The Effects of Legal and Extralegal Factors on Detention Decisions in US District Courts

The Bail Reform Act of 1984 changed the law dictating release and detention decisions in federal court. Since its passage, few studies have examined judicial decision-making in this context. Legal research enables us to account for the structure and interpretation of federal detention laws and to analyze previously neglected measures of legal factors in our analyses. We use US Sentencing Commission data on a sample of defendants who were sentenced in 2007 (N?=?31,043). We find that legal factors—particularly length of criminal history, having committed a violent or otherwise serious offense, and having committed the offense while under supervision of the criminal justice system—have the strongest relationships with the presentence detention outcome. A defendant’s age, race, and ethnicity have weaker relationships with detention. When we compare defendants who are similarly situated with respect to legal factors, the probability of detention is similar regardless of age, race, and ethnicity.     

The things a man once saw (and was): an appreciation of Richard Quinney

Richard Quinney ranks among the noted criminologists of the twentieth century, especially among progressives. He is also a photographer of note, drawing on scenes from his native Wisconsin to reflect his deep inner life. Things once seen, published in 2009 by Borderland Books, is a 40‐year retrospective of his photographic work. It is a deeply religious work that celebrates the requirements of life lived by a “radical realism”. In June 2009 Doctor Quinney was presented with the Sullivan–Tifft Vanguard Award at the annual meeting of the Justice Studies Association.     

The relationship between schemas and offence supportive attitudes in mentally disordered sexual offenders

Abstract

The study of schemas in sexual offenders is a relatively new approach in attempts to understand the deviant beliefs and attitudes of sexual offenders. Emerging findings suggest that offence supportive attitudes may be the product of an offender's underlying schemas. This study aims to establish the relationship between offence supportive attitudes and schemas in a sample of mentally disordered sexual offenders (MDSOs). Thirty-one male sexual offenders held within low through high security forensic mental health units were assessed using the Young Schema Questionnaire - Short Version 3 and the Questionnaire on Attitudes Consistent with Sex Offending. Correlational analyses suggested a pattern of relationships in which Insufficient Self-control, Entitlement and Enmeshment arose as the schemas associated with most offence supportive attitudes. This supports a relationship between schemas and offence supportive attitudes in MDSOs and is consistent with the literature to date. Implications for further research and treatment are considered.     

Would John Stuart Mill have Regulated Pornography?

John Stuart Mill dominates contemporary pornography debates where he is routinely invoked as an authoritative defence against regulation. This article, by contrast, argues that a broader understanding of Mill's ethical liberalism, his utilitarianism, and his feminism casts doubt over such an assumption. New insights into Mill's approach to sex, sexual activity, and the regulation of prostitution reveal an altogether more nuanced and activist approach. We conclude that John Stuart Mill would almost certainly have accepted certain forms of pornography regulation and, in this light, we argue that Mill can provide the foundation for new, liberal justifications of some forms of pornography regulation.     

Investigating the Functional Form of the Self-control–Delinquency Relationship in a Sample of Serious Young Offenders

Objective

This work further examines the functional form of the self-control–delinquency relationship as an extension of recent work by Mears et al. (J Quant Criminol, 2013). Given the importance of the authors’ conclusions regarding the nonlinear relationship between these two variables and the recognition that there are some potential limitations in the sample and assumptions required for the analytic methods used, we apply both similar and alternative techniques with a data set comprised of serious youthful offenders to determine whether key findings can be replicated.

Methods

Data from the Pathways to Desistance study, which comprise extensive individual and social history interviews with 1,354 offenders over multiple waves spread out over 84 months, is utilized in this analysis. These data are well-suited to investigating the questions of interest as the target population comprises youth with offending histories that are more extensive than those likely to be found in general surveys of adolescents. The analyses consider the self-control–delinquency relationship in an alternative sample with the previously used Generalized Propensity Score (GPS) procedure, which requires strong assumptions, as well as nonparametric regression which requires far weaker assumptions to consider the functional form of the self-control–delinquency relationship.

Results

The results generally show that the identified functional form of the self-control–delinquency relationship seems to be at least partly dependent on aspects of the modeling of dose–response associated with GPS procedures. When nonparametric general additive models are used with the same data, the relationship between self-control and delinquency seems to be approximately linear.

Conclusions

Identifying functional form relationships has importance for many criminological theories, but it is a task that requires that the balance of model assumptions to exploratory data analysis falls toward the latter. Nonparametric approaches to such questions may be a necessary first step in learning about the nature of mechanisms presumed to be at work in important explanations for crime and criminality.     

Access to expensive anti-cancer drugs

Expensive anti-cancer drugs expose controversy underlying the process for resource allocation decisions, and intermittently result in marked publicity, emotive discussions about access to novel and expensive treatments, and political involvement which may override existing processes. This column outlines the methods of determining whether or not a treatment is considered appropriate to fund, and focuses upon the evidence of patient and doctor wishes. The existing research illustrates the complexity of patient and oncologist decision-making when these drugs are to be considered. Past litigation to obtain access to expensive treatments is discussed, along with the interactions between patients, pharmaceutical companies, health services and oncologists. This evolving field is being transformed by developments in molecular biology enabling targeted drugs, and amply demonstrates the complexity of funding decisions and how expensive treatments are considered by a range of stakeholders.     

“How an Ordinary Jury Makes Sense of it is a Mystery”: Barristers’ Perspectives on Rape,Consent and the Sexual Offences Act 2003

The Sexual Offences Act 2003 introduced significant reforms to the offence of rape, amid concerns regarding the low reporting and conviction rates for rape. One of the key aims of the Act was to improve the law relating to consent, in order to assist a jury in their decision making process. In addition, disquiet had been expressed with regards to the subjective nature of the mens rea of rape. Consequently, the 2003 Act reformulated the law so as to introduce an objective test. This article discusses the findings of a qualitative research project undertaken with 14 Barristers in the North West of England, in order to investigate counsels’ opinions regarding the 2003 reforms. Drawing upon data collected from semi-structured interviews, the article examines barristers’ perspectives with regards to the definition of consent, the ‘consent presumptions’, and the reformulated mens rea. In conclusion, it will be argued that while the barristers were not overly optimistic about the reforms introduced by the 2003 Act, they were also opposed to further reform to the substantive law and increased jury directions. Barristers argued that the law relating to rape should remain as simple as possible.     

Teaching Dissent in the Law School: Have Students Learned to Disagree?

This paper offers an analysis of the qualitative evidence obtained from a research project in relation to the teaching of a module on the Trials of Dissenters in the context of an undergraduate law degree. It will consider whether a pedagogically innovative course has encouraged and enabled undergraduate law students to think more creatively on the issues raised by specific historic trials and to be prepared to construct more critical and open ended arguments. The study of the Trials of Dissenters, we hoped, would encourage our students to dissent both from the standard model of legal education and from the acceptance of what lecturers say as “true”. We here consider the success of our project in relation to how students view dissent.