Rethinking the admissibility of medical treatises as evidence.

This Article examines the issues and questions which underlie the debate over the admission of "medical treatises" into evidence. The admissibility of this type of evidence is at issue most often in litigation involving complex medico-legal issues. This article outlines the evidentiary basis for admission of medical treatises and discusses the quality of medical treatises in an effort to determine what value to the fact-finder these treatises actually hold. The authors contend that there is an inherent untrustworthiness associated with medical treatises, but do not go so far as to suggest that medical treatises should never be admitted. The Article concludes that there is a need for greater caution in determining admissibility and recommends safeguards to better guarantee trustworthiness and reliability.     

Social science and the Courts

Social scientists have increasingly become involved in the submission of amicus curiae or friend of the court briefs in legal cases being decided by state and federal courts. This increase has triggered considerable debate about the use of briefs to communicate relevant social science research. This article evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of various methods of summarizing social science research for the courts. It also reviews the procedures for submitting briefs developed by the American Psychology-Law Society which, in collaboration with the American Psychological Association, has submitted its first brief inMaryland v. Craig, a case recently decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.The authors wish to thank James Ogloff, Kathy Roesch, and Claudia Worrell for their comments on an earlier draft     

Child witnesses and the confrontation clause

InMaryland v. Craig, the United States Supreme Court relied heavily on a brief prepared by a committee of the American Psychology-Law Society on behalf of the American Psychological Association (APA). The APA brief concluded that sexually abused children may be particularly vulnerable to distress in the legal process, especially when forced to confront the defendant face to face, and that such acute distress may be inconsistent with the state's interests in promotion of reliable testimony and child welfare. APA also argued that psychological theory and research provide foundations for individualized determination of the need for measures to protect children from face-to-face confrontation. *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** AFE06051 00002     

Employment and urban growth; an application of Czamanski's model to the Mexican case

The author applies the 1964 model developed by Stanislaw Czamanski, based on theories of urban growth and industrial localization, to the analysis of urban growth in Mexico. "The advantages of this model in its application as a support instrument in the process of urban planning when the information available is incomplete are...discussed...." Census data for 44 cities in Mexico are used. (SUMMARY IN ENG)     

Explaining migration: theory at the crossroads

The author presents the case that the study of migration over the past century has become too diverse. He reviews works by writers from the several disciplines covering the topic, then cites the need to develop a consistent classification of the types of migration and their origins using standardized terminology. (SUMMARY IN ENG)     

Private gains and public losses: The distributive impact of urban zoning

The zoning process is a distributive process in which benefits are conferred on some and denied to others. Because zoning decisions are not neutral in their consequences, politicians must take responsibility for the patterns of benefits and costs which result from particular zoning policies. Technical expertise and planning principles cannot be regarded as sufficient grounds on which to base inherently distributive policies. This paper analyses the distributional consequences of two rezoning cases in Toronto to illustrate the trade-offs between neighbourhood preservation and housing opportunity.This is a revised version of a paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association, London, Ontario, May 1978.     

Metabolite sensitivity in the methaqualone radioimmunoassay.

Recent literature reflects the increased use of RIA as a qualitative and quantitative tool. This study exemplifies the problems that may arise when this technique is used for quantitation. Caution must be exercised, and a physiological and toxicological understanding of each particular drug is essential to provide credible results. It is evident that the sensitivity and ease of the RIA method for methaqualone makes it invaluable as a screening test, but confirmation and quantitation of this drug must remain with those methods that can quantitate each metabolite.