Senate Apportionment as a Source of Political Inequality

Political scientists have long known that the equal representation of states in the U.S. Senate and the placement of state lines might disadvantage politically relevant groups, granting some citizens greater voting weight in the chamber. Yet we lack systematic, longitudinal evidence that identifies the groups disadvantaged by Senate malapportionment, the sources of this disadvantage, and probes the policy consequences. In this article, I compare each state's liberalism and racial composition with its relative voting weight in the Senate over time. Additionally, I examine whether roll‐call coalitions in the Senate map onto these patterns of state ideology and racial composition.     

The Elderly Victim at Risk: Explaining the Fear- Victimization Paradox

Current research argues that criminal victimization of the elderly is less of a problem than advocates for the elderly have argued it was in the past. The rate of victimization has been empirically demonstrated to be lower than for most other age groups. At the same time, the elderly express high levels of fear regarding criminal victimization. This article seeks to explain this apparent paradox through an “at risk” hypothesis that accounts for both low rates and high fear.     

Existentialism, the Rule of Law and Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code

Books reviewed in this article:
"¨¨ I have no fatuous notion that the judicial process can be made perfect. It is a human process, involving inherent human failings and weaknesses¨¨ (T)o better it requires a recognition of its unavoidably human, fallible character." Jerome Frank.     

PLEA BARGAINING AND THE RESEARCH DILEMMA

Plea bargaining has been traditionally assumed to play no part in the administration of criminal justice in England. Research conducted by the authors casts serious doubts on this assumption. Their report on this research provoked a vituperative response from leaders of the English legal profession who attempted to suppress its publication. Some implications of this reaction for the independent conduct of research are examined in this article.     

Urban Environment, Genetics, and Crime

Gene-environment interactions are important for the development of much human behavior. We examined the possibility that a genetic propensity to criminal behavior interacts with the type of environment in which an individual is raised. Using a cohort of adoptees, we found evidence for independent contributions of biological parent criminality (genetic influence) and urban environment rearing to prediction of adoptee criminality, but no evidence for a gene-environment interaction involving these factors.