Evaluating the OEO Legal Services Program

During 1970 and 1971, the complex and politically sensitive OEO Legal Services Program received its first independent national evaluation. This paper describes how evaluators dealt with the policy issues arising during the evaluation. Their decisions involved the interaction of three factors: conceptual problems, access to data, and a sense of what would be relevant to public policy. They found only a small area of intersection between a large set of issues important to policy-makers and an equally large, but usually different, set of issues amenable to systematic research.One finding was that the program's use of full-time poverty lawyers is a less expensive way to provide poor clients with legal services than underwriting the fees of private lawyers would be. Another was that the Legal Services attorneys' strong emphasis on law reform apparently adds very little to the cost of providing more routine services.The writer was the government's technical representative on this contract, but the viewpoints expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Office of Economic Opportunity.     

A Hard Look at What We Know (and Still Need to Learn) About the "Costs" of the Exclusionary Rule: The NIJ Study and Other Studies of "Lost" Arrests

The controversy over a "good faith mistake" exception to the exclusionary rule and the 1982 National Institute of Justice study of the effects of the rule in California have focused attention on the "costs" of the rule. This article reviews the NIJ study and seven other relevant studies and concludes that the NIJ study's claim that the rule has a "major impact" on the disposition of felony arrests is misleading and exaggerated. California data show that prosecutors reject only 0.8% (8 in 1,000) of felony arrests because of illegal searches. The effect of the rule is concentrated in drug cases in which the rejection rate by prosecutors is 2.4% (not 30%, as suggested by the NIJ study), but the rejection rate for non-drug arrests is less than 0.3%, and the rate is even lower for violent crimes. Even if one looks at the cumulative effect of the rule through all stages of the felony process in California, only about 2.35% of felony arrests are lost because of illegal searches, and this is a high-side estimate based on potentially atypical samples. Moreover, studies of "lost arrests" have not differentiated between arrests resulting from bona fide crime investigations and arrests that resulted from arbitrary searches or arrests that were made to seize contraband, for harassment, or for purposes other than obtaining a conviction. The author concludes that available data show the cost of the rule is marginal, especially in view of the ambiguous nature of the lost arrests. Moreover, it is doubtful that a good faith mistake exception would save any substantial proportion of the arrests lost following illegal searches. In particular, an exception for searches conducted under an improper warrant would save only a negligible proportion of lost arrests.     

Work ethic of gifted black adolescents

The attitudes and opinions of 15 gifted Black male and 152 Black female adolescents toward their future in the world of work were surveyed. Under headings of self-determination on the job, rewards, and work philosophy, significant differences were found between the sexes. Males demanded more freedom and independence, yet would be more willing to unionize. They also believed men to be the main breadwinners and marriage more important to females. Gifted males wanted to surpass the successes of their parents more than did their gifted female peers. The latter would not put up with poor working conditions as often as would the males. Thus, among gifted Black adolescents the world of work is still the domain of the male.Received his B.S. from Temple University, M.A. from University of Pennsylvania, Ed.D. from George Peabody College for Teachers. Major research interests include interests and attitudes of adolescents regarding the current scene.