The CSI Effect and the impact of DNA evidence on mock jurors and jury deliberations

ABSTRACT

The present research examined the CSI Effect and the impact of DNA evidence on mock jurors and jury deliberations using a 3 (Crime Drama Viewing: low, moderate, high)?×?3 (Evidence: DNA innocent, DNA guilty, no DNA control) design. A sample of 178 jury-eligible college students read a case of breaking and entering. Pre-deliberation, some support for a CSI Effect was found with high viewers’ extent of guilt ratings significantly lower than moderate and low viewers’ in the no DNA control and the DNA innocent conditions. This effect was not present for verdicts. Contrary to a CSI Effect, crime drama viewing was not related to guilt judgments with incriminating DNA evidence. A content analysis of comments made during deliberations found little support for the CSI Effect entering the jury room. Specifically, CSI Effect predictions were not supported when examining the discussion of DNA evidence, expressing DNA opinions, or mentioning missing evidence. Overall, the limited CSI Effect found for individuals was attenuated during deliberation. The alarm raised over a possible CSI Effect influencing jury decision making may be unwarranted.     

What drives the polarisation and moderation of opinions? Evidence from a Finnish citizen deliberation experiment on immigration

In the study of deliberation, a largely under‐explored area is why some participants polarise their opinion after deliberation and why others moderate them. Opinion polarisation is usually considered a suspicious outcome of deliberation, while moderation is seen as a desirable one. This article takes issue with this view. Results from a Finnish deliberative experiment on immigration show that polarisers and moderators were not different in socioeconomic, cognitive or affective profiles. Moreover, both polarisation and moderation can entail deliberatively desired pathways: in the experiment, both polarisers and moderators learned during deliberation, levels of empathy were fairly high on both sides, and group pressures barely mattered. Finally, the low physical presence of immigrants in some discussion groups was associated with polarisation in the anti‐immigrant direction, bolstering longstanding claims regarding the importance of presence for democratic politics.     

关于干部教育教学中几个重要问题的思考

＂教学布局＂是干部教育教学中一个战略指导性问题,它直接关乎教学领域的确立、教学内容的分布和教学重点的确立;＂研究式教学＂是多年来干部教育教学中一直倡导的一种教学方式,但何谓＂研究式教学＂,实践中人们理解有较多差异;＂互动研讨＂是强化教学互动性、实现研究式教学目标的一个关键环节,在干部教育教学中占着十分重要的地位。本文结合中国延安干部学院教学实践,就＂教学布局＂、＂研究式教学＂和教学中的＂互动研讨＂几个重点问题,作了初步探讨。     

网络舆情语境下提升民主党派基层组织参政议政能力的路径思考

当前,网络舆情在给我国民主党派基层组织参政议政带来机遇的同时,其突发性、偏差性、繁杂性等特性对民主党派基层组织的应急能力、政治智慧、实战水平等方面提出了严骏挑战,这就要求各民主党派基层组织应当勇于抓住网络舆情对参政议政带来的良好机遇,努力适应当前网络舆情发展的新形势,积极借助网络平台,时刻关注舆情讯息,充分汲取网络民意,深入开展网络调查与监督,着力提升参政议政能力。     

沉默诈欺构成论

沉默在特定情形下可以构成诈欺已成各国共识.对于沉默诈欺的构成,大陆法系国家在审判实践中形成了构成要件主义,规定了沉默构成诈欺的三个要件;英美法系则规定沉默只有在四类具体的合同中才能构成诈欺.尽管如此,两大法系均将告知义务的存在作为沉默构成诈欺的首要前提.我国的沉默诈欺制度既未明确告知义务这一前提,对诈欺故意的认定亦过于严苛,须借鉴大陆法系的一些做法对之予以修正.     

What can deliberative mini-publics contribute to democratic systems?

