Juror decision making for juveniles tried as adults: the effects of defendant age,crime type,and crime outcome

This study examined the influences of the crime type (person or property) and the crime outcome (mild or severe) on mock jurors’ verdict and sentencing decisions for adult defendants and juvenile defendants tried as adults. Jurors read a trial summary depicting a defendant charged with aggravated robbery or second-degree burglary. The crimes had either mild or severe damage inflicted on the person or property, and the defendant's age was presented as 14 or 24. Neither the defendant age nor the crime outcome affected jurors’ verdicts; however, jurors were more likely to convict a defendant charged with a crime against a person. Jurors recommended longer sentences for an adult defendant, a defendant charged with a crime against a person, and a defendant charged with a crime with a severe outcome. The discussion explored these outcomes and the role of bias in jurors’ perceptions of defendants.     

Literary Feature Reviews

Negritude and after: changing perspectives in French‐language African fiction

The Black Cloth: A Collection of African Folktales. Bernard Binlin Dadie. Translated from the French by Karen C Hatch. Amherst, Massachusetts: The University of Massachusetts Press. 1987. 140pp.np . hb

Black Docker. Sembene Ousmane. Translated from the French by Ros Schwartz. London: Heinemann Educational Books. 1987. 120pp. £3.95pb

Tribaliks: Contemporary Congolese Stories. Henri Lopes. Translated from the French by Andrea Leskes. London: Heinemann Educational Books. 1987. 86pp. £3.95pb

The Laughing Cry: An African Cock and BuU Story. Henri Lopes. Translated from the French by Gerald Moore. London: Readers International. 1987. 260pp. £4.95pb

Chinese literature in renaissance

Mulberry and Peach: Two Women of China. Hualing Nieh. London: Women's Press. 1986. 197 pp. £3.95pb

One Half of the Sky: Selection from Contemporary Women Writers of China. Edited and translated from the Chinese by R A Roberts and Angela Knox London: William Heinemann. 1987. 143 pp. £11.95hb

Leaden Wings. Zhang Jie. Translated from the Chinese by Gladys Yang London: Virago Press. 1987. 180 pp. £3.95pb

Waves. Bei Dao. Edited by Bonnie S McDougall. Translated from the Chinese by Bonnie S McDougall and Susette Ternent Cooke. London: William Heinemann. 1987. 234 pp. £11.95hb     

Treatment manuals: The good,the bad and the useful

Abstract

This paper offers a commentary on the debate between Marshall and Mann on the desirability and merits of treatment manuals in the treatment of sexual offenders. Marshall offers a view of manuals as restrictive to clinical practice and as stifling to clinical innovation. Mann takes the position that manuals are a vital component in effective correctional practice. The commentary suggests that these contrary views are understandable: Marshall takes a clinical perspective and advocates best practice; Mann speaks from a realist forensic perspective in which manuals offer a practical means to deliver treatment on a large scale within prisons and probation. Of course, both positions have their merits and it is suggested that the two are perhaps not irreconcilable if the skills of the practitioner and model of treatment delivery are taken into account.     

Nonprofit housing development: Status,trends, and prospects

Abstract

This article relies on a national survey of community‐based housing development organizations to profile production levels, spatial coverage, funding sources, and nondevelopmental roles of the nonprofit housing development sector. It also uses Urban Institute case study results and secondary data sources to examine continuing barriers to increased production in the sector and the evolution of institutional responses to those barriers.

Nationwide, about 13 percent of all recent federally supported housing units (excluding public housing) have been sponsored by nonprofit developers. This production is distributed very unevenly; relatively few developers produce the bulk of units, and regional disparities are marked. Long‐standing barriers to efficient production at higher volumes continue: Undercapitalization, high‐risk developments, patchwork systems of finance, and the difficulty of demonstrating the social payoff of community development investments constrain even the most sophisticated portions of the sector. However, the creation of national intermediary institutions over the past decade and the proliferation of similar organizations locally have established the preconditions for sector expansion. And in view of recent local initiatives in participatory, comprehensive neighborhood revitalization, and hints of federal support for like efforts, increased capacity in the sector has taken on new national importance.     

Assessing Organizational Performance: Exploring Differences Between Internal and External Measures

ABSTRACT

Differences in judgments of public service performance across stakeholder groups have often been noted, but have rarely been tested. We measure the extent of these differences between and within internal and external stakeholders. The evidence shows that internal groups usually overestimate the performance of their organizations. We then develop and test a model of inter-organizational variations in the extent of this overestimation. The statistical results show that performance overestimation is more likely in small organizations with geographically dispersed clients, and in organizations that adopt fashionable management practices that are associated with higher institutional legitimacy.     

Human genomic DNA quantitation system, H-Quant: development and validation for use in forensic casework

The human DNA quantification (H-Quant) system, developed for use in human identification, enables quantitation of human genomic DNA in biological samples. The assay is based on real-time amplification of AluYb8 insertions in hominoid primates. The relatively high copy number of subfamily-specific Alu repeats in the human genome enables quantification of very small amounts of human DNA. The oligonucleotide primers present in H-Quant are specific for human DNA and closely related great apes. During the real-time PCR, the SYBR Green I dye binds to the DNA that is synthesized by the human-specific AluYb8 oligonucleotide primers. The fluorescence of the bound SYBR Green I dye is measured at the end of each PCR cycle. The cycle at which the fluorescence crosses the chosen threshold correlates to the quantity of amplifiable DNA in that sample. The minimal sensitivity of the H-Quant system is 7.6 pg/microL of human DNA. The amplicon generated in the H-Quant assay is 216 bp, which is within the same range of the common amplifiable short tandem repeat (STR) amplicons. This size amplicon enables quantitation of amplifiable DNA as opposed to a quantitation of degraded or nonamplifiable DNA of smaller sizes. Development and validation studies were performed on the 7500 real-time PCR system following the Quality Assurance Standards for Forensic DNA Testing Laboratories.     

Development of the Observation Scale for Aggressive Behavior (OSAB) for Dutch forensic psychiatric inpatients with an antisocial personality disorder

The Observation Scale for Aggressive Behavior (OSAB) has been developed to evaluate inpatient treatment programs designed to reduce aggressive behavior in Dutch forensic psychiatric patients with an antisocial personality disorder, who are "placed at the disposal of the government". The scale should have the sensitivity to measure changes in the possible determinants of aggressive behavior, such as limited control of displayed negative emotions (irritation, anger or rage) and a general deficiency of social skills. In developing the OSAB 40 items were selected from a pool of 82 and distributed among the following a priori scales: Irritation/anger, Anxiety/gloominess, Aggressive behavior, Antecedent (to aggressive behavior), Sanction (for aggressive behavior) and Social behavior. The internal consistency of these subscales was good, the inter-rater reliability was moderate to good, and the test-retest reliability over a two to three week period was moderate to good. The correlation between the subscales Irritation/anger, Anxiety/gloominess, Aggressive behavior, Antecedent, Sanction was substantial and significant, but the anticipated negative correlation between these subscales and the Social behavior subscale could not be shown. Relationships between the corresponding subscales of the OSAB and the FIOS, used to calculate concurrent validity, yielded relatively high correlations. The validity of the various OSAB subscales could be further supported by significant correlations with the PCL-R and by significant but weak correlations with corresponding subscales of the self-report questionnaires. The Observation Scale for Aggressive Behavior (OSAB) seems to measure aggressive behavior in Dutch forensic psychiatric inpatients with an antisocial personality disorder reliably and validly. Contrary to expectations, a negative relationship was not found between aggressive and social behavior in either the OSAB or FIOS, which were used for calculating concurrent validity.