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The aim of this essay is to show that the protagonist of the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment is more open to change in his life than is often assumed by commentators. In the end of the novel the student Raskolnikov confesses the murder of two women, and he is sentenced to eight years in a prison colony. In a short scene Raskolnikov seems to experience a spiritual awakening, a "resurrection", with the words of the original text. The genuineness of that conversion, foretold in the epilogue, has been contested by critics. That negative assessment is a starting point for this essay. Is a new beginning, a spiritual restoration or even a resurrection, like in the biblical tradition, at all imaginable for Raskolnikov? I propose it is, based on my reading of the novel. I will especially look back on an episode before the main action of the novel starts. It concerns Raskolnikov's engagement to a young girl who died before the couple could get married. The story about the fiancée suggests that a more purposeful future for the main character - in contrast to who he seems to be in the novel - cannot be dismissed. One main argument for the spiritual transformation of Raskolnikov is an experience he has in the minutes before the resurrection scene. He envisions the biblical patriarche Abraham on his fields with grazing herds. I interpret this as a myth about possibilities. Abraham lives in the beginning of time and God gave him a mission. Abraham lives a long and full life. Life does not have to end in misery but can be meaningful and long also for Raskolnikov.

The reflection of the Anglo-American institute of the agreement on guilt and punishment in the chosen European countries Abstract The goal of this thesis is to describe which elements of an Anglo-American institute of the agreement on guilt and punishment (represented by the American federal legal regulation as the most influential regulation of this institute) are reflected in legal regulations of an agreement on guilt and punishment in chosen European countries (Slovakia and the Czech Republic) by a detailed analysis of particular legal regulations. This thesis is supposed to inform about the history of the institute of the agreement on guilt and punishment in countries of its origin (England, Wales and the USA) including its spreading into countries with European continental law tradition. The thesis is systematically divided into four chapters. The first chapter discusses the history of the institute of the agreement on guilt and punishment and individual subchapters describe historical development in the USA, historical development in England and Wales including its spreading into countries with European continental law tradition, the author also gives reasons why this is happening. The second chapter is focused on defining of key concepts of the thesis which are 'plea bargaining', the agreement on...

Administrative infractions in construction law Abstract The diploma thesis entitled "Administrative infractions in construction law" focuses on the law of administrative infractions and the specifics of the basic facts of administrative infractions in the field of construction law. The diploma thesis is divided into two parts, namely the general part and the special part. The general part of the thesis aims to introduce the basics of the law of administrative infraction - it consists of the definition of the concept of an administrative infraction and analyses of its basic attributes, the definition of the conditions of liability of individuals, legal entities, and enterprising individuals in administrative infractions and introduction of the issue of administrative penalties, their functions, principles, and basic principles and aspects of their imposition with a closer focus on the administrative penalty of the fine and the principles of determining its amount, for the fine is an administrative penalty that is imposed for administrative infractions under the Building Act. The special part of the diploma thesis addresses the introduction of the system of administrative infractions in the Building Act and includes a thorough analysis of the facts of administrative infractions under the Building Act with...

The Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees individuals’ right to trial by an impartial jury. However, empirical research indicates that the jury system is flawed, especially regarding judicial sentencing instructions. More specifically, jurors frequently misunderstand or misinterpret State patterned instructions. On a more encouraging note, there is evidence that comprehension of jury instructions can be improved. Thus, this research assessed improvement in juror comprehension using revised sentencing instructions. For the current investigation, participants included 201 volunteers called for jury duty in Western Tennessee. Data were generated via a questionnaire, which allowed for the collection of information relating to participants’ understanding of the sentencing instructions. Findings suggest that comprehension is low when jurors are only exposed to instructions written by the State. Furthermore, when jurors were given a more detailed explanation of certain problematic terminology, comprehension significantly increased. Policy implications of this research and directions for future improvement are discussed.

How society views the use of the death penalty as a means of punishment greatly affects the decisions of lawmakers, politicians who use it as a platform for election, and the criminals who commit the crime of murder. This study used 40 different vignettes involving real-life murder scenarios in order for participants to form a more precise opinion of what the correct punishment for the crime should be. Given a choice between the death penalty, life without the possibility of parole, a prison term of their choosing, or other, participants were asked to assign a sanction for each vignette. Respondents were asked to answer demographic questions about themselves in order for these variables to be regressed to examine how their status relates to their opinion of the death penalty as a punishment for murder. Statistical analysis showed income level, political affiliation, and religious affiliation to be significant variables. Analysis of the vignettes themselves revealed substantial variation in individual's willingness to apply the death penalty across various types of murder.

Prior research demonstrates that multiple dimensions of religiosity significantly predict punitive attitudes and militarism. This study highlights the importance of believing in a masculine God, an aspect of religiosity with a robust and consistent relationship to punitiveness and militarism, but which has previously been unexamined. After accounting for multiple aspects of religiosity highlighted by previous research—such as frequency of religious practice, religious tradition, fundamentalist identity and beliefs, and other dimensions of God image including love, anger, judgment, and engagement—believing that God is a “He” consistently and strongly increases support for harsh social policies targeting intra-societal enemies (criminals), as well as general militarism and campaigns targeting extra-societal enemies (e.g. “terrorists”). These results highlight the importance of theorizing and measuring gendered dimensions of belief in God, as well as the importance of fine-grained considerations of religion in studies of penal populism and militarism.

Given potential risk factors in the lives of adolescents, parents are usually motivated to monitor and protect their adolescents. There is a need to better understand what combinations of parental dimensions and practice best influence an adolescent's propensity to disclose or conceal personal information with their parents. This paper examines how parenting dimensions (warmth, psychological control, and harsh punishment) and the parenting practice of solicitation influence an adolescent's propensity to disclose or conceal information. Adolescents in 106 families (53 females; predominantly Caucasian) reported on their mothers' and fathers' parenting dimensions as well as their parents' effort to solicit information. Factor analysis was conducted on the measure typically used for disclosure to test whether the items measured only disclosure or if two distinct adolescent outcomes of disclosure and concealment were more appropriate. Results supported our contention that disclosure and concealment might be considered separately. Other results indicated a positive association between adolescents' disclosure and the positive parenting dimension warmth and parental solicitation. There was a negative association between disclosure and harsh punishment in the father-son dyad. Psychological control was positively associated with concealment for both adolescent boys and girls. With a few exceptions, same gendered dyads (father-son, mother-daughter) showed the most associations between parenting dimensions and practices and disclosure or concealment.

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There has been an increase in writings that address the last statements of condemned offenders. Many of these writings suggest that exposure to the humanity sometimes exhibited in these last statements may steer public opinion against the death penalty. This dissertation tests this suggestion by exposing 400 participants to randomly generated vignettes containing various capital crimes, demographic characteristics, and last statements. The survey data are analyzed utilizing multilevel modeling. Study results include the effects of varying levels of demonstrated humanity in the last statements of condemned offenders on public opinion, and whether specific demographic characteristics appear to influence study participant responses. Findings showed no statistically significant results that indicate any effect on death penalty opinion as a result of reading last statements demonstrating humanity. Condemned inmates who did not provide a statement, or stated they had nothing to say, elicited higher levels of confidence that executing them was the right thing to do. Condemned inmates who claimed innocence in their last statements were associated with the lowest level of respondent confidence that execution was the right thing to do, and a higher level of support for life without parole as an alternative punishment. Recommendations for further research are discussed.