Children don't always tell the truth

Although children are being more frequently called as witnesses in court proceedings, they often do not tell the truth. If lying is defined as giving a false statement for personal gain, then lying is only one of several causes for children not giving an accurate account of events. Other reasons include an immature brain, a congenitally acquired defect in the central nervous system, or the presence of an emotional disturbance such as psychosis or hysteria. The desire of a child to please others--that is, parents, therapists, or lawyers--may also result in an invalid statement. These factors and motivations should be considered in trying to interpret a youngster's statement.     

To tell what we know or wait for Godot?

The evidence that death-qualified jurors are more likely than excluded jurors to convict is consistent, robust, and directly relevant to the issues of representativeness and conviction proneness that were before the Supreme Court inLockhart v. McCree. There are exactly the circumstances in which anamicus brief from the APA is most appropriate. In science the search for knowledge is never complete; to keep silent until our understanding is perfect is to keep silent forever.     

Regulation of donor conception and the "time to tell" campaign

The first jurisdictions in the world to introduce legislation regulating donor conception were Victoria (Australia) and Sweden in the 1980s. Under the Infertility (Medical Procedures) Act 1984 (Vic), donor-conceived people (aged 18 years and over), their parents (if children were under 18 years) and donors gained the right to apply for identifying information about each other. Information can only be given with the consent of each party. To date, over 3,500 donor-conceived children have been born in Victoria since the 1984 Victorian legislation was introduced (and enacted in 1988). The first 106 donor-conceived children under this legislation turned 18 in 2006 and many of them may not know that they are donor-conceived. The Infertility Treatment Authority, Victoria, conducted a public education campaign to provide information and support to people affected by the legislation. The campaign and services associated with donor registers have had a significant initial impact.     

Does Dumcree ’96 tell us anything about the RUC?

Violence, disorder, and social schism are well-known features of contemporary Northern Ireland resulting in the high profile of the province’s police, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). Since 1968, in particular, the policing of some major events has resulted in the RUC being viewed variously as saint and sinner by different sections of society. The most recent cause for acceptance, or condemnation, of police performance was the 1996 ‘marching season’. In particular, withdrawal of the police from the scene of the Drumcree stand-off, once it became evident that the many members of the Orange Order gathered there intended to march down the predominantly Garvaghy Road with or without the approval of the Chief Constable, and the province-wide acts of solidarity related to that event, by other members of the order, led to much controversy. First, this essay identifies some of the potential consequences of policing Drumcree for the RUC public image. Second, it compares these potential perceptions of police performance with some published views of their response to the Ulster Workers’ Council strike in 1974 and during the negotiations leading up to, and in the aftermath of, the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985. Finally, it considers if there is anything new that can be learned about the RUC from its handling of the Drumcree crisis.     

Is it a fair deal to tell tales on the tabloids?

Legal context. A recent High Court judgment, Fraser-WoodwardLimited v BBC and Brighter Pictures Limited, is of key interestto those that use or advise upon the use of copyright materialfor the purposes of criticism or review. Key points. This case involved the use of newspaper photographsof David and Victoria Beckham in a television documentary aboutthe relationship between celebrities and the press. The programmeillustrated its theme using screenshots of tabloid newspaperpages, which inevitably included a number of photographs. Theclaimant was the copyright holder in respect of a number ofthe photographs, and alleged that their reproduction in theTV programme was an infringement of copyright. The defendantssuccessfully relied upon the fair dealing and incidental inclusiondefences to copyright infringement. Practical significance. Although each fair dealing case willultimately turn on its own facts, Mann J gave a very usefulreview of the state of copyright law in this difficult area.     

How you can tell if the simulations in computational criminology are any good

Computational criminology applies computer simulations to study topics of interest for criminologists. Just as for all computer modelling in science, the validity of the simulations ultimately depends on whether they are able to reproduce empirical phenomena with sufficient accuracy. The only way in which this can be determined is by comparing model output to real observations. This paper provides an overview of how such model evaluations can be undertaken.

Communication and dialogue: what government websites might tell us about citizenship and governance

There are many ways to map and measure the links and spaces between the citizen and government. With the new models of governance available—where the government directs and the private sector along with a range of other actors implements—there are a whole number of questions that can be both examined in a qualitative manner but also may be examined in a quantitative manner. This paper looks at one quantitative approach (WAES—Website Attribute Evaluation System) and posit that it may be possible to develop from this further techniques—the development of e‐metrics—which will aid qualitative study of the citizenship and governance in the world of e‐government (E‐Gov).     

Failing to tell friend from foe: A comment on Wijn et al. (2017)

Behavioural observation programmes are becoming increasingly popular at transportation hubs, sporting events, and other large crowd gatherings. Premise of these programmes is that malicious intention can be accurately deduced from observable behaviour. In a recent article published in this journal, Wijn et al. (2017, Legal and Criminological Psychology, 22, 378–399.) conclude that environmental cues improve the correct detection of participants with malicious intent. This conclusion can and will be interpreted as support for behavioural observation programmes. In this comment, we argue that Wijn and colleagues draw a fundamentally wrong conclusion from their data. What their data show is that malicious intentions could not be detected in any of the conditions. Their findings can therefore not be conceptualized as evidence for behavioural observation programmes. Rather, they add to the growing critique voiced towards such programmes.     

Getting the stories straight: allowing different voices to tell an ‘effective history’ of special education law in the United States

Traditional historical narratives can serve to mask injustices that exist beneath a celebratory surface of statistics, legislative enactments, and judicial decision-making that may present an impression of continuous progress. With this understanding, this article adopts a framework applying Foucault's distinction between ‘traditional’ and ‘effective’ history to examine the legal foundations of special education in the United States. The ultimate goal of this article is to challenge the assumption that ‘societies follow a developmental pathway, away from superstition, prejudice and cruelty, and in the direction of greater enlightenment and humanity.’ The comparison of ‘traditional’ and ‘effective’ historical narratives is necessary to illustrate some basic—and perhaps flawed—assumptions inherent in traditional narratives.     

Attorneys,tell your clients to think before they post: Social media data may influence how evaluators view their parental fitness

Information from social media is used in evaluations of parental fitness with some regularity. Yet, research is lacking on perceptions of this information and no research has examined how social media data impacts forensic evaluators' opinions related to parental fitness. This study compared forensic evaluators' perceptions of data trustworthiness, usefulness, and initial opinion of parental fitness in a fictitious case in which parental fitness was questioned. Perceptions of a parent's behavior were compared across two types of data in which it was presented (an Instagram post or a medical record note) and across genders of the parent (mother or father) being hypothetically evaluated. As hypothesized, information documented on social media was viewed more critically than information documented by a healthcare provider. Further, information primarily referencing the father in the case was viewed as less trustworthy than information referencing the mother, which appeared influenced by evaluators' identified self-reported sexist attitudes. Results suggest that family law attorneys, regardless of which parent they are representing, should advise their clients of the risks to using social media.