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The scholarly literature on sentencing reform has largely overlooked the African continent. The paucity of legal scholarship is particularly striking with respect to Tanzania, one of Africa's largest and most populous countries. This article explores the first significant sentencing reform in Tanzania's history. In 2020, the Tanzanian judiciary issued a comprehensive set of sentencing guidelines for courts to follow. Until this point, sentencing was a highly discretionary stage of the criminal process, and the Tanzanian penal code offered very little guidance with respect to the exercise of that discretion. After providing a brief summary of the new sentencing regime, we explore the innovative guidance contained in the reforms. In the conclusion we discuss the extent to which the Tanzanian reforms reflect core African values of Ubuntu, or more specifically in the case of Tanzania, Ujamaa, the philosophy popularized by Tanzania's first president, Julius Nyerere.

Functional connectivity (FC) is a sensitive metric that provides a readout of whole cortex coordinate neural activity in a mouse model. We examine the impact of experimental SAH modeled through endovascular perforation, and the effectiveness of subsequent treatment on FC, through three key questions: 1) Does the endovascular perforation model of SAH induce deficits in FC; 2) Does exposure to hypoxic conditioning provide protection against these FC deficits and, if so, is this neurovascular protection SIRT1-mediated; and 3) does treatment with the SIRT1 activator resveratrol alone provide protection against these FC deficits? Cranial windows were adhered on skull-intact mice that were then subjected to either sham or SAH surgery and either left untreated or treated with hypoxic post-conditioning (with or without EX527) or resveratrol for 3 days. Mice were imaged 3 days post-SAH/sham surgery, temporally aligned with the onset of major SAH sequela in mice. Here we show that the endovascular perforation model of SAH induces global and network-specific deficits in FC by day 3, corresponding with the time frame of DCI in mice. Hypoxic conditioning provides SIRT1-mediated protection against these network-specific FC deficits post-SAH, as does treatment with resveratrol. Conditioning-based strategies provide multifaceted neurovascular protection in experimental SAH.

Diazaborines react slowly with H2O2 but rapidly with ONOO−, offering a new platform for discriminating between these two cellular ROS.

This chapter provides an introduction to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) at sentencing. It deals with the questions: What does it mean to talk about using artificial intelligence at sentencing? And why is it important to consider the ethical and penal theoretical aspects of the use of artificial intelligence in the determination of sentences? Furthermore, it provides an overview of the varied topics that are considered in the ensuing chapters of the book.

Proposals to incorporate AI into the sentencing process range from merely supporting judges, to replacing them entirely. This chapter discusses the appropriate role of AI at sentencing and explores some of its potential applications. We argue that the more ambitious proposals overlook several key characteristics of sentencing that render it an inherently human task. Nevertheless, AI is capable of making a much greater contribution to the sentencing process than at present. We discuss the benefits of what we term an Advisory Sentence—a sentence recommendation derived by an AI program based on past judicial practice. The Advisory Sentence has the potential to support and improve judicial decision-making, for example, by reducing discrimination at sentencing, detecting local sentencing anomalies, and facilitating appellate review. Lastly, the chapter touches on AI’s potential to shape and enhance existing sentencing guidelines.

In 2017, the Sentencing Council introduced a revised guideline for plea-based sentence reductions. The revisions were designed to provide greater certainty and to accelerate the timing of guilty pleas. Late pleas resulting in ‘cracked trials’ have long been a problem in the court system. The guideline was not intended to change the rate of defendants who plead guilty, but rather to increase the percentage of pleas entered early in the criminal process. This brief article reports findings from an analysis of data from the Crown Court before and after the introduction of the revised sentencing guideline. Findings reveal that the overall guilty plea remained stable over the period 2014–2019. The guideline appears to have had no effect on the timing of guilty pleas entered, and in fact the percentage of ‘cracked’ trials rose in the post-guideline period.

