Judge-versus attorney-conducted voir dire

Broeder (1965) found that potential jurors frequently distort their replies to questions posed during the voir dire. Considerable controversy has arisen over whether more honest, accurate information is elecited by a judge or by an attorney. The experiment manipulated two target (judge-versus attorney-conducted voir dire) and two interpersonal style variables (personal versus formal). The dependent measure was the consistency of subjects' attitude reports given at pretest and again verbally in court. One-hundred-and-sixteen jury-eligible community residents participated. The results provide support for the hypothesis that attorneys are more effective than judges in eliciting candid self-disclosure from potential jurors. Subjects changed their answers almost twice as much when questioned by a judge as when interviewed by an attorney. It was suggested that the judge's presence evokes considerable pressure toward conformity to a set of perceived judicial standards among jurors, which is minimized during an attorney voir dire.     

Teaching and assessing leadership courses at the John F. Kennedy school of government

The development of leadership courses aimed at usefulness in practice requires new theory and pedagogy, as well as a hard look at assessing course effectiveness: How useful do students find the course materials for analyzing their past professional experience? How relevant and effective do students find the courses for understanding and intervening into politics and organizations after rejoining professional life? A summary is provided of the setting, theory, and methods for these courses, as well as the results of a survey of students after they had resumed their careers. The authors conclude with a brief discussion of the risks involved in teaching leadership.     

A comparison of consensus and voting in public decision making

Conclusion As much as consensus decision making may be in vogue, as much as it may feel like an appropriate and progressive form of civil discourse, it is not without its problems and it may not always be the best avenue to pursue.Policymaking about community problems requires all the creativity we can bring to the task. One of the areas where we might best apply our creativity is in the continual search for improved models of civil discourse and decision making. Consensus-based approaches hold great promise for addressing thorny issues like dispersed public housing, but we need to remember that such methods are relatively new to most of us, and that we are still feeling our way with them.These cautionary comments, however, should not be embraced by public officials as excuses for keeping citizens out of public policy setting. Governments work best ultimately where there is broad consensus for their policies. Bernie Jones is associate director for university resources in the Colorado Center for Community Development at the University of Colorado at Denver, where he also holds an appointment as associate professor of urban and regional planning. His mailing address is Campus Box 128, University of Colorado at Denver, P.O. Box 173364, Denver, Colo. 80217-3364.     

Predictors of success and failure on intensive probation supervision

Using official data collected from probation records, this article identifies predictors of success and failure in the Super Intensive Probation Program in Harris County (Houston), Texas. The records of 307 participants were analyzed using logistic regression analysis. The attempt was to identify predictors of committing technical violations and new crimes. These two categories were combined to identify predictors of success/failure in general. The strongest predictors of failure were unemployment and number of prior misdemeanor convictions. The performances of SIPP participants was compared with that of a sample of regular probationers. Though the failure rates of the two programs was comparable, none of the variables which correlated with success/failure in SIPP were significantly associated with performance on regular probation. Theoretical and policy-related implications of the findings are discussed.