Assessing Pretrial Publicity Effects: Integrating Content Analytic Results

When a case has received pretrial publicity which has the capacity to bias potential jurors in the trial venue, a change of venue is one means of attempting to ensure that the defendant receives a fair trial. Content analysis of the pretrial publicity surrounding a case can provide the court with important information to consider when determining whether prejudice in the relevant community is too great for the defendant to receive a fair trial. This paper presents an approach to content analysis of pretrial publicity that draws upon both legal commentary and past empirical social science research. It is a systematic approach that could be employed by both the prosecution and defense when presenting arguments to the court about whether a change of venue should be granted. Information gleaned from content analysis of the publicity surrounding a specific case fills the gap between information provided by experimental research which has examined pretrial publicity effects and public opinion polls concerning the public's perception of the defendant in a particular case. Results from a content analysis can serve to validate public opinion survey data gathered from the same locales. To exemplify this content analytic approach, a content analysis conducted by the authors in preparation for the change of venue hearing in the case of Timothy McVeigh is presented.     

The Effects of Pretrial Publicity on Juror Verdicts: A Meta-Analytic Review

The effect of pretrial publicity (PTP) on juror verdicts was examined through a meta-analysis of 44 empirical tests representing 5,755 subjects. In support of the hypothesis, subjects exposed to negative PTP were significantly more likely to judge the defendant guilty compared to subjects exposed to less or no negative PTP. Greater effect sizes were produced in studies which included a pretrial verdict assessment, use of the potential juror pool as subjects, multiple points of negative information included in the PTP, real PTP, crimes of murder, sexual abuse, or drugs, and greater length of time between PTP exposure and judgment. The effect was attenuated with student subjects, use of general rather than specific PTP information, certain types of PTP content, a post-trial predeliberation verdict, and specific types of crimes. Implications of these results are discussed, along with possible mechanisms that underlie the PTP effect.     

Empirical and Legal Perspectives on the Impact of Pretrial Publicity: Effects and Remedies

Law and Human Behavior -     

The Effects of General Pretrial Publicity on Juror Decisions: An Examination of Moderators and Mediating Mechanisms

Two studies examined three moderators (gender, attitudes, and media slant) and four mediators (accessibility, evidence importance, evidence plausibility, and standards of guilt) of general pretrial publicity's influence on juror decisions. In Study 1, participants who watched a prodefense rape story were more likely to report that they would need more inculpatory evidence to convict a defendant of rape than were participants who watched a proprosecution rape story. In Study 2, participants watched news stories, one of which was a proprosecution rape story, a prodefense rape story, or a nonrape story. In an ostensibly unrelated study, participants indicated their attitudes toward rape, watched a rape trial, and provided trial and witness ratings. Accessibility did not mediate the media effects on participants' judgments of rape importance; however, attitudes moderated media effects. Rape news influenced juror ratings of the importance of evidence about the complainant's behavior. Finally, media altered the standards participants used to determine defendant guilt. Implications for understanding the mechanisms responsible for pretrial publicity effects are discussed.     

Beyond Pretrial Publicity: Legal and Ethical Issues Associated with Change of Venue Surveys

To combat the effects of pretrial publicity, a court may consider a change of venue, moving the trial to a jurisdiction that has been exposed to little publicity about the case. Social scientists can be of valuable assistance in measuring community attitudes regarding defendant level of guilt and case familiarity. This paper discusses obstacles faced by the authors when conducting change of venue surveys and presenting their findings to the court, including challenges to their ability to act and be viewed as scientists, and pressures to do that which contradicts empirical research in order to please the court. Future research should examine factors predicting judges' decisions on change of venue motions and issues associated with small venues and civil cases.     

Afterword: The Past,Present, and Future of Applied Pretrial Publicity Research

Law and Human Behavior -     

Improving Judicial Controls over the Pretrial Development of Civil Actions: Model Rules for Case Management and Sanctions

This article follows two earlier pieces in which the author reported the findings of a pilot empirical exploration of how well the discovery system in civil litigation is functioning. Brazil begins by focusing on the principal problems his field studies exposed and by suggesting a theory of discovery reform which responds to the nature and sources of those problems. His principal thesis is that too often neither judges nor attorneys assume sufficient responsibility for the discovery system as a system. Most of this article is devoted to two major proposals that are designed to promote in the judiciary and in counsel a sense of responsibility for the pretrial system and to equip the judiciary to convert that sense into action. Brazil proposes a comprehensive model rule that courts could use to manage the pretrial development of civil actions. He then uses his model as a background for suggesting modifications to and extensions of the proposed revision of Rule 16 that the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules has circulated for comment. He also offers a critique of current provisions for sanctions and advances an alternative sanctions rule that acknowledges a right to compensation for damages caused by an opponent's breach of pretrial obligations and that reduces the scope of judicial discretion to refuse to impose compensatory awards.     