Sentencing for multiple offences poses many challenges and becomes even more complex when the crimes resulted in fatalities. This article uses the sentences imposed following convictions in the Essex lorry case to pose some general questions about the sentencing of multiple victim manslaughters. The four principal offenders were convicted of 39 counts of unlawful act manslaughter and conspiracy to facilitate unlawful immigration into the UK. The analysis identifies several ways in which the sentences ultimately imposed failed to adequately distinguish between offenders of very different levels of culpability. First, all four principal offenders were assigned to the same level of culpability in the manslaughter guideline. Second, although the court could have distinguished the offenders to reflect their different culpability levels, the same Starting Point sentence was imposed on all offenders. Third, the sentencing uplifts to reflect the multiple counts were similar across offenders of very different culpabilities. Fourth, the differential additional punishments for the conspiracy conviction — which would have separated the offenders’ time in custody further — were washed out by being made concurrent. As a result of these decisions, the final sentences failed to adequately distinguish between offenders of very different culpabilities. The article concludes with some lessons for sentencing in these cases, specifically with respect to the Sentencing Council’s guidelines.

Sleep curtailment and circadian misalignment disrupt energy sensing and eating behaviors, which can contribute to weight gain and obesity-related comorbidities. Herein, we review the effects of experimental manipulations of sleep duration and circadian alignment on circulating concentrations of appetite hormones, specifically leptin and ghrelin. Further, we focus on sex differences in hormonal and behavioral responses related to food intake. The studies reviewed suggest potential sex-specific effects of sleep curtailment on key hormones involved in the gut-brain axis, presumably leading to downstream effects on neural processes involved in food seeking and consumption behaviors. However, there is insufficient evidence to declare any sex-specific effects of circadian misalignment on appetite regulation. More research is needed to elucidate the complex sex-specific relationships between sleep, circadian rhythms, energy homeostasis, and appetite regulating mechanisms. Greater knowledge of these mechanisms would aid in the development of targeted methods to mitigate risk for obesity and related metabolic diseases.

Background and Purpose:Early brain injury may be a more significant contributor to poor outcome after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) than vasospasm and delayed cerebral ischemia. However, studying this process has been hampered by lack of a means of quantifying the spectrum of injury. Global cerebral edema (GCE) is the most widely accepted manifestation of early brain injury but is currently assessed only through subjective, qualitative or semi-quantitative means. Selective sulcal volume (SSV), the CSF volume above the lateral ventricles, has been proposed as a quantitative biomarker of GCE, but is time-consuming to measure manually. Here we implement an automated algorithm to extract SSV and evaluate the age-dependent relationship of reduced SSV on early outcomes after aSAH.Methods:We selected all adults with aSAH admitted to a single institution with imaging within 72 hours of ictus. Scans were assessed for qualitative presence of GCE. SSV was automatically segmented from serial CTs using a deep learning-based approach. Early SSV was the lowest SSV from all early scans. Modified Rankin Scale score of 4 to 6 at hospital discharge was classified as a poor outcome.Results:Two hundred forty-four patients with aSAH were included. Sixty-five (27%) had GCE on admission while 24 developed it subsequently within 72 hours. Median SSV on admission was 10.7 mL but frequently decreased, with minimum early SSV being 3.0 mL (interquartile range, 0.3–11.9). Early SSV below 5 mL was highly predictive of qualitative GCE (area under receiver-operating-characteristic curve, 0.90). Reduced early SSV was an independent predictor of poor outcome, with a stronger effect in younger patients.Conclusions:Automated assessment of SSV provides an objective biomarker of GCE that can be leveraged to quantify early brain injury and dissect its impact on outcomes after aSAH. Such quantitative analysis suggests that GCE may be more impactful to younger patients with SAH.

Little evidence supports acquisition of routine head imaging after uncomplicated elective neurosurgical procedures for patients with unchanged neurological examinations; however, imaging is still performed by some neurointerventionalists. We assessed the clinical utility of routine computed tomography of the head (CTH) following elective neuroendovascular interventions, including aneurysm coiling, aneurysm stent-assisted coiling, aneurysm flow diversion, arteriovenous malformation/fistula embolization, middle meningeal artery embolization for subdural hematoma, extracranial carotid artery stenting, and venous sinus stenting.Retrospective chart review identified patients undergoing neuroendovascular intervention from 2011 to 2021 at our institution. Demographic, clinical, and radiographic variables, including presenting signs and symptoms, antiplatelets and/or anticoagulant medications, intraprocedural complications, postprocedural CTH findings, and postprocedural neurological examinations, were recorded. Association of clinical variables with an abnormal postprocedural CTH was assessed with univariate analysis. Patients with ruptured vascular pathology, preoperative embolizations, and missing postprocedural CTH images and/or reports were excluded.Of 509 procedures identified, 354 were eligible for analysis; 4.8% of patients (17/354) had abnormal findings on postprocedural CTH. Nine patients had intraprocedural complications or new postprocedural neurological deficits that would have prompted imaging regardless of institutional practice. None of the remaining 8 (2.3%) patients required additional procedures. New postprocedural neurological deficit was the only significant predictor of abnormal postprocedural CTH (odds ratio = 6.79; 95% confidence interval, 2.01-20.32; P = 0.0009).In a large cohort of patients undergoing elective neuroendovascular intervention, no patients were identified for whom routine postprocedural CTH alone meaningfully altered their clinical care. Routine CTH is not necessary after uncomplicated elective neuroendovascular interventions performed with careful postprocedural neurological assessment.

