Rational choice beyond the classroom: Decision making in offenders versus college students

Purpose

Tests of rational choice theory commonly utilize samples of university students. The current study examines whether these samples provide meaningful insight into real offenders’ decisions.

Methods

A total of 760 undergraduates from a southwestern university and 1,013 offenders incarcerated in the same state were surveyed. Both groups were given a hypothetical drunk driving scenario and completed rational choice questions.

Results

Results indicate that although the samples were very different in their background characteristics (e.g., age, sex, race, prior criminal history), they identified similar costs and benefits of drunk driving, gave similar ratings of the certainty/severity of these consequences, and utilized these consequences to inform their drunk driving intentions in a similar fashion.

Conclusion

Despite social science being largely criticized as the “study of sophomores,” in this instance it appears college student samples can provide meaningful insight into the decision calculus of known offenders. Implications and limitations of the study are presented.     

Decision games applied to police decision making -an exploratory study of information usage-

An analysis of police decision making is presented using the decision board technique developed by Leslie Wilkins. This method assumes that decision making can be measured by observing a subject's response to stimuli presented in the form of pieces of information. A board was created and employed with fifty municipal police officers. Findings suggest that police demonstrate individualized preferences for varying amounts and kinds of information. The nature of the offense was considered most frequently. The attitude of the offender was also an important determinant of the decision outcome; and the offender's attitude then influenced the amount and type of information subsequently used.     

Decision making by parole interviewers: The effect of case and interview factors

Nonverbal behavior of 103 inmates was coded during their parole interviews, and additional information was obtained from their case files. These data were related to interviewers' pre-and postinterview judgments of the inmates' likelihood of completing parole successfully and to interviewers' ratings of the inmates' honesty during the interview. Results showed that information obtained during the interview significantly affected the interviewers' postinterview judgments. Perceived honesty during the interview was affected significantly by the severity of the inmates' crime and by how much information the inmates' volunteered, how polite they were to the interviewers, and how much the inmates fidgeted during the interviews. Results suggest that the interviews did not improve, and may have lowered, interviewers' accuracy at predicting inmates' success on parole.     

Decision making and examiner bias in forensic expert recommendations for not guilty by reason of insanity

Source of nomination (prosecution, defense, judge) was varied in a fictional not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI) case distributed to 180 community forensic evaluators in a state employing theM'Naghten rule. Differences among examiners by appointment for the final NGRI judgment was not significant; interrater reliability for psychopathological symptomatology was .73. Discriminant analysis revealed significant differences in the decision-making process between evaluators recommending sanity and those endorsing insanity, as well as between psychiatrists and psychologists.     

环境与发展综合决策的公平原则

环境保护与经济发展不可避免地存在冲突,以协调二者关系、追求可持续发展为目标的综合决策机制必须坚持公平原则,正确处理人与自然的关系、当代人与后代人的关系以及当代人之间的关系,在三个层次上实现公平。     

坚持依法决策 推进政治文明建设——关于湘潭市“依法决策示范领导班子”甜建活动的思考

党的十六大把“发展社会主义民主政治,建设社会主义政治文明”确定为全面建设小康社会的重要目标。党的十七大进一步明确：“坚定不移发展社会主义民主政治”。在新的历史时期,如何加快政治文明建设,是摆在我们面前的一项十分紧迫的政治任务。发展社会主义民主政治,建设社会主义政治文明,最根本的是要把坚持党的领导、人民当家作主和依法治国三者有机统一起来。     

Survived stab to the heart in a schizophrenic man

Schizophrenia is associated with a significant risk of suicide. According to recent research, 10-15 % of all schizophrenic patients die by suicide. It is not uncommon that the victims show sharp force injuries, so that the forensic pathologist first has to differentiate between self-infliction and involvement of another person. The authors' case report presents a 68-year-old schizophrenic patient who committed suicide by jumping out of a window of his apartment located on the second floor after inflicting multiple stab wounds to his thoracic region. At autopsy, an older stab wound to the apex of the heart was detected. In the criminal investigation, a suicide attempt made 13 days before could be ascertained. As the patient did not want to be taken to a hospital at that time, the injury had never been examined or documented. Since there was no evidence suggesting homicide, the older stab to the heart was interpreted as a tentative injury.     

一宗精神分裂症高发家庭自相残杀案的鉴定

报道一宗罕见的一家五口皆患精神病,导致祖父杀死孙子、儿子杀死父母、父亲杀死儿子连环自相残杀案的司法精神医学鉴定.     

