Criminal defendants' satisfaction with lawyers: perceptions of procedural fairness and effort of the lawyer

At present, procedural justice theory has predominantly been used to explain defendants' satisfaction with the police, courts and prisons. It is unclear to what extent this theory is also applicable to lawyers. This study investigates to what extent (1) criminal defendants are satisfied with their lawyers and (2) procedural fairness characteristics and the effort of the lawyer are related to defendants' satisfaction with their lawyers. Data from the Prison Project were used: a large-scale research project among Dutch criminal defendants (N = 1479). Results suggest that generally, Dutch defendants are very satisfied with their lawyers. Variation in defendants' satisfaction with their lawyers can be attributed for a substantial part to procedural fairness characteristics.     

Analysing the sexual abuse of children by workers in residential care homes: Characteristics,dynamics and contributory factors

Abstract

This article analyses why workcrkhild s m l abuse occurs in residential children's homes. The importance of previously documented features, such as inadequate complaints and whistle blowing procedures, and poor vetting, training and supervision of stafi arc acknowledged. This exposition, however, concentrates on the tactics abusers employ to groom, entrap and silence children, whilst simultaneously controlling and silencing non-abusive staff. The success of these tactics is then contatualised within notions ojwebcrian rational-legal bureaucratic and charismatic power. as well as the location ofsomeabusers within entrenched pedophilenetworks. Contributory jactors, such as the enclosed and institutionaliscd nature of many settings and the inadequate, gendcrcd and haophobic manner in which stafloften deal with both sexuality and sexual abuse issues are also m i n e d and analyscd, as arc children's own gendcred prc-conceptions. Important theoretical constructions utiliscd include Goffman's theory of 'total institutions', the social construction ofchildhood, includingchitdhoodasdity and the concept of'organisation sexuality'.     

Job satisfaction: validating Dantzker’s four-factor model using structural equation modeling

The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of the four-factor structure from a job satisfaction instrument. Dantzker’s job satisfaction instrument was designed to capture information on four factors: general administration, extras, job, and equipment. Using data from police officers that are middle management (n?=?136), we performed confirmatory factor analysis via structural equation modeling to validate that the four factors are actually capturing job satisfaction. The results of the study show that the four-factor solution fit the model satisfactorily. All of the factor loadings were large expect for one. The results suggest that the four-factor solution has proper validity to use with middle manager police officers. Post hoc simulation analyses (n?=?1000 replications) show that no bias in the factor loadings or standard errors was present in this analysis, and the study had sufficient statistical power.     

On the front lines of democracy: perceptions of electoral officials and democratic elections

Electoral officials play a crucial role in instilling confidence in elections and democracy. They are involved in the most important tasks of running elections, from registering voters to counting the ballots. This article employs survey data from 35 countries from the sixth wave of the World Values Survey (2010–2014) which asks respondents about their perceptions of electoral integrity and the quality of democracy in their country. The analysis demonstrates the relationship between perceptions of the fairness of electoral officials and two important outcomes: confidence in the fairness of the vote count, and perceptions of the overall quality of democracy. It additionally considers under which circumstances this relationship is most pronounced and shows that the relationship between an individual’s perceptions of electoral officials and perceptions of electoral integrity is more pronounced in countries where there is a low liberal democracy index.     

Agreement and Disagreement in Group Deliberation: Effects on Deliberation Satisfaction,Future Engagement,and Decision Legitimacy

While research on democratic deliberation has burgeoned, little systematic work has been done on the effects of the communication content of deliberations. We examine how expressions of agreement and disagreement during online deliberation affect participants' evaluations of their experience, including satisfaction, reevaluation of opinions, and expected future participation. The effects of these evaluations on perceived legitimacy and opinion ambivalence also are considered. Several alternative hypotheses are entertained, including avoidance, in which high disagreement reduces evaluations; reevaluation, in which high disagreement enhances evaluations; sociability, in which high agreement enhances evaluations; balance, which suggests that a balance of agreement and disagreement would enhance evaluations; and disequilibrium, which indicates that high agreement and low disagreement and the reverse yield good evaluations. The hypotheses are tested with survey data and a discussion content analysis of a representative sample of 179 individuals who participated in a deliberation experiment. Findings indicate that deliberation evaluations are important for decision legitimacy and ambivalence. Also, the sociability hypothesis is strongly confirmed for satisfaction. The disequilibrium hypothesis is confirmed for future engagement. The avoidance hypothesis is not supported, contesting the prevalent view that people seek to avoid political disagreements.     

