Approaches to Statutory Interpretation and Legislative History in France

The study investigated potential effects of the presentation order of numeric information on retrospective subjective judgments of descriptive statistics of this information. The studies were theoretically motivated by the assumption in the naive sampling model of independence between temporal encoding order of data in long-term memory and retrieval probability (i.e. as implied by a "random sampling'' from memory metaphor). In Experiment 1, participants experienced Arabic numbers that varied in distribution shape/variability between the first and the second half of the information sequence. Results showed no effects of order on judgments of mean, variability or distribution shape. To strengthen the interpretation of these results, Experiment 2 used a repeated judgment procedure, with an initial judgment occurring prior to the change in distribution shape of the information half-way through data presentation. The results of Experiment 2 were in line with those from Experiment 1, and in addition showed that the act of making explicit judgments did not impair accuracy of later judgments, as would be suggested by an anchoring and insufficient adjustment strategy. Overall, the results indicated that participants were very responsive to the properties of the data while at the same time being more or less immune to order effects. The results were interpreted as being in line with the naive sampling models in which values are stored as exemplars and sampled randomly from long-term memory

På obestämd tid - En studie av livstidsstraffet i svensk rätt ur ett straffideologiskt perspektiv

In 2014 the sentencing range for murder was changed in order to increase the use of life sentence for murder. Thus the legitimacy of life imprisonment has become an even more relevant question than before the amendment. The aim of this paper is to examine the life imprisonment in Swedish law through a critical point of view. More specifically the main question for this essay is which are the arguments for the life sentence, and which arguments can be held against it? In order to answer this question, the life sentence is examined in relation to some of the most common theories of criminal justice. In chapter 1 it is explained how the life sentence is fixed in the Swedish penal system. The life sentence is the most severe sanction in Swedish law and has been used in practice mostly for cases of murder, in which there are aggravating circumstances. Even if the life sentence theoretically intends to be a life-lasting sentence, the life imprisonment is often converted into a fixed term imprisonment by the Swedish Government, or by the law (2006:45) on conversion of imprisonment for life (”omvandlingslagen”). In chapter 2-5 the life sentence is examined in relation to the following theories: a theory which focuses mainly on the blame of the offender, a theory in which the function of the penalty is to prevent people from committing crimes, a theory in which the penalty should reflect how severe people in general wants the sanctions to be, and a theory which emphasizes the importance of humanity. The conclusion (chapter 7) is that there is no evidence that a severe punishment, as the life sentence, has an impact of the criminal rate, more specifically the cases of murder. There is also held that people serving life sentences find it stressful not to know when they are being released from prison. Hence, it is difficult to combine the life sentence with a theory based on the principle of humanity. Furthermore, it is difficult to argue that the life sentence is reflecting the degree of seriousness of an offender`s criminal conduct. Finally, it can be questioned whether the life sentence has a symbolic value, which a fixed-term penalty has not.År 2014 skärptes straffskalan för mord genom att möjligheten att utdöma fängelse på livstid utvidgades. Genom lagändringen har livstidstraffets legitimitet och funktion blivit en fråga som i än högre grad än tidigare förtjänar att uppmärksammas. Syftet för detta arbete är därför att kritiskt granska livstidsstraffet i svensk rätt ur ett straffideologiskt perspektiv. Närmare bestämt avses att besvara frågan hur kan man, med utgångspunkt i några av de gängse straffideologierna, argumentera för respektive emot livstidsstraffet? I kap 2 redogörs för hur livstidsstraffet regleras i svensk rätt samt hur livstidstraffet tillämpas i praktiken. Där framgår att livstidsstraffet utgör lagens strängaste straff och att det i huvudsak har kommit att utdömas för de fall av mord som kan bedömas ha ett mycket högt straffvärde. Vidare framgår att lagen om omvandling av fängelse på livstid och nådeinistutet innebär en möjlighet för en livstidsdömd att få sitt straff omvandlat till ett tidsbestämt sådant, och att det är vanligt att en tidsomvandling av livstidsstraffet i praktiken sker. I kap 3-6 undersöks livstidsstraffet i förhållande till förtjänstteorin, teorin om prevention, teorin om straffet som symbolvärde samt en teori som bygger på principen om humanitet. Enligt teorin om prevention är straffets syfte att förebygga att brott begås, medan en förtjänstteoretiker anser att brottslingen bör straffas för att denne förtjänar det. I fokus för straffbestämningen är den brottsliga gärningen och straffet ska enligt den s.k. proportionalitetsprincipen spegla hur klandervärd den brottsliga handlingen är. Vidare anser vissa att straffet bör signalera ett avståndstagande från handlingar som av allmänheten bedöms vara icke-önskvärda, vilket bidrar till att stärka allmänhetens förtroende för rättsväsendet. Enligt den s.k. humanitetsprincipen är det omoraliskt att tillämpa ett mycket strängt straff om det inte leder till positiva konsekvenser. Av avhandlingen framgår att det är svårt att legitimera livstidsstraffet utifrån teorin om prevention, då det inte kan visas att ett sådant straff bidrar till att minska antalet fall av mord. Vidare framgår att livstidsstraffets tidsobestämdhet kan anses vara inhumant och stridande mot den s.k. humanitetsprincipen. Det görs också gällande att det är svårt att på rationell grund motivera varför just livstidsstraffet skulle stå i proportion till brottet mord utifrån en straffideologi grundad på förtjänst. Avslutningsvis kan det ifrågasättas om det avståndstagande som livstidsstraffet anses ge uttryck för inte kan åstadkommas genom ett långt tidsbestämt straff

