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This paper focuses on the individual holders of public office or duty and the numerous past and present criminal cases related to corruption and abuse of power. By analyzing the penal policies of the courts in several regions (North Macedonia, Romania, Croatia, Montenegro, and Albania), as well as the imposed sanctions and court verdicts, this paper presented the fundamental characteristics of the criminal justice system's functioning in preventing such forms of crime. Through a comparative analysis of experiences, empirical research (case study), and an overview of the situation in multiple Balkan countries, the paper, as a key result, offered a comprehensive examination of the specific offenses outlined in the legislations of the countries under investigation and presented legal solutions derived from various Balkan nations. Finally, the paper concludes that corruption is a general problem in all the investigated countries and proposes possible solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper defends an interactive theory of the distinctiveness of criminal law. It argues that criminal law's distinctive behavior can be connected to the interaction between five traits: it is an institutional practice administered by a large and special bureaucracy, playing a substantial role in authorizing the use of coercive police force, leading to a harsh sanctioning regime linked, at least in part, with core wrongs and notions of personal responsibility. Although none of these features is exclusive to criminal law, their interaction leads to modes of behavior that set it apart from other institutions. The paper argues that putting attention on the effects of this interaction provides us with powerful tools to both understand and asses the value and problems of criminal law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pereboom and Caruso propose the quarantine model as an alternative to existing models of criminal justice. They appeal to the established public health practice of quarantining people, which is believed to be effective and morally justified, to explain why -in criminal justice- it is also morally acceptable to detain wrongdoers, without assuming the existence of a retrospective moral responsibility. Wrongdoers in their model are treated as carriers of dangerous diseases and as such should be preventively detained (or rehabilitated) until they no longer pose a threat to society. Our main concern in this paper is that Pereboom and Caruso adopt an idiosyncratic meaning of quarantine regulations. We highlight a set of important disanalogies between their quarantine model and the quarantine regulations currently adopted in public health policies. More specifically, we argue that the similarities that Pereboom and Caruso propose to substantiate their analogy are not consistent—despite what they claim—with the regulations underlying quarantine as an epidemiological process. We also notice that certain quarantine procedures adopted in public health systems are inadequate to deal with criminal behaviors. On these grounds, we conclude that Pereboom and Caruso should not appeal to the quarantine analogy to substantiate their view, unless they address the issues and criticism we raise in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to present a solution to a problem that arises from the fact that people who commit crimes under the influence of serious mental disorders may still have a capacity to refuse treatment. Several ethicists have argued that the present legislation concerning involuntary treatment of people with mental disorder is discriminatory and should change to the effect that psychiatric patients can refuse care on the same grounds as patients in somatic care. However, people with mental disorders who have committed crimes and been exempted from criminal responsibility would then fall outside the scope of criminal justice as well as that of the psychiatric institutions if they were to refuse care. In this paper, I present and develop a solution to how society should deal with this group of people, called Advance criminal responsibility. The basic idea being that if a person with a potentially responsibility exempting psychiatric condition refuses care, that person is responsible for any future criminal acts which are due to the mental disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social science researchers as well as legal practitioners in India are yet to explore how imprisonment of a person affects his or her entire familial set-up. The existing literature suggests myriad problems associated with the imprisonment of a family member, categorized under social, economic and psychological arenas. Methodologically, the present paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted from March 2012 to February 2013 in Central Jail, Srinagar, with prisoners and their families. This paper primarily attempts to explore how imprisonment affects the families of prisoners? It also attempts to explore how families respond to the imprisonment of their family member, their coping patterns, their encounter with the wings of criminal justice system and other collateral damages. The study yielded multiple results ranging from disturbances in socio-economic affairs to disputes in inter-familial and intra-familial relationships and weakening of community ties besides other socio-economic disturbances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major barrier to Victorians with a terminal illness accessing voluntary assisted dying is the Commonwealth Criminal Code Amendment (Suicide Related Material Offences) 2005 (the Code), which prohibits the use of any electronic forms of communication when discussing suicide. The proliferation of telehealth as a means of access to medical practitioners as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the anachronistic prohibition of such communication in relation to voluntary assisted dying, particularly in Victoria, as the federal law arguably prohibits its use. In this paper we explore the definition of suicide and its application to voluntary assisted dying and argue for a revision of the Code, to enable equitable and timely access to voluntary assisted dying for people of Victoria. What is known about the topic? The Commonwealth Criminal Code Amendment (Suicide Related Material Offences) 2005 (the Code) prohibits Victorian voluntary assisted dying (VAD) trained medical practitioners from using telehealth to conduct their consultations with terminally ill individuals wishing to access VAD. What does this paper add? This paper provides a perspective on the current Code from the viewpoint of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Victoria Board and its secretariat. What are the implications for practitioners? Currently, Victorian VAD trained medical practitioners could be prosecuted for discussing their terminally ill patient's wishes to seek out VAD using any means of electronic form of communication. This paper urges the federal government to review the Code urgently to allow equitable access to VAD in Victoria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Expert consensus is that people with an intellectual disability are over represented