General systems theory and criminal justice

Criminal justice agencies are organized sequentially — “output” from one agency is “input” to the next — but most scholars argue that criminal justice is not a system in a theoretical sense. In this article, it is argued that general systems theory (GST) reveals important insights into criminal justice structures and functions. Specifically, it is argued that the criminal justice system processes “cases” rather than people, and that the common goal of criminal justice processing is to “close cases so that they stay closed.” It also is argued that processing capacity progressively declines, in that at each system point the subsequent agency cannot input as many cases as the previous agency can output. Each agency therefore experiences “backward pressure” to close cases in order to reduce input to the next agency. Overall, this article highlights that criminal justice agents and agencies are best understood as operating in the context of the larger whole, thus it is concluded that criminal justice is a system in the sense of general systems theory.     

Federal labor protetons and the privatization of public transit

Federal transportation officials assert that labor protections in the Urban Mass Transportation Act inhibit the propensity of local transit agencies to contract with private firms for services. The authors present results from a survey of a large sample of transit managers and econometric analysis to support their conclusion that labor protections do not appear to reduce the incidence of contracting. The labor protections, however, may be costly to transit management in other ways. The authors recommend actions, aside from repeal of labor protections, to increase contracting by local transit agencies.     

Children in the environment: Forest day-care centers: Modern day care with historical antecedents

Some features of early child care are more prominent in Norway than in other countries, such as emphasis on the outdoor environment. Of general relevance and interest is the form of day care provided by forest day-care centers. Three ideas form the development of these centers placed in wild areas. First, throughout history, Norwegians have had a close attachment to nature and some parents want to provide their children with outdoor experiences at an early age. Second, urging children to play outdoors characterizes the image many parents have of a happy, healthy childhood. Third, provision of day care for children has always been restricted in western countries, forcing parents to invent types of service that can become part of an ecological system that promotes healthy development.The forest day-care centers developed recently represent a supplement to the wide typology of child care in the 21st century. The article outlines the connections between these ideas in general European and western history and Norwegian history and presents debate and decisions about a question dating from the last half of the 1980s. It concludes that the forest day-care centers are perhaps only a modern form of the original kindergarten concept, which started in Europe and America as gardens for children not gardens of children.     

Logical evaluation of evidence when a person is suspected of committing two separate offences.

We consider the problem of drawing inferences within a legal framework when a person is a suspect for two separate offences. Although we are primarily concerned with scientific evidence the issue inevitably arises as to how that evidence interacts with other, non-scientific evidence. We show that, in this particular context, the evidence can be conveniently classified into three categories that concern, respectively: the first crime only; the second crime only; and evidence that relates to similarities between the two crimes. Two case examples are considered and we consider DNA, fibres and eyewitness evidence. These are viewed from the perspective of a prosecutor who has to decide whether or not to charge a suspect with one or both crimes. Graphical sensivity analyses are presented which have features that are not intuitively obvious.     

Where and When to Spank: A Comparison Between U.S. and Japanese College Students

Although physical punishment has been studied for decades, there are gaps in the literature regarding frequently used form, context, and cross cultural differences. A comparison was made using 227 college students in the United States and Japan, who were presented with four scenarios and surveyed regarding attitudes toward physical punishment, perceptions of appropriate discipline methods, and past experience with physical punishment. Japanese and U.S. respondents reported similar personal experience with physical punishment (Japanese 86%, U.S. 91%). However, U.S. respondents reported a higher likelihood of being hit with an object than did Japanese respondents. For U.S. respondents, the bottom and the hand were the top two sites on the body used for physical punishment, whereas the head and the face were the top two places for the Japanese sample. Unlike U.S. respondents, type of child misbehavior was found to have an impact on Japanese respondents’ views on the appropriate discipline method.     

The use of the laser for determining the direction of the shots and the position of the victim's body in gunshot wounds

In this article a practical case is described when gunshot directions and position of a victim's body at the moment of each shot were determined by natural simulation using an LG-78 laser (made in the form of a gun).     

WASHINGTON,DU BOIS AND PLESSY V. FERGUSON

Law and Philosophy -     

Wilton Marion Krogman, Ph.D. (1903-1987): the end of an era

Dr. Wilton Marion Krogman was one of the major founders of physical and forensic anthropology in the United States. His extraordinary career spanned nearly six decades, and he was universally admired and respected for his scholarship, teaching, research, wit, and humanity. While studies based on human skeletal remains have long been used to assist the medicolegal system, the late Dr. Krogman can be credited with uniting these areas into the discipline of forensic anthropology. His "Guide to the Identification of Human Skeletal Material" (1939) in the F.B.I. Law Enforcement Bulletin became the foundation of this discipline; his monumental book The Human Skeleton in Forensic Medicine (updated with the author in 1986) solidified its establishment. The purpose of this paper is to pay tribute to this great man and outline his influence on the development and advancement of forensic anthropology.