The Tennessee Slave Code

Abstract

Numerous studies have found evidence of racial discrimination in the imposition of the death penalty, particularly in the South. In this article, the authors posit that the legal antecedents of modern discrimination in capital cases are found in the codified rules that governed slavery. Using the capital punishment provisions of the 1858 Slave Code of Tennessee, the biases inherent in the laws of the Old South are documented. The discriminatory practices that blacks faced both as victims and offenders under the slave codes are linked through historical analysis and conflict theory to the current discriminatory practices documented by modern death penalty research.     

Culture as Values or Culture in Action? Street Codes and Student Violent Offending

ABSTRACT

The authors draw on two competing cultural perspectives—culture as values and culture in action—to examine the relationship between street codes and the propensity to violently victimize others. Specifically, they explore whether individual-level and school-level street codes, net of one another, are related to 3 types of violence: assault, robbery, and sexual battery. In addition, they consider whether these effects vary according to 3 contextual characteristics: (a) the location of the offending—in school versus out of school, (b) school-level economic disadvantage, and (c) school efficacy. Three-level ordinal logistic regression models are estimated using four waves of survey data from over 3,000 students nested within 103 schools. Results provide evidence that individual-level street codes are related to violent offending in a manner that is, largely speaking, not tied to context. However, there is some evidence that the effects of school-level street codes on offending differ between outside of school and in school settings and are conditioned by levels of school disadvantage and efficacy. Overall, some support is offered for both the culture-as-values and culture-in-action perspectives.     

法典的建构与中国法治

在中国的法治现代化建设中 ,法典的建构具有重大的作用 ,但许多部门法典的建构所需要具备的条件还欠缺 ,时机也不成熟。法典的建构 ,只有建立在真正洞悉了中国社会的秩序之上 ,才会发挥巨大的作用 ,成为人们生活和行动中的法律 ,而不是纸面上的法律     

“That shit doesn't fly”: Subcultural constraints on prison radicalization

Many observers describe prison subcultures as inherently and irredeemably antisocial. Research directly ties prison subcultures to violence, gang membership, and poor reintegration. In extreme cases, research has also suggested that prison subcultures contribute to incarcerated people joining radical groups or embracing violent extremist beliefs. These claims, however, ignore key differences in the larger cultural and social context of prisons. We examine the relationship between prison subcultures and prison radicalization based on semistructured qualitative interviews with 148 incarcerated men and 131 correctional officers from four western Canadian prisons. We outline several imported features of the prison subculture that make incarcerated people resilient to radicalized and extremist messaging. These features include 1) national cultural imaginaries; 2) the racial profile of a prison, including racial sorting or a lack thereof; and 3) how radicalization allowed incarcerated men and correctional officers to act outside the otherwise agreed-to subcultural rules. Our research findings stress the importance of contemplating broader sociocultural influences when trying to understand the relationship between radicalization and prison dynamics and politics.     

Soft power,ideology and symbolic manipulation in Summer Olympic Games opening ceremonies: a semiotic analysis

This paper is a semiotic analysis of Summer Olympic Games Opening ceremonies as performative texts. Owing to massive media attention, these events have become eagerly awaited global spectacles. However, with such a wide audience, the challenge is to convey both an Olympic welcome and something truly unique about the host city and nation. This creates a communication challenge and some interesting questions in terms of symbolism. Research into the content of Olympic Games ceremonies reveals an exercise both in forging internal cohesion and in projecting soft power. Soft power is an increasingly valuable currency in a multipolar world and opening ceremonies are a prime soft power opportunity. The paper seeks to uncover the ways successive Olympics Games organising committees have sought to balance the competing communicational objectives of opening ceremonies through double coding. The author considers every ceremony from Moscow 1980 to London 2012 in this comparative semiotic analysis.     

Written Discipline Policies Used by Administrators

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to draw on the findings of two related studies about school discipline. The first study, a national survey of school law issues, indicated that over 37% of administrators report handling discipline either frequently or daily. The results of the second study, a content analysis of 64 written codes of conduct commonly used to make discipline decisions, were that these documents were primarily punitive in nature with an emphasis on suspension and expulsion. Implications of the study are that administrators spend excessive time handling discipline issues using punitive policies. Suggestions are made for future research about discipline policies and the ways in which they are used in schools. Implications for the creation of more proactive policies will be made.     

对法典和法典化的几点哲理思考

法典化是实现法的"一体化"的一种重要方式。适应全球化的需要,19世纪至20世纪,在西方的推动下,法典化的浪潮席卷全球,我国在上个世纪也被卷入,立了许多法,制定了许多法典,至今仍有许多人对此极力推崇。怎样客观而理性地评价法典化及其一个多世纪以来我国的法制建设进程?本文在研究法典和法典化一般概念的基础上,结合历史实际进行了思考。     

进一步加强大学生的职业道德教育

加强大学生职业道德教育是适应社会发展的必然选择,是完成高等教育根本任务的必然要求．也是实现大学生成功就业的必经之路：造成大学生职业道德缺失的原因是多方面的,既有高校教育体系本身的原因,也有社会影响等外在原因。加强大学生职业道德教育,应充分发挥课堂教学的主体作用,实行系统的理论灌输;开展社会实践教学,实现理论知识与实践活动的有效结合;加强校园文化建设,激发大学生对职业道德的内在需求。     

‘Honourable’ Behaviour and the Conceptualisation of Violence in Ethnic-Based Organised Crime Groups: An Examination of the Albanian Kanun and the Code of the Chinese Triads

Within Albania and China and their respective diasporas, a history of extreme violence, both official and unofficial, is widely accepted but not easily understood from a Western perspective. Over the course of centuries both societies have experienced turmoil and in the 20^th century spent decades under the disastrous communist dictatorships of Enver Hohxa (1944–1985) and Mao Zedong (1949–1976). Acts of organised/collective violence should be interpreted in their historical and cultural contexts. As both Albania and China underwent considerable internecine feuding, and all manners of deprivations and oppressions under the governance and proclamations of their various rulers, it may not be surprising that their subjects became inured to violence. Violence is neither meaningless nor peculiar to China/Albania. One explanation arises from the continuing purchase of ancient codes of ‘extreme violence’. This paper describes two ancient instruments justifying ‘excessive violence’ that have continued to exist even today and directly link them to the violent behaviour of contemporary Albanian and Chinese organised crime groups. The paper will explore the historico-cultural origins of Albanian and Chinese organised crime and their recent reputation as ‘ultra-violent’ actors. Specifically we examine the 15^th century Albanian legal code known as the Kanun of Lek Dukagjini, and the 17^th century code of the Chinese Hung Mun (Triad Society).     

Integrating Proactive Discipline Practices into Codes of Conduct

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to advocate for proactive content in discipline codes of conduct. Proactive discipline codes integrate Positive Behavior Support (PBS) strategies (Sugai & Horner, 2002) and attend to the academic needs of students (McEvoy & Welker, 2000). Proactive discipline codes of conduct have meaningful participation by key stakeholders (Noonan, Tunney, Fogal & Sarich, 1999). The limited efficacy of traditional reactionary approaches commonly found in discipline codes are reviewed (McEvoy & Welker, 2000; Skiba & Peterson, 1999). Following this, an argument is presented for a new proactive stance in the development of written codes of conduct. Specific examples of content are presented in a table.