across the criminal justice setting (CJS). Primary research studies have been conducted in police stations and prisons, but little is known about the prevalence of this population in the court setting. The purpose of this paper is to conduct a literature review to find out more about the prevalence of defendants with an intellectual disability in court. Design/methodology/approach: A literature review was conducted using standard systematic review methodology (Julian et al., 2011) and the PRISMA reporting guidelines (Moher et al., 2009). Findings: Two papers met the inclusion criteria and were critically appraised. The papers reported prevalence findings ranging from 10%–20%. Research limitations/implications: Differences in study design, sampling, recruitment and diagnostic criteria affect the ability to make comparisons or synthesise findings. Practical implications: It is important that future primary and secondary research studies standardise operational terms to enable true comparison between studies, systematic reviews and evidence syntheses. Social implications: Defendants with an intellectual disability need to be identified to enable criminal justice professionals to make reasonable adjustments to proceedings and consider diversion and alternative disposal options. This will likely improve outcomes for this population and reduce recidivism. Originality/value: This literature review contributes to the growing evidence base about meeting the criminal justice needs of people with a learning disability and recognition of the increased prevalence across the CJS and specifically within the court setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When a sexual assault survivor testi!es in court, it is highly likely that their demeanour will be impacted by the trauma they su"ered. Despite an array of research on how trauma can a"ect demeanour, legal professionals and juries often have misconceptions about how a sexual assault survivor “should” behave on the stand. As the standard of proof in criminal law is incredibly high, and often only the survivor and the accused have !rsthand knowledge of what happened, the outcome of the case can hinge on the survivor’s credibility. If a misconception about demeanour impacts the assessment of their credibility, the accused may be wrongfully acquitted. #is paper explores the research on trauma and demeanour and explains why it is critical that the legal profession appreciates its importance. #e paper looks at many available yet underused options within the Canadian criminal justice system to mitigate the e"ects of trauma on demeanour and support survivors, and argues that their increased use would bene!t survivors while maintaining the presumption of innocence that lies at the heart of a criminal trial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Community-based forensic support services (CBFSSs) were commissioned nationally by National Health Service (NHS) England in 2017 in response to "Building the Right Support" (NHS England, 2015). CBFSSs provide multidisciplinary support to adults with intellectual disabilities and/or autism who are in (or at risk of) contact with the criminal justice system and those transitioning from inpatient secure care. This paper aims to highlight potential systemic barriers to accessing community forensic services for people from an ethnic minority background. in one CBFSSs in Northern England. Design/methodology/approach: This paper provides preliminary reflections on potential systemic barriers within the criminal justice system and health-care services that have implications for service users from ethnic minority backgrounds accessing CBFSSs. Findings: There is a paucity of data, policy and literature that focuses on people with intellectual disabilities and autism with forensic needs from ethnic minority backgrounds. This lack of data obstructs further reforms to meet the needs of this population. Originality/value: CBFSSs are commissioned across England. While some regional variation is to be expected, services should be aware of the systemic barriers people from ethnic minority backgrounds within their region face. These barriers should be considered and addressed when evaluating service efficacy and delivery. Recommendations are made to review and address issues of under-representation of ethnic minorities within CBFSSs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conviction rate is the primary indicator through which the efficiency of a criminal justice system can be measured. Unfortunately, Pakistan has a poor conviction rate due to the collective inefficiencies of the Police, the Prosecutors, the Judiciary, and the Lawyers. In this paper, the author has highlighted reasons behind the low conviction rate in three main categories: Crimes against person, Crimes against property, and Crimes under Anti-terrorism Act. The major reasons outlined for low conviction rate are false statements by applicants, flaws in investigation due to limited resources, weak prosecution, and the lack of timely disposal of cases by courts due to overburdened judges. To resolve this problem, holistic changes must be made rather than mere cosmetic changes as the problem is deep rooted in the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The period of the early twentieth century is marked by an intense struggle on the part of women to gain access to professional careers and the public sphere. This paper contributes to a wider discourse on women's professionalisation, by focusing specifically on women's access to legal professions and the role archiving played in that process in the years preceding the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 in light of the Police Court Rota, run by the Association for Moral and Social Hygiene (AMSH). The members of the Rota acted as observers in criminal cases, interviewers, writers and activists at the time when women were formally excluded from courtrooms and legal life. The paper draws extensively from the archives of the AMSH and National Vigilance Association and argues that observations, legal record creation and archiving gave middle-class women volunteers access to legal professions and power, despite formal exclusions. These records and collections, in part, counter law's missing archive on women and criminal justice. This paper examines what these counter archives tell us about exclusion of women from legal history and the role archiving played within women's professionalisation, and in turn, how class and colonial bias manifested within that process of archive creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This paper explores the fate of South Australia's highly regarded Police Drug Diversion Initiative over the past 10 years. Methods: The paper uses historical and legal analysis, including publicly available data as to rates of drug use, arrests and diversions, media reports, legislation and Hansard debates. Results: In the mid‐2010s, amidst growing anxiety about levels of amphetamine‐type stimulants use in Adelaide, a coroner's report became the poster child for what was seen by the Liberal opposition as the excessive leniency and 'waste of resources' of the Police Drug Diversion Initiative. Despite being universally praised for its efficacy, the