Institute of Philosophy, Sociology and Law

Past research indicates that legitimacy encourages compliance with the law. This study extends consideration of the influence of legitimacy by exploring its impact on cooperation with the police and with neighbors to combat crime in one's community. It uses a panel study design and focuses upon the residents of New York City. The study finds that legitimacy shapes cooperation with the police and has a lesser influence on cooperation with others in the community. Consistent with the findings of prior research, legitimacy itself is found to be linked to the justice of the procedures used by the police to exercise their authority. Finally, the study explores the influence of personal experience with the police on legitimacy and cooperation. Results suggest that experiencing procedural justice during a personal experience increases legitimacy, irrespective of the favorability of the outcome. These results suggest that the police can generally enhance their legitimacy by using fair procedures.

OBJECTIVES: Many agencies use risk assessment instruments to guide decisions about pretrial detention, postconviction incarceration, and release from custody. Although some policymakers believe that these tools might reduce overincarceration and recidivism rates, others are concerned that they may exacerbate racial and ethnic disparities in placements. The objective of this systematic review was to test these assertions. HYPOTHESES: It was hypothesized that the adoption of tools might slightly decrease incarceration rates, and that impact on disparities might vary by tool and context. METHOD: Published and unpublished studies were identified by searching 13 databases, reviewing reference lists, and contacting experts. In total, 22 studies met inclusion criteria; these studies included 1,444,499 adolescents and adults who were accused or convicted of a crime. Each study was coded by 2 independent raters using a data extraction form and a risk of bias tool. Results were aggregated using both a narrative approach and meta-analyses. RESULTS: = .020). However, after removing studies with a high risk of bias, the results were no longer significant. CONCLUSIONS: Although risk assessment tools might help to reduce restrictive placements, the strength of this evidence is low. Furthermore, because of a lack of research, it is unclear how tools impact racial and ethnic disparities in placements. As such, future research is needed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Genetic relatedness is a fundamental determinant of social behavior across species. Over the last few decades, researchers have been investigating the proximate psychological mechanisms that enable humans to assess their genetic relatedness to others. Much of this work has focused on identifying cues that predicted relatedness in ancestral environments and examining how they regulate kin-directed behaviors. Despite progress, many basic questions remain unanswered. Here we address three of these questions. First, we examine the replicability of the effect of two association-based cues to relatedness-maternal perinatal association (MPA) and coresidence duration-on sibling-directed altruism. MPA, the observation of a newborn being cared for by one's mother, strongly signals relatedness, but is only available to the older sibling in a sib-pair. Younger siblings, to whom the MPA cue is not available, appear to fall back on the duration of their coresidence with an older sibling. Second, we determine whether the effects of MPA and coresidence duration on sibling-directed altruism obtain across cultures. Last, we explore whether paternal perinatal association (PPA) informs sibship. Data from six studies conducted in California, Hawaii, Dominica, Belgium, and Argentina support past findings regarding the role of MPA and coresidence duration as cues to siblingship. By contrast, PPA had no effect on altruism. We report on levels of altruism toward full, half, and step siblings, and discuss the role alternate cues might play in discriminating among these types of siblings. (PsycINFO Database Record

This experimental article helps to understand the motives behind cooperation in the prisoner’s dilemma. It manipulates the pay-off in case both players defect in a two-player, one-shot prisoner’s dilemma and explains the degree of cooperation by a combination of four motives: efficiency, conditional cooperation, fear and greed. All motives are significant but some become only significant if one controls for all remaining ones. This seems to be the reason why earlier attempts at explaining choices in the prisoner’s dilemma with personality have not been successful.

Bringing together over 260 authors from 50 countries, the Encyclopedia of Comparative Law, Second Edition is the most comprehensive reference work in the field of comparative law.

Vast amounts of personal data of children are collected and processed in today’s increasingly digital, connected society by public and private actors. Children do have a right to the protection of their personal data and, according to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), even merit specific protection. Children should be clearly informed of and understand what happens with their data when it is collected, processed, stored and transferred. To that end, specific transparency standards require the provision of information in a clear and plain language that the child can easily understand. In this article, after having mapped these existing requirements, the privacy policies of Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok — services which are very popular with children — are evaluated. The findings suggest that such policies are still complex, long and primarily text based. In order to improve this, possible practical ways of enhancing transparency for children such as legal visualization, co-design, co-creation techniques and participatory design methods which focus on presenting legal information in a transparent and clear manner are explored.

