A court file analysis of child protection cases: What do children say?

Children's participation in legal proceedings affecting them personally has been gaining importance. So far, a primary research concern has been how children experience their participation in court proceedings. However, little is known about the child's voice itself: Are children able to clearly express their wishes, and if so, what do they say in child protection cases? In this study, we extracted information about children's statements from court file data of 220 child protection cases in Germany. We found 182 children were asked about their wishes. The majority of the statements found came either from reports of the guardians ad litem or from judicial records of the child hearings. Using content analysis, three main aspects of the statements were extracted: wishes concerning main place of residence, wishes about whom to have or not contact with, and children granting decision‐making authority to someone else. Children's main focus was on their parents, but others (e.g., relatives and foster care providers) were also mentioned. Intercoder agreement was substantial. Making sure that child hearings are as informative as possible is in the child's best interest. Therefore, the categories developed herein might help professionals to ask questions more precisely relevant to the child.     

The household inventory as urban ‘theatre’ in late medieval Burgundy

In 1413 at the death of his wife Guillemot, Jean Aubert, a group of witnesses and a clerk of the local mayoralty met to value the possessions of their residence, resulting in an inventory full of notes and values on rooms and their objects. Within the existing historiography of the Burgundian Netherlands and its northern European neighbours, inventories and their objects tend to be analysed from two perspectives: the Burgundian court and the ‘consumer revolution’. Applying insights from Erving Goffman and Bruno Latour, this article suggests a third perspective should have priority: the urban ‘theatre’ within which objects were documented and placed. Therefore it sets up an alternate methodology which begins with the inventory to build a picture of the theatre (the urban context and residence), the actors (the Aubert family) and the audience (the witnesses of the inventory) to establish new insights into the operation of Burgundian power and the dynamics of the ‘consumer revolution’.     

Allegations of child sexual abuse in parenting disputes: An examination of judicial determinations in the Family Court of Australia

This study examined Family Court of Australia (FCA) judicial determinations in parenting disputes when allegations of child sexual abuse (CSA) are made by an interested party, usually the mother. For the study, 156 published judgments from 2013–2015 were examined to measure how often allegations of CSA are substantiated, suspected to be true, and disbelieved. The characteristics most common in substantiated versus unsubstantiated cases, evidence of abuse presented, and resulting parenting orders were assessed. Findings indicate that, against international comparisons, FCA judges substantiate cases very conservatively, with rates of substantiation much lower than in other studies. Allegations made by mothers against fathers were disproportionately unsubstantiated, as were those which did not fall under the Magellan case management system. Cases where the only evidence of CSA was a child’s disclosure and parent’s allegation were common in both substantiated and unsubstantiated cases, meaning that a lack of other evidence does not preclude a positive finding of risk of CSA by the FCA. Those cases also involving a protection order against the accused were more likely to be substantiated. Confirmation biases and a judicial tendency to err on the side of false negatives are discussed.     

元朝的廷辩

廷辩是元朝特殊的政治运作方式和决策形式。廷辩的举行、结果的认定和最后的处理,都由皇帝决定。故谓之廷辩。它采用当事人双方当面对质、对辩的形式,论争某一具体事件或人物的是非功罪。廷辩多发生在忽必烈朝。由此追溯至蒙元之际佛道(全真教)三次大辩论,可以认为,廷辩是蒙古民族性在统治理念和方式上的体现。此后,成宗、武宗朝间或有之,后即未见,可知蒙古贵族的统治方法也显出逐渐汉化的轨迹。     

Estimating the effectiveness of a misdemeanor drug diversion program using propensity score matching and survival analyses

This study analyzes three years of data on misdemeanor drug offenders in Winnebago County, Wisconsin. A portion of these offenders opted into a Misdemeanor Drug Diversion Program (MDDP) offered instead of traditional adjudication. Recidivism in the treatment and comparison groups is estimated using standard binary response techniques augmented with propensity score matching to address selection bias. Results show that the MDDP reduces the probability of re-offense by 16%, after adjusting for possible selection bias. Cox proportional hazard modeling is also used to assess time-to-re-offense differentials between the treatment and comparison groups. The survival analysis indicates that the hazard rate of re-offense is 60% lower per day among those treated with the MDDP program than those who did not complete the program. The average number of days to re-offense among those that do re-offend is 297 days in the treatment group and 203 days in the comparison group.     

