Chaos in The Courtroom Reconsidered: Emotional Bias and Juror Nullification

A widespread presumption in the law is that giving jurors nullification instructions would result in "chaos"-jurors guided not by law but by their emotions and personal biases. We propose a model of juror nullification that posits an interaction between the nature of the trial (viz. whether the fairness of the law is at issue), nullification instructions, and emotional biases on juror decision-making. Mock jurors considered a trial online which varied the presence a nullification instructions, whether the trial raised issues of the law's fairness (murder for profit vs. euthanasia), and emotionally biasing information (that affected jurors' liking for the victim). Only when jurors were in receipt of nullification instructions in a nullification-relevant trial were they sensitive to emotionally biasing information. Emotional biases did not affect evidence processing but did affect emotional reactions and verdicts, providing the strongest support to date for the chaos theory.     

A meta-analytic review of court-mandated batterer intervention programs: Can courts affect abusers’ behavior?

Court-mandated batterer intervention programs are being implemented throughout the United States to address the problem of domestic violence. Prior reviews of research on the effectiveness of these programs have arrived at conflicting conclusions. This study is a systematic review of the extant research on this topic. Experimental and quasi-experimental studies that used matching or statistical controls were included. The results were mixed. The mean effect for official reports of domestic violence from experimental studies showed modest benefit, whereas the mean effect for victim reported outcomes was zero. Quasi-experimental studies using a no-treatment comparison had inconsistent findings indicating an overall small harmful effect. In contract, quasi-experimental studies using a treatment dropout design showed a large, positive mean effect on domestic violence outcomes. We discuss the weakness of the latter design and raise concerns regarding official reports. The findings, we believe, raise doubts about the effectiveness of court-mandated batterer intervention programs.     

DNAc: A clustering method for identifying kinship relations between DNA profiles using a novel similarity measure

After decades of refinement, DNA testing methods have become essential tools in forensic sciences. They are essentially based on likelihood ratio test principle, which is utilized specifically, by using as prior knowledge the allele frequencies in the population, to confirm or refute a given kinship hypothesis made on two genotypes. This makes these methods ill suited when allele frequencies or kinship hypotheses are unavailable. In this paper, we introduce DNAc, a new clustering methodology for DNA testing based on a new similarity measure that allows an accurate retrieval of the degree of relatedness among two or more genotypes, without relying on kinship hypotheses or allele frequencies in the population. We used DNAc in analyzing microsatellite DNA sequences distributed among 12 genotypes from normal individuals from two distinct families. The results show that DNAc accurately determines kinship among genotypes and further gathers them in the appropriate kinship groups.     

Stipends in Volunteer Civic Service: Inclusion,Retention, and Volunteer Benefits

What is the role of stipends as an institutional facilitator in volunteer civic service? By examining the relationship of stipend receipt to volunteer diversity, time commitment, and perceived benefits from a longitudinal study of older adults serving in Experience Corps, this article assesses stipend status relative to volunteer sociodemographic characteristics, motivations, intensity and duration of time served, and volunteers’ self‐reported benefits. The findings underscore how stipends may promote participant diversity. In particular, stipended older adult volunteers serve for longer periods of time, but their motivations for serving do not differ. Stipended volunteers report higher perceived benefits than nonstipended volunteers. The results suggest that stipends may leverage wider inclusion, increase retention, and contribute to other benefits, but additional research is needed using more controlled and comparative designs.     

Ownership,Use, and Exclusivity: The Kantian Approach

Ownership combines the owner's right to exclude others from the owned object and the owner's liberty to use that object. This article addresses the relationship between using and excluding, by presenting Grotius's and Kant's classic accounts of ownership. Grotius's approach treats use and exclusivity as separate notions, with the latter evolving out of the former. For Kant, in contrast, use and exclusivity are integrated aspects of ownership as a right within a regime of equal reciprocal freedom. This article offers a Kantian critique of Grotius's account of the original right to use, and then presents Kant's notion of usability as the basis for his integration of use and exclusivity.     

Prison Recruitment as a Policy Tool of Local Economic Development: A Critical Evaluation

Like the sports franchises and foreign auto plants that preceded them, state and local governments are touting prisons as the latest means of economic miracle‐making, often for small towns and communities that are economically depressed. The building of prisons is supposedly tied to the development of a just, fair, and rational criminal justice policy in a civil democratic society. Prison building has positive and negative social and political consequences for these communities. This critical essay explores some of these consequences in light of the literature on prison siting, the experiences of communities and prisoners, and relevant statistical data in the public domain. It also offers an alternative framework for evaluating prison recruitment as a strategy for local economic development.     

The Trend in Housing Density Bonuses

A growing number of upper-income suburban communities are having trouble recruiting teachers, firemen, policemen, and postal employees because there is not enough low- and moderate-price housing. In these communities, workers employed in local retail trade, food and drink establishments, laundries, service stations, and other low-wage jobs suffer even more critical housing shortages. Manufacturing plants which could ease tax burdens won't move to a town if they have to pay premium wages to attract workers who live in distant communities.     

A note on Beheiren

Abstract

It might be useful for Concerned Asian Scholars to be aware of what is probably the most active independent peace group in Japan — a country of peace groups. Like National Mobilization in this country, which it resembles in style and outlook, Beheiren (Japan “Peace for Vietnam!” Committee) emerged as a direct response to the American bombing of North Vietnam. Since its foundation on April 24, 1965, it has remained the only major group in Japan to focus its main energies on opposing the Vietnam War. This has meant publications (books, articles, newsletters — mostly in Japanese, but two fine booklets of translations of an Asahi series: Vietnam — A Voice from the Villages and The National Liberation Front by Honda Katsuichi), demonstrations, teachins, emissaries to Vietnam, international gatherings in Japan (among its guests have been David Dellinger, Ralph Featherstone, Jean-Paul Sartre, Howard Zinn, Joan Baez), anti-war ads in American newspapers, medicine to Hanoi, and, attracting the most international attention, assistance to American military men in Japan desiring to desert.