This article aims at uncovering the dynamics between non-recognition – real or perceived – and increasingly violent practices, with a case study focusing on the representations of the violent radical Islamist group Al-Muhajiroun following the 9/11 attacks and the outbreak of the war in Afghanistan in 2001. The article argues that these two events were considered salient by the group in terms of both ‘Muslims’ social value and self-esteem and were presented, on behalf of the Ummah, as instances of non-recognition. From this interpretation, the group's discourse became increasingly political, structured and violence-endorsing. The article concludes by showing that Al-Muhajiroun's distorted claims for recognition translated into policy prescriptions advocating an all-out Jihad to try and establish a world caliphate as an alternative, superior hegemony.

OBJECTIVE: Research indicates moderate-to-limited integration of the risk-need-responsivity (RNR) principles in probation case planning. Efforts to improve implementation are important targets for research, policy, and practice. This study examined the ability of two juvenile probation departments to implement RNR principles with fidelity following a comprehensive implementation protocol that included RNR-related policies, creation of a service matrix for criminogenic need-to-service matching, and extensive staff training. HYPOTHESES: The researchers anticipated fidelity to the risk and need principles would be stronger than previous studies. METHOD: This implementation study involved secondary data analysis of services received over 10 months for 254 adolescent offenders (76.80% male, 72.40% White, M age = 16.13 years) from two probation departments following adoption of the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory. RESULTS: Probation departments evidenced strong fidelity to the risk principle, such that higher risk youth were assigned more services with higher intensity. Fidelity to the need principle was moderate at best (an average 24.61% to 29.38% need-to-service match) and varied by criminogenic need, overall risk level, and the operational definition of criminogenic need. CONCLUSIONS: Comprehensive implementation practices are associated with strong fidelity to the risk principle, but it may take longer for probation departments to achieve strong fidelity to the need principle. Researchers should identify more feasible methods for implementing the need principle and strive for a consensus on methods for measuring need-to-service match that are also consistent with probation policies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

The recent decision of Centre on Housing Rights & Evictions (COHRE) v Italy1 constitutes a key step in the evolution of the collective complaints jurisprudence of the European Committee of Social Rights.2 In addition to being a substantial addition to that body's existing jurisprudence on housing rights3 and Roma rights,4 it contains a number of new elements with major implications for human rights protection under the European Social Charter 19615 and the Revised European Social Charter 1996 (Revised Charter).6 These relate to both process and standards: the complaint marks the European Committee of Social Rights’ (‘the Committee’) first use of its expedited process for addressing complaints, as well as its initial engagement with the development of the concept of an ‘aggravated violation’, the issue of ‘retrogressive steps’ and the expulsion of migrants. This note opens with an introduction to the complaint, followed by a discussion of the approach adopted towards its admissibility by the Committee. The next section focuses on the decision on the merits where, following an overview of the Committee's findings, I analyse key innovative elements of the decision. Having considered the implications of the decision in terms of the Committee's reference to and reliance upon international and regional human rights law standards, I turn to the question of future developments. In doing so, I focus particularly on the issue of implementation of the Committee's findings.

A regionally correlated biostratigraphic gradient divides the Kope Fm. (Late Ordovician, Indiana-Kentucky-Ohio) into twelve bryozoan concurrent range zones averaging 7.6 m in thickness. Stratigraphic (temporal) resolution has been enhanced by post-mortem lateral dispersal of bryozoans by storm processes. Abundance patterns reflect a bathymetric gradient in the original benthic communities. The presence and absence of short-ranging genera define a temporal gradient of faunal replacement within these communities. Both gradient analysis and graphic correlation indicate significant regional correlations between sections, and a robust biostratigraphic zonation. Gradient analysis also indicates regionally consistent variation in sedimentation rates and key horizons (isochrons) probably generated by taphonomic processes.

Corporate liability regimes have two major social goals: inducing corporations to internalize all social ramifications of their activity; and inducing corporations to prevent, deter, and report their employee misconduct. The scholarly polemic has shown that none of the liability regimes recognized thus far in the literature efficiently satisfies both social goals. Following a Law and Economics approach, this paper develops an innovative regime that may comprise an optimal corporate liability framework in most settings. The Compound Corporate Liability Regime developed in this paper is a two-layer strict liability regime. Under this regime, corporations that self-report their employee misconduct incur a sanction that is reduced by the variable enforcement costs saved due to their self-reporting. Such a liability framework aligns social and corporations’ interests, and thereby satisfies both social goals of corporate liability regimes.

