THE USES OF JAIL CONFINEMENT IN THREE COUNTIES

This study uses a longitudinal approach to study the characteristics of pretrial inmates and court dispositions of their charges in three jails. Over 1,300 inmates were tracked from the point of booking through court disposition. The results indicate that a majority of the inmates booked into the jails are charged with relatively minor offenses and that most have less serious misdemeanor arrest and conviction histories. Very few or none of the defendants at each site were sentenced to prison and, at most, about one-fifth of the defendants were sentenced to any additional jail time upon conviction. Policy implications of the results are briefly discussed.     

Pour un modèle sémiotique de l'analogie du jeu en théorie du droit

Traduit de l'anglais par P. Brunet et E. Landowski (Towards a Semiotic Model of the Games Analogy in Jurisprudence,Droit & Société 17–18 (1991), 97–121.)     

Procedural Justice in Resolving Family Conflict: Implications for Youth Violence Prevention

The fairness of our legal system is often judged by individuals and the public at large along dimensions of procedural and distributive justice. People seem to care about how legal decisions are made as well as about the specific outcomes reached by juries and judges. In fact, perceptions of procedural and distributive justice or injustice may influence public perceptions and confidence in the legitimacy of our legal system. This paper focuses mainly on procedural justice. Using an ecological framework, we tested the hypothesis that older adolescents use the same or similar criteria for evaluating fairness in the context of family decision making that people in general use to evaluate the fairness of legal processes and decisions. We also tested the hypothesis that family decision-making procedures that are perceived to be unfair contribute to increased risk for acting out and deviant behavior among older adolescents. Principal components analysis confirmed that older adolescents use several distinct criteria for evaluating procedural fairness in the family context and that these criteria are comparable to those that people use to evaluate the fairness of legal procedures (rational and objective treatment conveying personal respect, consistent and non-discriminatory treatment reflecting social status or standing, and instrumental participation or having "an opportunity to be heard"). Hierarchical multiple regression analysis confirmed that procedural justice factors are associated with adolescent deviant behavior. We discuss implications for adolescent deviance and youth violence prevention.     

Very bad blood

The discovery of HIV-tainted plasma in Germany raises alarm about the ability to ensure safe supplies worldwide.     

Attitudes, No Opinions, and Guesses

This article presents a statistical model of the survey responsethat includes both a measure of the respondent's likely trueattitude and a measure of the probability that the respondentis uncertain about her or his attitude and is "guessing" ata response. This latter possibility introduces systematic measurementerror that may bias efforts to get unbiased estimates of attitudes.The model and the likely consequences of guessing are illustratedwith questions about Vietnam policy taken from the 1968, 1970,and 1972 National Election Studies (NES) surveys. The articleends with a discussion of the limitations and fragility of themodel.     

Overreaching In Registered Land Law

Beneficial interests under a trust were not intended to be overriding interests under section 70(1)(g) of the Land Registration Act 1925. The position was altered by Williams & Glyn's Bank Ltd v Boland , which determined that an interest under a trust for sale would bind a purchaser if the beneficiary were in actual occupation. The decision raised the question whether such interests could be overreached once the beneficiary was in occupation of the trust property. City of London Building Society v Flegg held that the relevant beneficial interest had been overreached. Both decisions assume that overreaching in registered conveyancing takes effect as it does in unregistered land. Yet there is considerable evidence that the Land Registration Act contains its own overreaching machinery. The House of Lords applied the wrong overreaching provisions in Boland and Flegg and there is no legal basis on which to recognise that trust interests can override a subsequent disposition under section 70(1)(g).