Perceptions of coercion in interrogation: comparing expert and lay opinions

ABSTRACT

When confessions are entered into evidence in criminal courts, issues of coercion and voluntariness are important and often contested matters. Occasionally, defense attorneys proffer expert witnesses to testify about the coercive pressures of an interrogation and the risk of a false confession. Such testimony is often ruled inadmissible on the grounds that it does not inform the jury beyond its common knowledge. In our effort to test this judicial assumption about common knowledge, we surveyed jury-eligible laypeople (n?=?67) and social scientists specializing in interrogation and confessions (n?=?54) regarding their opinions about the coerciveness of prohibited interrogation tactics, maximization techniques, minimization techniques, and suspect risk factors and compared their ratings with a set of independent t tests. Laypeople gave lower ratings to the coerciveness of all sets of items representing interrogation techniques, and lower ratings to the vulnerabilities associated with suspect risk factors, as compared to social science experts. The disparities between laypeople’s and experts’ perceptions of coercion in interrogations demonstrate that such issues are not fully within the common knowledge of prospective jurors, and suggest the need to provide jurors with expert witness guidance when tasked with evaluating confession evidence.     

Discriminant analysis of the mandible for sex determination

Seventeen measuring parameters were used to characterize 197 mandibles (109 males, 88 females) taken from the corpses of people 20-80 years of age from the Rhine-Main-Neckar area. The representative measuring parameters and discriminating functions of intact lower jaws and lower jaw fragments of most frequent fracture types were determined in this practice group by means of discriminating analysis. In the present research material it was possible to determine sex accurately from an intact lower jaw bone in 82.6% (m) and 79.5% (f) of the cases. Furthermore, our results show clearly that sex may even be determined from lower jaw fragments. The classification was correct, depending on the type of fragment, in 72.5%-81.7% (m) and 71.6%-79.5% (f) of the cases.     

Are There Gender Differences in Sustaining Dating Violence? An Examination of Frequency, Severity, and Relationship Satisfaction

One topic of debate within the field of intimate violence involves the equivalence, or lack thereof, of male-perpetrated versus female-perpetrated violence. To inform this debate, we examined potential gender-related differences in the frequency of sustaining violence, the severity of violence sustained, and effects of violence on relationship satisfaction. Data were collected from 2 samples of heterosexual undergraduates in dating relationships. In both studies, men and women experienced violence at comparable frequencies, although men experienced more frequent moderate violence. Rates of severe violence were extremely low for both sexes across studies. In both investigations, only women experienced lower relationship satisfaction as a function of partner violence. In Study 1, relationship status moderated this effect, such that women in serious dating relationships were less satisfied than either women in less serious relationships or than men as a function of partner violence. In Study 2, women were less satisfied with violent relationships than men regardless of relationship status. We contend that gender-sensitive approaches to relationship violence are important to better understand and prevent both male- and female-perpetrated violence. Directions for future research efforts are outlined.     

Linking action training to bureaucratic reorientation and institutional reform

This article explores the use of action-training methods in a highly centralized and control-oriented public sector. It focuses on the Technical Assistance and Training Programme for Departmental Development Corporations (PATC-CORDES), an innovative programme in Peru initially supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Successive sections review a particularly influential alternative to conventional classroom training proposed by Honadle and Hannah (1982); provide relevant background; describe PATC-CORDES organization and objectives; examine its training activities; assess the resulting institutional impacts; and posit important insights from the case study. The PATC-CORDES experience demonstrates that action-training methods can produce positive results in agencies that are part of a rigid public sector and, more importantly, that such methods can be linked to bureaucratic reorientation and institutional reform. Perhaps the most interesting and controversial conclusion is that recruitment of central administrators to lead training exercises can be a useful tactic for bureaucratic reorientation. The article is based on review of documents, reports, and evaluations prepared by persons working for USAID/Peru, PATC-CORDES, and departmental development corporations (CORDES); extensive interviews with political leaders, managers, and professionals in these same organizations; analysis of Peruvian legislation; and other references cited in the text.