Religiusitas dan Psychological Well-Being selama Masa Pandemi pada Anggota Gerakan Pemuda GPIB Tamansari Salatiga

Gerakan Pemuda GPIB merupakan persekutuan pemuda-pemudi di GPIB khususnya Tamansari Salatiga yang biasanya mengadakan pelayanan ibadah dan latihan paduan suara bersama di gereja, namun kegiatan-kegiatan tersebut sempat terhambat dan terpaksa diadakan secara online akibat pandemic COVID-19. Situasi dimasa pandemi ini juga berdampak pada psychological well-being khususnya para pemuda. Salah satu faktor yang mempengaruhi psychological well-being adalah religiusitas. Tujuan penelitian ini untuk mengetahui hubungan religiusitas dengan psychological well-being pada pemuda GP GPIB Tamansari Salatiga selama masa pandemi COVID-19. Responden dalam penelitian ini sebanyak 50 orang pemuda GP GPIB Tamansari. Alat ukur dalam penelitian ini yaitu Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being Scale dan Centrality of Religiosity Scale. Hasil uji korelasi menunjukkan adanya hubungan yang positif antara religiusitas dengan psychological well-being pada pemuda GP GPIB Tamansari Salatiga selama masa pandemi COVID-19 (r = 0,366; p<0,05).Kata Kunci: Psychological well-being, religiusitas, masa pandemi, COVID-19, pemuda, GPIB Tamansari Salatig

Welcoming Service sebagai Bentuk Pembinaan Pemuda bagi Mahasiswa Baru di GPIB Tamansari Salatiga dalam Perspektif Teori Pembangunan Jemaat Vital Jan Hendriks

Tujuan penelitian ini yaitu Pertama, mendeskripsikan tinjauan pembangunan jemaat oleh Jan Hendriks terhadap program Welcoming Service sebagai bentuk pembinaan pemuda bagi mahasiswa baru di GPIB Tamansari Salatiga. Kedua, mendeskripsikan faktor-faktor yang menjadi penyebab menurunnya kuantitas kehadiran, partisipasi dan ketidakaktifan mahasiswa baru dalam mengambil peran berpelayanan di GPIB Tamansari Salatiga. Data diperoleh melalui metode penelitian kualitatif dengan pendekatan deskriptif. Adapun teknik pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan wawancara mendalam (In-depth interview) dan model observasi partisipan. Wawancara dilakukan kepada lima orang pengurus gerakan pemuda periode sebelumnya dan lima orang pengurus gerakan pemuda serta 15 orang anggota gerakan pemuda, baik anggota gerakan pemuda yang lama dan baru. yang dianggap dapat mewakili populasi pemuda di GPIB Tamansari Salatiga. Hasil penelitian menunjukan bahwa berawal dari kurang dibangunnya relasi dan komunikasi yang baik dengan mahasiswa baru yang dilakukan dari pihak pengurus gerakan pemuda sehingga masih kurang dalam merangkul mahasiswa baru untuk turut aktif berpelayanan. Kegiatan-kegiatan dan program-program yang ada masih sangat monoton dan kurangnya pengenalan atau promosi mengenai program yang dilaksanakan. Hal ini menjadi penyebab menurunnya jumlah kehadiran, partisipasi dan keaktifan mahasiswa baru yang meliputi faktor eksternal dan internal