It is well established from gas centrifuge (GC) development that isotope separation in a rotating, multispecies gaseous medium increases with axial circulation of the rotating gas in a long separation chamber. This article aims at the development of a commercially viable plasma centrifuge (PC) for specific, nonuranium isotopes. The proposed model PC employs crossed constant radial electric and axial magnetic fields to provide radial separation of a partially ionized gas, combined with a thermal method to establish axial circulation in the rotating medium. The proposed thermal method creates an axial temperature gradient by cooling one end of the separation chamber. By calculation, the inclusion of circulation flow is shown to create axial redistribution of the target component concentration, increasing the longitudinal separation. An analysis of the hydrodynamic and thermal problems is performed for an extended end disk PC in the framework of the boundary layer theory. Radial velocity profiles of the conducting gas in the boundary layer are calculated with respect to the temperature ratio in the external flow ( $T_{1}$ ) and the disk surface ( $T_{0}$ ) for various Prandtl (Pr) numbers. The results demonstrate that for small values of the Pr number, cooling of an end surface within the PC separation chamber results in an intensive inflow of the conducting medium to the solid surface. It is shown that in a PC with crossed fields, cooling one of its ends achieves an effective multiplication of the separation effect along the length of the column.

Sporotrichosis is caused by the thermodimorphic fungi of the genus Sporothrix. It is the most common cutaneous mycosis in Latin America, but it is considered uncommon in pregnancy. We report a pregnant woman with with an exuberant ulcerated plaque that proved to be localized sporotrichosis. Therapy choice is a difficult decision in this group of patients. In this case, there was complete resolution of the infection after delivery, without any therapeutic intervention.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as hydrogen peroxide (H

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-jcb-10.1177_0271678X221079902 for SIRT1 mediates hypoxic postconditioning- and resveratrol-induced protection against functional connectivity deficits after subarachnoid hemorrhage by Julian V Clarke, Lindsey M Brier, Rachel M Rahn, Deepti Diwan, Jane Y Yuan, Annie R Bice, Shin-ichiro Imai, Ananth K Vellimana, Joseph P Culver and Gregory J Zipfel in Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism

Delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI) after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) has been associated with numerous pathophysiological sequelae, including large artery vasospasm and microvascular thrombosis. The focus of this review is to provide an overview of experimental animal model studies and human autopsy studies that explore the temporal-spatial characterization and mechanism of microvascular platelet aggregation and thrombosis following SAH, as well as to critically assess experimental studies and clinical trials highlighting preventative therapeutic options against this highly morbid pathophysiological process. Upon review of the literature, we discovered that microvascular platelet aggregation and thrombosis occur after experimental SAH across multiple species and SAH induction techniques in a similar time frame to other components of DCI, occurring in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus across both hemispheres. We discuss the relationship of these findings to human autopsy studies. In the final section of this review, we highlight the important therapeutic options for targeting microvascular platelet aggregation and thrombosis, and emphasize why therapeutic targeting of this neurovascular pathology may improve patient care. We encourage ongoing research into the pathophysiology of SAH and DCI, especially in regard to microvascular platelet aggregation and thrombosis and the translation to randomized clinical trials.