The Differentiation of Menstrual from Venous Blood and Other Body Fluids on Various Substrates Using ATR FT‐IR Spectroscopy

Crime scene investigators and laboratory analysts use chemical tests to detect and differentiate body fluids. Testing often requires a sample of the stain, and the chemicals may cause degradation of the fluid or interfere with subsequent tests. Colorimetric chemical tests do not differentiate between different types of the same fluid, such as venous and menstrual blood, and there is no presumptive test available to simultaneously differentiate several body fluids. In this study, we recorded ATR FT ‐IR spectra of venous and menstrual blood, semen, saliva, and breastmilk. Neat and simulated casework body fluid samples were analyzed on cotton, nylon, wood, paper, and glass substrates. Differences in fluid composition, including proteins and small molecules, resulted in spectral differences. Venous and menstrual blood is differentiated by the peak at 1039 cm^?1 attributed to phosphoric acid found in menstrual blood. Peak intensity is influenced by the porosity and weave of the substrate fabric.     

Quantifying Uncertainty in Estimations of the Total Weight of Drugs in Groups of Complex Matrices: Using the Welch–Satterthwaite Equation

In this paper, a method is described to quantify estimations of the total amount of drugs in groups of seized items, including quantification of the precision. Previous work on this topic was based on the assumptions of normally distributed measurements and grouping of items with a common relative standard deviation. In practice, these assumptions are often violated, for example, for data with point masses at 0, or if certain items in a group have a very high standard deviation. The method described in this paper is based on work by Welch and Satterthwaite and does not assume constant relative standard deviations. Case examples are described for which the method is applied, and simulation studies are carried out for which both methods are applied. In the cases, both methods perform reasonably well. If the assumption of common relative standard deviations clearly does not apply, it is advised to use the method described.     

大鼠死后肌肉电导率与腐败程度的关系

目的分析大鼠死后肌肉电导率(electrical conductivity,EC)、肉类食品腐败程度指标挥发性盐基氮(total volatile basic nitrogen,TVB-N)与死亡时间(postmortem interval,PMI)的关系,探讨EC作为尸体肌肉腐败程度评价指标的可行性,为该法用于PMI推断奠定理论基础。方法健康SD大鼠颈椎脱臼处死后,保存在28℃环境中,于死后不同时间点提取大鼠后肢肌肉组织,用去离子水制成质量浓度为0.1 g/m L的肌肉浸渍液,并测量所得浸渍液的EC值和TVB-N含量。分析EC(x_1)与TVB-N(x_2)的相关性,建立二者关系的回归方程;分析两指标与PMI的相关性,并分别建立两指标与PMI(y)关系的回归方程。结果肌肉浸渍液EC、TVB-N随PMI的变化曲线走势基本相同;EC与TVB-N呈显著直线正相关,回归方程为x_2=0.14 x1-164.91(R~2=0.982);EC、TVB-N与PMI显著相关,回归方程分别为y=19.38 x_1~3-370.68 x_1~2+2 526.03 x1-717.06(R~2=0.994),y=2.56 x_2~3-48.39 x_2~2+330.60 x_2-255.04(R2=0.997)。结论大鼠死后肌肉EC与TVB-N变化趋势一致,可以作为反映尸体肌肉腐败程度的指标,为腐败尸体PMI推断的相关研究提供方法。     

From walls to membranes: fortress polis and the governance of urban public space in 21st century Britain

Drawing on the work of Paul Virilio, this paper addresses changes in the architectural and legal topography of the urban landscape through an examination of regulatory patterns, which increasingly intensify governance through, and as, ‘control’. Such regulation is ambivalent in that it cuts across many traditionally discrete regimes of power melding them into new forms with new effects; as a consequence it is no longer sufficient to think in terms of such distinctions as private/public, civil/criminal, and so on. This paper argues that a concern with patterns of enclosure and privatisation in our urban centres must now be placed within the context of changes in architectural practice and technology, which the authors term ‘open architecture’, and the embedding of governance through partnership, which give particular emphasis to the use of dematerialised and diffused modes of control. The paper utilises Virilio’s history and image of the fortress, which he tracks from a material form to a dematerialised form, to envisage these developments and to provide the foundation for an understanding of the importance of the development of practices of surveillance into, what the authors term, ‘total registration’ as a feature and function of governance through ‘control’.