Using the population of Kentucky state parole officers as the focus of this thesis, work styles were studied. The work styles of twenty-eight rural parole officers were compared with the work styles of twenty-two urban officers. The Fisher Exact Statistical Test was used to test differences between these groups. Rural officers were significantly more likely than urban officers to go out of their offices to meet with their parolees. Urban officers had had a significantly greater number of parolees waiting in their offices at one time, than the rural officers had. The length of the average meeting did not differ significantly when rural and urban officers were compared. Rural officers were significantly more likely than urban officers to involve community agencies and citizens in the supervision of their parolees. The two groups of parole officers did not differ significantly in the use of group sessions. There was no significant difference between rural and urban officers on the basis of their consultation with their supervisors. Rural parole officers were significantly more likely to feel that a major portion of the parolee’s success was dependent on them than the urban officers. In summary, a more informal work style was evidenced by the rural parole officers.

This thesis seeks to answer the principal question as to whether international criminal justice systems can serve as adequate truth-ascertaining forums. In doing so, it reviews the practice of three international criminal justice systems: the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the International Criminal Court (ICC). It is not the purpose of this research to review the black letter law adopted and applied by these international tribunals and court, but rather to review the implementation of the legal principles in practice. It is a socio-legal research project which focuses on the practice of the tribunals and court. It discusses socio-legal, institutional and political issues relating to the ascertainment of the truth in international criminal justice. In addition, it examines the gaps between the theory and practice of ascertaining the truth in the ICTY, ICTR and ICC. It does so principally by exploring the roles of the parties, participants and judges in ascertaining the truth. This includes the obstacles they face in doing so and the responses given, if any, to accommodate these difficulties. Challenges include the politicised climate of most post-conflict societies, the remoteness of the crime base areas from the seat of the Court, the lack of enforcement mechanisms and reliance on State cooperation, as well as the unfamiliarities with the cultural and linguistic features of the affected communities. This thesis reveals that these difficulties are not the principal cause of truth-searching impediments. Indeed, it is asserted that the ascertainment of the truth can be fair and effective notwithstanding these difficulties. It also demonstrates that truth-ascertaining impediments are mainly caused by failures to adequately investigate the crimes and relevant evidence. At the ICTY, investigations have been carried out in the most efficient and fair manner possible under the circumstances. By contrast, the ICTR and ICC investigations are far from adequate and should be improved. The Prosecution should make more efforts to obtain the best evidence available. It further concludes that international justice systems have set their goals too highly. Instead of seeking to meet objectives such as reconciliation, peace and security, they should restrict their focus to the question as to whether the guilt of a particular accused has been established in respect of the crimes charged.

The topic of this diploma thesis is the settlement in criminal proceedings, one of diversions, or also alternatives to typical course and outcome of criminal proceedings. The settlement was incorporated into the Czech Criminal Procedure Code by the amendment n. 152/1995 Sb. with the effect on 1st September 1995. The settlement is an institute of criminal procedure law originating in restorative justice principles and its goal is to restore affected relationship between the defendant and the victim. Then proceedings of the settlement should not serve only to compensate the victim, as is sometimes perceived by the public, but also to clarify causes of the conflict during the active participation of both parties and to assume personal responsibility for the crime committed which may have significant effects in terms of criminal prevention. Despite the fact that the settlement is a form of diversion beneficial to the defendant (it leads to cessation of prosecution), victim (it is faster to obtain the compensation) and society (prevention from committing other crimes, relieving courts in favour of complex and serious crimes), it is rarely used in practice. In the first chapter I generally deal with the concept of diversions in criminal proceedings, their fundamental characteristics and common features...

Criminal procedure, the public and media - abstract The public principle is a fundamental element of the right to a fair trial. This public character protects litigants against the secret administration of justice with no public scrutiny. Public hearing also fulfils the educational and preventive function. Therefore there must be sufficient legal reasons to justify an exclusion of the public. The right of the public to receive information and the media's right to disseminate information are tied with the public control of the judiciary. Courts do not operate in a vacuum and criminal cases may be a subject to public debates. However, none of this is happening without any regulation. The freedom of expression has also its limits. As the personality rights and the presumption of innocence stand at the same level as this freedom. Media play two important roles in criminal proceedings. First role consists of dissemination of information (within the public interest) about ongoing criminal proceedings. This important task has several results. One is development of general prevention, when state tries to influence the society as whole, another is assistance with finding a missing person. Second role of media is interfaced with supervision. Information provided by media facilitate to control criminal proceedings....

Magister Legum - LLM / Section 105A of the Criminal Procedure Act is unconstitutional with regard to its failure to extend benefits to an unrepresented accused. Unlike a represented accused, an unrepresented accused cannot benefit from section 105A. The only recourse available to him or her is to enter a plea of guilty under section 112 of the Criminal Procedure Act. This plea of guilty does not offer him the benefits under section 105A. This causes the section to operate unfairly against the unrepresented accused based on his/her failure to secure legal representation. This continued operation of section 105A infringes on the rights of an accused by not affording this protection to the accused. This is in terms of a right to equality before the law, freedom from discrimination and what constitutes a justifiable limitation under section 36 of the Constitution. South Africa has ratified or acceded to international and regional treaties which require, inter alia that the right to equality before the law is respected. This requires a model framework to be put in place to ensure that unrepresented accused can benefit from section 105A. An evaluation of the viability of adding the unrepresented accused to the protection under section 105A is done. This is informed by experiences from other jurisdictions, which aid the need for reform.

