At the Edge of Law: Emergent and Divergent Models of Legal Professionalism

This paper reports on a study that examined the culture and identity of the legal academic as a practising teacher. The study is based on three law teachers working at a prominent South African university. By using an ethnographic design type, data was collected through observation during class visits, discussion about teaching in interviews, and a review of teaching-related documents. The research revealed that the primary professional identity of the participants is rooted in the traditions of law as an academic discipline. The participants characterise themselves as teachers and not as legal practitioners. Not only do they choose to teach, but they actively regard teaching as their true vocation. As core to the nature of their teacher identities, the participants express a significant emotional dimension shaped by their relationships with students.     

The Changing Business of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art: Markets,Audiences, Artists,and the Large Art Fairs

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes the relationship between the growth of large Australian Aboriginal art fairs and shifts in the fine art market and state policies; audience and art insiders' experiences; and the implications of art fair participation for artists and art centers. In contrast to the traditional gallery model, the art fairs draw buyers and artists together in regional centers, along with families, managers, curators, commentators, administrators, and politicians. Using the assemblages concept, we analyze the emergence of a new engagement that prioritizes social, cultural, and interpersonal aspects of art making and where buyers consume “relational goods” linked to their purchasing context.     

Children's and adults’ realism in their event-recall confidence in responses to free recall and focused questions

Abstract

Two experiments examined the realism in the confidence of 8–9-year-olds, 12–13-year-olds and adults in their free recall and answers to focused questions after viewing a short video clip. A different video clip was shown in each experiment and the focused questions differed in difficulty. In both experiments the youngest age group, in contrast to the two other age groups, showed no overconfidence in their confidence judgements for the free recall. The free recall results also showed that the youngest group had lower completeness but similar correctness as the adults. There was a tendency, over both experiments, for the participants to show poorer realism for the focused questions than for the free recall, especially when questions with content already mentioned in the free recall were excluded from the analyses of the focused questions in Experiment 1. The study shows the importance of question format when evaluating the credibility of the confidence shown by 8–9-year-old children in their own testimony.     

Expectations about victim and offender behaviour during stranger rape

The aim of this study was to examine expectations about victim and offender behaviours during stranger rape. These expectations were compared with the empirically derived data of actual victim and offender behaviours. Furthermore, three attitudes/beliefs were assessed in relation to these expectations: rape myth acceptance, gender role attitudes and belief in a just world (BJW). Seven hundred and fifty-eight undergraduates took part in the study. The results show that participants significantly overestimated the frequency of 29 out of the 30 victim and offender behaviours examined (one behaviour was underestimated). An inconsistent relationship was found in predicting the expectancies via rape myth acceptance, gender role attitudes and BJW. These findings are examined in the context of the criminal justice system and how expectancy violation may affect the perception of rape victim and offenders' behaviours.     

The relationship between psychopathy and moral development in young sex offenders

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between psychopathic traits and moral development (moral judgement and empathy) in 85 Dutch male sex offenders between 13 and 23 years of age. Questions were asked about general life situations, sexual situations with morally relevant features, and questions about the offender's own abuse victim. A weak negative association was found between psychopathy and mature moral judgement, but only when questions involved the offender's own abuse victim. Weak to moderate negative associations were found between psychopathy and cognitive and affective empathy in general and sexual situations, but not in the own abuse victim situations. Further analysis revealed moderate negative associations between psychopathy and affective empathy in the own abuse victim situations, but only when an unfamiliar victim was involved. This is the first study, to our knowledge, showing that juvenile sex offenders with high levels of psychopathy have context-specific moral deficits, and that in this group both cognitive and affective empathy are related to psychopathy.     

Towards a Gender-Equal Bundestag? The Impact of Electoral Rules on Women’s Representation

Cross-sectional research designs show that proportional representation (PR) tends to produce more equitable outcomes in terms of gender representation. While existing research provides valuable insights into the covariates of gender representation, such cross-sectional designs fail to provide a definitive test of the influence of electoral rules both over time and in the case of mixed systems. Addressing this gap, this article proposes a longitudinal research design using the case of Germany, because half the Bundestag’s seats are allotted through majoritarian first-past-the-post methods, while the other half are allotted through proportional methods. The main findings point towards heavy interaction between the two electoral tiers that becomes visible in party quotas, double nominations and increased competitiveness of female candidates.