Introduction Depression is one of the leading causes of disability in the world, and a disease that contributes greatly to the global burden of disease. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has proven to be a well-tolerated, effective treatment for depression. The present study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of an rTMS treatment scheme with a fewer number of sessions per week. Methods In total 91 adult university students with major depressive disorder (MDD). This was a double-blind, randomized clinical trial in which 15 sessions of rTMS were given to each one of two treatment groups made up of adults with active MDD. One treatment group received two sessions per week, the other received five. The study protocol included their respective sham rTMS groups. The patients who received active rTMS also participated in a follow-up procedure that consisted of two sessions of active rTMS per month for three more months. Results Measurements by the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD) showed that the groups which received active rTMS had higher percentages of antidepressant response at 96 and 95.5% for five and two sessions/week, respectively, compared to the sham rTMS groups: 27.3 and 4.5% for five and two sessions/week, respectively. Observations at the end of the 3-month follow-up phase showed that the improvements in HAMD scores were maintained in both groups. Conclusion This study contributes to demonstrating that rTMS with a more practical schedule of two sessions/week is an effective antidepressant treatment that could be considered the first choice for managing symptoms of depression.

Using National Health Interview Survey data from the second six months of 2020, this Early Release report provides preliminary estimates of the percentages of adults and children living in homes with only wireless telephones.

To date, the literature on sentencing reform has largely focused on western jurisdictions, particularly the United States and Europe. Developments in other parts of the world, particularly on the African continent, have been overlooked. This article explores sentencing in a lesser-known African jurisdiction: Ethiopia. The focus of the essay is upon the issue of structured sentencing. Sentencing in Ethiopia, like most jurisdictions, has historically been a very discretionary stage of the criminal process. That has now changed with the introduction of a comprehensive guideline scheme. Although sentencing guidelines in the US and England and Wales have been the subject of much critical scrutiny, nonwestern guidelines have attracted very little attention from scholars. Although there are parallels between the structure of the Ethiopian system and guidelines in other countries, there are also important differences. Since they are more developed than guidelines in adjacent countries, the Ethiopian guidelines constitute a model for other regional nations, including those with a post-colonial legacy. After providing an overview of sentencing in Ethiopia, the article describes the origin, nature, and consequences of the Ethiopian guidelines. The guidelines provide sentence ranges for different levels of seriousness for many crimes, and also prescribe a methodology to guide courts sentencing for offences for which no such guidance exists. They also provide some structure for the judicial use of mitigating and aggravating factors at sentencing. We conclude by identifying some deficiencies of the current guidelines and propose some specific remedies.

Changes to the sentencing process in Canada are finally imminent. A number of reports in recent years have called for reforms in the area of sentencing and parole. In 1987, the Canadian Sentencing Commission released its final report Sentencing Reform: A Canadian Approach. This was followed in 1988 by the report of the Daubney Committee following its investigation into sentencing and parole. In addition to these proposals, the now-defunct Law Reform Commission of Canada, the Department of Justice and the Ministry of the Solicitor General all published reports containing reform proposals. In this article, the authors review recent events in the area of sentencing since the publication of the report of the Canadian Sentencing Commission. After a brief introduction, four principal policy issues are examined: (i) statutory statements of sentencing purpose; (ii) sentencing guidelines; (iii) the future of release on parole; (iv) the creation of a permanent sentencing commission for Canada. For each issue, the article critically examines the position taken by major players in the area of criminal law reform. The article concludes with a brief examination of Bill C-90, which recently received first reading, and which will be the object of further parliamentary scrutiny in the fall of 1992. In a subsequent article, the authors offer their own proposals to reform the sentencing of offenders in Canada., Le processus de la détermination de la peine au Canada est en train de changer. Dans la dernière décennie, le système pénal a vu plusieurs rapports sur le sujet. En 1987, la Commission canadienne sur la détermination de la peine a publié son rapport Réformer la sentence : une approche canadienne. L’année suivante, le Comité permanent de la justice et du solliciteur général (le Comité Daubney) a fait une étude sur la détermination de la peine, la mise en liberté sous condition et d’autres aspects du système correctionnel. En 1990, le gouvernement fédéral a proposé des modifications à la détermination de la peine et aux services correctionnels fédéraux. En 1992, il y avait deux projets de loi, le C-36 et le C-90. Le premier a reçu l’approbation royale en juin, et le deuxième a subi sa première lecture en même temps. Dans cet article, les auteurs résument les événements les plus importants. En particulier, ils examinent quatre sujets critiques : i) la déclaration du but et des principes de la sentence; ii) les lignes directrices en matière de détermination des sentences; iii) la libération conditionnelle; iv) la création d’une commission permanente des sentences au Canada. Les auteurs concluent avec un court aperçu du projet de loi C-90 que le gouvernement fédéral vient de publier. Dans un autre article, ces auteurs proposent leurs propres réformes.

