Att hitta och utforska : Om Damien Echols autobiografi Life After Death

This paper investigates the autobiography of Damien Echols. The autobiographical subject, Echols, depicts his life as a marginalized youth during the nineteen seventies and nineteen eighties in Arkansas, USA. It also explores the years that Echols spent on Death Row after having been arrested along with two other youths for the murder of three eight-year-old boys; a crime all three of the accused denied having committed. In 2011, after eighteen years of incarceration, the three now grown up men were released from prison. The author of this paper discusses biography and especially autobiography as a genre and explores to what extent memories represent the actual life the autobiographical subject, Echols, has lived and if memories are or can be truthful. In order to find the underlying meanings of the autobiography, the author of this paper uses as a starting-point a psychoanalytic approach towards Echol’s text. Key terms that will undergo a more close inspection are horror, water and home. This paper concludes with the notion that autobiographical objective truth does not exist.

Provocation: the ongoing subservience of principle to tradition

The defence of provocation has been highly criticised. Most
commentators argue that the defence i" misguided. There does not appear
to be any community pressure to preserve the defence. Despite this,
legislatures are reluctant to abolish provocation as a partial defence to,
murder. This article examines the underlying rationale for tile defence. I1
concludes that the defence is founded on a flaw~ed assumption about
human nature-that people are captive to some of their emotional states.
It is also argued that the convoluted and confusing (if not confused) test
for provocation is evidence of the unsound nature of the defence-it is
simply a case of not being able to develop a feasible (and candid) principle
for a doctrine that is devoid of a sound justification.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are nevertheless dead: the hypothetical adolescence of Prince Hamlet and the contested remorselessness of young offenders

A young man stabs a defenceless elderly man to death, and remarks “I’ll lug the guts into the neighbour room.” Martha Grace Duncan has argued that such apparent remorselessness and other forensic features must be interpreted differently in children and young people as compared to adult defendants, because of developmental effects. Professor Duncan discusses a range of fictional as well as real examples in pressing her claim, and also appeals to psychiatric, psychological and psychoanalytic expertise. In order to examine the general validity of her argument, it is hypothesised here that a Duncanian adolescence defense has been presented for Prince Hamlet who, miraculously revived, now stands his trial for murder. It is argued that the “adolescence defense” is unsound in principle and that children and youth (whether or not as superannuated as the Prince of Denmark) should be treated in the same forensic manner as adults. If we respect children and youth, we must respect their autonomy however uncomfortable for us this may be: “So young, my lord, and true.”

Defining fraud: issues for organizations from an information systems perspective

Fraud is one of the besetting evils of our time. While less dramatic than crimes of violence like murder or rape, fraud can inflict significant damage at organizational or individual level.

Fraud is a concept that seems to have an obvious meaning until we try to define it. As fraud exists in many different guises, and it is necessary to carefully define what it is and to tailor policies and initiatives accordingly.

Developing a definition of fraud is an early step of a prevention program. In order to be involved in the protection function, people at all levels of an organization must be knowledgeable about fraud. In this paper, we discuss the risk of fraud from an information systems perspective, explain what fraud is and present a range of definitions of fraud and computer fraud. We argue that without clearly defining fraud, organizations will not be able to share information that has the same meaning to everyone, to agree on how to measure the problem, and to know the extent of the problem, in order to decide how much and where to deploy resources to effectively solve it.

