Parliamentary Questioning in 17 European Parliaments: Some Steps towards Comparison

All democratic parliaments have some procedures to allow representatives to put questions to ministers. However, there are no two parliaments with exactly the same procedures. Cross-national comparisons are hindered by the lack of agreed-upon scientific criteria to group similar procedures, which are too often classified on the basis of their names rather than on their substantive characteristics. To overcome this problem, this article devises a typology of parliamentary questions based on relevant procedural features in 17 European countries. A ranking of parliaments according to the criteria of the effectiveness of procedures is developed and a discussion of the relationship of this ranking to the coalitional characteristics of the parliaments is provided. Finally, the article develops some tentative arguments to explain what influences the development of more or less effective questioning procedures, testing the hypothesis that countries dominated by coalition governments tend to have more effective procedures. In contrast with the authors' expectations, with regard to the countries included in the present analysis, the frequent presence of coalition government is associated with weaker procedures.     

Enhancing the cognitive interview with an alternative procedure to witness-compatible questioning: category clustering recall

The Cognitive Interview (CI) is one of the most widely studied and used methods to interview witnesses. However, new component techniques for further increasing correct recall are still crucial. We focused on how a new and simpler interview strategy, Category Clustering Recall (CCR), could increase recall in comparison with witness-compatible questioning and tested if a Revised Cognitive Interview (RCI) with CCR instead of witness-compatible questioning and without the change order and change perspective mnemonics would be effective for this purpose. Participants watched a mock robbery video and were interviewed 48 hours later with either the CI or the RCI. Recalled information was classified as either correct, incorrect or confabulation. Although exclusion of the change order and change perspective mnemonics in the RCI group might have caused a slight decrease in recall during the last interview phases, the RCI group generally produced more correct information than the CI group, with a lower number of confabulations. Further analyses revealed CCR was largely responsible for this increase in correct recall. CCR is a very promising interview technique which allowed the interviewer to obtain more detailed information without additional questions and may have, in certain situations, several practical advantages over a questioning phase.     

Sexual assault complainants on the stand: a historical comparison of courtroom questioning

Because most cases of alleged sexual assault involve few sources of evidence, the complainant’s testimony is crucial. In line with empirical research findings, the way in which police question sexual assault complainants has evolved to ultimately maximise both the completeness and accuracy of evidence. But has courtroom questioning changed over time? To answer this question, we compared the courtroom questioning of sexual assault complainants in the 1950s to that used in cases from the turn of the twenty-first century. Overall, lawyers in contemporary cases asked complainants more questions and uttered more words than they did historically. Complainants, too, appear to have become more vocal over time. Across the two time periods, the questioning style used by prosecuting lawyers has shifted towards a more open style. In stark contrast, the format of cross-examination questions has remained remarkably consistent over time, with leading questions still making up the bulk of the questions asked. These findings have important implications for future legal reform and legal practice.     

浅析侦查讯问失败原因

侦查讯问是一项政策性、原则性、法律性很强的工作。在侦查讯问的实践中,由于种种原因导致一些案件讯问失败,给侦查办案带来困难。所以,对侦查讯问失败的原因进行分析的目的就在于从中找出教训,保证侦查办案的顺利进行。     

论刑法第十七条中“投毒罪”的含义

现有的刑法学界通说认为，应当将《刑法》第十七条中规定的“投毒罪”解释为投放危险物质罪。但除投放有化学毒性的物质外，相对负刑事责任年龄阶段的未成年人很难对投放放射性、传染病病原体等危险物质有正确的认识。一次实证调查问卷的结果，也支持了这一观点，这一年龄阶段的未成年人很多时候对投放放射性物质、传染病病原体物质缺乏正确的认识；如果不得到专业人员的帮助和指导，他们也无法实施投放放射性物质、传染病病原体物质的行为。将《刑法》第十七条中的“投毒罪”解释为投放有化学毒性物质的犯罪行为，不存在法律漏洞，并且符合实质正义。     

行政法学二十年来的反思与前瞻

中国行政法学二十年的发展,经历了一个恢复、初步发展、快速发展、趋于成熟的发展过程。虽然取得的成就是巨大和令人瞩目的,对于促进我国行政法制的建设和发展发挥了重要的作用。但是,行政法学的理论研究还存在着一些缺陷和不足,有待于在未来行政法学的发展中予以解决,并面对一些新的行政法学研究领域有所突破和创新。     

探微讯问凶杀案件犯罪嫌疑人的逻辑对策

讯问,是侦查部门立案以后对犯罪嫌疑人的正面接触,它对整个侦查办案活动起着至关重要的作用。文章试从逻辑的角度来探究讯问凶杀犯罪嫌疑人的技巧和对策,如用矛盾律来揭穿嫌疑人谎言、讯问问题的种类和预设等。侦查办案人员必须重视并做好讯问,为整个侦查办案活动争取一个良好的开端。     

Detecting deception in suspects: verbal cues as a function of interview strategy

Research on deception has consistently shown that people are poor at detecting deception, partly due to lack of consistent cues to deception. This research focuses on eliciting verbal cues to deception when questioning suspects who deny crime and how such cues differ due to type of questioning. An experiment examined verbal differences between innocent and guilty mock suspects (N=96) as a function of veracity and interview style (Free recall, Probes, or Free recall plus Probes). Guilty (vs innocent) suspects omitted more crime-relevant information and their statements were more likely to contradict the evidence, showing that statement–evidence inconsistency was a cue to deception. This cue to deception was more pronounced when the interview contained probes. Lie-catchers (N=192) obtained an accuracy rate higher than chance (61.5%) for detecting deceptive denials. Implications for further research on verbal cues to deception are discussed.     

对讯问策略的法律思考

本文结合国内外讯问专家和司法判例对于侦查阶段讯问特点的阐述,认为法律应该为侦查讯问留出一定的合法性空间。随后,结合德国的制度对于我国《刑事诉讼法》第93条的内容进行探讨,认为讯问是一项任意性侦查措施,且犯罪嫌疑人的沉默权可以从法理上推导出来。本文另从实体上对第93条的内容规定的"义务"和"权利"进行概念诠释以及对讯问方法合法性轮廓界定,最后从审前报送、事中监督和事后审查等程序上设计对侦查人员进行非法讯问的规制制度以规范讯问活动。