Liberal government, when elected, passed amendments to the legislation which 'capped' diversions at two. This ended the period in which diversions from criminal to social justice systems was mandatory for all persons charged with simple drug possession. But since then, the diversion rate in South Australia has plummeted in ways that cannot be explained merely because of these amendments. Discussion and Conclusions: The most highly regarded scheme for diversion of minor drug offenders to treatment is no longer effective. Indeed, the best scheme in the country may now be the worst. The essay draws attention to a catastrophe whose extent is not yet fully appreciated and suggests ways in which we can begin to explain why such a small change has had such dramatic and unforeseen consequences. Like some sort of perverse alchemy, Australia's gold standard for drug diversion has been turned into lead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the lived experience of forgiveness and uniquely its potential for discovering and negotiating new identities for people dealing with their addiction to substances, within the context and demands of English drug policy. Little research has focused on the development of shared meanings of forgiveness in relation to the social relationships impacted by addiction, and this paper seeks to promote such work. The paper is emergent from a co-production project examining forgiveness and its relationship to identity with Pushing Change a peer community for addressing substance misuse. Identity is at the heart of debates concerning drug addiction and criminal justice, however, little attention has been paid to the ways in which interventions shape individual identity, and the meanings of those relationships to the wider community. Through developing an understanding of forgiveness this project identified generative principles that allowed for new ways of thinking and practising forgiveness in relation to addressing substance misuse and the criminal justice system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In criminal procedure, a "remedy" refers to a legal solution or course of action that is available to individuals who believe their rights have been violated during the criminal justice process. Remedies are designed to protect the rights of defendants and ensure that the criminal justice system operates fairly and in accordance with the law. Of course, the complaint as a regular legal remedy can be exercised within the specified legal deadlines and in the previous legal procedure. It's important to note that not all legal remedies follow these exact stages, and the specific procedures can vary based on the legal system and the type of case. Additionally, some legal issues may be resolved through administrative processes or through negotiation without ever entering the formal legal system. The judgments issued by the court, with which the party is dissatisfied and which have not yet taken the final form, are struck with legal means. The legal remedies are regulated by the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure and serve to exercise the legal remedy in case of dissatisfaction with the court's decision, therefore we can rightly conclude that the legal remedies are a kind of guarantee for the respect of the rights of the parties in the procedure. The purpose of this paper is to find, through research methods, how these legal remedies are regulated, the changes that have occurred in criminal legislation, their application in practice, where through comparative, statistical, normative and other methods, it will be more easy for us to reach correct conclusions. With the conviction that this work will bring innovation and be a summary for all those readers who intend to study this field in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Temida is the property of Victimology Society of Serbia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Criminal justice systems have traditionally relied heavily on human decision-making, but new technologies are increasingly supplementing the human role in this sector. This paper considers what general limits need to be placed on the use of algorithms in sentencing decisions. It argues that, even once we can build algorithms that equal human decision-making capacities, strict constraints need to be placed on how they are designed and developed. The act of condemnation is a valuable element of criminal sentencing, and using algorithms in sentencing – even in an advisory role – threatens to undermine this value. The paper argues that a principle of "meaningful public control" should be met in all sentencing decisions if they are to retain their condemnatory status. This principle requires that agents who have standing to act on behalf of the wider political community retain moral responsibility for all sentencing decisions. While this principle does not rule out the use of algorithms, it does require limits on how they are constructed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper conducts a comprehensive comparative analysis of the legal frameworks governing the taking of juveniles into custody in Kuwait and the United States. The treatment of juveniles in the criminal justice system is a critical area of concern, as it reflects a society’s commitment to safeguarding the rights and well-being of its youth. The study evaluates the need to adopt special procedures for juvenile arrests when compared to adult arrests in Kuwait. The study undertook a comparative analytical investigation of Kuwaiti and American law which are based on different legal systems. The study found that the Kuwaiti legislator should take juveniles’ nature, qualities, and characteristics into account, and based on that approach, adopt special procedures regarding juvenile arrests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Using the ethical consequentialist theory of utilitarianism, this paper aims to demonstrate the correlation between the prosecution of Arthur Andersen LLP and the United States Department of Justice's (DOJ) increased use of pretrial diversion agreements, both nonprosecution and deferred prosecution agreements (N/DPA) for criminal corporations. Design/methodology/approach: Through an analysis of previous literature, the United States Justice Manual, and data from the Corporate Prosecution Registry, this study examines the trend of N/DPAs from 1992 to 2021. Specifically, the data is examined to assess whether a pattern exists before and after the 2002 prosecution of Andersen. Findings: This study finds an exponential increase of N/DPAs after Andersen's prosecution. The DOJ's basis for the increased use of these agreements is rooted in the utilitarian theory that the punishment of criminal corporations should deter and rehabilitate behavior while also maximizing the benefit to society (e.g. shareholders, employees and business community). The justice manual, memorandums and public speeches explicitly promote the use of N/DPAs for corporations to minimize collateral damage and the potential for negative societal impact. Originality/value: This study applies a utilitarian framework to explain the criminal justice system's increased use of pretrial diversion agreements for criminal