Crime, Prohibition, and Punishment

Nigel Walker's first principle of criminalization declares that 'Prohibitions should not be included in the criminal law for the sole purpose of ensuring that breaches of them are visited with retributive punishment'. I argue that we should reject this principle, for 'mala prohibita' as well as for 'mala in se': conduct should be criminalized in order to ensure (as far as we reasonably can) that those who engage in it receive retributive punishment. In the course of the argument, I show why we should not see the criminal law as consisting in 'prohibitions'; I explain different species of mala prohibita, and show how their commission does involve genuine wrongdoing; and I show the importance of distinguishing the question of regulation from that of sanction.     

The Capital Punishment Debate: Public Perceptions of Crime and Punishment1

Psychophysical scales for seriousness of crime and severity of punishment were developed to aid in investigating the Eighth Amendment issue of whether the death penalty is “cruel and unusual” punishment. Using indirect crossmodality matching techniques with a quota sample of the Boston SMSA, satisfactory scales were obtained for both dimensions with most items in both scales concentrated toward the serious/severe end as planned. Further, specific case vignettes in which experimental variations were embedded were also developed; psychophysical lines production judgments for these specific cases indicated that quite complex social stimuli can be successfully judged psychophysically. Results indicated that (1) capital and noncapital offenses are thoroughly intermingled in seriousness ratings; (2) the death penalty is not rated as significantly more severe than life imprisonment without parole; (3) respondents assign the death penalty relatively rarely even to serious offenses, and then in a manner not particularly in line with capital statutes; and (4) respondents' weighing of extra-legal and legally relevant aspects of capital cases is inconsistent with current statutes. These results suggest multiple ways in which capital punishment could be defined as “cruel”, and strongly suggest the need for further research and through about the issue.     

On examination dreams.

The literature concerning examination dreams is reviewed, and the case of a patient who had a number of examination and examination-like dreams is described. Examination dreams are related to traumatic dreams, "idiosyncratic" dreams, and various behavioral expressions. In addition, constitutional factors involving impulse-defense imbalance, childhood experiences with physical difficulties and medical examinations, and ambivalent identifications and object relations seem to find representation in these dreams.     

On the analysis of defenses in dreams

This paper deals with a particular analytic approach to the clinical use of dreams: the analysis of defenses in dreams. Clinical vignettes are used to demonstrate various ways that defenses can be depicted in dreams and the manner in which the patient's attention may be drawn to those defenses. Dreams can offer an especially vivid view of defenses and hence can heighten patients' emotional conviction about the nature of their conflicts.     

Perverse dreams and dreams of perversion

This paper (1) posits the occurrence of perverse dreams as a type of mental phenomenon in the constellation of perverse processes; (2) considers manifest dreams of frank perversion as a type of perverse dream within the class of perverse dreams as a whole; (3) relates the subtype of perverse dreams without manifest perversions to the occurrence of perverse defenses and the development of a perverse transference; and (4) suggests that consideration to perverse dreams in the psychoanalytic process finds application in identifying and differentiating perverse defenses from neurotic and other characterologic patterns; in identifying and tracing the vicissitudes of difficult perverse transference-countertransference constellations; and in furthering perverse patients' recognition and understanding of particularly troublesome and seemingly intractable issues in their psychic makeup. Clinical material illustrates perverse dreams and their usefulness in the often arduous process of analyzing perverse defenses.     

