Assessing Cumulative Disadvantage against Minority Female Defendants in State Courts

Abstract

Prior sentencing research, especially research on cumulative disadvantage, has mainly focused on the treatment of male defendants. Little attention has been paid to female defendants, particularly minority female defendants. Drawing on the selective chivalry, evil women, and focal concerns perspectives and using data from the 1990–2009 State Court Processing Statistics (SCPS), this paper investigates the impact of race/ethnicity for female defendants across individual and successive stages in the sentencing process. The results indicate that ethnicity does not operate via indirect or direct pathways, and therefore no evidence of cumulative disadvantage against Hispanic female defendants was detected. The results, however, do suggest that race operates through direct and indirect pathways to cause more punitive sentencing outcomes for Black female defendants compared to White female defendants, thus providing evidence of cumulative disadvantage against Black female defendants. Theoretical, research, and policy implications are discussed.     

Privatizing the Universities

For most of the twentieth century, privatization of state universities seemed inconceivable. By 1997 government reviews of tertiary education in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand were all exploring variations on a market-driven theme. Similar policy agendas were being promoted through international agencies like the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). This article examines the convergence of tertiary education restructuring and the extent to which that reflects, and serves to embed, an ascendant neo-liberal hegemony. Taking the extreme example of New Zealand, it assesses the implications of a global competitive model of tertiary education for law schoools in the common law world.     

The Effects of Burning and Mold Growth on the Chemical Composition of Firelog Fuels

Firelogs consist of a cellulosic material, such as sawdust or wood particles, and a combustible binder (fuel). Historically, the fuel typically consisted of a petroleum‐based (paraffin) wax; however, some manufacturers now include vegetable oils in their firelog fuels. To determine fuel composition, fuels from various brands of firelogs were extracted and analyzed by high‐temperature gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (HTGC‐MS) and a GC‐MS with a polar column specific for the analysis of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs). Firelogs were also burned, allowed to grow mold, and analyzed by GC‐MS to determine the effects that burning and mold growth have on firelog fuel composition. Mold did not tend to preferentially degrade any of the fatty acids. Burning caused a decrease in the relative amount of all of the fatty acids present in the vegetable oil fuel, with a greater effect on unsaturated fatty acids than saturated ones.     

Digital evidence in cloud computing systems

Cloud computing systems provide a new paradigm to the distributed processing of digital data. Digital forensic investigations involving such systems are likely to involve more complex digital evidence acquisition and analysis. Some public cloud computing systems may involve the storage and processing of digital data in different jurisdictions, and some organisations may choose to encrypt their data before it enters the cloud. Both of these factors in conjunction with cloud architectures may make forensic investigation of such systems more complex and time consuming. There are no established digital forensic guidelines that specifically address the investigation of cloud computing systems. In this paper we examine the legal aspects of digital forensic investigations of cloud computing systems.     

Measuring the Frequency Occurrence of Handwritten Numeral Characteristics

The premise of this follow‐up sister study to “Measuring the Frequency Occurrence of Handwriting and Handprinting Characteristics” was to collect a representative population sampling of numerals and assess how many participants utilize each of the predetermined characteristics as found in their specimens. A total of 1410 handwriting specimen forms were collected from across the United States and pared to 1025 to obtain a proper representative sample of the U.S. adult population based on the same demographics used in the original 2017 study. This study provides frequency of occurrence proportions and 95% confidence limits for 25 handwritten numeral characteristics. A total of 277 intercharacter pairs of handwritten numeral characteristics were cross‐analyzed for interdependence. The results were that 72.92% of all intercharacter pairs had a coefficient of correlation between ?0.2 and +0.2 in this study.     

A Multidimensional Definition of Partner Abuse: Development and Preliminary Validation of the Composite Abuse Scale

The lack of definitional consistency about domestic violence and the absence of a well-validated comprehensive abuse screening questionnaire have been major methodological flaws in domestic violence research. While there are several screening questionnaires in use, they either are narrowly defined and do not have discrete measures of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse or have not been validated on both abused and nonabused samples. This study presents the development and preliminary validation of a new partner abuse screening questionnaire (Composite Abuse Scale; CAS). Items measuring the three areas of partner abuse were extracted from four published scales: the Conflict Tactics Scale, Measure of Wife Abuse, Inventory of Spouse Abuse, and Psychological Maltreatment of Women Inventory. A survey using these items was sent to all nurses working at a large Australian public, inner-city teaching hospital. Factor analyses of the responses of 427 participants revealed four dimensions: Severe Combined Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Physical Abuse, and Harassment. Preliminary evidence is presented on validity and a high scale reliability is reported fof each subscale.     

Who's in charge? Lessons in discerning the source of authority for a rural local government's decision to retain od help

In the face of increasing demand in this era of “fend for yourself federalism,” greater numbers of university-based organization development consultants will likely be working closely with city and county governments in the coming years. Questions of authority to engage the consultant and to implement any new policies which result from the OD intervention process are not always easy to answer. This paper describes an illustrative case study in which failure to answer these questions resulted in the premature termination of an ongoing intervention. Lessons learned from this “failure” and steps which might be taken to avoid similar outcomes in comparable circumstances are discussed.