Intent and Method: A Study of Female Characters in Aeschylean and Euripidean Drama

Aeschylus and Euripides used tragic female characters to help fulfill the purpose of religious celebration and to achieve the motivation of public reaction. The playwrights, revising myths about tragic woman and redefining the Greek definition of appropriate femininity, supported or questioned the very customs which they changed. Originally composed as part of a religious festival for Dionysus, the god of wine, revelry and fertility, the tragedies of Aeschylus and Euripides were evaluated by Aristotle. He favored Aeschylus over Euripides, but it appears as if his stipulations for tragic characterization do not apply to Aeschylean and Euripidean women. Modem critics question both Aristotle's analysis in the Poetics as well as the tragedies which he evaluated. As part of the assessment of Aeschylus, the character of the Persian Queen, Atossa, appears as a conradiction the images that Greeks maintain of non-Greeks. The Persians is discussed in relation to modem criticisms and as on its function as a warning against radical changes in Athenian domestic life. The Oresteia, a trilogy, also charts the importance of an atypical woman in Aeschylean tragedy, and how this role, Clytaemnestra, represents an extreme example of the natural and necessary evolution of families, households and kingdoms. In contrast to Aeschylus' plea to retain nomoi (traditional custom and law), EUripides' tragedy, the Medea, demonstrates the importance of a family and a country to provide security, especially for women. Medea's abandonment by Jason and subsequent desperation drives her to commit murder in the hope of revenge. Ultimately, Euripides advocates changes in social convention away from the alienation of non-Greek, non-citizens, and females. Euripides is, unfortunately, tagged a misogynist by some in this tragedy and another example-the Hippolytus. Euripides' Phaedra becomes entangled in a scheme of divine vengeance and ultimately commits suicide in an attempt to avoid societal shame. Far from treatises of hate, Euripidean women take advantage of the little power they possess within a constrictive social system. While both Aeschylus and Euripides revise customary images and expectations of women in the context of religiously-motivated drama, one playwright intends to maintain civic order and the other intends to challenge the secular norm.

Hunt angels

Rupert Kathner (Ben Mendelsohn) always had stars in his eyes. He wanted to make movies and wanted the whole world to see them. It was at a screening of a pilot for one of his films to studio execs that he met a woman who would change his life. Alma Brooks (Victoria Hill) was working as a secretary at the studio when she met Rupe. When they paired up, a revolutionary filmmaking duo was born. Despite opposition from the Police Commissioner himself, they produced the first true crime movie ever made in Australia: 'The Pyjama Girl Murder Case'. In the end, even the Commissioner gave it his blessing and it was an instant success. In fact, every film they ever made was shown on the big screen. Over the course of 15 years together, these mavericks managed to make a remarkable nineteen movies

Dead man walking : an empirical reassessment of the deterrent effect of capital punishment using the bounds testing approach to cointegration

This paper empirically estimates a murder supply equation for the United States from 1965 to 2001 within a cointegration and error correction framework. Our findings suggest that any support for the deterrence hypothesis is sensitive to the inclusion of variables for the effects of guns and other crimes. In the long run we find that real income and the conditional probability of receiving the death sentence are the main factors explaining variations in the homicide rate. In the short run the aggravated assault rate and robbery rate are the most important determinants of the homicide rate.

Below the styx : a novel

Martin Frobisher has been beating close family members about the head with an epergne. Frobisher, successful publisher and community leader, is in the City Remand Centre, awaiting trial for murder. What shadow has fallen across the comfortable lives of Frobisher, his ambitious wife Coralie and her flaky sister Madeleine? What has led a cultivated and reflective man, known to shoo spiders and earwigs out of the harm's way, to such reckless acts of violence?
With the prospect of imprisonment for the Term of his Natural Life, can Frobisher and his research assistant Petra find guidance in the life and fortunes of a brilliant young Englishman, marooned in Australia, 'the land of vulgarity and mob rule' more than a century earlier, and obsessed with the darker moments in the nation's history? Why does Frobisher appear to care more, in the end, about the life of Marcus Clarke than he does about his own?

The dehumanisation of the other

This dissertation utilises film and the ethical philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas to expose the dehumanising characteristics of genocide. Through four films across four different cases of genocide, the investigation reveals that defining genocide as mass murder alone limits the potential to understand the crime.