This article advances a censure-based case against sentences of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Our argument justifies a retributive “second look” assessment of long-term priso...

Most research in sentencing discrimination in the United Kingdom has relied on aggregate analyses comparing disparities by ethnic group. These studies fail to consider differences in the individual characteristics of the cases processed. To circumvent the lack of official data, we scraped sentence records stored in a commercial website, from which a sample of 8,437 offenders sentenced to custody in the Crown Court from 2007 to 2017 was generated. Using the names of the offenders, we have been able to classify 8.6 per cent of our sample as having a traditional Muslim name. We find that Muslim-named offenders received sentences 9.8 per cent longer than the rest of the sample. However, this difference disappeared once we accounted for the type of offence and other key case characteristics.

This report summarizes sentencing outcomes for different ethnic groups in England and Wales. It is based on analyses of court data over the period 2009-2019. All previously published reports present the data on custody rates and on average custodial sentence lengths separately. In this report, we combine these two measures to form a new measure of punitiveness for indictable offences: the ‘Expected Custodial Sentence’. This measure provides a more comprehensive measure of the use of imprisonment. Whilst the Expected Custodial Sentence increased for all ethnic groups throughout the period 2009-2019, the figure for White offenders is consistently lower than for other ethnic groups. In 2019, the Expected Custodial Sentence for an indictable offence ranged between 6.6 months for a White offender and 10.2 months for an Asian offender. However, the overall Expected Custodial Sentence figure masks considerable variation across offence categories, with the greatest divergence evident for violent offences against the person.

This paper explores the ways that sentencing guidelines, properly constructed, can promote proportionality at sentencing. The essay uses the sentencing guidelines created in England and Wales to illustrate the potential benefits, and challenges, associated with this method of structuring judicial discretion at sentencing.

Molecular dynamics simulations were performed on mixtures of N,N,N���,N���-tetra(2-ethylhexyl)diglycolamide (T2EHDGA) and 2-ethylhexylphosphonic acid mono(2-ethylhexyl) ester (HEHEHP) extractants in a dodecane-water system in order to understand the organization and interfacial behavior of extractants in the Actinide-Lanthanide Separation (ALSEP) process. The dynamic behavior and coordination environments of these extractants near the interface were investigated as a function of aqueous nitric acid concentration in the range 0���6 M HNO3. To gain a complete molecular picture of the extractants��� interfacial behaviors, the effects of varying acidity were scrutinized in the context of spatial distributions of extractants within a given phase, chemical interactions, interfacial orientation, and extractant conformation. While the composition of the interfacial solvent mixing region changed with increasing acidity, the behavior of both extractants exhibited very little response to the varying acid levels, but in their own distinct manner. HEHEHP was found to express a specific interfacial behavior marked by a stronger affinity for the interface, with the polar POOH head group being oriented toward the interface and the alkyl chains residing in a constrained conformation. The larger and more flexible extractant, T2EHDGA, is less strongly associated with the interfacial region, on average dwells deeper into the organic phase, and displays orientations and conformations that are more like those of bulk organic phase T2EHDGA molecules than the ordered HEHEHP molecules.

Sentencing for multiple offences poses many challenges and becomes even more complex when the crimes resulted in fatalities. This article uses the sentences imposed following convictions in the Essex lorry case to pose some general questions about the sentencing of multiple victim manslaughters. The four principal offenders were convicted of 39 counts of unlawful act manslaughter and conspiracy to facilitate unlawful immigration into the UK. The analysis identifies several ways in which the sentences ultimately imposed failed to adequately distinguish between offenders of very different levels of culpability. First, all four principal offenders were assigned to the same level of culpability in the manslaughter guideline. Second, although the court could have distinguished the offenders to reflect their different culpability levels, the same Starting Point sentence was imposed on all offenders. Third, the sentencing uplifts to reflect the multiple counts were similar across offenders of very different culpabilities. Fourth, the differential additional punishments for the conspiracy conviction – which would have separated the offenders' time in custody further – were washed out by being made concurrent. As a result of these decisions, the final sentences failed to adequately distinguish between offenders of very different culpabilities. The article concludes with some lessons for sentencing in these cases, specifically with respect to the Sentencing Council's guidelines.