This thesis explores the phenomenon of illegal natural resource exploitation in conflict zones and the application of international criminal law, particularly the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to combat the roblem. Contemporary African conflicts, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo conflict explored as a case study herein, have become increasingly distinguishable by the tight connection between war and various forms of illegal natural resource exploitation, particularly targeting valuable and precious mineral resources. With their incidence being highest in Africa, wars funded by illegally exploited natural resources have gradually become one of the greatest threats to regional peace and human security on the African continent. The Congo conflict clearly demonstrated the problematic nature and impact of illegal natural resource exploitation and the widespread human, economic and political costs associated with this phenomenon. This thesis is based on the initial assumption that the quest by conflict actors to profit from war through illegal natural resource exploitation activities is at the centre of the commission of serious human rights violations as well as the complexity and longevity of African conflicts. Developments in international criminal law, culminating in the adoption of the Rome Statute and the establishment of the International Criminal Court, have given impetus to the argument that any group of conflict actors should be subjected to the individual criminal responsibility regime of this legal framework. A further underlying assumption of this thesis is therefore that international criminal law can constrain the acts and conduct defined in this thesis as illegal natural resource exploitation activities since they constitute war crimes under the Rome Statute framework. However, despite illustrating the illegal resource exploitation activities of various state and non-state actors, this thesis is confined to an application of the Rome Statute based international criminal liability regime against members of armed rebel groups involved in such acts. In exploring these issues, this work examines international criminal law institutions and the relevance of international criminal justice in addressing particular phenomena prevalent during African armed conflicts. It further provides the stage to assess the potential of international criminal law in safeguarding natural resources for the benefit of African societies perennially exposed to the depredations of natural resource financed warfare. / Microsoft� Office Word 2007 / Adobe Acrobat 9.53 Paper Capture Plug-in

In this project the adoption of an inquisitorial model of criminal procedure in court proceedings relating to children is discussed. The traditional characteristics of adversarial and inquisitorial models of criminal procedure, the two models in a South African perspective and problems with the adversarial model are highlighted. That it terrifies and silence young victim and witnesses from giving evidence. The inquisitorial elements present in South African criminal procedure such as in bail proceedings, plea proceedings, powers of the presiding officer to call, recall and examine witnesses, powers of the presiding officer to exclude inadmissible evidence, evidence on sentence, and investigation on unreasonable delay on trials are discussed. The international instruments pertaining to children in conflict with the law and child witnesses are examined, together with their impact in our laws relating to children. The constitutional implications to the rights of children are discussed. The historical background that culminated to the Child Justice Act is highlighted. The Child Justice Act with particular reference to the inquisitorial aspects present in this Act is discussed. The measures that aim to protect child witness present in the Criminal Procedure Act, Criminal law Sexual offences and Related Matters Amendment Act and Children’s Act are highlighted. The conclusion, on the analysis of protective measures protecting children, is that in South African law there is a renewed interest in inquisitorial procedures as an effective means of ensuring justice. The conclusion suggests that adversarial model of criminal procedure is not the best method for our legal system to deal with children.

En France, la réalité des crimes en série et plus particulièrement des meurtres en série a trop longtemps été minorée, voire niée. Même si elle est quantitativement peu élevée, la commission de meurtres sériels sur notre territoire est pourtant indéniable. Il serait donc logique que le droit pénal français, qui commence à s'intéresser à ces actes, en donne enfin une véritable qualification pénale. En sa qualité de tueur à victimes multiples criminologiquement singulier, le tueur en série mérite une appréhension juridique adaptée. Tout d'abord, l'acte de donner la mort doit recevoir une qualification pénale adéquate. Puis, la répétition de cet acte doit être prise en compte. Or, la série va apparaître comme un mode particulier de commission de plusieurs infractions. En effet, la série représente un nouveau cas de pluralité d'infractions. Dès lors, une définition juridique en sera proposée dans cette étude. De plus, les éventuelles répercussions d'une telle définition sur la procédure et la sanction pénales seront envisagées. / In France, the reality of serial crimes and more specifically serial murders has been minimized and even denied for a very long time. Even if serial crimes represent quite a small proportion, they do undeniably occur in our country. It should be logical that French criminal law starts to pay attention to these acts and finally gives them a real legal definition. As a singular criminal in criminology, a murderer of multiple victims deserves an appropriate apprehension. First of all, the act of giving someone death has to be correctly characterized. Then, the repetition of this act has to be taken into account. The series will appear as a new particular way of committing multiple crimes. Indeed, it actually represents a new category in plurality of offences. Thus, we propose in this essay to give it a legal definition. Moreover, the potential repercussions of such definition on criminal procedure and penalty will be envisaged.

