Attorney communication and impression making in the courtroom

This study investigated the effectiveness of attorney communication and impression making in the courtroom. Trained in-court observers rated attorney presentations for factual and legal informativeness, organization, articulateness, and rapport during the opening statement phase of 50 trials. After the trials, jurors were asked to evaluate the attorneys' overall articulateness. enthusiasm, and likableness during the trial. The attorneys were then questioned about their own performance on these indices. The results revealed that the opening statements of prosecuting attorneys were judged by observers as better organized and more factually and legally informative than defense attorneys. However, these variables were not related to trial outcome. Juror evaluations of prosecuting attorneys more closely agreed with these attorneys' self-perceptions of courtroom performance while defense attorneys rated themselves significantly more favorably than did jurors. More courtroom experience did not generally lead to better courtroom performance during opening statements for either prosecuting or defense attorneys, and often resulted in significant overestimations of general performance relative to juror evaluations, particularly among defense attorneys. System constraints operating in favor of prosecutors and performance feedback mechanisms available to prosecutors but not to defense attorneys are discussed. These mechanisms may account for the discrepancies between juror perceptions of attorneys and attorney self-perception.     

SPERM DONOR OR THWARTED FATHER? HOW WRITTEN AGREEMENT STATUTES ARE CHANGING THE WAY COURTS RESOLVE LEGAL PARENTAGE ISSUES IN ASSISTED REPRODUCTION CASES

In recent years, the use of assisted reproduction has risen dramatically in the United States, allowing individuals who face various reproductive challenges, including infertility or absence of a heterosexual partner, to conceive biological children. While assisted reproduction has expanded to meet the needs of these parents, the legal system remains years behind, often leading to complicated child custody disputes between the parties. State legislatures have responded to the call for increased regulation of legal parentage in assisted reproduction in varying ways, although one popular statutory approach requires a known sperm provider to preserve his intention to parent in a written agreement with the woman. This article will argue that written agreement statutes are an effective means for resolving parentage disputes because of their ability to protect pre-insemination intent and encourage private ordering of conflicts among the parties. These issues will be explored through the lens of a recent case decided by the Kansas Supreme Court, In Re K.M.H. , where the court enforced a written agreement statute against a sperm provider despite his equal protection and due process challenges.     

Internal Control and Accountability in Non-profit Human Service Organisations

The welfare state regime operative in Australia is highly dependent on the non-profit human services sector. The sector, as an organisational field, has had a series of characteristics applied to it, which assume its superiority over government in many aspects of service delivery. Nevertheless, knowledge about the internal functioning of non-profits is poor. This article presents an initial exploration into one aspect of internal functioning, internal monitoring and control, suggesting that internal mechanisms for control are weak. As welfare state regimes in Europe and North America are restructured, different models of service financing and delivery are being imported into Australia. This article begins to sketch the organisational conditions onto which developing models are being applied, providing an initial base for informed commentary and evaluation.     

Pan Am makes the going great

Abstract

The great Boeing 707/321C cargo jet rolled off the runway toward the unloading ramp of Travis Air Force Base. Turned and stopped by the white-overalled technician waving a long, orange-coned flashlight, its doors rolled open to reveal the lightweight load it had brought on its return from the distant battlefield: one hundred and sixty-eight plastic-wrapped, aluminum-boxed bundles, the bodies of American soldiers killed in Vietnam. Another Pan American World Airways all-cargo charter was ready for unloading.     

Expressing Uncertainty in Dental Age Estimation: A Comparison between Two Methods of Calculating the “Average” Standard Deviation

The expression of uncertainty is defined by the standard deviation and is usually expressed in multiples of the standard deviation (±1sd, ±2sd, and ±3sd). The objective was to use weighting of the sd calculation by the number or count of subjects for each tooth development stage. A comparison shows the difference between the range of uncertainty using the unweighted sd and the weighted sd. The range of uncertainty related to Dental Age Estimation is statistically significantly greater (p < 0.001) for the weighted sd compared to the unweighted sd. It is concluded that the number of subjects for each Tooth Development Stage in the Reference Data set should be included in the calculation for a single Dental Age Estimation using the Simple Average Method when presenting the uncertainty associated with the point estimate of the “mean” for Dental Age Estimation of a single subject of unknown age.     

Replication with Attention to Numerical Accuracy

Numerical issues matter in statistical analysis. Small errorsoccur when numbers are translated from paper and pencil intothe binary world of computers. Surprisingly, these errors maybe propagated and magnified through binary calculations, eventuallyproducing statistical estimates far from the truth. In thisreplication and extension article, we look at one method ofverifying the accuracy of statistical estimates by running thesesame data and models on multiple statistical packages. We findthat for two published articles, Nagler (1994, American Journalof Political Science 38:230–255) and Alvarez and Brehm(1995, American Journal of Political Science 39:1055–1089),results are dependent on the statistical package used. In thecourse of our replications, we uncover other pitfalls that mayprevent accurate replication, and make recommendations to ensurethe ability for future researchers to replicate results.     

On the Overreport Bias of the National Election Study Turnout Rate

Consumers of the National Election Study (NES) should be concernedif the survey has a bias that is increasing with time. A recentarticle by Barry Burden claims that for presidential elections,there is an increasing overreport bias, or turnout gap, betweenthe NES turnout rate and the observed turnout rate caused bydeclining NES response rates. I show that the increasing turnoutgap is an artifact of the universes these two turnout ratesare based on. Reconciling the two universes shows no systematicincrease of the reconciled turnout gap in presidential electionsfrom 1948 to 2000, and furthermore demonstrates that the post-1976rise in NES response rates (until 2000) is rewarded in a lowerturnout gap. In addition, I offer another theory to explainthe turnout gap. If respondents have an equal propensity tomisreport that they voted when they did not, as turnout declines,the number of nonvoter respondents increases and so does theturnout gap. I show that in multivariate analysis this theoryoutperforms Burden's response rate driven theory, though neithertheory reaches statistical significance.