Indicators of Criminal Justification or Repentance in a Qualitative Analysis of Inmates Autobiographical Criminal Self–Narratives

2020 ◽  
pp. 088626052093304
Author(s):  
Alba Company-Fernández ◽  
Pilar Tarancón ◽  
Ana Rita Cruz ◽  
James W. Griffith ◽  
Jorge J. Ricarte ◽  
...  

This study explores the narrative contents obtained from the description of autobiographical memories reported by a sample of incarcerated males that exemplified their most aggressive, transgressive, or criminal selves. Participants were 110 men serving a prison sentence for different types of crimes. Three main phenomena were identified from their stories: the narration of the criminal self, description of the crime (or crimes) committed, and the criminal responsibility attributional processes. The results showed the existence of mechanisms to justify the crime among a large section of participants, whereas the assumption of personal responsibility for the commission of the crime and the consideration of an unfair or excessive sentence were not as frequent. Also, some specific crimes concurred with concrete responsibility attributional processes, especially with the justification of criminal behavior. These findings generate useful information regarding recidivism, resocialization, and the attribution of responsibility among inmates.

2021 ◽  
pp. 002204262110022
Author(s):  
Benjamin T. Kuettel

Past research demonstrates a strong link between drug use and crime among justice-involved adolescents, yet little is known about the joint development between drug use variety and various types of criminal offending frequencies from adolescence to young adulthood. Using a sample of male adolescent offenders ( N = 842), this article examines the coevolution of drug use variety and three separate types of offending frequencies. First, four group-based trajectory models identify unique group developmental patterns for drug use variety, drug sales offending, property offending, and violent offending. Next, three dual-trajectory models examine the coevolution between drug use variety and each type of criminal offending. Findings reveal a general pattern of desistance for both drug use and offending, while also illustrating notable variability in group trajectory patterns for drug use variety and criminal behavior. This article concludes that adolescents with elevated drug use variety make up a large proportion of frequent offenders.


Lex Russica ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (6) ◽  
pp. 97-109
Author(s):  
V. P. Bodaevskiy

Many publications are devoted to the identification of social conditionality of criminal regulations. However, the science of criminal law does not have any comprehensive research on the social conditionality of establishing criminal responsibility and punishment for military personnel. In this regard, its essence, features and criteria for identification remain practically unknown. The paper reveals the problematic aspects of the concept and meaning of social conditionality of establishing criminal responsibility and punishment for military personnel; the author’s definition is given. Based on the widespread opinion in the theory of criminal law that the mechanism for identifying this social condition consists of criteria that are studied by the legislator at the appropriate stages of the processes of criminalization (decriminalization) and penalization (depenalization) of military socially dangerous acts, the author analyses them in detail. The problem of ways of legal regulation of criminal responsibility and punishment of military personnel is touched upon. It is stated that the peculiarity of the definition of this social conditionality is the resolution by the legislator, among other dilemmas, of the question of the need for normative fixing of a special military or ordinary prohibition and (or) fixing of the corresponding special military regulationsin the general part of the Criminal Law.The author concludes that the identification of social conditionality of the criminal-normative prescription on responsibility and punishment of military personnel is one of the important tasks of modern science of criminal law, which necessitates the development of a unified approach to the structure and content of this process. The establishment of the theoretical and legal essence of this conditionality should be considered as the most important step in this direction. The author offers the following definition. It is the compliance of criminal regulations that establish responsibility and punishment for criminal behavior of military personnel, resulting from the demand of society in the objective need for criminal law protection of military law and order and other public relations that are most important for the individual, society and the state.


Author(s):  
Santiago Boira Sarto ◽  
Yolanda López del Hoyo ◽  
Lucía Tomás Aragonés ◽  
Ana Rosa Gaspar

La tardía implantación en España de programas de intervención con hombres maltratadores enfatiza la necesidad de desarrollar investigaciones que maximicen la eficacia de los tratamientos. Hasta el momento, han sido escasos los estudios publicados que evalúen las variables relacionadas con la permanencia o el abandono del tratamiento y su eficacia, y todavía más escasos los que han estudiado este tema desde un punto de vista cualitativo. El objetivo del estudio es identificar aspectos clave en los programas de intervención que puedan mejorar la eficacia de los tratamientos para hombres condenados por un delito de violencia de género a los que se les ha suspendido o sustituido la ejecución de la pena de prisión por la realización del programa terapéutico. Para ello se ha analizado cualitativamente la información obtenida en dos grupos de discusión formados por los psicólogos que aplicaron el programa y distribuidos según el tipo de terapia, individual o grupal.Los resultados reflejan la conveniencia de considerar la especificidad de este contexto de intervención en el diseño de los programas y en la evaluación. Deberán mejorarse las estrategias que aumenten la motivación, la alianza terapéutica y la adherencia de los hombres al tratamiento. Además habrá que ampliar las estrategias de evaluación para que ofrezcan una información cualitativamente diferente y permitan una valoración global del impacto del tratamiento y el riesgo para la víctima.The late implementation in Spain of intervention programmes for male abusers stresses the need to carry out research that can maximise the effectiveness of such treatment. Up till now, very few studies have been published that assess the variables relating to the continuation or abandonment of the treatment and its efficiency, and there are even fewer studies that examine this subject from a qualitative standpoint. The object of the study is to identify key aspects in the intervention programmes that can enhance the efficiency of the treatment offered to men that have been convicted for a crime involving domestic violence, and who have had their prison sentence suspended or commuted to a programme entailing therapy. With this aim in mind, a qualitative analysis is conducted of the data obtained in two discussion groups formed by psychologists who applied the programme and who are distributed in accordance with the type of therapy �individual or group-oriented� they administered.The findings reflect the convenience of considering the specifics of this context of intervention in the design of such programmes, along with their assessment. Strategies should be improved to enhance motivation, and also to strengthen the therapeutic alliance and ensure that the men stick to the treatment. We will also have to broaden our assessment strategies so that they offer data that is qualitatively different and can enable an overall assessment to be made of the impact of the treatment and the risk to the victim.