En 1668, après avoir conquis une partie des territoires des Pays-Bas espagnols, Louis XIV établit à Tournai un conseil souverain chargé d’administrer la justice à ses nouveaux sujets. Cette cour est érigée en parlement en 1686 et son ressort évolue au fil des guerres menées par le Roi Soleil.Malgré les promesses du maintien des particularismes locaux formulées dans les actes de capitulation des villes, le monarque tente insidieusement de rapprocher la pratique judiciaire du ressort du parlement de Flandre de celle du reste du royaume. Sont ainsi envoyés à la cour l’ordonnance criminelle de 1670 qui modifie les règles de la procédure pénale et de nombreux textes de droit dictant les politiques répressives à appliquer.L’objet de cette étude est de mesurer l’impact de l’enregistrement de la législation royale sur la jurisprudence criminelle de la cour entre 1668 et 1720. Les magistrats, tiraillés entre la tradition des Pays-Bas et la modernité française, ont-ils respecté la volonté du roi ou lui ont-ils, au contraire, résisté ? L’expression de la conscience du juge, la survivance des anciens usages et les intérêts avant tout financiers des parlementaires sont autant d’obstacles au projet d’acculturation entrepris par Louis XIV. / After he gained an important part of the Southern Netherlands in 1668, Louis XIV created a sovereign court to administer justice in the newly conquered territories. The court obtained the title of parliament in 1686 and its jurisdiction evolved as a consequence of the numerous wars and treaties in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.Although the monarch had solemnly promised to maintain the local particularities in the capitulation acts of the main cities, he insidiously attempted to introduce the French legal rules into the judicial practice of the northern territories of the kingdom. Thus the criminal ordinance of 1670 was sent to the court in order to amend the rules of criminal procedure and other statutes imposed the repressive policies to be followed.This study focuses on the registration of royal edicts and ordinances and on their consequences on the court’s jurisprudence in criminal cases between 1668 and 1720. The councilors were torn between the traditions of the Netherlands and French modernity. Therefore we can wonder whether they did respect the king’s will. The expression of the judge’s conscience, the survival of ancient customs and the parliamentarians’ foremost financial interests were indeed obstacles to the Louis XIV’s acculturation project.

L’expert psychiatre, initialement convoqué dans les tribunaux afin d’évaluer la responsabilité pénale des auteurs d’infractions, s’est progressivement trouvé en charge de mesurer leur dangerosité. L’expertise de dangerosité tendrait-elle à remplacer celle de responsabilité ? Pour répondre à cette question, nous avons étudié au Luxembourg et en France le rôle qu’est aujourd’hui amené à jouer l’expert dans des juridictions criminelles. Son intervention, désormais systématique dans ce type de juridiction, se matérialise par la production d’un discours écrit et oral. Prenant acte de ce fait, ainsi que de l’importance du langage dans les champs judiciaire et psychiatrique, nous avons ancré ce travail dans le champ de l’analyse du discours, et avons étudié l’expertise et la justice en train de se dire. Une première partie se concentre sur la production et le contenu du discours que les experts soumettent à l’institution judiciaire, et une seconde sur la façon dont l’expertise est intégrée au jugement. Les experts, dont le discours est sous la surveillance de l’institution judiciaire, ne participent finalement à évaluer ni la responsabilité strictement pénale, ni la dangerosité. Leur discours, enchevêtré aux discours des autres acteurs de la procédure, alimente l’ensemble des débats ; il participe à l’évaluation de la responsabilité subjective et morale de l’accusé, tant pour déterminer le quantum de la peine que pour décider d’une mesure appropriée. Initialement extérieur à l’institution, et chargé de soustraire à la justice des personnes estimées irresponsables pénalement, l’expert participe désormais à la punition et au traitement de l’ensemble des auteurs de crime. / In theory, the psychiatric expert is called in a trial in order to estimate the defendant's penal responsibility. But, we argue, he has instead become responsible for judging their level of dangerousness. Does dangerousness expertise tend to replace responsibility expertise? In order to answer this question, we studied experts’ functions in criminal affairs in Luxemburg and in France. The intervention, now systematic in this type of jurisdiction, is embodied in written and oral discourse. In acknowledging the importance of language in judiciary and psychiatric fields, this work is based on discourse analysis. We studied the spoken aspect of expertise and justice. The first part of this study focuses on how experts produce discourse for the judiciary institution. The second part follows the integration process of expertise into the judgment. Because their spoken testimonies are under surveillance by the judicial institution, experts eventually evaluate neither strictly penal responsibility, nor dangerousness. These discourses, entangled with those of other agents of the proceedings, continue into closing statements, in which the expert takes part in evaluating the defendant's subjective and moral responsibility. This is in order to determine the punishment’s severity, as well which measure to state. From originally providing an outsider’s point of view, apparently removed from those judging criminal responsibility, the expert now takes part in both punishment and treatment of perpetrators.