Speeding in Australia and China : a comparison of the influence of legal sanctions and enforcement practices on car drivers

Despite increasingly sophisticated speed management strategies, speeding remains a significant contributing factor in 25% of Australia’s fatal crashes. Excessive speed is also a recognised contributor to road trauma in rapidly motorising countries such as China, where increases in vehicle ownership and new drivers, and a high proportion of vulnerable road users all contribute to a high road trauma rate. Speed choice is a voluntary behaviour. Therefore, driver perceptions are important to our understanding of the nature of speeding. This paper reports preliminary qualitative (focus groups) and quantitative (survey) investigations of the perceptions of drivers in Queensland and Beijing. Drivers’ definitions of speeding as well as their perceptions of the influence of legal factors on their reported speeds were explored. Survey participants were recruited from petrol stations (Queensland, n=833) and car washes (Beijing, n=299). Similarities were evident in justifications for exceeding speed limits across samples. Excessive speeds were not deemed as ‘speeding’ when drivers considered that they were safe and under their control, or when speed limits were seen as unreasonably low. This appears linked to perceptions of enforcement tolerances in some instances with higher perceived enforcement thresholds noted in China. Encouragingly, drivers in both countries reported a high perceived risk of apprehension if speeding. However, a substantial proportion of both samples also indicated perceptions of low certainty of receiving penalties when apprehended. Chinese drivers considered sanctions less severe than did Australian drivers. In addition, strategies to avoid detection and penalties were evident in both samples, with Chinese drivers reporting a broader range of avoidant techniques. Implications of the findings for future directions in speed management in both countries are discussed.

Impaired drivers : The need to yoke treatment and sanctions

Objective: To understand the levels of substance abuse and dependence among impaired drivers by comparing the differences in patients in substance abuse treatment programs with and without a past-year DUI arrest based on their primary problem substance at admission (alcohol, cocaine, cannabis, or methamphetamine). Method: Records on 345,067 admissions to Texas treatment programs between 2005 and 2008 have been analyzed for differences in demographic characteristics, levels of severity, and mental health problems at admission, treatment completion, and 90-day follow-up. Methods will include t-tests,??, and multivariate logistic regression. Results: The analysis found that DUI arrestees with a primary problem with alcohol were less impaired than non-DUI alcohol patients, had fewer mental health problems, and were more likely to complete treatment. DUI arrestees with a primary problem with cannabis were more impaired than non-DUI cannabis patients and there was no difference in treatment completion. DUI arrestees with a primary problem with cocaine were less impaired and more likely to complete treatment than other cocaine patients, and there was little difference in levels of mental health problems. DUI arrestees with a primary problem with methamphetamine were more similar to methamphetamine non-arrestees, with no difference in mental health problems and treatment completion. Conclusions: This study provides evidence of the extent of abuse and dependence among DUI arrestees and their need for treatment for their alcohol and drug problems in order to decrease recidivism. Treatment patients with past-year DUI arrests had good treatment outcomes but closer supervision during 90 day follow-up after treatment can lead to even better long-term outcomes, including reduced recidivism. Information will be provided on the latest treatment methodologies, including medication assisted therapies and screening and brief interventions, and ways impaired driving programs and substance dependence programs can be integrated to benefit the driver and society.

Beyond sanctions : is there a need to treat first-time offenders?

Aims: Driving Under the Influence (DUI) enforcement can be a broad screening mechanism for alcohol and other drug problems. The current response to DUI is focused on using mechanical means to prevent inebriated persons from driving, with little attention the underlying substance abuse problems. ---------- Methods: This is a secondary analysis of an administrative dataset of over 345,000 individuals who entered Texas substance abuse treatment between 2005 and 2008. Of these, 36,372 were either on DUI probation, referred to treatment by probation, or had a DUI arrest in the past year. The DUI offenders were compared on demographic characteristics, substance use patterns, and levels of impairment with those who were not DUI offenders and first DUI offenders were compared with those with more than one past-year offense. T tests and chi square tests were used to determine significance. ---------- Results: DUI offenders were more likely to be employed, to have a problem with alcohol, to report more past-year arrests for any offense, to be older, and to have used alcohol and drugs longer than the non-DUI clients who reported higher ASI scores and were more likely to use daily. Those with one past-year DUI arrest were more likely to have problems with drugs other than alcohol and were less impaired than those with two or more arrests based on their ASI scores and daily use. Non-DUI clients reported higher levels of mood disorders than DUIs but there was no difference in their diagnosis of anxiety. Similar findings were found between those with one or multiple DUI arrests. ----------Conclusion: Although first-time DUIs were not as impaired as non-DUI clients, their levels of impairment were sufficient to cause treatment. Screening and brief intervention at arrest for all DUI offenders and treatment in combination with abstinence monitoring could decrease future recidivism.

