When the Price Is Too High: Rethinking China\u27s Deterrence Strategy for Robbery

Economic property crime in China has soared since the country enacted market reforms in the early 1980s. Robbery rates are rising faster than most economic property crimes, such as larceny and fraud, and violent crimes, such as rape, murder, and assault. China’s strategy for deterrence is to raise the “price” of the crime by increasing the severity of the penalty. Since 1979, China’s criminal law has permitted the use of the death penalty for robbers in nearly all cases, and courts have applied it regularly and in many different types of robbery cases. Since 1983, China has formally engaged in “strike-hard” campaigns, in which the government dedicates massive law enforcement resources to fight a particular crime. The campaigns have targeted robbery and have resulted in mass arrests, swift trials, and severe sentences—including mass executions. Despite these efforts, China has failed to deter individuals from committing more robberies. This Comment argues that China should reform its deterrence strategy by revising its criminal law and “strike-hard” campaigns. China should adopt new deterrence strategies that combine law with sociology, economics, and psychology. Not only will these strategies deter more robbery, they will also deter the more serious crimes often committed during robberies. The new strategies will also provide incentives for individuals to commit less violent crime

Relationship between the WJ-IV ACH reading tests and the GORT-5

The present study examined the relationship between the Gray Oral Reading Test – Fifth Edition and the Woodcock Johnson-IV Achievement Tests in reading in a sample of 104 school age participants between the ages of 7 and 18. Pearson correlations tests indicated large correlations (r=.87, p=.01) between the GORT-5 ORI and the WJ IV ACH Broad Reading cluster. Additional comparisons for fluency and comprehension yielded comparable results (r=.85, p=.01; r=.84, p=.01). Similarly, a Fisher’s Exact Test illustrated that the odds of scoring at or below the tenth percentile on the WJ IV ACH was very high when a student scored at or below the tenth percentile on the GORT-5. The findings suggest that the use of this relatively brief oral reading measure can be beneficial as a diagnostic assessment in a district’s MTSS because its results are closely aligned to the WJ IV –ACH, a popular achievement test frequently used in combination with other assessments to help determine if struggling readers have academic deficits significant enough to warrant special education services