assessment of criminal risk plays a prominent role in the criminal justice systems of many different countries and risk assessment is employed in a number of different domains. Given the importance of risk assessment tools in forensic contexts, and the amount of research devoted to evaluating their accuracy in predicting re-offending, it might be expected that risk assessment tools are grounded in our best theoretical understanding of the causal processes that give rise to criminal actions. However, it is not at all clear that this is the case. In this article, I will argue that one important area of neglect is the failure to fully engage with the literature in developmental and life-course criminology which also has directed an enormous amount of effort in to identifying risk factors for offending. At the heart of this neglect, I will claim, is the failure to fully recognise the key distinction between predicting offending and predicting re-offending. I will further argue that an evolutionary developmental perspective provides the theoretical resources to provide fully explanatory accounts of offending and re-offending, and in which risk factors can be appropriately located. I conclude by briefly considering some implications for theory, research, and practice.     

Confinement as a two‐stage turning point: Do changes in identity or social structure predict subsequent changes in criminal activity?*

Scholars frequently characterize incarceration as a possible turning point in criminal activity. This implies a two‐stage process: 1) change in life‐course mechanisms around confinement and reentry result in 2) subsequent change in criminal activity relative to preconfinement. Following this model, we examine change in criminal activity, criminal identity, and social/structural challenges using data from the Prison Project, a cohort of adult males with short‐term confinement in the Netherlands in 2010–2011. Results of a novel test for within‐individual change in arrests from preconfinement to post‐reentry show that most individuals are stable—yet there is a substantial group who go down meaningfully and a much smaller group who go up. Even though changes in criminal identity from the intervening period do not predict these change groups, increases in social/structural challenges predict those who go up in criminal activity. We build from prior work on desistance and reentry, contrasting our findings and highlighting the unique insight gained from, as well as challenges of, measuring individual change within our two‐stage turning point model. Although life‐course mechanisms often correspond with changes in criminal activity concurrently, identifying individual changes that are predictors of subsequent shifts in criminal offending remains elusive.     

论生命科技刑事责任的功能与我国刑法之完善

生命科技刑事责任在生命科技发展过程中具有自身特殊的功能,其对生命科学技术的健康发展起着重要的保障作用。当前,我国刑法尚未明确规定现代生命科技犯罪,现有的刑罚体系也远不适应打击生命科技犯罪的需要。为此,需要立法者采取相应的对策予以补救。     

人体器官移植中生命权法律保护的探讨

生命权是一切权利之根本,属于基本人权之范畴。作为挽救病人生命的重要方式,人体器官移植应恪守尊重生命权的原则。因此,对人体器官捐献、摘取和器官捐献者生命状态的判定应遵循严格程序,器官摘取和移植中的相关法律责任要明确规定。我国人体器官移植方面的法律法规,也要根据上述要求,加以完善。     

柏格森“直觉”、“时间”视域下的老庄生命哲学解读

柏格森以＂直觉＂为核心概念,并由此出发构筑了以＂时间＂为特点的生命哲学。从柏格森哲学的视域观察两千多年前的中国哲学,可见老庄早已运用直觉思维方式,构筑了自己超然的生命哲学思想。     

试论如何增强青少年生命教育的针对性和实效性

为了使青少年树立正确的生命意识,教育者必须在对青少年进行生命教育时,增强针对性和实效性。为此,应拓宽生命教育的途径,通过开设生命教育校本课程、在课堂教学与课外活动中渗透生命教育、重视隐性课程建设以及加强学校教育与社会教育和家庭教育的结合等多种方式,对青少年进行安全教育、死亡教育、生命审美教育、提高生存能力的知识技能教育。在此过程中,要注意教师的＂生命在场＂,重视青少年生命意识的内化,针对重大的反生命事件,对青少年进行正确引导,避免生命教育中的活动化倾向。     

Longevity Ancient and Modern

The article examines illustrations from ancient and modern societies to consider the connections between power, social elites and knowledge of techniques to promote longevity. In pre-modern societies, knowledge of practices and substances to promote longevity were cultivated by elites such as the Chinese imperial court. In modern societies, new technologies—cryonics, cloning, stem-cell applications and nanotechnology—will offer exclusive and expensive methods for prolonging life for the rich. However one important difference between the ancient and modern world is that with secularization longevity is no longer connected with a moral life; longevity is not a reward for sanctity. We have democratized the ambition for long life but not necessarily its realization. The modern quest for longevity appears to be connected with the desire of Baby Boomer generations to hold on to their assets, but while modern medicine may help us to survive forever, it cannot tell us how to live forever.

旅游人类学在美国

20世纪70年代,旅游成为当代人生活的一个重要组成部分,同时带来各种社会文化的碰撞和变迁.这一问题引起了美国人类学家的注意,他们就旅游者及其类别,旅游的目的、动机和方式,旅游给东道国带来的文化影响和社会问题等论题进行研究,形成了人类学的一个分支学科--旅游人类学,并形成由格雷本、史密斯、马康耐、马格丽特·丝旺等为代表的一批旅游人类学家.     

宗法宗族制度下明清时期的妇女婚姻生活

明清时期,宗法宗族制度对妇女婚姻生活的消极作用比较大,主要在婚前剥夺女子受教育权利;婚约的缔结主要从宗族利益考虑;婚后生活受到夫权、族权的严格控制;强迫妇女守节等方面有所表现.积极作用主要表现为提倡男婚女嫁轻钱财,重人品;反对索取重聘厚奁,嫌贫易富,操办奢靡,讲求排场等陋俗;严禁溺杀女婴.     

Our kids: Unaccompanied minors and the question of care

The question of care and what it means both conceptually and practically in the designated arena of child and youth care is a vexing one in the 21st century. Without a doubt, there are increasing numbers of young people who are either demonstrably in need of care or perceive themselves to be either lacking adequate care or simply existing outside those social spaces where care is available. Perhapsthere is no better exemplar of the contested set of relations that is contemporary childhood than those young people traversing national borders. Some of these young people travel with family members, but an ever-increasing number travel unaccompanied by parents or any other form of adult relation. Of these, a group particularly at risk are those without legal documentation. We would argue that this group of young people is urgently in need of our attention as child and youth care workers and scholars.