871 research outputs found
Leveling the Playing Field: Applying Federal Corporate Charging Considerations to Individuals
The American prison system is grappling with a well-publicized carceral crisis. In the words of former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, “too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long, and for no truly good law enforcement reason.” And, as a result of developments in federal law over the past few decades, the power of federal prosecutors to decide when and how to charge individuals with crimes is crucial to when and how American citizens go to prison.
Many ideas have been proposed to revise prosecutorial discretionary powers, but few have been heeded by the Department of Justice (DOJ). However, this Note posits that the DOJ has already paved the way to enhanced guidance for federal prosecutors when charging individuals with crimes. This is because the DOJ’s prosecutorial guidance for charging corporations with federal crimes is more robust than the guidance for charging individuals. In particular, a discussion on collateral consequences is included in the corporate charging guidance, yet lacking in the individual charging guidance.
This enhanced corporate guidance has had the purposeful impact of curtailing the prosecution of corporate crime. This Note argues that a similar discussion of collateral consequences in the individual charging guidance could have important and far-reaching effects on the federal criminal regime. Perhaps more importantly, such a discussion could remedy some of the unfairness presented by the current system in which federal prosecutors are guided to consider a superior set of factors before charging corporations with crimes
Economic conditions at the time of birth and cognitive abilities late in life: evidence from eleven European countries
With ageing populations and a stronger reliance on individual financial decision-making concerning asset portfolios, retirement schemes, pensions and insurances, it becomes increasingly important to understand the determinants of cognitive ability among the elderly. To study effects of the early-life economic environment, macro-economic fluctuations may be used. In European countries, about three to four economic recession and boom periods occurred between 1900 and 1945. The timing of these periods differs across countries. We apply data from the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) among elderly individuals. This survey is homogeneous across countries. We use almost 20,000 respondents from 11 countries. We examine several domains of cognitive functioning at ages 60+ and link them to the macro-economic deviations in the year of birth, controlling for demographic, socioeconomic and health status. We find that economic conditions at birth significantly influence cognitive functioning late in life in various domains. The effects are particularly pronounced among the less educated. Recessions negatively influence numeracy and verbal fluency as well as the score on the omnibus cognitive indicator. The results are robust; controlling for current characteristics does not change effect sizes and significance. We discuss possible causal pathways.Cognition; economic business cycle; developmental origins; health; long-run effects; dementia; numeracy; memory; decision-making
Ages and Metallicities of Young Globular Clusters in the Merger Remnant NGC 7252
UV-to-visual spectra of eight young star clusters in the merger remnant and
protoelliptical galaxy NGC 7252, obtained with the Blanco 4-m telescope on
Cerro Tololo, are presented. These clusters lie at projected distances of 3-15
kpc from the center and move with a velocity dispersion of 140+/-35 km/s in the
line of sight. Seven of the clusters show strong Balmer absorption lines in
their spectra [EW(H-beta)= 6-13 Angstrom], while the eighth lies in a giant HII
region and shows no detectable absorption features.
Based on comparisons with model-cluster spectra by Bruzual & Charlot (1996)
and Bressan, Chiosi, & Tantalo (1996), six of the absorption-line clusters have
ages in the range of 400-600 Myr, indicating that they formed early on during
the recent merger. These clusters are globular clusters as judged by their
small effective radii and ages corresponding to ~100 core crossing times. The
one emission-line object is <10 Myr old and may be a nascent globular cluster
or an OB association.
The mean metallicities measured for three clusters are solar to within
+/-0.15 dex, suggesting that the merger of two likely Sc galaxies in NGC 7252
formed a globular-cluster system with a bimodal metallicity distribution. Since
NGC 7252 itself shows the characteristics of a 0.5-1 Gyr old protoelliptical,
its second-generation solar-metallicity globulars provide direct evidence that
giant ellipticals with bimodal globular-cluster systems can form through major
mergers of gas-rich disk galaxies.Comment: 34 pages, incl. 6 figures in EPS format, AAS LaTeX, to be published
in AJ, Vol. 116, Nov. 199
Quantitative Estimates of Environmental Effects on the Star Formation Rate of Disk Galaxies in Clusters of Galaxies
A simple model is constructed to evaluate the change of star formation rate
of a disk galaxy due to environmental effects in clusters of galaxies. Three
effects, (1) tidal force from the potential well of the cluster, (2) increase
of external pressure when the galaxy plows into the intracluster medium, (3)
high-speed encounters between galaxies, are investigated. General analysis
indicates that the star formation rate increases significantly when the
pressure of molecular clouds rises above in yr. The tidal force from the potential well of the cluster increases
pressures of molecular clouds in a disk galaxy infalling towards the cluster
center. Before the galaxy reaches the cluster center, the star formation rate
reaches a maximum. The peak is three to four times larger than the initial
value. If this is the main mechanism of the Butcher-Oemler effect, blue
galaxies are expected to be located within kpc from the center of
the cluster. However this prediction is inconsistent with the recent
observations. The increase of external pressure when the galaxy plows into the
intracluster medium does not change star formation rate of a disk galaxy
significantly. The velocity perturbation induced by a single high-speed
encounter between galaxies is too small to affect star formation rate of a disk
galaxy, while successive high-speed encounters (galaxy harassment) trigger star
formation activity because of the accumulation of gas in the galaxy center.
Therefore, the galaxy harassment remains as the candidate for a mechanism of
the Butcher-Oemler effect.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figures. To be published in Ap
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