2019 ◽  
pp. 136-150
Author(s):  
R. Chorniy

The article is devoted to the investigation of forms and types of guilt in the composition of crimes against the basics of national security of Ukraine. The presence of a number of unresolved issues at the theoretical and legal level on this issue actualizes the need for its scientific elaboration and formulation of proposals to improve the provisions of the law on criminal liability. The purpose of the article is to investigate the problematic issues of forms and types of guilt in crimes against the bases of national security of Ukraine, ways of fixing them in the articles of Section I of the Special part of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and to develop sound proposals for their solution based on the provisions of the doctrine of criminal law. The article presents the existing approaches of doctrinal interpretation by scientists of the provisions on wine, its forms and types, through which the research of this feature in the crimes under Art. Art. 109 - 114-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. It is proved that the most reasonable is the psychological concept of guilt, which promotes the insertion of forms and types of guilt in crimes against the basics of national security with a formal composition, the elucidation of forms of guilt in the warehouses of crimes provided by articles of section I of the Special part of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, in which the legislator directly does not say that it is one of the preconditions for the proper qualification of the act committed by the person. It is proved that the basis for the conclusion about the intentional form of guilt is based on: 1) a direct indication of it in the norm of the law (Part 1 of Article 110 and Part 1 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine); 2) indication of the specific purpose or motives of the criminal behavior (Part 1 of Article 109, Note 1, Part 1 and Part 2 of Article 110-2, Article 113, Part 1 of Article 114 and Article 112 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) ; 3) combination of the above mentioned features in one norm (Part 1 of Article 110 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine); 4) interpretation of terms used in the dispositions of certain articles and / or through the description in the law of the features of the crime (Part 1 of Article 110, Part 2 of Article 109, Part 1 of Article 110, Part 1 of Article 111, Article 112, Article 113, Part 1 of Article 114 and Part 1 of Article 114-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine); 5) interpretation of terms used in other articles of the Special (espionage as a part of state treason) or articles of the General part of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (conspiracy to commit the actions provided for in part 1 of Article 109 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (Article 26 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), attempted murder state or public figure (Article 112 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) (part 1 of Article 15 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine); 6) the orientation of socially dangerous acts. The specifics of constructing all these norms testify to the direct intent of the person who committed the respective crime. On this basis it is substantiated that the lack of specification of intent in part 1 of Art. 111 and Part 1 of Art. 110 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine does not contribute to the clarity of the provisions of the Criminal Code in the specified part, and the direct intent in the composition of these crimes is evidenced by: 1) special purpose (Part 1 of Article 110 of the Criminal Code); 2) the terms used in the dispositions of the said articles (“violation of the order… established by the Constitution of Ukraine” (part 1 of Article 110), “transfer of information…, transition to the enemy's side, rendering… assistance in carrying out subversive activities against Ukraine”) ( Part 1 of Article 111); 3) the focus of socially dangerous action. In order to eliminate the ambiguous interpretation of the provisions of Part 1 of Art. 110 and Part 1 of Art. 111 of the Criminal Code it is proposed to amend them accordingly. The forms and type of guilt in the warehouses of crimes with material composition (Part 3 of Article 110, Part 3 and 4 of Article 110-2, Part 2 of Article 114-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) were not clearly reflected in the relevant rules of the law. It is substantiated that the subject's attitude to socially dangerous consequences (deaths of people (h. 3 Art. 110, h. 2 Art. 114-1), other grave consequences (h. 3 Art. 110, h. 4 Art. 110- 2, Part 2 of Article 114-1) Causing considerable property damage (Part 3 of Article 110-2) can be intentional or negligent.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laure Brimbal ◽  
Timothy John Luke