The scholarly literature on sentencing reform has largely overlooked Africa. The paucity of legal scholarship is particularly striking with respect to Tanzania, one of Africa's largest and most populous countries. This article explores the first significant sentencing reform in Tanzania's history. In 2020, the Tanzanian judiciary issued a comprehensive set of sentencing guidelines for courts to follow. Until this point, sentencing was a highly discretionary stage of the criminal process. Courts had wide discretion, and the Tanzanian penal code offered very little guidance with respect to the exercise of that discretion. After providing a brief summary of the sentencing regime, we explore the innovative guidance contained in the reforms. At the conclusion we discuss the extent to which the Tanzanian reforms reflect core African values of Ubuntu, or more specifically in the case of Tanzania, Ujamaa, the philosophy promoted by Tanzania's first President, Julius Nyerere.

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-jcb-10.1177_0271678X20921974 for Microvascular platelet aggregation and thrombosis after subarachnoid hemorrhage: A review and synthesis by Julian V Clarke, Julia M Suggs, Deepti Diwan, Jin V Lee, Kim Lipsey, Ananth K Vellimana and Gregory J Zipfel in Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-jcb-10.1177_0271678X20921974 for Microvascular platelet aggregation and thrombosis after subarachnoid hemorrhage: A review and synthesis by Julian V Clarke, Julia M Suggs, Deepti Diwan, Jin V Lee, Kim Lipsey, Ananth K Vellimana and Gregory J Zipfel in Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism

How does the passage of time affect sentencing? Increasingly, courts around the world are being required to sentence offenders for crimes committed years or even decades earlier. Prevailing conceptions of harm and culpability change over time. Policy makers concerned with punishment and sentencing should be sensitive to changes in the absolute and relative seriousness of crimes as well as the absolute and relative severity of punishments. Ordinal rankings of offenses have evolved over the past 50 years, as has our understanding of the impact of various sanctions. Issues raised by sentencing for crimes committed much earlier illustrate the need for a time-sensitive approach. Should defendants be sentenced according to standards prevailing at the time of the offense or according to current standards? Courts in different jurisdictions have taken different positions on this question. Applying current standards amounts to retroactively re-calibrating the offender's culpability. This essay argues that offenders should be judged by the standards prevailing when they took the decision to offend. A time-sensitive approach would apply the sentencing standards of the earlier time, yet also consider time-relevant mitigation and aggravation in the period since commission of the offense. The offender's conduct and the victim's suffering during the period are both relevant factors. Although the emphasis in this essay is upon proportional sentencing, on any model the offence and the offender should never be treated as a moment in time, caught like an insect in amber. The passage of time often changes our evaluation of the offense and the offender, and when this occurs the nature of the sentence should change. The analysis also extends to long-serving prisoners, whose sentences should be reviewed after years have passed in case they are no longer deemed proportionate.

Increasingly, courts around the world are being required to sentence offenders for crimes committed years or even decades earlier. Prevailing conceptions of harm and culpability change over time. Policymakers concerned with punishment and sentencing should be sensitive to changes in the absolute and relative seriousness of crimes as well as the absolute and relative severity of punishments. Ordinal rankings of offenses have evolved over the past 50 years, as has our understanding of the impact of various sanctions. Issues raised by sentencing for crimes committed much earlier illustrate the need for a time-sensitive approach. Should defendants be sentenced according to standards prevailing at the time of the offense or according to current standards? In a just system, offenders would be judged by the standards prevailing when they took the decision to offend. A time-sensitive approach would apply the sentencing standards of the earlier time yet also consider time-relevant mitigation and aggravation in the subsequent period. The offender’s conduct and the victim’s suffering during the period are both relevant factors. Passage of time often changes our evaluation of the offense and the offender. When this occurs, the nature of the sentence should change. Likewise for long-serving prisoners, whose sentences should be reviewed after years have passed, in case they are no longer deemed proportionate.

