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.     

Woman,Women, and the Priesthood in the Trinitarian Theology of Elisabeth Behr-Sigel

Abstract

This article arises from a critical examination of the way the human sexuality debate developed at national level within the United Reformed Church (URC) between 1997 and 2000. Documents that reflected the thinking of members of the Church were carefully examined in order to identify the issues that members of the URC considered fundamental to the debate. From this analysis three closely linked themes, which, it will be argued here form a circular argument, are reflected on theologically: homophobia, sexuality and changing traditional interpretations of the Bible. There can only be an end to the debate when the URC and other Churches are able to escape this circular argument. Taking the experience of South Africa after the apartheid years as a guide, the discussion concludes by exploring ways by which the Church might end the debate and move forward.     

Norms,definitions, and deviance: Comment on Meier

This study explored the effects of heavy television viewing on the purging behavior of Asian-Pacific adolescents in Guam. We argue that Westernized television in Guam presents thin, tall, and athletic bodies as the only acceptable images for adolescents. Using logistic regression, we tested the television-purging connection using a probability sample of Asian-Pacific Islander high school students. The results of the analysis support the hypothesis that heavy television viewing is associated with male purging behavior, which is a form of self-directed deviance. Being overweight is also associated with purging for male and female adolescents. We discuss the implications of the findings for theory and future research.