Removing barriers to protection at the exported border : visas, carrier sanctions, and international obligation

Asylum is being gradually denuded of the national institutional mechanisms (judicial, legislative and administrative) that provide the framework for a fair and effective asylum hearing. In this sense, there is an ongoing ‘denationalization’ or ‘deformalization’ of the asylum process. This chapter critically examines one of the linchpins of this trend: the erection of pre-entry measures at ports of embarkation in order to prevent asylum seekers from physically accessing the territory of the state. Pre-entry measures comprise the core requirement that foreigners possess an entry visa granting permission to enter the state of destination. Visa requirements are increasingly implemented by immigration officials posted abroad or by officials of transit countries pursuant to bilateral agreements (so-called ‘juxtaposed’ immigration controls). Private carriers, which are subject to sanctions if they bring persons to a country who do not have permission to enter, also engage in a form of de facto immigration control on behalf of states. These measures constitute a type of ‘externalized’ or ‘exported’ border that pushes the immigration boundaries of the state as far from its physical boundaries as possible. Pre-entry measures have a crippling impact on the ability of asylum seekers to access the territory of states to claim asylum. In effect, states have ‘externalized’ asylum by replacing the legal obligation on states to protect refugees arriving at ports of entry with what are perceived to be no more than moral obligations towards asylum seekers arriving at the external border of the state.

Proportionality of sanctions under the WADA Code : CAS jurisprudence and the need for a strict approach

This article suggests that the issue of proportionality in anti-doping sanctions has been inconsistently dealt with by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Given CAS’s pre-eminent role in interpreting and applying the World Anti-Doping Code under the anti-doping policies of its signatories, an inconsistent approach to the application of the proportionality principle will cause difficulties for domestic anti-doping tribunals seeking guidance as to the appropriateness of their doping sanctions.

Regulating Workplace Safety: systems and sanctions

Drawing from experience internationally, on recent and important developments in regulatory theory, and upon models and approaches constructed during the author's empirical research, this book addresses the question: how can law influence the internal self-regulation of organisations in order to make them more responsive to occupational health and safety concerns? In this context, it is argued that Occupational Health and Safety management systems have the potential to stimulate models of self-organisation within firms in such a way as to make them self-reflective and to encourage informal self-critical reflection about their occupational health and safety performance.

Report to VicRoads: Vehicle based sanctions to address drink driving

Licence sanctions including suspension, disqualification, or revocation have been effective in reducing recidivism and crash rates among those convicted of driving while under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. Nonetheless, studies have indicated that many offenders continue to drive while they are unlicensed. Consequently, more recent attention has been given to vehicle sanctions that separate the offender from their vehicle. Vehicle based interventions focus on incapacitating the vehicle or separating it from the offending driver rather than relying on the threat of further sanctions to encourage compliance. Following on from a previous review conducted by Dr. Ron Christie (2006) for VicRoads, which examined the effectiveness of vehicle based sanctions in deterring unlicensed driving, this report considers the effectiveness of the aforementioned vehicle based sanctions for addressing drink driving.

Community Sanctions and Measures

This chapter explores the use of community sanctions in the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ireland. It locates this discussion within a wider international landscape, where the numbers of people subject to supervision in the community has risen markedly. It explores some of the reasons for this growth alongside the rationalities that are deployed to promote the use of community sanctions over time. The differing trajectories of the two jurisdictions in respect of the evolution and use of community sanctions are explored, as are some of the factors that explain areas of divergence and commonality. The chapter concludes by critically considering penal reductionism as a point of policy convergence in the two jurisdictions.

How Effective are Unemployment Benefit Sanctions? Looking Beyond Unemployment Exit

This paper provides a comprehensive evaluation of the effects of benefit sanctions on post-unemployment outcomes such as post-unemployment employment stability and earnings. We use rich register data which allow us to distinguish between a warning that a benefit reduction may take place in the near future and the actual withdrawal of unemployment benefits. Adopting a multivariate mixed proportional hazard approach to address selectivity, we find that warnings do not affect subsequent employment stability but do reduce post-unemployment earnings. Actual benefit reductions lower the quality of post-unemployment jobs both in terms of job duration as well as in terms of earnings. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An Examination of Youth Perceptions and Understandings of their Experiences with Extrajudicial Sanctions in Relation to Key Principles of the YCJA

It is unclear how the principles of meaningful consequences, fair and proportionate accountability, and rehabilitation and reintegration under the Youth Criminal Justice Act (2003) are understood and experienced by youth participating in diversion from youth court. Interviews with 20 youth revealed that, from their understanding, extrajudicial sanctions were viewed as accomplishing the goals of meaningful consequences and fair and proportionate accountability relatively well, but less emphasis was placed on rehabilitation and reintegration. The findings suggest that there may be a need an examination of the spectrum of responses available to youth under the umbrella of Extrajudicial Sanctions and their ability to achieve the key principles of the legislation. Implications for both youth and policy are addressed.