corporations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the main challenges for computational legal research is drawing up innovative heuristics to derive actionable knowledge from legal documents. While a large part of the research has been so far devoted to the extraction of purely legal information, less attention has been paid to seeking out in the texts the clues of more complex entities: legally relevant facts whose detection requires to link and interpret, as a unified whole, legal information and results of empirical analyses. This paper presents an ongoing research that points in this direction, trying to devise new ways to support public prosecutors in assessing the dangerousness of individuals and groups under investigation, an activity that precisely relies on the cross-sectional evaluation of legal and empirical data. A knowledge mining strategy will be outlined that lines up, into a single metaheuristic model, information extraction, network-based inference, machine learning and visual analytics. We will focus, in particular, on the integration of graph-based inference and machine learning methods used both to support classification tasks and to explore new forms of man-machine cooperation. Experiments made involving public prosecutors from the Italian Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate and using data from real investigations have not only shown the potentialities of our approach but also offered an opportunity to reflect on the role we could assign to AI when thinking about the future of legal science and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehensive and multi-disciplinary public health approaches are necessary to prevent sexual re-offending. However, criminal justice solutions continue to dominate and the arrangement in England and Wales is no exception. The introduction of the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) in 2003 brought together the work of the police, prison and probation services in order to manage violent and sexual offenders. This paper focuses specifically on the work of the specialist police officers who are tasked under MAPPA with the Management of Sexual or Violent Offenders (MOSOVO) and whether or not they can assist desistance in those who have been convicted of a sexual offence. We argue that the risk-based, highly politicized model of public protection that MOSOVO staff operate within creates tensions more likely to hinder than facilitate desistance. As indicated by findings in an independent review of the police's management of registered sex offenders (2023), successful desistance journeys are found in people who are supported by formal agents who actively promote hope and optimism and convey a belief that the person attempting desistance can change. In conclusion, we recommend that MOSOVO staff be willing and resourced to help individuals with sexual convictions develop a non-offending lifestyle and identity and support them in achieving this goal, which requires the provision of comprehensive support beyond risk management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper communicates findings from a doctoral research project which used dance/movement therapy (DMT) to engage two women navigating the criminal justice system in Australia. A feminist-informed participatory research design was applied to learn about each woman's experience and to explore the possible health promoting benefits of community-based DMT. Women serving time on community correctional orders were invited to attend drop-in DMT workshops which were held in a drug and alcohol recovery centre. Participants were invited to offer feedback which was analyzed using reflexive and interpretative methods of ethnographic data generation. Three themes emerged through the data which were understood to reflect simple notions of fun, fitness, and relaxation in DMT. Although limited to a small number of participants, this study undertook a close reading of each woman's feedback and considered themes in light of trauma theory. Drawing from the women's responses, the study articulates the beginnings of an 'exercisePLUS' perspective: a theoretical rationale which validates the role of exercise in DMT and discusses its potential therapeutic significance. Neurobiological trauma frameworks are used to articulate the findings, however, the research seeks to challenge assumptions within the medical model, such as the 'expert' positioning of the therapist. In doing so, this research aims to contribute toward the further development of community-based perspectives in DMT practice, and, offers a theoretical rationale for the use of DMT within a forensic context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studia Iuridica Lublinensia is the property of Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Croatian legal system is traditionally under the dominant influence of the Germanic legal tradition. This is a logical consequence of historical circumstances, which state that present-day Croatia was long part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the field of criminal law, which is the focus of this paper, there is a significant influence of Austrian, German, and Swiss criminal law. However, since 2008, new trends have emerged, first evident in procedural law (through the introduction of the previously typical Anglo-American institution of plea bargaining in criminal proceedings), and then from 2013 also in substantive criminal law. In the Criminal Code of 2013, sexual offenses were modeled after the English Sexual Offences Act of 2003, which has sparked considerable controversy in theory and practice. In this text, the author critically examines this legislative shift in tradition from the perspective of comparing the historical circumstances of the English and Croatian criminal law backgrounds. The author discusses the differences in criminal justice systems of these countries, compares the circumstances of the origin and shaping of sexual offenses in the mentioned legislations, and presents the results of their own research conducted in Croatia, reflecting whether the new legal solution was successful and whether it achieved its purpose. Based on this, the author provides an answer to the hypothetical question of whether a solution implemented from one legal tradition can successfully exist in the conditions of another significantly different legal tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the origins of the Jimmy Savile Scandal in which the former BBC entertainer was accused of a series of sexual offences after his death in 2011. The case has had a massive impact on UK policing and criminal justice policy and on care work, with implications for due process and public expenditure in responding to reports of sexual abuse.Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on an Economic and Social Research Council funded project to collate data on the Savile case. It is based, primarily, on interview material from former pupils and staff members from Duncroft School, from whence initial allegations against Savile emanate, contrasting these with media accounts.Findings The research provides a very different picture of Duncroft and the contemporary policy context to that presented in media accounts. A questioning account of the origins of the scandal emerges. The findings may lend themselves to a moral panics analysis but also point to the power of dominant stories in influencing public policy.Research limitations/implications This paper is based on only a very small sample of interviews. The material is ethically sensitive in that it may be claimed or used to cast doubt on accounts of abuse.Social implications The implications of the wider project from which it draws are potentially profound, casting doubt on the origins and detail of the Savile scandal.Originality/value The paper addresses one of the major socio-cultural episodes in recent British history, which has had a profound effect on the workings of the criminal justice system, signalling a shift away from a presumption of innocence. It also offers insight into the cultural context of care work and the possibility, especially for males, of being subject to allegations made against them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents findings of a second trial evaluating telephone-based motivational enhancement therapy (MET) to motivate untreated and unadjudicated men who abuse their intimate partners to explore treatment options. Participants' perceptions of how their abuse is negatively affecting them personally are a highlight of the paper. One hundred forty-one adult men were recruited through social marketing and randomly assigned to the intervention (MET) or comparison (Mail) group. The MET condition consisted of two feedback sessions guided by a personalized feedback report on participants' intimate partner violence (IPV) and substance use. The Mail condition included a mailed educational brochure on IPV and substance use. Results supported the likely effectiveness of MET in short-term reduction of IPV behavior, marijuana use, and increasing motivation for treatment seeking particularly for participants who reported more adverse consequences of IPV to themselves. Findings emphasize the importance of including a focus in interventions on IPV's impact on the abusers themselves. The study's virtual participation and success in reaching and retaining a diverse population of male abusers can contribute to transformative justice and communities looking for alternative early interventions for men of color prior to encountering the criminal justice system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of judges in authorising the extension of placements in solitary confinement in Israeli prisons for lengthy periods of time. It qualitatively examines, through content analysis of 354 Israeli court decisions, how judges negotiate and rationalise the harmful effects of solitary confinement when balanced against the prison authorities' reasoning for subjecting prisoners to it. Finding an overall tendency to defer to the expertise of prison authorities, we examine what Sykes & Matza termed 'techniques of neutralisation' used by judges to distance themselves from the responsibility for solitary confinement placements and the hardship they inflict. The paper further discusses the socio-legal and organisational structures and contexts which incentivise the prioritisation of prison security/discipline over the protection of prisoners from the 'pains of solitary confinement'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protection of the right to property is among the central concerns of Uganda's Constitution and laws. The law on civil and criminal trespass aims at facilitating enjoyment of property by prescribing damages for civil trespass and penalty for criminal trespass. Despite this, criminal and civil trespass have been used as weapons by some actors in land conflicts to undermine property rights of weaker parties and escalate land conflicts. The relationship among property, land conflicts and trespass is a theme of empirical significance in Uganda. Yet, weaponisation of trespass and its repercussions on property rights and resolution of land conflicts in Uganda is not significantly studied. This paper fills this gap. It conceptualizes criminal and civil trespass as embedded in the law, and how they have been weaponised. Using qualitative methods (analysis of literature, court decisions, and web-based material) the paper finds that criminal trespass has been weaponized to target weaker parties to land conflicts hence impacting on their property rights and access to land justice. Using the criminal justice system, they are charged with criminal trespass, incarcerated, and are unable to pursue civil remedies from courts of law, hence protracting the underlying civil/land dispute. Civil trespass has also been misused within Uganda's escalating land dispute terrain; in pursuit of selfish objectives rather than of justice. Uganda's neoliberal context is an enabler of all the above. Recalibration of the civil justice system for efficiency and amendment to section 302 to offer clarity on the boundaries of its application are recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Custodial congestion still persists as one of the biggest challenges to Nigeria's Criminal Justice System. This is attributed to the operation ineptitudes of the Nigerian police force which employs means such as holding charges. This paper examines the practice of holding charges in Nigeria as a major contributor to the congestion of correctional facilities in Nigeria. This paper contends that the practice of holding charges is unconstitutional; in violation of the principles of fair hearing; and presumption of innocence and merely a means of administrative expediency. This paper concludes that the practice of holding charge in Nigeria undermines the rights of accused persons and calls for urgent reforms to the Nigerian criminal justice system to ensure that the protection of human rights is in tandem with the basic international human rights laws which mandate States to respect and ensure everybody's right to personal liberty and security, and therefore, proffer some policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contains a description of the criminal justice system in Bulgaria, starting with the history of modern criminal regulations, current regulations, as well as the organization of judicial institutions. At the same time, the author comparatively analyzes several institutions of criminal law and criminal procedure in the Bulgarian and Romanian systems. The analyzed institutions refer to the judicial organization of the two countries, criminal prosecution, preliminary hearings, the regime of evidence, but also corruption and official crimes. For the comparative analysis of the two criminal justice systems were also considered findings of the Venice Commission, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Court of Human Rights, but also those of the European Commission within the Verification and Control Mechanism. The paper also contains the author's point of view regarding some regulations from the two countries, with reference to the effectiveness of the rules necessary to combat the criminal phenomenon, especially corruption crimes. Last but not least, the paper addresses the matter of comparing legal institutions from different countries, with some arguments in favor of this difficult approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a