Children in conflict: assessing the Optional Protocol

Rachel Stohl is Senior Analyst at the Center for Defense Information in Washington, DC. She is a founding member of the US Campaign to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers and serves on its Steering Committee.     

Complex scientific testimony: How do jurors make decisions?

Critics of the civil jury system question whether jurors can adequately evaluate complex expert testimony. Based on current models of research in persuasion, we hypothesized that when expert testimony is complex, factors other than content will influence persuasion. Participants, serving as mock jurors, watched a videotaped trial in which two scientists provided evidence on whether PCBs could have caused a plaintiff's illness. The complexity of the expert's testimony and the strength of the expert's credentials were varied in a 2×2 factorial design. After watching the videotape, mock jurors rendered a verdict and completed a number of attitude measures related to the trial. Overall, consistent with our prediction, we found that jurors were more persuaded by a highly expert witness than by a less expert witness, but only when the testimony was highly complex. When the testimony was less complex, jurors relied primarily on the content of that testimony, and witness credentials had little impact on the persuasiveness of the message.     

Professional attitudes regarding treatment and punishment of incest: Comparing police,child welfare,and community mental health

Brief case histories involving incest were presented to police officers, child welfare workers, and community mental health practitioners in a rural area in Canada. Intervention priorities involving “treatment versus punishment” were assessed across the three professional groups for each specific case vignette. Attitudes were assessed on three factors: perpetrator mentally ill rather than criminal, view regarding treatment of victims and mothers, and support for court mandated treatment. Police and community mental health practitioners had significantly different attitudes as to whether perpetrators of child sexual abuse should be viewed more as criminals or as mentally disturbed. Both mental health and child welfare staff differed significantly from police with a less punitive view towards victims and their mothers. All three profressional groups showed no difference in their modest endorsement of the use of mandated treatment by the courts. Gender was not found to influence response to case vignettes.     

Knowledge of police and court procedures and respect for the law a survey

Data were collected measuring knowledge of procedures and civil liberty protections in the juvenile justice system. In addition, questions from the Rundquist-Sletto Respect for Law Scale were used to assess attitudes toward the system. Three hundred ninety-six subjects, selected through stratified random sampling, were instructed to answer twenty-eight forced-choice questions on procedures and six Guttman-type scale questions on attitudes toward authority, all presented in the context of a brief scenario. Subjects were also asked to indicate age, sex, race, and previous arrest. Several questions were identified as applications of the Miranda decision, and the hypothesis was confirmed that these would be most often answered correctly by all subjects.A brief survey of the development of a separate juvenile justice system is presented. The authors concluded that by relying on informal channels of communication about its role, the court does not meet its obligation to educate the public.     

The determination of glyoxalase I phenotypes in human bloodstains

A method is described for the determination of glyoxalase I phenotypes in liquid blood and dry bloodstains. The frequencies of glyoxalase I phenotypes in various populations of S.E. England are included.     

Crimes against children in nineteenth-century France

Abuse of children is not entirely a modern phenomenon but the definition and classification of abusive practices has changed. Modern concepts of child abuse date only from the 1880s in France. Child abuse in twentieth-century terms of emotional and physical assault, neglect, abandonment, and sexual molestation was not considered a crime during most of the past century. Prior to the 1880s, only two acts, abortion and infanticide, constituted crimes against children. Child abandonment, rather than a crime, was the state supported, societally acceptable alternative to abortion and infanticide. After abandonment, malnourishment and neglect of these children, even to the point of death, likewise were not crimes. With changes in attitudes of the 1880s, parental neglect, assault, and starvation of children became defined as child abuse as did perceived immoral behavior of the parents such as habitual drunkenness and debauchery. Under these new definitions of abuse, state officials could deprive parents of their legal rights and make the children wards of the state for their own protection. The state becamein loco parentis. This essay explores the changing perceptions of child abuse, and the increasing state intervention for the care of abused children after the 1880s.