Applying Moral Foundations Theory to the Explanation of Capital Jurors’ Sentencing Decisions

Abstract

This study applies moral foundations theory to capital juror decision making. We hypothesized that binding moral foundations would predict death qualification and punitive sentencing decisions, whereas individualizing moral foundations would be associated with juror disqualification and a leniency effect. Additionally, we considered whether moral foundations can explain differences in death penalty application between conservatives and liberals. Respondents from two independent samples participated in a mock-juror task in which the circumstances of a hypothetical defendant’s case varied. Results revealed moral foundations were strong predictors of death qualification. The binding and individualizing foundations were related to sentencing decisions in the expected ways. Supporting our contention that moral foundations operate differently across different types of cases, heterogeneity in the effects of moral foundations was observed. Finally, we found support for the hypothesis that the relationship between sentencing decisions and conservatism would be attenuated by moral foundations.     

Observations of high velocity bloodspatter on adjacent objects

In a recent homicide investigation, high velocity backspatter was observed on the sleeve cuff of the accused. These minute droplets were discovered only after microscopic examination and were limited in number. A study was initiated to determine if these were truly backspatter droplets or transferred blood produced from light contact with a bloody item. It was observed that the backspattered blood was primarily limited to contact or near contact shots. An exception was a shot into an already bloody surface. It was found that backspattered blood would deposit on the shooter's shirt sleeve irrespective of the weave pattern. Transferred blood was observed only on the fiber tops. This information was found to be useful in reconstruction of events in suicides as well as possible homicides.     

The Islamic State's Strategy: Bureaucratizing the Apocalypse through Strategic Communications

To understand the Islamic State's strategy, we have to look at the way the group twins Maoist and post-Maoist strategies, previously considered strategically incompatible. By establishing a state that it claims to embody the Caliphate, it not only gains revenue and resources, but also generates a seductive “brand” with a compelling message that it “sells” via the Internet. This brand, based on Propaganda of the Deed, synergizes its physical and digital activities to create a virtuous circle that is very close to being self-sustaining. As such it represents a new insurgent model that corroborates the News Wars thesis.     

Development and evaluation of a survey-based type of benefit classification for the Social Security program

This attempt to classify Social Security beneficiaries by type of benefit using the new Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) has yielded promising results. Evaluations of the classification algorithm based on comparison of the estimated number of beneficiaries in each of the several categories to independent estimates of the number of beneficiaries indicate that in most instances a high percentage of each category has been identified. For the most part, age and monthly benefit amount size distributions seem reasonable. Furthermore, very few persons in the sample who were identified as Social Security beneficiaries could not be assigned to one or another of the benefit groups. The classification procedure also represents a marked improvement over earlier efforts to classify type of beneficiary that relied on data from the March Supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS). Most importantly, the benefit classification scheme based on SIPP data appears to provide reasonably reliable distinctions between retired-worker and widow benefits for widowed women and permits the identification of retired-worker benefits for those women dually entitled to retired-worker and spouse benefits. In addition, the distinction between disabled- and retired-worker benefits for recipients aged 62-64 appears to be reasonably reliable, and for women under age 65, the classification procedure distinguishes between disabled-worker benefits on the one hand and widow and widowed mother benefits on the other. Finally, SIPP procedures for identifying minor child beneficiaries yield markedly better estimates than those available from the Current Population Survey. These improvements in the SIPP context are due entirely to the presence of information not collected in the CPS. The enhancement of the SIPP data set in turn resulted directly from an assessment of earlier work carried out by Projector and Bretz in the CPS context and on extensive research into the nature of Social Security reporting errors in the CPS. The superiority of the SIPP data set is linked principally to the presence of three pieces of information: the Medicare BIC, the direct question on reasons for benefit receipt asked of persons under age 65, and the direct measurement of recipiency and amount of benefits for minor children. Other items of some import include self-reported work disability, retirement status (ever retired from a job), previous marital status for currently married women, age first prevented from working due to a health condition, and Supplemental Security Income misreporting items.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)     

Smoking in the work place: a management perspective.

In the past, smoking in the private work place has been a matter left largely to the discretion of individual employees and employers. A recent poll of the nation's largest service and industrial companies indicates a strong employer preference for this noninterventionist approach by which employees work out smoking-related problems among themselves. Nonetheless, approximately eight states and four dozen localities have passed legislation regulating smoking in the private work place, apparently in response to the courts' reluctance to order such restrictions where the employer has undertaken reasonable efforts to accommodate smokers and nonsmokers. While these laws vary widely in their language and specifics, they may pose significant practical and compliance problems for employers. In the following article, the authors examine judicial, legislative, and employer responses to work-place smoking issues and discuss the options of private employers for coping with this problem.     

Can ministries of health support primary health care? Some suggestions for structural reorganization and planning

Patrick Vaughan is Reader in health care epidemiology, Gill Walt is Lecturer in health policy and Anne Mills is Lecturer in health economics, at the Evaluation and Planning Centre for Health Care, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Gower Street, London WC1, United Kingdom. A previous version of this paper was prepared for the Commonwealth Secretariat, London, for the Conference of Commonwealth Health Ministers held in Ottawa, Canada, in October 1983.     

The Role of Interface Shape on the Impact Characteristics and Cranial Fracture Patterns Using the Immature Porcine Head Model, ,

The forensic literature suggests that when adolescents fall onto edged and pointed surfaces, depressed fractures can occur at low energy levels. This study documents impact biomechanics and fracture characteristics of infant porcine skulls dropped onto flat, curved, edged, and focal surfaces. Results showed that the energy needed for fracture initiation was nearly four times higher against a flat surface than against the other surfaces. While characteristic measures of fracture such as number and length of fractures did not vary with impact surface shape, the fracture patterns did depend on impact surface shape. While experimental impacts against the flat surface produced linear fractures initiating at sutural boundaries peripheral to the point of impact (POI), more focal impacts produced depressed fractures initiating at the POI. The study supported case‐based forensic literature suggesting cranial fracture patterns depend on impact surface shape and that fracture initiation energy is lower for more focal impacts.