PRETRIAL INTERVIEWING

This article is the winning essay in the 1995 Law School Essay Contest. It provides a thoughtful set of criteria for evaluating the validity of evidence presented in alleged child sexual abuse cases.     

Is Age Irrelevant? Perceptions of Young and Old Adult Eyewitnesses

In Experiment 1, we videotaped elderly and younger adults (n = 69) reporting their memories for a crime video. The seniors were significantly less accurate than the younger adults. In Experiment 2, participants viewed the testimony videotapes and rated the elderly as less credible than the younger adults. In Experiment 3, participant-jurors (n = 302) evaluated transcribed testimonies provided by Experiment 1 participants. The ostensible age of the witnesses was manipulated. Thus, some participants read a senior's testimony believing it was provided by a younger adult and vice versa. Participants were apparently not biased by negative stereotypes of seniors' eyewitness capabilities.     

Project Safe Neighborhoods and Violent Crime Trends in US Cities: Assessing Violent Crime Impact

Since the mid-1990s, a number of initiatives intended to address gang, gun and drug-related violence have arisen and demonstrated promise in reducing levels of violent crime. These initiatives have employed some combination of focused deterrence and problem-solving processes. These strategies formed the basis for Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a national program implemented by the Department of Justice and coordinated by US Attorneys’ Offices. This paper is an initial attempt to assess the potential impact of the nationally implemented PSN initiative through an analysis of violent crime trends in all US cities with a population of 100,000 or above. While a number of site specific studies exist examining the potential impact of locally implemented PSN programs, to date no national-level study has examined whether PSN may have had an impact on violent crime trends. Cities included in the current study are distinguished on the basis of whether they were considered a treatment city by the PSN task force and by the level of implementation dosage of the PSN program. This allowed a comparison of 82 treatment cities and 170 non-treatment cities as well as a variable of dosage level. Hierarchical Generalized Linear Models (HGLM) were developed that controlled for other factors that may have affected the level of violent crime across the sample of cities. The results suggested that PSN treatment cities in higher dosage contexts experienced statistically significant, though modest, declines in violent crime whereas non-target cities and low dosage contexts experienced no significant changes in violent crime during the same period. The limitations of this initial analysis are noted but the evidence seems to suggest that the multi-agency, focused deterrence, problem solving approach holds promise for reducing levels of violent crime. At a minimum, these findings call for continued programmatic experimentation with data-driven, highly focused, deterrence-based violence reduction strategies.     

The Niqab in Canada： Is it a charter right？

Although religious beliefs and practices came under Constitutional protection in 1982 by section 2（a） of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the struggle to define what constitutes freedom of religion continues. Currently freedom of religion from the court＇s perspective is a right to be protected as long as its expression does not bring harm or discrimination to others. This definition is one that the courts have already applied to several other different rights. It is a position that while ostensibly static is capable of fluid change as society changes over time. To set in stone how far a freedom may extend is to deny the fact that society does and will continue to change. Views on what constitutes religious beliefs are fluid and a requirement on the extension of protection to those beliefs and actions is argued could hamper the development of multiculturalism.     

Unexpected Serotonin Syndrome,Epileptic Seizures,and Cerebral Edema Following 2,5‐dimethoxy‐4‐bromophenethylamine Ingestion

4‐bromo‐2,5‐dimethoxyphenethylamine (2C‐B) is a designer drug. In Europe, 2C‐B is easily obtained and used for recreational purposes. It is known for its stimulating effects similar to those of 3,4‐methylenedioxymethamphetamine, although in higher doses it has more hallucinogenic effects. Here, we report a case of 2C‐B ingestion, confirmed by liquid chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometry, in an 18‐year‐old man. The neurological consequences were severe, including the development of serotonin syndrome and severe brain edema. Supportive therapy resulted in a stable condition, although, after several months, the patient still suffered from severe neurological impairment due to the drug‐induced toxicity. This case showed that 2C‐B could not be identified with the drugs of abuse screening routinely used in Dutch hospitals. The use of 2C‐B carries many risks, with potentially profound neurological damage, that both consumers and healthcare physicians are unaware of.     

“You must be joking”: the role of humour in the law classroom

There is a body of literature, including persuasive empirical evidence, linking the use of positive humour in tertiary classrooms with the creation of a relaxed learning environment, student motivation, attendance and engagement as well as positive student evaluations of teacher performance. However, the literature on the use of humour in teaching law is generally limited to anecdotal evidence. Drawing on the literature on using humour in teaching courses that students perceive as “difficult” in other disciplines, in this article we explore the benefits and pitfalls of using humour in the law classroom and provide illustrations of how humour might be used appropriately and effectively in teaching law.     

Adapting measures of social climate for use with individuals with intellectual developmental disability in forensic settings

The social climate of forensic settings is thought to impact on a number of important clinical and organisational outcomes and is, therefore, an important construct in relation to the successful functioning of forensic units. A variety of self-report questionnaires have been developed to objectively measure the social climate of forensic settings (e.g. the Correctional Institutions Environment Scale and the Essen Climate Evaluation Schema), however these questionnaires have not been validated for individuals with intellectual developmental disabilities (IDD). Given the prevalence of IDD in prison and forensic psychiatric settings and the potential impact of such cognitive deficits on the ability to complete a range of self-report questionnaires, it is important to consider the potential reliability and validity of existing social climate measures in IDD populations. This article will, therefore: (1) examine the cognitive, linguistic and response format difficulties that may arise when administering self-report measures of social climate in IDD populations; (2) consider potential adaptations to existing measures of social climate that might make them more suitable for use with IDD populations; and (3) identify important directions for future research in the area.