L'impact de l'obligation de bonne foi: étude sur ses rôles et sanctions lors de la formation et l'élaboration du contrat.

En adoptant le nouveau Code civil du Québec, en 1994, le législateur a codifié une obligation commençant à se développer sérieusement en jurisprudence : l’obligation de bonne foi. Plus que le simple antonyme de la mauvaise foi, cette obligation de bonne foi exige maintenant un comportement spécifique de la part des justiciables. Il faut agir selon les exigences de la bonne foi. Celles-ci sont particulièrement importantes en matière contractuelle, puisqu'en plus des articles généraux du tout début du Code civil, le principe de la bonne foi est réitéré dans le chapitre portant sur les contrats. On y prévoit expressément que la bonne foi doit gouverner les relations contractuelles, et ce, à tous les stades de la vie contractuelle. Notre mémoire s'insère dans cette nouvelle tendance contractuelle. Notre but est d'étudier l'impact de la bonne foi lors de la formation et de l'élaboration du contrat. Cette étude implique de définir et d'analyser les fonctions de l'obligation de bonne foi. En matière de formation et d'élaboration du contrat, une telle analyse ne peut se faire sans une étude détaillée de l'obligation de renseignement, composante essentielle de l'obligation de bonne foi à ce stade de la vie contractuelle. C'est l'étude que nous proposons en première partie de ce mémoire. Cette première partie permettra de constater que l’obligation de bonne foi est une obligation positive de comportement. Les tribunaux utilisent cette obligation pour tenter d'intégrer à la vie contractuelle, une dimension morale comportant des devoirs de loyauté, de collaboration et d'information. Au Québec, la bonne foi est surtout utilisée à des fins interprétative, complétive et limitative du contrat. La deuxième partie de ce mémoire se consacre à l'application des principes dégagés en première partie. Elle permet de constater comment les tribunaux ont, jusqu'à présent, utilisé l’obligation de bonne foi lors de la formation et de l'élaboration du contrat, notamment en la juxtaposant aux vices du consentement. Nous tentons de critiquer cette approche jurisprudentielle et de lui proposer une approche alternative, fondée sur une série de recours spécifiquement et uniquement rattachés à l'obligation de bonne foi. Nous proposerons une série de sanctions spécifiques à l'obligation de bonne foi lors de la formation et de l'élaboration du contrat, le tout en accord avec les fondements de la théorie contractuelle.

Les décisions rendues par les arbitres de griefs dans les cas de sanctions visant des policiers ayant eu des démêlés judiciaires

L’objet de cette étude porte sur la détermination de la sanction à imposer aux policiers ayant été reconnus coupables d’infractions criminelles, sur l’influence de l’article 18.2 de la Charte des droits et libertés de la personne dans cette détermination et sur les méthodes utilisées dans la jurisprudence arbitrale. Deux méthodes de détermination des sanctions s’opposent sur ce sujet, soit la méthode « large et libérale » et la méthode « stricte et littérale ». La méthode de détermination des sanctions « large et libérale » prévoit, entre autres, l’application de l’article 18.2 de la Charte des droits et libertés de la personne. Cette loi est de niveau quasi constitutionnel et prévoit, notamment, l’analyse objective du lien existant entre l’emploi de policier et l’infraction criminelle commise. Quant à la méthode de détermination des sanctions « stricte et littérale », elle résulte de l’application de la Loi sur la police qui est une loi ordinaire prévoyant un régime particulier pour les policiers reconnus coupables d’infractions criminelles. En effet, l’article 119 de la Loi sur la police implique, depuis son remaniement en 2000, la destitution automatique des policiers reconnus coupables d’une infraction criminelle poursuivable uniquement par voie de mise en accusation et la destitution des policiers reconnus coupables d’une infraction criminelle poursuivable soit sur déclaration de culpabilité par procédure sommaire, soit par voie de mise en accusation à moins que le policier ne puisse démontrer que des circonstances particulières ne justifient une mesure différente que la destitution. L’analyse réalisée dans le cadre de cette recherche vise la détermination des sanctions guidant les décisions des arbitres de griefs quant à la situation des policiers accusés et/ou reconnus coupables d’infractions criminelles en cours d’emploi. À cet effet, 25 décisions arbitrales et leurs révisions judiciaires ont été étudiées selon l’analyse de contenu à l’aide d’une grille d’analyse. L’analyse des données obtenues a par la suite été réalisée par l’entremise de l’analyse qualitative.