long tradition of preferring local theories to ones that posit lawful or causal influence at a spacetime distance. In this paper, we argue against this preference. We argue that nonlocality is scientifically unobjectionable and that nonlocal theories can be known. Scientists can gather evidence for them and confirm them in much the same way that they do for local theories. We think these observations point to a deeper constraint on scientific theorizing and experimentation: the (quasi‐) isolation of causal or lawful influence. We argue that this requirement ought to replace the locality desideratum in science. We then explore the possibility that the order of explanation has been reversed: perhaps it is isolatable influence that determines what counts as local in the first place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of partnership working has gained traction as an alternative form of governance to address complex and multifaceted problems. The popularity of partnerships is also evident within the sport and physical activity sector, where their inclusion has become a staple of initiatives that utilise sport as a mechanism for development and to address social ills. This includes the issue of youth crime, where partnership working has become embedded as a key component of crime prevention and desistance strategies. While partnership working has become one of the most overused terms in contemporary policy, the failure to adequately grasp its meaning and to identify which aspects might usefully support it effectiveness is a long-standing problem. This paper adopts McDonald's (2005) theoretical framework, which draws a distinction between strategic and communicative partnerships, to examine the partnership workings of a UK organisation that seeks to build a better and safer society through the use of sport in the criminal justice system. Drawing upon qualitative data collected from the stakeholders of this organization (n=35), the paper presents insights into some of the tensions and challenges experienced by participants during the formation of operational partnerships and explores how these factors result in the development of either strategic partnerships, dominated by goal-attainment, instrumentalism and managerial authority; or communicative partnerships, where co-operation is central to the achievement of objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to investigate how retributivists should respond to the apparent tension between moral desert and proportionality in punishment. I argue that rather than attempting to show that the term 'proportionate punishment' refers to whatever penal treatment the offender morally deserves, retributivists should maintain two things: first, that a punishment is proportionate when it is commensurate to the seriousness of the crime; second, that offenders morally deserve proportionate punishments. This view requires adopting a local theory of desert as opposed to a holistic one. In the second part of the paper, I argue that there are indeed good reasons to adopt a local theory of desert. Once retributivism is seen through the lens of local desert, there is no obvious mistake in saying that offenders morally deserve punishments that are proportionate to the seriousness of their crimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the notion of generative mechanisms as constitutive rules, this paper advocates a shift away from the notion of routines as sources of ongoing change and towards a rule‐based understanding of routines as institutional facts. While the recent practice turn to routines studies has highlighted sources of endogenous change, this paper adopts a Critical Realist stance to investigate exogenous forces that account for the emergence of a new routine. To this end, the paper endeavours to analyse the passing of new legislation in the criminal justice system of England and Wales. By examining what makes the rules of the game change between the Police and the Crown Prosecution Service, the paper explains an instance of institutionalisation in the making. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Our contribution stresses that constitutive rules play a pivotal role for recognising, identifying and labelling organisational routines, thus generating order, stability and patterning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the role of the rap music expert in criminal cases involving the use of rap as evidence. In addition to describing ways that an expert can help the defence challenge the use of rap, both before and during trial, it also offers strategies for intervening beyond the criminal justice system. These strategies may require an expert to balance the roles of objective observer on the one hand and criminal justice advocate on the other, but whatever the risks or challenges associated with this balancing act, this paper argues that doing so opens up important avenues for intervention and impact that can more effectively end the racially motivated and unjust practice of 'rap on trial'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented natural experiment in drug policy, treatment delivery, and harm reduction strategies by exposing wide variation in public health infrastructures and social safety nets around the world. Using qualitative data including ethnographic methods, questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews with people who use drugs (PWUD) and Delphi-method with experts from field sites spanning 13 different countries, this paper compares national responses to substance use during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Field data was collected by the Substance Use x COVID-19 (SU x COVID) Data Collaborative, an international network of social scientists, public health scientists, and community health practitioners convened to identify and contextualise health service delivery models and social protections that influence the health and wellbeing of PWUD during COVID-19. Findings suggest that countries with stronger social welfare systems pre-COVID introduced durable interventions targeting structural drivers of health. Countries with fragmented social service infrastructures implemented temporary initiatives for PWUD led by non-governmental organisations. The paper summarises the most successful early pandemic responses seen across countries and ends by calling for greater systemic investments in social protections for PWUD, diversion away from criminal-legal systems toward health interventions, and integrated harm reduction, treatment and recovery supports for PWUD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Any wrongful conviction causes severe violations to the individual, their loved ones, the criminal justice system, and the validity of justice. While Anglo-American countries have focused on wrongful convictions since the 1930s, some Asian contexts have only considered these unjust errors within the scope of their legal approaches since the 2010s. To investigate this issue, this paper conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) of the Scopus and Google Scholar databases, collecting 36 English peer-reviewed articles from 710 publications between 2010 and 2021. Our two primary goals include: 1) reviewing