Environmental Stressors and Food Security in China

This article considers the immediate forces influencing China’s food system and food security. By immediate is meant events of the reform period, from the late 1970s to 2008. It begins by asking the question that has preoccupied specialists since the publication of Lester Brown’s Who Will Feed China? in 1995: How much arable land does China have? Is that land area sufficient to insure grain sufficiency? To insure food security? The article focuses on the human pressures on the food production environment, and then treats the effects of socioeconomic change: land, air, and water degradation. The core of the article examines six responses of the state to both perceived and actual environmental stressors: policy restricting arable land conversion, China’s one-child policy, investment in irrigation systems, the South–North Water Diversion Project, large-scale afforestation and reforestation campaigns, and the program to convert marginal agricultural lands to forests and grasslands.     

Community Support and Diversionary Measures for Juvenile Offenders in Hong Kong: Old Legacy, New Age

This paper begins by examining the arguments that led to the change of emphasis from residential training and detention to community-based measures in Hong Kong. Police cautioning and community support services are introduced. An evaluation of the services provided found that the majority of respondents reported high levels of satisfaction with them. It is likely that the services exerted positive influences on the respondents’ deviant behaviour, family values and sense of social responsibility, but one-fifth of them continued to commit deviant acts. Parents’ participation was not high. Young offenders rarely took responsibility for the offence they committed or understood the harm they had done to victims, and victims were not involved in deciding the intervention plan. The conclusions raise issues about the future for Hong Kong. They consider new diversionary strategies for responding to young people and debate the values that should underpin them.

Mental Health Court Outcomes: A Comparison of Re-Arrest and Re-Arrest Severity Between Mental Health Court and Traditional Court Participants

Mental health courts have been proliferating across the country since their establishment in the late 1990's. Although numerous advocates have proclaimed their merit, only few empirical studies have evaluated their outcomes. This paper evaluates the effect of one mental health court on criminal justice outcomes by examining arrests and offense severity from one year before to one year after entry into the court, and by comparing mental health court participants to comparable traditional criminal court defendants on these measures. Multivariate models support the prediction that mental health courts reduce the number of new arrests and the severity of such re-arrests among mentally ill offenders. Similar analysis of mental health court completers and non-completers supports the prediction that a "full dose" of mental health treatment and court monitoring produce even fewer re-arrests.     

An experimental evaluation of teen courts

Teen Court (TC) is a juvenile diversion program designed to prevent the formal processing of first-time juvenile offenders within the juvenile justice system. TC instead utilizes informal processing and sanctions in order to prevent future offending. Despite its widespread popularity throughout the United States of America, little rigorous research has been conducted on the effectiveness of the TC model for reducing recidivism. Using an experimental design, this study examined the effectiveness of TC in reducing recidivism and improving the attitudes and opinions of juvenile offenders in comparison with a control group of youth who were formally processed. Self-reported delinquency was higher for those youth who participated in TC. TC youth were also found to have significantly lower scores on a scale of belief in conventional rules than had youth who were processed in the Department of Juveniles Services. Implications of these findings are discussed.

我国侦查程序分流的制度化构建

侦查程序分流顺应了近代刑罚观的转变,有利于缓解沉重的司法压力和有限的司法资源之间的矛盾,其在两大法系国家已经得到了不同程度的肯定,并且发挥了重要的作用,但是我国至今仍未在侦查阶段确立分流制度,而其在我国确立是必然的和可行的。因此,应该在借鉴相关国家的做法的基础上,从适用条件、适用范围、适用程序以及配套制度的完善等方面构建我国的侦查程序分流制度。     

大众文化与市场经济的双向互动

市场经济是大众文化产生发展的现实基础,为大众文化提供了文化主体、运作方式和发展空间,离开了商品市场经济,大众文化也就没有产生的现实可能性;另一方面,市场经济发展需要大众文化放松和化解社会大众的生存压力和精神压力,给人们提供打发闲暇时间的空间和途径,为人们提供展示和发展个体主体性的新方式;同时,大众文化的发展催生了人们新的消费观念,带动了人们的消费行为,改变了人们的消费结构,形成了一系列新的文化产业,对市场经济的发展具有极大的推动或拉动作用。     

刍议侦查程序中的转处制度

侦查阶段的转处制度是一种重要的刑事诉讼转处措施。相对而言,它更有利于提高诉讼效率,保障诉讼双方当事人的合法权利,以及实现预防犯罪的目的。在我国侦查程序的各环节均有转处的可能性,可借鉴国外的成功做法构建符合我国国情的转处制度。     

中国——东盟自由贸易区的经济效应分析

从本质上看,中国——东盟自由贸易区属于南南型区域经济合作,主要目标是通过双边制度性安排,推进中国与东盟诸国间的贸易自由化和投资自由化,同时加强经济技术等领域的合作。中国——东盟自由贸易区的建成将对中国与东盟诸国经济产生积极的贸易效应和投资效应,对中国和东盟均具有重要的意义。我国应采取多种措施,积极推进该自由贸易区的深化发展     

Neighbourhood outreach: a novel approach to Liaison and Diversion

Aims and method: We evaluate the initial outcomes from the Cornwall Criminal Justice Liaison and Diversion Service (CJLDS) which includes a pilot Neighbourhood Outreach scheme to support police with vulnerable individuals with suspected mental illness but not necessarily criminal involvement. Results: We review the first nine months’ operational data, including a six month follow-up of the initial three months’ to assess the impact of intervention. The service identified a large proportion of new cases of mental illness at an earlier stage. Intervention significantly reduced the number of contacts with police and may suggest a reduction in the severity of crime. Clinical implications: The Cornwall CJLDS with its pilot Neighbourhood Outreach has had a significant impact on both health and on crime, with additional cost savings. The degree to which this is replicable is discussed. Declaration of interest: None