Impact of Defense-Only and Opposing Eyewitness Experts on Juror Judgments

Previous research shows that expert testimony on eyewitness memory influences mock-juror judgments. We examined the extent to which opposing expert testimony mitigates the impact of defense-only expert testimony. Participants (N = 497) viewed a video-taped trial involving an eyewitness identification and individually rendered verdicts and evaluated the evidence and the experts. We manipulated the Foils (unbiased vs. biased) and Instructions (unbiased vs. biased) of the lineup and Expert Testimony (no expert vs. defense-only expert vs. opposing experts). Expert testimony did not significantly influence juror judgments, but the opposing expert testimony diminished the credibility of the defense expert in the eyes of the jurors. Results point to the need for further research on conditions that qualify the impact of expert testimony.     

The role of the bar context and social behaviors on women's risk for aggression

The present study is an initial examination of the extent to which the environmental characteristics of bars and social behaviors that women engage in when drinking in this setting are associated with bar-related aggression. As expected, several environmental characteristics (e.g., young patrons, pool playing) and social behaviors (e.g., alcohol consumption, leaving the bar with strangers) were associated with more severe bar-related aggression experienced by women during the past year. These results shed light on the significant problem of bar-related aggression against women and can potentially be used to develop prevention and educational programs.     

Polydrug fatality involving metaxalone

A 29-year old female with a history of depression was found dead in a hotel room. The death scene investigation found empty pill bottles and an empty liter bottle of wine. Metaxalone, a centrally acting muscle relaxant, along with citalopram, ethanol, and chlorpheniramine were identified in the postmortem samples and quantitated by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The concentration of metaxalone in femoral vein blood was 39 mg/L. The heart blood concentration was 54 mg/L. Femoral vein blood concentrations of citalopram and chlorpheniramine were 0.77 mg/L and 0.04 mg/L, respectively. Ethanol levels were 0.13 g/dL in vitreous and 0.08 g/dL in heart blood. Other tissue samples were also analyzed. The authors consider the metaxalone concentrations toxic and potentially fatal. The citalopram concentrations were lower than those reported in fatal cases for this drug alone. Death was ascribed to polydrug abuse/overdose with metaxalone a major contributor. This represents the first reported case to our knowledge in which a metaxalone overdose significantly contributed to death.     

Amended Final-offer Arbitration Outperforms Final-offer Arbitration

Amended final-offer arbitration (AFOA) has been developed asan attractive alternative mechanism to final-offer arbitration(FOA). Under AFOA, more reasonable offers win, but the outcomeis determined by the loser's offer and the arbitrator's value.In AFOA, disputants making extreme offers are penalized, therebyencouraging compromise. This article compares the theoreticaland behavioral properties of AFOA and FOA. Controlled laboratoryexperiments indicate that AFOA significantly outperforms FOA,generating substantially greater prearbitration settlement.Consistent with theoretical predictions, offers converge underAFOA; however, FOA offers neither converge nor are consistentwith theoretical predictions. This work suggests practitionersshould consider adopting AFOA over FOA.     

The Effects of Women Officeholders on Environmental Policy

Studies show that women and girls consistently demonstrate higher levels of concern for the environment than men and boys. Separately, research also indicates that women officeholders pay particular attention to the issues prioritized by their female constituents. Interestingly, despite the consistency of the gender gap in attitudes to environmental issues the literature has paid scant attention to the role of women officeholders in the adoption of environmental policy. The goal of this paper was to start to address that lacuna. Using pooled cross‐sectional time series analyses of environmental standards in 18 Western parliamentary democracies (1990–2012), our initial findings indicate women officeholders are associated with the adoption of higher environmental standards.     

Fair Teachers,Fair Police? Assessing the Pathways between Perceptions of Teacher and Police Authority in Childhood and Adolescence

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Existing research has shown that the quality of the relationship between teacher and child is associated with more positive perceptions of school authorities....