中俄处罚人体器官移植犯罪法规比较与思考

人体器官移植为20世纪生物工程领域中具有划时代意义的技术。我国是世界上第二大人体器官移植国,然而近年来非法器官移植现象日益增多,我国现行法规对人体器官移植犯罪惩处力度不够。器官移植应依法进行,为了给我国人体器官移植犯罪科学立法提供借鉴,通过比较分析,发现俄罗斯器官移植犯罪直接入刑法,我国器官移植犯罪为间接入刑,规定不完善,配套法律缺失,附加民事责任不具体,没有对被害人的赔偿条款。建议我国刑法设置非法器官移植犯罪,并附加具体的民事责任。     

《管子》"刑、德"思想述论

“刑、德”命题是古代政治法律思想中近乎永恒的命题。《管子》中有丰富、深刻的刑德思想：《管子》肯定刑在治国施政中的必要性,却大抵主张轻刑;《管子》更重视德,倡导以利民、惠民、养民为内容的德政及以“礼义廉耻”为主要特色的德教。其刑德兼施、先德后刑思想,可谓远绍周、吕,近承管、晏,下启苟、董,在中国古代正统刑德法律思想发展史上是重要一环。《管子》刑德思想还打上了齐地阴阳五行学说的烙印,具有浓厚的齐学色彩。     

网络道德惩罚的公正性分析

现代都市生活的特点、网络事件的强烈刺激以及道德焦虑心理是网络道德惩罚发生的原因.它的表现形式多样,包括谴责性言论、顶帖、网络通缉令、对现实生活的干扰以及排斥等.公正的网络道德惩罚具有积极的作用,是一种善.由于群体极化、绝对化的要求以及道德盲视的作用,网络道德惩罚有时会有失公正.鉴于此,可以通过给予话语权、从容的推理以及行动前的反思来确保网络道德惩罚的公正性.     

Measuring consciousness in dreams: The lucidity and consciousness in dreams scale

In this article, we present results from an interdisciplinary research project aimed at assessing consciousness in dreams. For this purpose, we compared lucid dreams with normal non-lucid dreams from REM sleep. Both lucid and non-lucid dreams are an important contrast condition for theories of waking consciousness, giving valuable insights into the structure of conscious experience and its neural correlates during sleep. However, the precise differences between lucid and non-lucid dreams remain poorly understood. The construction of the Lucidity and Consciousness in Dreams scale (LuCiD) was based on theoretical considerations and empirical observations. Exploratory factor analysis of the data from the first survey identified eight factors that were validated in a second survey using confirmatory factor analysis: INSIGHT, CONTROL, THOUGHT, REALISM, MEMORY, DISSOCIATION, NEGATIVE EMOTION, and POSITIVE EMOTION. While all factors are involved in dream consciousness, realism and negative emotion do not differentiate between lucid and non-lucid dreams, suggesting that lucid insight is separable from both bizarreness in dreams and a change in the subjectively experienced realism of the dream.     

荀子"刑、德"思想探析

荀子“刑”、“德”思想自有其独特的学术品格,但溯其源流,大抵远绍周公“明德慎罚”思想,近承孔子“为政以德”、“先教后诛”思想,下启董仲舒“德主刑辅”思想,诸多思想与表述甚至直接袭用《尚书》等书、引证孔子等语录事迹,在先秦儒家刑德思想发展系统中是不可或缺的重要一环。     

Nighttime in dreams

Based on the continuity hypothesis of dreaming, a study was designed to examine whether time of day within the dream was related to dream emotions. A sample of 1,612 dreams reported by 444 participants was analyzed. As predicted, dream scenarios set at nighttime were associated with less positive and more negative emotions compared to dream scenarios set at other times of the day. In order to pursue this line of research, it would be fruitful to study the dreams of persons with specific nighttime fears.     

Music in dreams

Music in dreams is rarely reported in scientific literature, while the presence of musical themes in dreams of famous musicians is anecdotally reported. We did a systematic investigation to evaluate whether the occurrence of musical dreams could be related to musical competence and practice, and to explore specific features of dreamt pieces. Thirty-five professional musicians and thirty non-musicians filled out a questionnaire about the characteristics of their musical activity and a structured dream log on the awakening for 30 consecutive days. Musicians dream of music more than twice with respect to non-musicians; musical dreams frequency is related to the age of commencement of musical instruction, but not to the daily load of musical activity. Nearly half of the recalled music was non-standard, suggesting that original music can be created in dreams.