Symptom Validity Testing in Somatoform and Dissociative Disorders: A Critical Review

When patients present with unusual, atypical, and difficult-to-understand complaints known as dissociative and somatoform disorders or medically unexplained symptoms, clinicians may administer symptom validity tests (SVTs) to determine whether or not the patient exhibits negative response bias. Such tests are especially informative in a context where incentives play a substantial role (e.g., the legal arena). If patients fail SVTs and exhibit negative response bias, how should that bias be interpreted? Some authors have argued that psychological problems (e.g., unconscious conflicts and depression) and circumstances (e.g., a cry for help) may explain such bias. In the current article, we critically review this “psychopathology = superordinate” position. We argue that (1) there is no empirical evidence to suggest that psychological problems may foster SVT failure per se and (2) that the “psychopathology = superordinate” position invites circular argumentation: to clarify the nature of the atypical symptoms, SVTs are administered and a negative response bias is found, which is explained away by the atypical symptoms. Negative response bias allows for only one conclusion: the patient’s self-report of symptoms and life history can no longer be taken at face value.     

新世纪国家对农村教师队伍建设的特别性支持政策:成效、问题与建议

新世纪以来,国家实施了一系列支持农村教师队伍建设的政策措施.这些政策对发展农村教育具有重要意义.政策实施已取得积极成效,但也存在实践中的困境.当前,必须继续强化支持农村教师队伍建设的历史使命、实施对农村教师待遇的差别支持、构建有利于农村教师队伍建设的体制机制,不断完善农村教师队伍建设的国家支持政策.     

Making Sure Neuropsychological Data Are Meaningful: Use of Performance Validity Testing in Medicolegal and Clinical Contexts

Performance validity testing (PVT) is a standard of practice in situations where there are prominent secondary gain issues; however, it is suggested that their use may benefit neuropsychological evaluations in clinical contexts, as engagement in neuropsychological evaluations can affect the validity of testing and can occur for a variety of reasons outside of secondary gain issues. Several methods of embedded index development, as well as methods to combine them are discussed, including issues related to use of multiple indices. The potential limitations to administration of multiple indices are also explored. It is suggested that neuropsychological evaluations can benefit from PVT in regular clinical practice to assist with reaching firmer diagnostic conclusions by assuring test result validity.     

后工业化时代生态治理的理念、方式与组织

全球范围内的社会治理变革是人类从工业社会走向后工业社会这场社会转型的体现。20世纪七八十年代以来,社会治理变革的一个基本框架是从官僚制治理理念向生态治理理念的转变。如果说在官僚制治理中,它所强调的是确定、预测、控制和竞争这样的机械化理念的话,那么在后工业时代,生态治理在其理念上则强调事物之间的相互关联、自组织能力以及复杂系统的进化。这一日益兴起的治理理念产生了诸多有益的见解,并且能够在未来的社会治理中发挥有效的作用,建构起人与人之间、人与自然之间的合作关系。而从其组织方式来看,生态治理是一项具有广阔合作前景的社会治理方式。从本质上来说,人类社会的治理方式从官僚制治理向生态治理的转变,已经超出了量变的过程,而成了整个社会治理体系的重新定位,其结果则是现有制度安排的根本性变革。     

Criminal Recidivism Among Juvenile Offenders: Testing the Incremental and Predictive Validity of Three Measures of Psychopathic Features

We studied the predictive, comparative, and incremental validity of three measures of psychopathic features (Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version [PCL:YV]; Antisocial Process Screening Device [APSD]; Childhood Psychopathy Scale [CPS]) vis-à-vis criminal recidivism among 83 delinquent youth within a truly prospective design. Bivariate and multivariate analyses (Cox proportional hazard analyses) showed that of the three measures, the CPS was most consistently related to most types of recidivism in comparison to the other measures. However, incremental validity analyses demonstrated that all of the predictive effects for the measures of psychopathic features disappeared after conceptually relevant covariates (i.e., substance use, conduct disorder, young age, past property crime) were included in multivariate predictive models. Implications for the limits of these measures in applied juvenile justice assessment are discussed.     

Studying School Shootings: Challenges and Considerations for Research

Studying school shootings can be both a fruitful and challenging endeavor. The random nature of these events provides a number of challenges for studying this phenomenon. This paper explores these concerns as they relate to developing and implementing studies, as well as interpreting related findings by drawing on previous research that examined the effects of the 1999 Columbine High School, the 2007 Virginia Tech, and the 2008 Northern Illinois University shootings. Ways in which these issues may be overcome and, more generally, the research can be moved forward also are discussed.     