“Unnatural Fornication” Cases Under State-Socialism: A Hungarian–Slovenian Comparative Social-Historical Approach

This comparative social-historical study examines different versions of state-socialist body politics manifested in Hungary and Slovenia mainly during the 1950s by using archive material of “unnatural fornication” court cases. By analyzing the available Hungarian “természet elleni fajtalanság” and Slovenian “nenaravno ob?evanje” court cases, we can shed light on how the defendants were treated by the police and the judiciary. On the basis of these archive data that have never been examined before from these angles, we can construct an at least partial picture of the practices and consequences of state surveillance of same-sex-attracted men during state-socialism. The article explores the functioning of state-socialist social control mechanisms directed at nonnormative sexualities that had long-lasting consequences on the social representation of homosexuality in both countries.     

在公正与效率之间:证人出庭作证制度的困境和出路

证人出庭作证问题,涉及证明标准与法律假设、法律规则与法律标准、诉讼效率与诉讼成本、自利偏见与社会效应等诸多方面。证人不出庭作证的规范依据仍然存在、证人出庭作证的权利和义务不对等、配套措施不完善等原因,导致证人不愿意出庭。美国辩诉交易制度在很大程度上减少了开庭刑事案件的数量,其关于书面陈述的规定也减少了证人出庭作证的需求,在一定程度上实现了被告人人权保护和公共利益的平衡,值得借鉴。完善证人出庭作证制度,应以案件"客观需要"为标准,以追求事实真相为出发点,以人权保护和人性回归为落脚点,遵循限制性处罚原则和禁止利益冲突原则,提高相关规定的可操作性。因此,不宜盲目追求证人高出庭作证率。     

论拒不执行判决、裁定罪的犯罪构成之改革

拒执罪以立法形式出台以来,虽对"执行难"的情况起到了一定的遏制作用,但由于在犯罪对象、犯罪行为、犯罪主体等构成要件方面存在重大立法缺陷,致使执行实务中适用此罪的情形尚不多;在"诚信守约"的社会风尚遭到严重破坏的新时代背景下,除保护其法益之外,拒执罪的任务还应包括保护"社会信用";拒执罪应以保护"人民法院判决、裁定的正常执行活动和人民法院判决、裁定的权威性"和构建"社会信用体系"为改革方向,以与其他相关的社会信用体系的法律制度形成动态衔接为改革方法,从犯罪对象、犯罪行为和犯罪主体三个方面对犯罪构成进行改革,从而改善本罪的适用状况、推进社会信用体系建设。     

试论北宋宫廷花鸟画与民间花鸟画的互动——以易元吉绘画为例

宋代宫廷花鸟绘画承袭五代余绪,以"富贵"为特色的黄氏绘画流派为宫廷主流,以"野逸"为风格的徐氏绘画流派主要流行于民间,但两种风格的绘画在宫廷绘画实践中已有妥协互动趋势。活动于北宋中期的长沙艺人易元吉,既是一位优秀的民间画师,又曾征召入宫廷绘画,开创了宫廷花鸟绘画与民间花鸟绘画成功互动的典范。北宋时期我国传统绘画艺术达到极高的艺术成就与这种艺术上的不同流派之间的互动有着密切的关系。     

生态文明视野中的明清采木

明清时期奢侈之风兴盛,朝廷采办大量木材用于薪炭、造船、建筑以及家具。木材采办主要分布于四川、湖广、浙江等地,采伐后经过陆运、水运两种形式将木材从产地运送到京城,并储存在木厂之中。由于没有得到妥善的管理,在运输和贮藏的过程中造成了大量的浪费。重点研究木材运输、贮藏过程及其特点,认为这一时期朝廷的采木超出了生态和社会的承受能力,不利于人与自然、社会的和谐共生与良性循环。