Sentencing

While there is nearly unanimous agreement among social scientists that the defendant's prior record is important in explaining the sentence imposed on the defendant, there is little agreement on the "best" or most appropriate measure of prior record to use in examining sentence disparity. This study provides an assessment of the utility of 11 commonly used measures of prior record. We find that the various measures are not interrelated highly and thus necessarily are not interchangeable. We also find that the measures of prior record affect sentence severity differently and that the relationships between these measures and sentence severity varies for black and white defendants.     

SELF-CONTROL IN A CRIMINAL SAMPLE: AN EXAMINATION OF CONSTRUCT VALIDITY*

Favorable evidence on the validity of the Grasmick et al. (1993) self-control scale has been reported in studies using general population samples. However, the scale has never been tested among persons extensively involved in crime. We assessed the construct validity of this scale, slightly revised, in a heterogeneous sample of drug-using criminal offenders. Factor analyses identified five subscales, mostly congruent with existing formulations of the self-control construct. Also, recent crimes of force and fraud were more frequent among people scoring lower on self-control. However, the five-factor solution was not tenable among women, and the scale was no more closely related to crime than were three subscales representing more specific constructs already established in criminology.     

Asking the Right Questions: Utilizing a Judicial Checklist to Track the Educational Success of Youth in Foster Care

Asking about the educational objectives for children in foster care has not been a priority in most juvenile and family courts. Research has shown that compared to the general school population, children in foster care have lower grade point averages, change schools more frequently, earn fewer credits toward graduation, and are more likely to be placed in special education programs. In response, Casey Family Programs, in collaboration with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges' Permanency Planning for Children Department, developed a Judicial Checklist with key educational questions to be asked from the bench. The Checklist has become a useful tool for juvenile and family court judges when assessing the effectiveness of current educational placements of the children who come before their courts, tracking their performance, and in making a positive future impact on their educational outcomes.     

THE AMBIGUOUS JUVENILE ARREST

Uniformity of juvenile arrest definitions and operations was investigated in 49 police stations in rural, suburban, and large urban areas. Data were taken from interviews and questionnaires administered to police chiefs, clerks, and officers, as well as from on-site observations. The meaning of a juvenile arrest was found to vary widely and to reflect poorly the statutory requirements. Greatest uniformity was found among recording clerks. Their practice of recording as an arrest any juvenile brought or cited into the station provides a useful operational definition. Implications of these data for uniform crime reporting, program evaluation, and equal justice are suggested.     

The Embedded Epistemologist: Dispatches from the Legal Front*

In ordinary circumstances, we can assess the worth of evidence well enough without benefit of any theory; but when evidence is especially complex, ambiguous, or emotionally disturbing—as it often is in legal contexts—epistemological theory may be helpful. A legal fact‐finder is asked to determine whether the proposition that the defendant is guilty, or is liable, is established to the required degree of proof by the [admissible] evidence presented; i.e., to make an epistemological appraisal. The foundherentist theory developed in Evidence and Inquiry can help us understand what this means; and reveals that degrees of proof cannot be construed as mathematical probabilities: a point illustrated by comparing the advantages of a foundherentist analysis with the disadvantages of probabilistic analyses of the evidence in the Sacco and Vanzetti case (1921), and of the role of the statistical evidence in Collins (1968).     

美国的法律文化观点

<正> 近二十年来,"法律文化"这一概念已为众多美国学者所使用。它似乎是从政治学家那里借来的,后者自1956年以来就一直使用"政治文化"一