Testing for AIDS: uses and abuses

In response to the public outcry for mandatory testing for AIDS, this Article explores the major issues concerning the identification of persons with AIDS in society. The Article first studies testing procedures and the purposes behind them to determine if a call for mandatory testing of the general populace would better achieve society's objectives for identifying individuals with AIDS. Concluding that testing should not be required of the population as a whole, the Article then explores whether testing should be required of certain subpopulations which society perceives as likely to have or to spread the disease. In this context, too, the Article concludes that mandatory testing would be unwarranted, and that funds proposed for mandatory testing would be put to better use in education and universal precautions to prevent the further spread of AIDS.     

Examining What Makes Violent Crime Victims Unique: Extending Statistical Methods for Studying Specialization to the Analysis of Crime Victims

Objectives

Much victimization research focuses on specific types of crime victims, which implies that the factors responsible for some victimization outcomes are distinct from others. Recent developments in victimization theory, however, take a more general approach, postulating that victimization regardless of type will share a similar basic etiology. This research examines how and whether the risk factors that are associated with violent victimization significantly differ from those that predict nonviolent victimization.

Methods

Using data from 3,682 Kentucky youth, we employ Osgood and Schreck??s (2007) Item Response Theory-based statistical approach for detecting specialization to determine the properties and predictors of tendencies for individuals to fall victim to specific types of crime.

Results

Findings show that victims typically experience varied outcomes, but some victims have a clear tendency toward violent victimization and that it is possible to predict this tendency.

Conclusions

The findings indicate that a more nuanced general approach, one that accounts for tendencies toward specific victimization outcomes, might add insight about the causes of victimization. This research also shows how statistical methods designed to examine offense specialization can add value for research on victimization.     

Juvenile Competency and Pretrial Due Process: A Call for Greater Protections in Massachusetts for Juveniles Residing in Procedural Purgatory

While juvenile courts continue to balance and reevaluate the dual goals of community safety and rehabilitation of youth, juveniles who are not competent to stand trial have been left without sufficient procedural protections. This paper examines Massachusetts’ approach to juvenile competency, due process, and pretrial procedure, within a national context. The inadequacies of the Massachusetts juvenile competency laws are not unique. Currently there are nineteen states that either entirely lack juvenile‐specific competency legislation or merely incorporate inapposite adult criminal statutes and standards into the juvenile context—making it difficult or impossible for those juvenile courts to dismiss or divert a delinquency petition following an incompetency finding. Massachusetts and states similarly situated should adopt explicit statutory language to delineate the basis for a juvenile incompetency finding and the grounds for dismissing delinquency complaints pretrial after an incompetency finding has been made. This paper proposes that Massachusetts adopt a timeline for effecting such dismissals based in part on the amount of time a juvenile could face if committed to the juvenile correctional authority following an adjudication of delinquency. The paper also recommends best practices of states that are pioneering juvenile legislative reforms like dismissal timelines and incompetency presumptions. Finally, we suggest a more stringent regulatory framework be put in place governing the pretrial detention of youths who have been found not competent to stand trial—a framework that recognizes and preserves the juvenile's substantive rights to education, mental health and rehabilitative services. Without legislation, juveniles found not competent to stand trial remain subject to the prospect of indefinite locked detention, often without access to the necessary services that contribute to future success as well as attainment of competency. This lack of due process runs counter to the foundational goals of the juvenile justice system.     

心理韧性提升的具身认知途径:西方经验与本土反思

具身认知心理学主张身心一体性和情绪具身性,其相关实证研究可为思考从身体途径提升心理韧性提供理论基础。西方的身体疗法和中国本土的身心修炼方式已有较为丰富的身心干预实践,西式疗法具有操作性强、治疗目的明确、理论模型精确的特征,而传统身心修炼方式则以身心合一的基本哲学理念为前提,提倡防重于治的日常化和长期化干预模式。总结这些疗法的特征并分析其特异性,可为探索本土化的心理韧性培养技术提供有益借鉴。     

表象训练提高运动技能效能的心理机制

表象训练已被证明是行之有效的运动技能训练辅助手段,但现有研究仍然集中在训练的有效性验证方面,其心理机制的研究相对较少.认知心理学关于表象的实验研究揭示了表象训练的心理机制在于:表象是表象训练的素材,为运动技能训练获得了形象与抽象的双重调控;表象提供了运动技能心理训练的基本模式,为运动技能的创新准备了基本条件.     

A Framework for Integrating External Information into New Product Development: Lessons from the Medical Technology Industry

Only the best manufacturers will remain competitive in today's challenging environment. Any manager involved with developing new products knows the excitement, complexity, and risk of this unpredictable undertaking. Based upon findings from four world class manufacturers of medical imaging technology in Japan and the United States, this article presents a new organizing framework for integrating external information into the NPD process. The findings are particularly timely in an era when manufacturers are vulnerable to intense global competition. The article concludes with several implications for managers involved in the new product development process.