Newspaper juries

This article reports on a field experiment on the effect of media information on people’s attitudes towards the justice system. For the duration of a year a Dutch local newspaper took small groups of readers, called ‘newspaper jurors’, to court sessions of criminal cases and subsequently reported on their experiences and perceptions. Using a quasi-experimental design, we examined whether an attitude change in the general reader population of this particular local newspaper occurred as a result of the jury’s newspaper reports. Findings show that, after the treatment interval of 1 year, no attitude change in the general reader population could be identified that was absent in the control group.     

Düngemittelrecht, Atomrecht und Bodenschutzrecht – lückenlose Anwendungsbereiche?

Das deutsche Bodenschutzrecht ist angesichts seines geringen Anwendungsbereiches sowie seiner sehr lückenhaften und zudem vollzugsunfreundlichen Konkretisierung in Grenzwerten h?ufig wenig effektiv. Diese These verfolgt der vorliegende Beitrag anhand eines besonders wesentlichen, in der politischen, juristischen und naturwissenschaftlichen Debatte bisher kaum beachteten gesundheits- und umweltrelevanten Faktors: der düngungsbedingten Belastung von B?den durch Uraneintr?ge. Dies verhilft zugleich zu einer n?heren Bestimmung der konkurrierenden Anwendungsbereiche verschiedener Umweltgesetze.     

The referral decision scale with mentally disordered inmates

Correctional facilities are increasingly burdened with mentally disordered offenders and are faced with the formidable task of effectively screening inmates for major mental disorders and suicide potential. Teplin and Swartz (1989) developed the Referral Decision Scale (RDS) as a rapid screen for schizophrenia and major mood disorders in jail populations. However, more recent research by Hart, Roesch, Corrado, and Cox (1993) has called into question the effectiveness of the RDS. In this study, we examined the convergent and discriminant validity of the RDS with the Schedule of Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia—Change Version (SADS-C) and the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) on a sample of 108 mentally disordered inmates. The RDS provided moderate evidence of convergent validity but failed to demonstrate acceptable discriminant validity, because of high intercorrelations on RDS subscales (heterotrait-monomethod coefficients). In comparison, the SADS-C yielded similar evidence of convergent validity and excellent discriminant validity.The authors would like to thank the Research Opportunities Program, University of North Texas for its grant support and Captain James Moore for his active cooperation.Tarrant County Mental Health and Mental Retardation Services.