Financial Impact of Social Responsibility on Publicly Traded Insurers

Despite significant annual spending on corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, automobile insurance company stakeholders are not aware if there is a relationship between CSR spending and earnings per share (EPS). Leaders of publicly traded automobile insurance companies will benefit from understanding if CSR affects EPS and value creation so they can plan CSR spending and stakeholder management strategies. Grounded in the theoretical framework of stakeholder management theory and signaling theory, the purpose of this quantitative ex-post facto study was to determine if there was a relationship between charitable donations, community development spending, environmental spending, and EPS. Data were collected from publicly published financial reports for seven publicly traded automobile insurance companies and analyzed using multiple regression. The results of the multiple linear regression were not significant, F(3, 29) = .067, p = 0.977, R² = 0.007. A key recommendation is for leaders to participate in CSR initiatives, when financially feasible, to show community and environmental responsibility. The implications for positive social change include the potential for leaders of publicly traded automobile insurance companies to empower ongoing discussions about the importance of continuously reviewing literature and studies to determine the benefits of CSR initiatives that could increase stakeholder confidence with the community and environmental support

More-or-less elicitation (MOLE): reducing bias in range estimation and forecasting

Biases like overconfidence and anchoring affect values elicited from people in predictable ways – due to people’s inherent cognitive processes. The More-Or-Less Elicitation (MOLE) process takes insights from how biases affect people’s decisions to design an elicitation process to mitigate or eliminate bias. MOLE relies on four, key insights: 1) uncertainty regarding the location of estimates means people can be unwilling to exclude values they would not specifically include; 2) repeated estimates can be averaged to produce a better, final estimate; 3) people are better at relative than absolute judgements; and, 4) consideration of multiple values prevents anchoring on a particular number. MOLE achieves these by having people repeatedly choose between options presented to them by the computerised tool rather than making estimates directly, and constructing a range logically consistent with (i.e., not ruled out by) the person’s choices in the background. Herein, MOLE is compared, across four experiments, with eight elicitation processes – all requiring direct estimation of values – and is shown to greatly reduce overconfidence in estimated ranges and to generate best guesses that are more accurate than directly estimated equivalents. This is demonstrated across three domains – in perceptual and epistemic uncertainty and in a forecasting task.Matthew B. Welsh, Steve H. Beg

Standardization and Professional Knowledge in Integration Work

Since the 1970s, the government in Sweden has developed many activities aimed at facilitating immigrants’ integration processes and their sense of belonging; one such activity that emerged in the 2010s is civic orientation. This activity is characterized by a high degree of standardization of both processes and content. The intention is for local activities and participants to adjust to general levels and standards. But even though standards can be seen as a solution for a set of problems, one must consider that standards do not perform any tasks by themselves; their functions depend on organizational routines, resources available, and staff members’ use of the standards. Therefore, one must consider how integration workers handle standards and how they bridge standards of routines and procedures with participants, immigrants, responses, and needs. The interest in this study concerns how such a dilemma intervenes at the local level and what it means for professional knowledge and autonomy. This study takes place at an integration unit in Sweden where integration workers meet in workshops to interpret standards and find ways to adapt them to local needs. The results show how cultural and pedagogical awareness form the basis for professional knowledge and how this also creates a space for action but also how standards form a structure through which expectations and demands are understood and form arguments and interaction patterns

Transforming information into practical actions : A study of professional knowledge in the use of electronic patient records

Today, technologies are being introduced into historically established settings, which change the conditions for work as well as for work-integrated learning. In health care, electronic patient records (EPRs) has been implemented during the last decades to serve as a tool for planning, decision making and evaluation of care work. The overall aim of the research presented in this thesis is to analyse the complex actions and interactions that occur when EPRs are used in health care practice. Analytically, such an interest is pursued employing a socio-cultural perspective on workplace studies, where the use of technology is studied in action. Through three separate studies, practical actions and practical use of EPRs have been examined and the empirical data draws on observations, video-recordings, audio-recordings and documents from a hospital ward in Sweden. The result shows that technologies such as EPRs both offer and presuppose standardization of terminologies and information structures. This, however, does not mean that EPRs completely format and structure information, or that it is driven by its own logic. When staffs comply with a set of standards, transformations of those standards will gradually occur. Those transformations are collective achievements and since each professional involved act in a conscious and active manner, this affects the use of standards as well as the development of collective proficiency. The results also demonstrate that meaning making in(through) the use of EPRs presupposes extensive knowledge of the indexicality of categories, something that originates in the participants‘ shared institutional history. It is in the process of reliving, creating and exposing the meaning of information, that health care professionals actually bring information in EPRs to life. In further development of EPRs that exceeds institutional and even national boundaries it is important to see this development not as solely technical or organizational questions. To develop systems that enhance the possibilities for professionals in different institutions with different professional domains to make sense of standardized information may be a much more  demanding task than it seems to be. Such boundary-crossing systems are nevertheless of great importance for the further development of health care practice