Theoretical models of the legislative process are explored in order to seek an explanation of the phenomenon whereby post-colonial democracies frequently retain the legislation adopted by the imperial predecessor. This even applies to criminal codes, in spite of their presumed role in the controlling of colonial populations. A possible explanation is proffered in terms of a bureaucratic model of legislation, which seems to fit both colonial powers and some democracies. Under this model, the character and content of the legislation may depend as much upon the personalities involved in its drafting and promotion, as upon political or structural factors.

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There are, it seems, more similarities than differences in the cultures and customary law systems of Papua New Guinean and African societies. However, the single most outstanding feature of the modern legal system in Papua New Guinea and those in Anglophonic Africa is their accommodation of a pluralist legal system. Under these systems, different sources of law are recognized as co-existing with each other, the most significant of which are imposed or written laws and customary laws including religious laws in many Anglophonic African jurisdictions. Since customary law is mainly about family law, the legal recognition of custom in these jurisdictions necessarily involves the recognition of customary marriage. All jurisdictions have provisions recognizing customary marriage provided they meet certain statutorily specified criteria but otherwise they are recognized as valid so long as they comply with relevant customary marriage requirements. Societies in Papua New Guinea share many similarities in marriage practices with those in Africa. However, among the most striking features of customary marriage in these societies is the involvement of the extended family in the formation of such marriages, the practice of polygamy, and the payment of brideprice. Similarities in requirements for marriage formation also exist and although differences appear clearly to exist between different societies in both Papua New Guinea and Africa, these relate mainly to formal rather than substantive requirements of marriage such as age, consent, and prohibited degrees of relationship. There is generally limited state regulation of customary marriage and those that exist relate mainly to important substantive matters such as marital status, marriage age, and consent. However, even though the law has been used to intervene in these and other areas of customary marriage practices, the practices of polygamy and brideprice, despite having attracted much criticism from different quarters, have so far not been subjects of any serious state regulation or control. However, although greater state regulation of such practices can be expected in some jurisdictions, it is unlikely to involve the complete outlawing of these practices.

This article sets out a pragmatic justification for the main features of current personal jurisdiction doctrine: personal jurisdiction rules minimize litigation costs and bias. This approach helps resolve difficult and open jurisdictional issues, such as the scope of general jurisdiction and the validity of jurisdiction based on the stream of commerce theory. This article then explores the empirical assumptions underlying this pragmatic explanation for current doctrine and shows how the law should change if those assumptions were incorrect. For example, if the danger of bias against out-of-state litigants is low, the “purposeful availment” requirement lacks justification and plaintiffs should be allowed to sue in their home states.

A relatively new frontier for legal and policy analysis, technical barriers to trade (TBT’s) have become more common as traditional border barriers have been reduced. This comprehensive Handbook comprises original essays by eminent trade scholars exploring the implications of the WTO’s TBT Agreement.

Part one is a brief history of Italian Visual Sociology. Andrea Pitasi sketches his main hypothesis: as a complex middle range theory, visual sociology might become a specific discipline. The theoretical concepts and proposals to create it are summarized in the conclusion. In part two, Patrizia Faccioli deals with the Italian sociological mainstream's conception of visual sociology. From this perspective, visual sociology is considered a methodology, which the author affirms as an incomplete point of view. On the basis of her experience of research, she assumes that visual sociology may also be a paradigm which she sketches as a phenomenological paradigm of visual knowledge

This paper argues that researchers who study migrants’ digital inclusion need to shed light on migrants’ use of digital technologies within the time frame and context of ‘migration travel’ and while migrants are in transition to a new or safer place for resettlement. In support of this argument, the paper proposes a ‘travelling with the traveller’ research framework that applies an ethnographic methodology and aims at the researcher experiencing or even becoming an integral part of the migration travel. The paper presents this travelling with the traveller framework and discusses the implications of digital inclusion (or the absence of it) for migrants’ experience, to combat or alleviate of all sorts of adversities, volatile emotions, unanticipated problems and moments of uncertainty and crisis migrants so often encounter on the move from homeland to another land, from one life setting to another. Further, the paper presents the fieldwork processes and data collection techniques of the proposed travelling with the traveller framework, such as participant observation, informal and open-ended interviews, as well as the use of video and photographic footage.

This commentary highlights the scientific history of the NIH-Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and corroborates Sarpatwari's theme of private capture of value created by the public. The commentary also identifies missteps by the Trump and Biden Administrations and offers policy recommendations: better contracts with and incentives for pharmaceutical manufacturers and a not-for-profit "public option" for pharmaceutical development.