Sexual murderers' implicit theories

Interviews with 28 sexual murderers were subjected to grounded theory analysis. Five implicit theories (ITs) were identified: dangerous world, male sex drive is uncontrollable, entitlement, women as sexual objects, and women as unknowable. These ITs were found to be identical to those identified in the literature as being present in rapists. The presence of dangerous world and male sex drive is uncontrollable were present, or absent, such that three groups could be identified: (a) dangerous world plus male sex drive is uncontrollable; (b) dangerous world, in the absence of male sex drive is uncontrollable; (c) male sex drive is uncontrollable in the absence of dangerous world. These three groups were found to differ in motivation: (a) were motivated by urges to rape and murder; (b) were motivated by grievance, resentment and/or anger toward women; (c) were motivated to sexually offend but were prepared to kill to avoid detection, or secure compliance.

Homicide law reform in Victoria, Australia from provocation to defensive homicide and beyond

Homicide law reform surrounding the partial defences to murder currently animates legal stakeholders in Australia and the United Kingdom, particularly in relation to cases of lethal intimate partner violence. In 2005, the Victorian Government implemented a series of homicide law reforms, central to which was the abolition of the partial defence of provocation and the instatement of an offence of defensive homicide. This article, based on a larger qualitative research study with British, Victorian and New South Wales legal stakeholders, explores experiences and perceptions of reforms in Victoria. An analysis of the impact of homicide law reform, using Hudson's principles of discursiveness and reflectiveness as a framework for analysis, reveals some dissonance between the intent and outcomes of these legal reforms. This study concludes that reforms crafted to counter gender bias in the operation of homicide law have produced mixed results for female victims of intimate partner homicide and related case law.

The aftermath of provocation : homicide law reform in Victoria, New South Wales and England.

Over the past decade, homicide law reform surrounding the partial defences to murder has animated debate among criminological scholars and legal stakeholders in Australia and the United Kingdom. In response to these debates, criminal jurisdictions have conducted reviews of the partial defences to murder and implemented reforms targeted at reducing gender bias in the law which has played out through the operation of the partial defence of provocation. This research examines the different approaches taken to addressing the problem posed by provocation in Victoria, New South Wales and England. In doing so, it explores questions around the need for reform to the law of homicide, the effects of these reforms in practice, and the influential role of sentencing in questions surrounding homicide law reform. Throughout the analysis key frameworks of criminological thought in relation to feminist engagements with the law, the conceptualisation of denial and the influence of law and order politics upon the development of criminal justice policy are applied. By drawing on 81 in-depth interviews conducted with legal stakeholders across the three jurisdictions under study, and an analysis of relevant case law, this research concludes that reforms implemented to counter gender bias in the operation of homicide law have produced mixed results in practice, particularly in connection to the law’s response to three key categories of person in the courtroom: the jealous man, the female victim of homicide, and the battered woman.

Provocation in New South Wales : the need for abolition

Over the past two decades significant debate has emerged surrounding the operation of the partial defence of provocation. Such debates have led to its abolition in several Australian and international jurisdictions where Government and Law Commission bodies have argued that provocation has operated in a gender biased way that is no longer reflective of community values and expectations of justice. In contrast to the Australian states of Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia, who have transferred consideration of provocation to sentencing, New South Wales (NSW) has retained provocation as a partial defence to murder. Drawing upon in-depth interviews conducted with legal stakeholders and an analysis of recent case law, this article considers whether the operation of provocation in NSW is still in the best interests of justice, and, specifically, whether in practice it privileges one gender above the other. This research concludes that the continued operation of provocation in NSW raises key issues surrounding the legitimisation of male violence against women, the denial and minimisation of the harm caused by lethal domestic violence, and the continued inability of the law to appropriately respond to women who kill in the context of prolonged family violence.

Twisted things : playing with time

Twisted Things: Playing with Time is a film script and exegesis. The script, a murder mystery, slips between contemporary Melbourne and Melbourne in 1959 during the making of, ‘On the Beach’. The exegesis explores history by considering Melbourne in 1959, glamour and image, and the cinema of time.