The normative case for indigent defense systems

Today, every indigent person accused of a crime, where incarceration is a reasonably possible sentence, has the right to counsel apppointed by the State. From an historical perspective, this right is relatively new, since it has only evolved over the last 50 years and is the result of a variety of decisions by the Supreme Court of the United States. In essence, the States have developed three mechanisms to comply with these decisions: (1) Assigned Counsel Systems; (2) Contract Counsel Systems; and (3) Public Defender Systems. This paper (a) reviews the decisions applicable to indigents; (b) reviews existing indigent defense delivery systems; and (c) concludes that the independent State Public Defender Agency is the best system available from the perspectives of both the taxpayer and the defendant. In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him: to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence (U.S. Constitution, Amendment VI).     

Women's empowerment revisited: a case study from Bangladesh

This article explores the changing dimensions of women's empowerment over time in three Bangladesh villages where one of the authors has been conducting research since 1991. The article discusses theoretical issues related to the measurement of women's empowerment, and describes findings from a recent study in the villages exploring the current salience of indicators developed for a 1992 survey. In the article we discuss the types of social, economic, and political change that affect the measurement of women's empowerment; propose and explain a new set of indicators for the rural Bangladesh setting; and discuss implications for measuring women's empowerment in other settings.     

Interpersonal and self-critical dysphoria and behavioral problems in adolescents

Clinical evidence suggests that various problem behaviors in adolescence can be expressions of dysphoria that have not reached threshold for the diagnosis of depressive disorders. Formulations of two major types of dysphoria distinguish between disruptions of interpersonal relatedness (e.g., feelings of loss or abandonment) and diminished self-esteem (e.g., feelings of self-criticism, failure, or guilt). Adolescents in a suburban high school were given the Achenbach Youth Self-Report, the Adolescent Depressive Experiences Questionnaire, and the Community Epidemiological Survey of Depression for Children (CES-DC). Even after level of depressive symptoms (CES-DC) was partialled out in hierarchical multiple regressions, interpersonal dysphoria significantly accounted for additional variance in predicting internalizing disorders, while self-critical dysphoria added significantly to the explained variance of both internalizing and externalizing disorders, specifically delinquency and aggression in both males and females.Ph.D., 1957, University of Chicago. Research interests: The development of mental representations, their differential impairment in various forms of psychopathology (especially depression), and their change in the therapeutic process.Ph.D., 1981, Yeshiva University. Research interests: adolescent pregnancy, depression, and ego development.Ph.D., 1968, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. Research interests: cognitive processes in schizophrenia, dependency and self-criticism in depression, and cognitive structural models of development and psychopathology.Ph.D., 1986, Columbia University, New York. Research interests: adolescent development.Ph.D., 1988, State University New York—Buffalo. Research interests: Language and self-representation and narcissism and borderline disorders.     

<Emphasis Type="BoldItalic">Society’s</Emphasis> Books of Note

Society’s Books of Note

Society’s Books of Note November/December 2010