The consequences of a person’s prior crimes remain after the debt to society is paid and the sentence is discharged. While the practice of using prior convictions to enhance the severity of sentence imposed is universal, prior record enhancements (PREs) play a particularly important role in US sentencing, and especially in guidelines jurisdictions. In grid-based guidelines, criminal history constitutes one of the two dimensions of the grid. The enhancements are hard to justify. Retributive theories generally reject the use of robust, cumulative record-based enhancements. Research into recidivism suggests that the preventive benefits of PREs have been overstated. The public support the consideration of prior convictions at sentencing, but there is convincing evidence that people are less punitive in their views than are many US guideline schemes. PREs exacerbate racial disparities in prison admissions and populations, result in significant additional prison costs, undermine offense-based proportionality, and disrupt prison resource prioritization.

Swimmers undertake dry-land resistance training as part of their overall training regime in order to increase lower body force output, impulse and swim turn performance. We investigated whether short-term ballistic training or maximal strength training is more effective in enhancing leg extensor force characteristics during the swim turn. Twelve elite swimmers (10 males and 2 females 19.4 ± 1.0 y) were assigned to either strength (n = 6) or ballistic leg extensor (n = 6) training based on their coaching group for a six-week period. All testing was conducted during the final training cycle towards the World Championships selection trials. Swimmers undertook dry-land testing of a squat jump on a portable force platform with bodyweight only and an additional 30 kg load for males and 20 kg load for females. On the same day, all swimmers performed a turn analysis using a fixed force platform within the pool wall. There were no substantial differences between the strength and ballistic groups after the six-week...

Au Canada, la determination de la peine comporte de nombreux problemes, mais un point faible se demarque : le tres haut taux d'incarceration chez les Autochtones. Cet article documente les tendances actuelles et historiques des taux d'incarcerations des Autochtones aux niveaux provincial/territorial et federal depuis 1978. Nous nous attardons particulierement aux annees qui ont suivies deux jugements importants de la Cour supreme (en 1999 et 2012) qui a ordonne les cours de faire preuve de plus grande retenue quand venait le temps de determiner la peine de detenus autochtones. Les donnees primaires viennent de l'enquete sur les Services correctionnels pour adultes realisee par Statistiques Canada. En 2014, les personnes autochtones formaient un peu plus d'un quart de toutes les incarcerations provinciales et territoriales, une hausse importante depuis le pourcentage note en 1978 (16 %). En fait, au cours des 20 dernieres annees, toutes les juridictions sauf une ont note une augmentation du pourcentage d'incarcerations d'Autochtones dans les etablissements correctionnels provinciaux et territoriaux. Malgre les jugements de la Cour supreme et des cours d'appel provinciales, ainsi que plusieurs autres interventions de reeducation, notamment la creation de tribunaux dits Gladue et une forme alternative de detention passee dans la communaute, le probleme de la surincarceration des Autochtones s'est empire au lieu de s'ameliorer. Abstract: Sentencing in Canada is beset by many problems, yet one weakness stands above the rest: the disproportionately high rates of Aboriginal incarceration. This article documents current and historical trends in levels of Aboriginal incarceration at the provincial/territorial and federal levels since 1978. We pay particular attention to the years following two important Supreme Court judgements (in 1999 and 2012) that directed the courts to use custody with greater restraint when sentencing an Aboriginal offender. The primary data derive from the annual Adult Correctional Services survey conducted by Statistics Canada. In 2014, Aboriginal persons accounted for just over one quarter of all provincial and territorial admissions, significantly higher than the percentage recorded in 1978 (16%). In fact, over the past 20 years, all jurisdictions save one have experienced an increase in the percentage of Aboriginal admissions to provincial and territorial correctional institutions. Despite judgements from the Supreme Court and provincial courts of appeal, as well as several other remedial interventions, such as the creation of so-called Gladue courts and an alternate form of custody that would be served in the community, the problem of Aboriginal over-incarceration has worsened, not improved.

