Comment on Thomas Mathiesen's Selective Incapacitation Revisited

Law and Human Behavior -     

Books in review

She is author of Equity and Gender,and Property Rights and Eminent Domainboth published by Transaction.     

‘The disenchantment conference’: Frustration and humour at the world disarmament conference, 1932

A parody of the work of the Air Commission of the World Disarmament Conference of 1932–34 reveals the cynicism and boredom, as well as the personality, of the officials in the British delegation. In doing so, it demonstrates something of the futility of trying resolve the question of disarmament when bureaucrats and military experts are given free reign.     

A Postconviction Mentality: Prosecutorial Assistance in Exoneration Cases

Prosecutors’ broad discretionary power has long been of interest to scholars, yet little is known about discretionary choices after conviction. This study addresses the gap by exploring prosecutors’ willingness to assist with exonerations. Using data from the National Registry of Exonerations (N = 1,610), the author identifies factors that influence prosecutorial assistance. Results from generalized ordered logistic regression models demonstrate that avoiding uncertainty and maintaining workgroup relationships drives decision-making. Findings indicate that prosecutors are less likely to support exonerations involving law enforcement or forensic misconduct, violent offenses, and inadequate legal defense and more likely to support exonerations involving innocence organizations, guilty pleas, and black and Hispanic defendants. These findings suggest that prosecutors’ interest in protecting professional reputations, maintaining relationships, and optimizing efficiency influences discretion in the postconviction stage just as in earlier stages of case processing.     

Family-of-origin factors and partner violence in the intimate relationships of gay men who are HIV positive

This exploratory study examined the prevalence of intimate partner violence in a sample of gay men who are HIV positive. The concept of intergenerational transmission of violence, from family systems theory, provided the basis of this examination. It was hypothesized that men who had witnessed or experienced violence in their families of origin would be more likely to perpetrate or experience violence in their intimate relationships. Perpetration and receipt of abuse were assessed to provide a more comprehensive examination of these relationships. The results of this study indicated that psychological abuse was the most commonly reported form of violence in these relationships. The results also provided partial support for the hypothesized relationship between family-of-origin violence and subsequent violence in an intimate relationship. Implications for future research and intervention are discussed.