Decision making in joined criminal trials: The influence of charge similarity,evidence similarity,and limiting instructions

The present research investigated decision-making processes in joined trials of multiple offenses. Subjects judged videotaped trials of three joined charges in a factorial design that varied charge similarity, evidence similarity, and judges' instructions designed to reduce judgement biases; or judged one of several charges presented individually. The results indicated that subjects were more likely to convict a defendant in a joined trial than on the same charge tried by itself, particularly when the charge was presented in the third position. Convictions were more frequent when joined charges were similar, and judges' instructions significantly reduced conviction rates. Subjects judging joined trials confused evidence among charges, rated the prosecution's evidence as stronger, and rated the defendent less favorably than subjects judging single trials. The findings were compared statistically to the results of previous research, and it was concluded that increased convictions in joined trials are robust effects.This research is based on part of a doctoral dissertation by S. Tanford at the University of Wisconsin. The research was supported by National Institute of Justice Grant No. 81-LJ-CX-0048 to S. Penrod.     

裁判形成的思维过程

法律裁判并非仅仅通过推理即可形成。法律推理其实是为判决结论提供正当理由的过程,可是推理本身是无法为自身的"前提"提供出处的。这就需要将裁判思维的视野扩大到推理"前提"的获得以及获得之前的心理活动上。如果将前提的获得称为发现,将结论是否合理的证明过程称为证成,那么裁判思维就可以被分成"发现"与"证成"两个脉络。     

一宗精神分裂症高发家庭自相残杀案的鉴定

报道一宗罕见的一家五口皆患精神病,导致祖父杀死孙子、儿子杀死父母、父亲杀死儿子连环自相残杀案的司法精神医学鉴定。被鉴定人,洪甲,男29岁,潮阳市人,排行第二,小学文化,务农及从事木工。被鉴定人洪乙,男,26岁,排行第三,初中文化,务农及从事木工。1999年6月5日接群众举报被鉴定人的父母及洪甲的子女在一年前全部失踪,可能是被其杀害。经讯问洪甲、洪乙,两犯供称:1998年1、2月间其父洪某(55岁)认为洪甲的小女儿(1岁)的灵魂被吸走,藏进牛的灵魂变成牛,便将其放在一木箱中,抬到村后山坡埋掉。1998年5月中旬,洪乙先持菜刀砍其父的脖子,后由洪…     

Naturalistic decision making in forensic science: toward a better understanding of decision making by forensic team leaders

This study uses the naturalistic decision-making (NDM) perspective to examine how Dutch forensic team leaders (i.e., the officers in charge of criminal forensic research from the crime scene until the use of laboratory assistance) make decisions in real-life settings and identifies the contextual factors that might influence those decisions. First, a focus group interview was conducted to identify four NDM mechanisms in day-to-day forensic decision making. Second, a serious game was conducted to examine the influence of three of these contextual mechanisms. The results uncovered that forensic team leaders (i) were attracted to obtain further information when more information was initially made available, (ii) were likely to devote more attention to emotionally charged cases, and (iii) used not only forensic evidence in the decision making but also tactical, unverified information of the police inquiry. Interestingly, the measured contextual influences did not deviate significantly from a control group of laypeople.     

Sudden, unexpected death due to undiagnosed frontal glioblastoma in a schizophrenic patient

The incidence of sudden death due to undiagnosed primary intracranial tumor is low in forensic autopsy. We report a case of a 48-year-old white male, known to be a schizophrenic patient for several years, and in whom a medico-legal autopsy disclosed a large, previously undiagnosed, bilateral frontal glioblastoma infiltrating the genu of corpus callosum. We emphasize the importance of performing complete autopsy, including a thorough neuropathological examination, in all cases of sudden unexpected death, especially in those cases in which no extracerebral cause of death had been established and whose clinical history was primarily of a psychiatric nature.     

The Decision to Become a Police Officer in a Legitimacy Crisis

This study examines how individuals make the decision to become police officers in the context of a police legitimacy crisis and how men and women’s decision-making processes may be different. In-depth interviews were conducted with 42 criminal justice college students who want to become police officers. Prospective police officers anticipated facing challenges as a direct result of the current climate surrounding American policing, which is characterized by decreased police legitimacy. On top of this, women anticipated facing more challenges than male officers due to their gender and underrepresentation in police work. However, women were uniquely motivated to enter policing to overcome gender-specific challenges and felt that they offered special skills that would provide solutions to the police legitimacy crisis. The paper draws implications for how agencies can identify more quality candidates and increase their representation of women.