Although women represent a small minority of the prison population in all nations, it has long been a concern that custody is overused with respect to female offenders. Reducing the number of women in prison has therefore emerged as a policy priority in many western nations, including the United Kingdom. This article evaluates a range of sentencing strategies to reduce the number of women in prison, on the grounds that their experience of the sanction is disproportionately severe. The challenge is to achieve a reduction in women’s imprisonment without compromising the fundamental sentencing principles of equity and proportionality. Although no jurisdiction has launched a sentencing initiative with this specific aim, the international sentencing literature offers insight into the most effective methods by which reductions may be achieved. Informed by the principle of equal impact, which underpins gender-specific sentencing, we explore policy options in two principal domains: (1) statutory provisions to eliminate or restrict judicial discretion to imprison female offenders; and (2) sentencing guidelines to structure judicial discretion in gender-sensitive ways. We conclude by considering the likelihood of implementing the options.

In this paper we study the homotopy limits of cosimplicial diagrams of dg-categories. We first give an explicit construction of the totalization of such a diagram and then show that the totalization agrees with the homotopy limit in the following two cases: (1) the complexes of sheaves of $\mathcal O$-modules on the \v{C}ech nerve of an open cover of a ringed space $(X, \mathcal O)$; (2) the complexes of sheaves on the simplicial nerve of a discrete group $G$ acting on a space. The explicit models we obtain in this way are twisted complexes as well as their $D$-module and $G$-equivariant versions. As an application we show that there is a stack of twisted perfect complexes., Comment: v3: 22 pages, minor changes, to appear in Homology, Homotopy and Applications. v2: a new subsection (Section 4.5) is added on the stack of twisted perfect complexes

This chapter shows how powerful criminal history enhancements undermine important goals of guidelines reforms. First, these enhancements undermine the goal of making punishment severity proportional to the seriousness of the offense for which the offender is being sentenced; if prior record receives more weight in sentencing, conviction offense seriousness receives less weight. Second, these enhancements counteract the goal of reserving expensive prison beds for offenders convicted of violent crimes—powerful criminal history enhancements shift the balance of prison admissions and inmate stocks toward property, drug, and other nonviolent offenders. Third, prior record enhancements change the composition of prison populations by risk level—older offenders often have more prior convictions but declining recidivism risks, so criminal history enhancements increase the number of aging, low-risk prison inmates. The formulaic nature of such enhancements also over-predicts the risk level of some younger offenders. The chapter concludes with proposals for limiting these adverse effects.

This chapter shows how sentencing data can be used to quantify the substantial fiscal impacts of high-magnitude criminal history enhancements, overall and with respect to the problematic aspects of those enhancements identified and discussed in previous chapters. It uses data from Minnesota and several other states as examples because of the excellent sentencing data available for those states. The chapter first examines the total fiscal impact (added bed needs and costs) that results from the sentence-enhancing effects of criminal history on prison commitment and prison duration decisions. It then quantifies the fiscal impacts of the identified problematic aspects of prior record enhancements: disproportionately severe prison durations imposed on high history offenders, imprisonment of nonviolent offenders recommended for prison solely because of their elevated criminal history scores, imprisonment of aging offenders who are recommended for prison due to their high history scores, and racially disparate sentences that result from criminal history enhancements.

It is generally assumed that prior convictions provide a useful proxy for the offender’s risk of committing further crimes, and as a general proposition that assumption is well supported by research. But as this chapter shows, there is much less research on how well particular prior record formulas predict recidivism risk. This chapter identifies the elements of guidelines criminal history scores that appear to be designed to measure risk, reviews the limited research assessing the accuracy of criminal history scores and score components as predictors of subsequent offending, and examines the closeness of fit between predicted increases in risk, as the criminal history score rises, and the increments in sentence severity that are prescribed by grid-based guidelines systems. The chapter also argues against the use of rigid prior record enhancement formulas, and in favor of giving judges power to adjust sentences to take into account case-specific variations in recidivism risk.

Sentencing enhancements based on the offender’s prior conviction record are a major contributor to racial disproportionalities in prison populations, since racial minorities tend to have more extensive criminal records. After briefly reviewing the larger problem of disproportionate minority confinement in the United States, and the serious negative consequences of such disparities, this chapter examines data from several states on the ways in which racial differences in prior conviction records and other factors cause disproportionate minority confinement. The chapter focuses on black-to-white disparities, since blacks are the largest nonwhite group in most states and there is more detailed criminal justice data on them than for most other nonwhite groups. But the available data on Hispanics and Native Americans reveals disparities that are sometimes as great as for blacks. The chapter concludes with proposals for revising criminal history enhancement rules that have the largest and least defensible disparate impacts on nonwhite offenders.