The Criminal Justice Approach: Case Examples

The article presents a special form of a European comparative synopsis. For this case examples have been chosen ranging from administrative or minor (criminal) offences to increasingly serious offences and offenders. In this way it can be comparatively demonstrated how the criminal justice systems studied handle specific cases and whether they do so in a similar or different way.     

Expert Testimony of the Battered Person Syndrome, Defendant Gender, and Sexual Orientation in a Case of Duress: Evaluating Legal Decisions

The current study examined the utility of expert testimony of the battered person syndrome (BPS) in a case of duress and the extent to which defendant gender, defendant sexual orientation, and participant gender influence mock jury decisions in a case of duress. Participants (N?=?413) read a scenario based on U.S. v. Dixon (2006) and answered questions assessing verdict, guilt, sentence length, duress legal elements, and attributes typically ascribed to victims of abuse. Results showed heterosexual female defendants were assigned the lowest sentences and met more of the legal elements of duress (i.e., were coerced, more likely to be believed, and purchased a gun to prevent harm) and attributes (i.e., experienced severe abuse, learned helplessness) compared to other defendants. When mock jurors received expert testimony, they provided lower rates of guilt and sentencing for defendants. Results also showed the inclusion of BPS expert testimony increased ratings for many of the legal elements of duress and attributes typically associated with intimate partner violence. In addition, results suggested that while heterosexual female defendants are more likely to be believed in a case of duress, expert testimony of BPS is helpful to all defendants. Limitations and future directions for research and practice are discussed.     

Acculturation and reported intimate partner violence among Latinas in Los Angeles

This study sought to understand the relationship between acculturation and reporting intimate partner violence (IPV) among Latinas. A cross-sectional interviewer-administered survey was conducted at public health care clinics throughout Los Angeles County. Logistic regression was used to estimate the effect of acculturation on reporting IPV. An increasing trend of reporting IPV was observed among Latinas who were more acculturated (chi-square = 41.02, p = .0006). Highly acculturated Latinas were more likely to report IPV compared with least acculturated Latinas (prevalence odds ration = 2.18, 95% confidence level = 0.98, 4.89) and moderately acculturated Latinas were more likely to report IPV compared with least acculturated Latinas (prevalence odds ration = 1.29, 95% confidence level = 0.69, 2.43). Culturally competent IPV prevention programs may be the key to significantly reducing the number of women exposed to this serious public health problem.     

A Roadmap for CANS Validation

In nearly every jurisdiction, juvenile or family courts will be using the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) tool to assess whether children can safely be treated in family-like settings to meet federal Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) requirements. Yet, a number of peer-reviewed publications have raised serious concerns regarding the lack of CANS validation research. Rather than reject CANS, this article provides a roadmap for validating the tool with data that jurisdictions have already collected. Courts should require these three simple analyses before relying on the assessment.