ObjectivesStrategic questioning and disclosure of evidence are increasingly recommended as empirically-supported techniques in interviews. To date, no research has evaluated how different types of evidence (e.g., eyewitness, fingerprints) might affect interview outcome. HypothesesWe hypothesized that suspects would be more willing to make statements that contradict pieces of evidence that are perceived to be weaker and less reliable.MethodsIn Study 1, we conducted systematic and meta-analytic reviews of the literature to retrospectively assess these factors. In six experiments, we began to fill this gap by manipulating strength and reliability of evidence (Study 2, 3c, and 4a), assessing the validity of our operationalizations (Study 3a-b) and testing generalizability across operationalizations (Study 3c), and examining participants’ rationale for their responses to a qualitative analysis (Study 4b). ResultsStudy 1 found that evidence type and, hence, reliability had not been taken into account in previous research. Further, we were unable to establish if observed effects of interview tactics were moderated by the properties of the evidence used. In Study 2, we found that participants were more consistent with evidence when it was more reliable, especially when it was highly incriminating. After validating our operationalizations in studies 3a and 3b, we replicated the pattern found in Study 2 (3c and 4a), whereby those in the highly reliable condition were most consistent with the evidence, followed by those with less reliable evidence and no evidence.ConclusionsWe demonstrated that evidence properties should be considered when studying how to disclose information in an investigative interview.


Author(s):  
Jacobs Dov

This chapter argues that international tribunals minimize the need to accurately determine the defendant’s guilt by routinely ‘balancing away’ defence rights vis-à-vis other values that are deemed more important, such as ‘combating impunity’ or acknowledging the suffering of the victims. It identifies four different types of such balancing: foundational, procedural, institutional, and systemic. Foundational balancing concerns the (mis)use of the sources of international law. Procedural balancing primarily involves de-emphasizing the importance of defence rights by elevating the (assumed) rights of other actors in the system. Institutional balancing relates to the structural position of the defence at international tribunals. And systemic balancing focuses on how the collective nature of international crimes requires international tribunals to rely on substantive doctrines that make it more difficult to accurately assess the criminal responsibility of individual defendants. Those four types of balancing, this chapter suggests, relegate defendants to the margins of the trial process, significantly increasing the likelihood of unjust verdicts.


2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Leidl ◽  
Joe Frontiera ◽  
James Siestreem

While motivation has long been a topic of intrigue in coaching and sport, it has been subject to little qualitative analysis. Coaches are often regarded as motivators by trade (Hardy, Burke, & Crace, 2005), and there is seemingly a tremendous amount to learn from such expert practitioners. In talking with coaches about how they motivate, one may gain further insight regarding the successful mechanisms they rely on. Through this study, six elite lacrosse coaches were interviewed regarding their motivational tactics. In these interviews the coaches provided like-minded responses that were categorized (i.e., Personal Responsibility, Tools, Transcendence) and further discussed herein. Such information could provide the foundation for further inquiry into the motivational efforts of expert coaches, affording a better understanding of successful motivational tactics.


Legal Studies ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Lyons

The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice state that there should be ‘a close relationship between the notion of responsibility for delinquent or criminal behaviour and other social rights and responsibilities’. If healthcare autonomy, or the ‘right to be responsible for making decisions about our own medical welfare’, is accepted as one of these social rights then, in England, the age gap between criminal responsibility and healthcare right is considerable. It has been suggested that this age difference might be explained in terms of the attribution of responsibility; in essence that there is a difference in the timing and nature of the responsibility being ascribed. The aim of this paper is to examine the concept of responsibility, particularly as it relates to adolescent decisions concerning death; the refusal of life-saving treatment, on the one hand, and the commission of homicidal acts, on the other. It would appear that there is considerable overlap in the types of responsibility alluded to in both situations, most particularly in the notions of capacity responsibility and prospective responsibility. If this is so, then having a wide gap between the two ages of responsibility would seem to lack a secure jurisprudential basis.


2008 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisca Fariña ◽  
Ramón Arce ◽  
Mercedes Novo

Socialization in a neighborhood and community at risk, defined in terms of violence, social alienation, school failure, and disruptive behavior, is a risk factor for the acquisition of antisocial and delinquent behavior. In order to test this hypothesis and examine the underlying mechanisms involved, 346 participants, 155 high-risk and 191 low-risk, aged 11 to 13, that is, under the age of criminal responsibility as established by the Spanish Law 5/2000 were selected. The results reveal that high-risk youngsters had higher rates of antisocial behavior and lower levels of social skills (i.e., greater tendency to externalize attribution of responsibility, fewer conflict resolution strategies, lower self esteem, and a lower degrees of emotional intelligence) in comparison to the lower-risk group. Finally, the results and implications of the study are discussed in the light of designing prevention programs.


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 770-785
Author(s):  
Richard S. Carbonaro

Exposure to multiple forms of victimization has been shown to have increasingly negative outcomes, but their unique trajectory-setting effects have been largely unexplored. Using a life course approach, this article examines the life trajectories of child polyvictims. I use a nationwide sample including 3,652 respondents after cleaning and preparation. Seemingly unrelated regressions were used to predict depression and criminal behavior in childhood and adulthood. Results suggest that children who experience multiple forms of parental abuse tend to have life trajectories which grow increasingly worse through the life course. However, life trajectories of children experiencing violence outside the home have less persistent negative outcomes. Researchers and interventions should take differing life trajectories into account when attempting to aid different types of polyvictims.


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