the scope and response of Asian countries to wrongful convictions and 2) identifying the main factors that led to these wrongful convictions. Findings indicate that almost all publications have focused on China and Japan as representatives of Eastern Asia. Very few studies discussed other Asian areas. Alongside five similarities with Western societies, such as 1) false confessions, 2) torture, 3) misconduct, 4) eyewitness identification errors, and 5) misused forensic science, political factors and criminal justice struggles reflect the unique issues underpinning Asia's wrongful convictions. Ultimately, our study calls for broader future research of a greater range of Asian countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper explores the use of crime narratives through book clubs in criminal justice education. While true crime media has gained popularity, it often presents a skewed view of criminal justice realities. In contrast, carefully selected narratives in educational settings can promote significant learning experiences, as outlined in Fink’s taxonomy. These narratives can help humanize justice-involved individuals, challenge stereotypes, and provide a more balanced understanding of the criminal justice system. The growing field of narrative criminology further supports the use of stories to examine social hierarchies and inequalities within the justice system. Book clubs, when integrated effectively into coursework, have shown promise in increasing student engagement and building relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper conducts a scoping review to identify studies which use the framework of intersectionality to understand the overrepresentation of Black women, children, and families within the child welfare system. A comprehensive review of electronic databases was conducted as of June 2021. Of the 4,663 records identified, ten peer-reviewed journal articles met criteria for inclusion within the study across the disciplines of social work, law, public health, and criminal justice. Additional empirical, peer-reviewed journal articles are needed to understand the overrepresentation of Black women, children, and families within the child welfare system using the framework of intersectionality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The promotion of the restorative justice (RJ) concept has brought significant changes to China's environmental criminal justice system. However, the lack of empirical study makes it hard to support the existing normative arguments and jurisprudential analysis of environmental RJ practices in China. This study aims to investigate the evolutionary mechanisms of the RJ application in environmental crimes. To achieve this goal, a tripartite evolutionary game model comprising the judiciary, the offenders, and the victims, is established based on evolutionary game theory (EGT). Simulations based on 2022 China's environmental criminal justice data indicate that top-down environmental RJ reforms will face resistance due to insufficient public participation. To reverse this situation, we merge sensitivity analyses of model parameters with critical examinations of classical RJ theories. By analyzing the current status and future scenarios of RJ in China's environmental criminal justice, we suggest that: (1) Maintaining moderate penal intensity is the evolution-stable condition for the offenders to develop an intrinsic legal motivation to repair the environment. (2) To ensure both efficiency and fairness, the use of RJ should be determined based on the statutory length of sentences for environmental offenses. (3) Support for victims should be strengthened to increase their benefits from environmental RJ and reduce their legal costs. This paper is innovative in quantitatively evaluating the evolutionary mechanisms of the RJ application by using EGT, which adds to the body of knowledge on RJ conducted by qualitative research. The findings based on EGT can provide an answer to the persistent debate about the relationship between RJ and traditional justice (TJ). While the argument for replacing TJ with RJ may seem attractive, it is not feasible. Considering cost-benefit limitations, incorporating RJ into TJ could achieve positive outcomes in environmental crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Justice Reinvestment aims to prevent young people coming into contact with the criminal justice system through place‐based, data‐driven and evidence‐based community solutions developed through community‐based leadership and partnerships. The initiative also advocates for strategic changes to the justice system, with any savings reinvested into successful community programs. This paper will discuss the historical, international and local perspectives of Justice Reinvestment, recent Commonwealth funding opportunities, and how well these initiatives work for young people in New South Wales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the assault of disturbing experiences that seem sealed into a bodily discourse, there appears an increased permeability between the dream space and the psychotherapy space. It is in the forensic in-patient hospital environment that I have commonly sat with a calm and compliant patient to find myself grappling with an overwhelming pull toward sleep. Such tiredness in countertransference can be understood as a manifestation of the weight of buried or repressed disturbance which can only seemingly be registered at a bodily level. Forensic patients are usually the subject of vilification from the courtrooms to sensationalist media reports in a system that further bottlenecks their emotional lives. It seems to me that sometimes there can be a fine line between continuing the trend of condemnation and the taking up of clinical responsibility. It is perhaps one of the most helpful aspects of psychoanalytic work, that we consider the projective processes involved in the criminal justice system. That we look to ourselves and our own countertransference for greater clinical clarity, a radar in the darkness. It is with this in mind that I write an introspective paper focussing on the lens of my own dream life and artistic responses to the environment of a forensic institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most cases, researchers assume that control of corruption, rule of law, accountability, and government expenditure tend to have a positive impact on government effectiveness. Nonetheless, recent theoretical and empirical evidence supports a mixed relationship between these variables. The paper, therefore, seeks to answer the extent to which corruption, the rule of law, accountability, and government expenditure affect government effectiveness. We employed Johansen method of cointegration and vector error correction model to examine the long-run and short-run relationship between the variables under study. By using Sri Lankan data covering the period from 1996 to 2020, we find a significant and positive relationship only between the control of corruption and government effectiveness both in the long run and in the short run. Yet, rule of law has a positive and significant impact on government effectiveness only in the long run. Voice and accountability, and government expenditure