The insanity defense in Shelby County,Tennessee

The purpose of this investigation was threefold: to document the number of cases in Shelby County, Tennessee where an insanity defense was possible: to follow cases through to disposition to determine what percentage of defendants use the defense successfully; and to examine the type of charges for insanity cases. Of the 25.000 individuals processed through the Criminal Courts. 685 (2.7%) were referred for insanity evaluations and 45 defendants (6.6%) were returned to the court with a recommendation from the Midtown Mental Health Center's Forensic Team that an insanity defense was possible. Of the 45 insanity defendants identified, 49% (n=22) pleaded guilty, 31% (n=14) went to trial, and 20% (n=9) were dismissed. Overall, 22% (n=10) of the insanity defendants were adjudicated not guilty by reason of insanity. Thus, of all defendants processed (25,000), 04% (n=11) were adjucated not guilty by reason of insanity. While no one type of offense predominated, two general categories were observed: murder and related offenses (33%) and property crimes (27%). The findings are discussed with reference to procedures for handling insanity cases in Tennessee and the position that extreme caution should be exercised before investing substantial resources to effect sweeping changes in laws that effect so few criminal defendants.     

The application of signal detection theory to decision-making in forensic science

Signal Detection Theory (SDT) has come to be used in a wide variety of fields where noise and imperfect signals present challenges to the task of separating hits and correct rejections from misses and false alarms. The application of SDT helps illuminate and improve the quality of decision-making in those fields in a number of ways. The present article is designed to make SDT more accessible to forensic scientists by: (a) explaining what SDT is and how it works, (b) explicating the potential usefulness of SDT to forensic science, (c) illustrating SDT analysis using forensic science data, and (d) suggesting ways to gain the benefits of SDT analyses in the course of carrying out existing programs of quality assessment and other research on forensic science examinations.     

‘new wars’ and gendered economies

Feminist Review - This paper draws on the ‘new wars’ literature and global political economy research to explore how feminists and other critical analysts might investigate linkages...     

European Union Decision Making: the Role of Sub-national Authorities

This article assesses how and to what extent sub-national authorities (SNAs) are represented in EU decision making. In particular, we compare the European goals and strategies of British sub-national authorities with those of their counterparts in Germany. Our central argument is that SNAs starting from very different positions face many of the same challenges and problems, even if their domestic constitutional positions remain the most important determinant of their influence at the EU level. Influence in EU decision making derives largely from effective coalition building, both with other like-minded actors but also, inevitably in the case of sub-national authorities, with central governments. Our case study highlights the enormous diversity of relationships between central governments and 'their' SNAs across the Union. It thus encourages scepticism about the feasibility of a 'Europe of the Regions'.