3,122 research outputs found
A Defender\u27s Take on Good Prosecutors
When Professor Abbe Smith asked âCan You Be a Good Person and a Good Prosecutorâ in 2001 (and answered it mostly in the negative), she began a conversation that would result in me, a public defender, having to repeatedly answer the question from earnest law students and young lawyers. I havenât yet forgiven Professor Smith. My first impulse when Iâm asked the question is to hand out her home phone number. My second impulse is to answer: âWhy are you asking me?â Iâm a defense lawyer. Worse still, I am a public defender. Iâm not, shall we say, naturally drawn to answering questions about who should become a prosecutor. Nor am I naturally drawn to âgood people.â But here we are seventeen years later and the question is still on the tableâperhaps more so than ever with the election of several âprogressive prosecutorsâ in notable jurisdictions. I will start by saying that I would like to practice in a criminal justice system where the question of whether a âgood personâ can be a âgood prosecutorâ is a silly, even offensive, question. The fact that in this day and age it is instead a legitimate question fraught with moral significance speaks volumes about the system itself
The Social Construction of Successful Market Reforms
The transition from socialism to capitalism has spawned a large literature on comparative policy reforms. While many sociologists using qualitative data have concluded that neo-liberal reforms led to negative outcomes, a large body of cross-national literature, mostly from economics and political science, claims that more neo-liberal reforms produced better economic and political outcomes. These latter studies almost all use measures of policy reform constructed by economists at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). We show, using the EBRDâs own data, that their indices of progress in market reforms are biased in the direction of positive growth. That is, the EBRDâs bureaucracy over-codes the more successful countries. When one accounts for this bias, the relationship between the EBRDâs transition indicators and growth significantly weakens or disappears. These findings have implications for social scientific research using statistics constructed by ďż˝international organizations, like the World Bank and the IMF.sociology of knowledge, transition, bias
The need for new criminal justice & criminological approaches to end the âWar on Terrorâ
Violent attacks in the West in recent years by terrorist groups have reinforced the fact that acts of violence by extremist groups are increasingly becoming a feature of 21st Century life. Understandably, such acts have been met with outrage, condemnation, horror and fear. In addition, the West's responses to such events have been amongst other things, more bombing for Syria; more resources given to the police; more powers for security agencies, greater surveillance employed and new laws passed which highlight that the war on terror is active. However, George Bushâs declaration that the âwar on terrorâ, "will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated" is unrealistic. The state response to terrorism broadly follows a âwar on terrorâ approach; similarly current criminal justice and criminological approaches also broadly follow a retributive style approach. This paper will argue that a new paradigm for an emotionally intelligent CJS is needed, one which utilises theories and models of criminal justice that are also emotionally intelligent, in order to put an end to the patterns of separation, exclusion, excessive punishment, shaming and humiliation and thus end the misguided approach used at present specifically in relation to terrorism (and more generally in relation to criminality)
Navigating drugs at university: normalization, differentiation & drift?
Whilst drug use appears to be common amongst university students, this study moved beyond mere drug prevalence, and for the first time in the UK, used the 6 dimensions of normalisation to better understand the role and place drugs play in the lives of university students. 512 students completed a Student Lifestyle Survey. A differentiated normalisation is occurring amongst different student groups; the social supply of drugs is common, and some users are âdriftingâ into supply roles yet such acts are neutralized. Students are âdrug literateâ and have to navigate drugs, and their consumption, availability and marketing, as part of their everyday student life. Student drug use is not homogenous and very little is known about the nuances and diversity of their use/non-use beyond prevalence data. Qualitative studies are needed to better understand the processes of differentiated normalisation and social supply. This is the first study in the UK to use the six dimensions of normalisation amongst a sample of university studentsWhilst drug use appears to be common amongst university students, this study moved beyond mere drug prevalence, and for the first time in the UK, used the 6 dimensions of normalisation to better understand the role and place drugs play in the lives of university students.
512 students completed a Student Lifestyle Survey.
A differentiated normalisation is occurring amongst different student groups; the social supply of drugs is common, and some users are âdriftingâ into supply roles yet such acts are neutralized. Students are âdrug literateâ and have to navigate drugs, and their consumption, availability and marketing, as part of their everyday student life.
Student drug use is not homogenous and very little is known about the nuances and diversity of their use/non-use beyond prevalence data. Qualitative studies are needed to better understand the processes of differentiated normalisation and social supply.
This is the first study in the UK to use the six dimensions of normalisation amongst a sample of university student
Galaxy pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey - XII: The fuelling mechanism of low excitation radio-loud AGN
We investigate whether the fuelling of low excitation radio galaxies (LERGs)
is linked to major galaxy interactions. Our study utilizes a sample of 10,800
spectroscopic galaxy pairs and 97 post-mergers selected from the Sloan Digital
Sky Survey with matches to multi-wavelength datasets. The LERG fraction amongst
interacting galaxies is a factor of 3.5 higher than that of a control sample
matched in local galaxy density, redshift and stellar mass. However, the LERG
excess in pairs does not depend on projected separation and remains elevated
out to at least 500 kpc, suggesting that major mergers are not their main
fuelling channel. In order to identify the primary fuelling mechanism of LERGs,
we compile samples of control galaxies that are matched in various host galaxy
and environmental properties. The LERG excess is reduced, but not completely
removed, when halo mass or D4000 are included in the matching parameters.
However, when BOTH M_halo and D4000 are matched, there is no LERG excess and
the 1.4 GHz luminosities (which trace jet mechanical power) are consistent
between the pairs and control. In contrast, the excess of optical and mid-IR
selected AGN in galaxy pairs is unchanged when the additional matching
parameters are implemented. Our results suggest that whilst major interactions
may trigger optically and mid-IR selected AGN, the gas which fuels the LERGs
has two secular origins: one associated with the large scale environment, such
as accretion from the surrounding medium or minor mergers, plus an internal
stellar mechanism, such as winds from evolved stars.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters; 5 page
Motivations for change in drug addiction recovery:turning points as the antidotes to the pains of recovery
Painful life events have been highlighted as being instrumental in promoting change during drug addiction recovery. This paper attempts to integrate the âpains of desistanceâ approach into a recovery capital framework. It explores the life courses of 30 people in drug addiction recovery who had previously had a problem with an illicit substance to explore the role of the pains of recovery (potential push factors) alongside different forms of recovery capital (pull factors) at key turning points of change during recovery. Findings demonstrate that pull factors linked to CHIME were significant in promoting positive changes. Turning points acted as antidotes to pains experienced in early recovery. Three antidotes appeared to be gender specific. Implications highlight the need for greater access to community capital pathways. It advocates the need to dispel the myth for a rock bottom moment and for a more macro conceptualisation of drug addiction recovery
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