affect the government's effectiveness negatively in the long run and positively in the short run. The article demonstrates that weak anti-corruption mechanisms and weak legal and criminal justice systems seem to have a detrimental impact on government effectiveness in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper exposes how colonial ways of knowing and being shape judicial behaviour in Brazil, where pre-trial detention is excessively used against racialised groups. I argue that judges continue to conceptualise and operationalise justice according to colonial logics and thus reveal the coloniality of justice. Drawing on decolonial theory from across South America and from interviews and court observations in Rio de Janeiro, I reveal how judges understand themselves as heroic crime fighters, acting beyond the law in a modern moral crusade. I examine how violence remains a central component of justice and consider how judges deal with the contradiction of neutrality and aggression. I argue that judges, by endorsing or tolerating violence, become agents of coloniality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper excavates 'implicit criminologies' concerning victims, perpetrators and bystanders from four films by Bosnian director Jasmila Žbanić: Grbavica (2006); On the path (2010); For those who can tell no tales (2013) and Quo Vadis, Aida? (2020). I argue that in criminological terms, Žbanić's work is strongest, and has greatest transformative potential, as an example of cinematic victimology. This is produced through characters who simultaneously encapsulate particular (ethnicized) and universal elements in micro-level stories of the individual in a larger social, political and historical context. Focussing on this form of universalism, I question an ethical standard of inclusivity in atrocity cinema which calls for a single film or director to directly represent victims of all ethnic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been considerable policy and academic interest in the existence of ethnic inequalities in the Criminal Justice System. A large body of sentencing research has been dedicated to exploring whether ethnic minority defendants are treated more harshly than similarly situated white defendants. This paper extends this research utilizing Ministry of Justice linked criminal justice datasets and multilevel models to assess the effect of ethnicity and other defendant case and contextual factors on sentencing outcomes in the Crown Court. The analysis shows that legal characteristics such as plea, pre-trial detention, offence type and severity are important factors determining sentencing outcomes although they do not fully explain disparities in these outcomes between ethnic groups. Ethnic disparities in imprisonment persist and, in some cases, become more pronounced after controlling for defendant case and court factors. In contrast, ethnic disparities in sentence length are largely explained by legal factors, and after adjusting for other predictors of sentencing outcomes, observed differences between most (but not all) ethnic minority groups and the white British disappear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Butterabbey gravesite is significant for its evidence of Aboriginal peoples' resistance to colonial pastoral expansion and the dispossession of land and water sources in Western Australia. It is also significant to the case of R v Mumbleby and Belo (1865) which exemplifies the experiences of Aboriginal women defendants in nineteenth-century Western Australia whose experiences in the criminal justice system were different to both non-Indigenous women and Indigenous men. This paper analyses the case of R v Mumbleby and Belo within its historical context of frontier violence to reveal the treatment of Aboriginal women accused of homicide, and determine the power struggles at play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper expands our understanding of the lived experience of policing by exploring how people describe and analyze one of its salient aspects: its economic consequences. Despite growing scholarship on predatory policing strategies in the aftermath of the Justice Department's investigation of Ferguson, Missouri, we lack an understanding of how these practices are experienced, theorized, and resisted by policed, race-class subjugated (RCS) communities. How do people narrate, make meaning from, or theorize their material relationship to policing? Do policed publics understand such practices as part of broader processes of racialized governance, political power, and community inequality? Utilizing the Portals Policing Project, we collected the largest contemporary database of narratives about policing, including over 850 dialogues that were qualitatively coded. Using a grounded theory approach we analyzed a subset of dialogues that focus on financial aspects of police, court, and carceral encounters to examine how people discussed their experiences with monetary sanctions and their broader meanings and relationships to racialized political economy and geography. When people analyzed the material dimensions of policing and incarceration, four prominent discursive theorizations emerged: (1) Police and courts deploy a variety of techniques (criminalizing public space, strategic application of child support fees, unfair taxation, among others) to structurally control the flow of RCS resources, often toward the state and non-policed White communities. (2) Such resource flows occur in the broader context of municipal prioritization of police and carceral institutions over schools and social services, which permit and sustain RCS community criminalization, extraction, and reproduction of marginalization. (3) Police construct racialized urban spaces and markets, marking informal RCS economic activity as transgressive and delimiting their expansion. (4) Police surveillance is racially embodied and permeates daily life to restrict individual activity and, indirectly, economic potential. Overall, these narratives center the police and carceral state in processes of materialized race-making—the active reproduction of racial economic inequality and dispossession that goes beyond basic racial disparities in state punishment and revenue generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of media trial has been in news recently in India. Few incidents have highlighted the concerns that how the media can play a crucial role in shaping the public opinion about the criminal justice system. Media plays a crucial role of striking a balance between the competing claims with respect to protection of human rights and interests relating to providing and obtaining the information to the masses. This paper deals with the role of media while a criminal case is under progress. In this paper an effort is made to analyze what are rights of media with respect to the reporting of a criminal case? What are the rights of persons involved in the criminal justice systems? How the rights of media and the rights of such persons cross paths? The paper also makes an endeavor to identify the role of judiciary in keeping a check on the media reporting of criminal cases and materials around. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]