The Effects of British and American Trial Procedures on the Quality of Juror Decision-Making

Compared to American trial procedures, British procedures provide a less distracting environment in which jurors can process trial evidence. Relying on theories of persuasion, it was predicted that jurors viewing British procedures would be less affected by extra-evidentiary cues and would be more sensitive to evidence strength variations than jurors in American trials. Participants (N = 245) viewed a mock trial in which trial procedure, judge's nonverbal behavior, and evidence strength were varied. Participants judged the British procedures to be more civil and fair than American procedures but were less likely to find for the plaintiff. Although jurors recalled more trial facts when they viewed British procedures, they were not more sensitive to variations in evidence strength. There was some evidence that British procedures may increase the influence of judge's nonverbal behavior on juror judgments. The relative benefits of different trial procedures are discussed.     

The law and practice associated with advance directives in Canada and Australia: similarities, differences and debates

This article is a summary of research that investigated the Canadian and Australian legislative framework associated with advance directives in health care. The research focused on the context in which older people are encouraged to use advance directives. These are directions about refusal of medical treatment given in advance of incompetence. An advance directive may be given in a written document (living will) expressing one's wishes, by appointing another person (proxy) to make the decisions, or as a combination of the two. A lack of consistency and clarity about the terminology was found in both countries. This could be a barrier for older people to express their wishes in advance. Several confusing issues were also identified with the legislation related to advance directives. There appears to be a move towards appointing a substitute decision-maker, but with significant differences across the Australian States and in Canadian Provinces. The "conversation" about future decisions emerged as an important theme, together with an emphasis on the process of "advance care planning" replacing the focus on advance directive forms.     

Using resolution calculations to assess changes in capillary electrophoresis run parameters

Capillary electrophoresis is widely used in the forensic community for the analysis of Short Tandem Repeat DNA. The CE system used in most forensic laboratories allows the user to modify standard operational protocols to accommodate some samples that fall outside of interpretational guidelines. We have made operational changes and monitored system resolution and the ability of the software to identify alleles as a result of these modifications. Increased amount of amplified product in the injection preparation, lengthened injection times or repeated injections of the same sample were all investigated along with variations in run voltages. Certain protocol modifications offer some advantages to the analysis of STRs and may allow the analyst to avoid extraction of additional portions of crime scene samples to achieve interpretable results.     

Trust the People! Populism and the Two Faces of Democracy

Populism, understood as an appeal to 'the people' against both the established structure of power and the dominant ideas and values, should not be dismissed as a pathological form of politics of no interest to the political theorist, for its democratic pretensions raise important issues. Adapting Michael Oakeshott's distinction between 'the politics of faith' and 'the politics of scepticism', the paper offers an analysis of democracy in terms of two opposing faces, one 'pragmatic' and the other 'redemptive', and argues that it is the inescapable tension between them that makes populism a perennial possibility.     

Long-Term Effects of Witnessing Marital Violence for Women: The Contribution of Childhood Physical and Sexual Abuse

A sample of 313 college women completed a questionnaire about experiences with violence in childhood and adulthood and adult adjustment and relationship functioning. Nine percent of the women reported having witnessed some type of physical conflict between their parents. Witnessing marital violence was associated with other family mental health risks, childhood physical and sexual abuse, and adult physical assaults by strangers. Women who witnessed marital violence reported more symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder than other women, after family background and abuse variables were accounted for. Significant interactions between witnessing marital violence and childhood physical abuse were observed for measures of social avoidance and predictability in partner relationships, indicating that the effects of witnessing marital violence depended on the presence of childhood abuse. Implications of these results for research and interventions are discussed.     

The Road to South Carolina: Intergovernmental Tax Immunity and the Constitutional Status of Federalism

In South Carolina v. Baker the Supreme Court struck a powerfulblow at constitutional federalism. As a result of this landmarkcase, the question of whether issuing tax exempt bonds is asovereign right of the states or a privilege they are accordedby the national government has been settled. Relying in parton precedent from Garcia, the Court determined that immunityis not a right under the Tenth Amendment. In addition, SouthCarolina established a new doctrine of intergovernmental taximmunity which formally accords superior powers to the nationalgovernment. Taken together, these results have implicationsfor the future course of intergovernmental fiscal policy aswell as the basic character of the relationship between thenational and state and local governments.     

Youth status and national development: A global assessment in the 1980s

Using a data set of 123 countries, the global status of youth is assessed by examining the relationship between national development and a youth-adult ratio, or the number of youth relative to the number of adults in a nation. First, the size of the population of youth in comparison to the size of the adult population is determined, where it becomes evident that the majority of nations have high or very high numbers of youth relative to adults. Second, the opportunities nations provide their young people are evaluated by looking at the range and average levels of economic, political, social, and educational development within the modern world system. Third, a strong relationship is found between relative size of the youth population and national development, with youth ratios most closely associated with educational and political development. The results of this study demonstrate the existence of inter-age and intra-age stratification throughout the world, which has important implications for the future well-being of youth as well as the world system of nation-states.This paper was presented at the 81st annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, New York, New York, August 30–September 3, 1986.Ph. D. in sociology from Pennsylvania State University. Research interests include generational politics, youth movements, and political sociology.Ph. D. in psychology from Syracuse University. Research interests include aging and politics, social psychological aspects of health care, gerontology, and life-course development.     

The Role of “Very Important” Nonparental Adults in Adolescent Development

Two hundred one adolescents of diverse ethnic backgrounds (mean age = 16.7 years) reported whether they considered any adult other than their parents to be a very important person (VIP) in their lives, and described various attributes of the VIP and their relationship with this individual. Perceived VIP characteristics—especially perceived involvement of the VIP in behavior that is uniformly illegal (e.g., theft) or illegal for adolescents (e.g., alcohol use)— were robust predictors of boys' self-reported misconduct and had modest links with their level of self-reported depressive symptomatology. In contrast, VIP attributes showed their strongest linkages to girls' depressive symptoms, with perceived VIP warmth and acceptance related to a lower incidence of depressed mood. Regression analyses indicated that these VIP attributes contributed uniquely to the explanation of misconduct and depressive symptoms even when analogous parental and friend attributes were included in the models. In view of the findings of this exploratory study, several future research directions are suggested, including research on the mechanisms through which VIP effects may be transmitted.