The Australian Prisons Census: Estimating remand times

By applying a renewal theory model to data from the Australian Prisons Census, we estimate the number of remand receptions at prisons and the mean and median remand times served by prisoners during the period 1982–1990. We conclude that despite the general increases in court delays, and despite a large increase in the remand reception rate between 1982 and 1990, remand times have been largely unaffected, with the median remand time for 1990 being 1.7 weeks. Comparisons are made with official figures for various states and with figures for Canada and England/Wales.     

The Voice of the Community in Private Law Discourse

Formalist private lawyers, with their view of law as an autonomous sphere and their emphasis upon allocative rules, tend to approach the issue of the harmonisation of private law in Europe with the following question: are the substantive rights and remedies of private individual actors sufficiently similar within each of the Member States to allow for the unification of autonomous private legal systems. Here the issue is essentially one of terminology. While sceptical voices maintain that formal private law is also a more complex matter of interrelated procedures and practices, many formalists conclude that whilst the terms of rights and remedies may differ slightly throughout Europe, there is sufficient substantive convergence to allow for harmonisation. However, lawyers of a sociological persuasion who see private law as being contingent upon society Ð a process reflexively and recursively facilitating economic activities and responding to social change Ð consider harmonisation to be dependent upon the harmonisation of market practices themselves. This paper, one of the most subtle of sociological contributions, tackles this issue with an innovative eye to the increasing blurring of the distinction between public and private concerns. The voice of Europe is the voice of a political collective and theoretically, under the once sacrosanct paradigm of the public/private divide, should not be heard within the 'individualistic' sphere of private law. However, just as national private law judges are generally responding to social concerns and are seeking to integrate collective voices within a once 'atomised' realm, so too are they taking note of the political voice of Europe: attempting to respond to the desire for integration and harmonisation within their jurisprudence.     

Attitudinal characteristics of males who have engaged in spouse abuse

Several of the attitudinal characteristics which are frequently attributed to abusive males were investigated in this study. Samples of male military personnel who had engaged in at least one serious episode of interspousal violence in the previous 6 months were administered measures of the following variables: (1) Attitudes toward self — The Coopersmith Self-The Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory; (2) Attitudes toward others — The Generalized Expectations of Others Questionnaire, a short form of The Attitudes Toward Women Scale and The Mehrabian and Epstein Empathy Scale; and (3) Dogmatism —The Rokeach D Scale and the Revised Authoritarianism Index, When compared to matched control groups of nonabusive males, statistically significant differences were found only for The Self-esteem Inventory and one item of the Generalized Expectations of Others Questionnaire. It is concluded that many of the attitudinal characteristics of abusive males reported in the clinical literature may not be a significant component in the etiology of spouse abuse.     

Decision making in joined criminal trials: The influence of charge similarity,evidence similarity,and limiting instructions

The present research investigated decision-making processes in joined trials of multiple offenses. Subjects judged videotaped trials of three joined charges in a factorial design that varied charge similarity, evidence similarity, and judges' instructions designed to reduce judgement biases; or judged one of several charges presented individually. The results indicated that subjects were more likely to convict a defendant in a joined trial than on the same charge tried by itself, particularly when the charge was presented in the third position. Convictions were more frequent when joined charges were similar, and judges' instructions significantly reduced conviction rates. Subjects judging joined trials confused evidence among charges, rated the prosecution's evidence as stronger, and rated the defendent less favorably than subjects judging single trials. The findings were compared statistically to the results of previous research, and it was concluded that increased convictions in joined trials are robust effects.This research is based on part of a doctoral dissertation by S. Tanford at the University of Wisconsin. The research was supported by National Institute of Justice Grant No. 81-LJ-CX-0048 to S. Penrod.     

Zur Mikrosoziologie von Massentötungen bei Amokläufen

Spectacular but very rare violent events such as mass killings by habitual non-criminals cannot be explained by factors which are very widespread, such as possession of firearms, being a victim of bullying, an introvert, or a career failure. A stronger clue is clandestine preparation of attack by one or two individuals, against randomly chosen representatives of a hated collective identity. The mass killer chooses a setting, costume and timing to establish emotional dominance as precursor to physical casualties; such killers typically amass far more weapons than they actually use, and rely on them both for intimidation and for their own symbolic-emotional support. Mass killings end surprisingly often by surrendering, or committing suicide, once confronted by firm resistance. Mass killers develop a deep back-stage, obsessed with planning their attack, overcoming social inferiority and isolation by an emotion of clandestine excitement. Their actions might be described as mental illness, except that the clinical label adds no further explanatory power – their violent mental illness is socially constructed by just these processes.