Can deliberative mini-publics contribute to deepening the democratic dimensions of electoral democracies? The question is framed in this article using a problem-based approach to democratic theory–to count as democratic, political systems must accomplish three basic functions related to inclusion, communication and deliberation, and decision making. This approach is elaborated with an analysis of a real-world case: a deliberative mini-public with a citizens’ assembly design, focused on urban planning convened in Vancouver, Canada. This example was chosen because the context was one in which the city's legacy institutions of representative democracy had significant democratic deficits in all three areas, and the mini-public was a direct response to these deficits. It was found that Vancouver's deliberative mini-public helped policy makers, activists and affected residents move a stalemated planning process forward, and did do so in ways that improved the democratic performance of the political system. Depending on when and how they are sequenced into democratic processes, deliberative mini-publics can supplement existing legacy institutions and practices to deepen their democratic performance.     

论法律意义上的仲裁地点及其确定

The paper studies the concept of the place of arbitration in comparing with the legislation and practices of international commercial arbitration. It also stresses on the connection and distinction between the place of arbitration, the place of hearing, and the place where the arbitration tribunal deliberates the case, as well as the method of deciding the place of arbitration. The author also analyzes the current legislation and practices of the determination on the place of arbitration in China. The paper pointed out that it is important in both theory and practice to promote international arbitration in China and amend domestic arbitration legislation in determing place of arbitration properly. Zhao Xiuwen, professor, has been teaching international business law in the law school of Renmin University of China since 1984. She used to be a Fulbright research scholar in Georgetown Law Center of George Washington University and other universities (USA), and as a visiting professor in universities and research institutes (UK, Germany, Italy, Austria and Australia). She also works in the panel of China International Economic & Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb), Singapore International Arbitration Center (SIAC) and some local arbitration commissions in China. She is the author of several books and dozens of articles in the field of international business law and commercial arbitration, i.e. arbitration system in Hong Kong, international economic law, private international law, copyright, international commercial arbitration, international economic and trade arbitration law, etc.     

Modeling Facts,Culture, and Cognition in the Gun Debate

Can empirical data generate consensus about how to regulate firearms? If so, under what conditions? Previously, we presented evidence that individuals' cultural worldviews explain their positions on gun control more powerfully than any other fact about them, including their race or gender, the type of community or region of the country they live in, and even their political ideology or party affiliation. On this basis, we inferred that culture is prior to facts in the gun debate: empirical data can be expected to persaude individuals to change their view on gun policies only after those individuals come to see those policies as compatible with their core cultural commitments. We now respond to critics. Canvassing the psychological literature, we identify the mechanisms that systematically induce individuals to conform their factual beliefs about guns to their culturally grounded moral evaluations of them. To illustrate the strength and practical implications of these dynamics, we develop a series of computer simulations, which show why public beliefs about the efficacy of gun control can be expected to remain highly polarized even in the face of compelling empirical evidence. Finally, we show that the contribution culture makes to cognition could potentially be harnessed to generate broad, cross-cultural consensus: if gun policies can be framed in terms that are expressively compatible with diverse cultural worldviews, the motivation to resist compelling empirical evidence will dissipate, and individuals of diverse cultural persuasions can be expected rapidly to converge in their beliefs about what policies are best. Constructing a new, expressively pluralistic idiom of gun control should therefore be the first priority of policy-makers and -analysts interested in promoting the adoption of sound gun policies.     

Deliberation,Democratic Decision-Making and Internal Political Efficacy

Empirical research into the possible positive consequences of deliberation increasingly reveals that there is a complex relationship between deliberation and its effects on citizens. In this experimental study I examine the relationship between internal political efficacy and one type of deliberation: deliberative decision-making. I also test whether different structures of decision-making mediate between deliberation and internal political efficacy. The data suggest that deliberative decision-making had no direct effect on a global measure of internal political efficacy. Participants in face-to-face deliberative decision-making, though, had higher scores on a situation-specific measure of internal political efficacy than participants who only voted. The structures of decision-making had no effect on either measure of internal political efficacy. These results support claims that deliberation will not necessarily lead to direct, positive effects on citizens internal political efficacy, but they also highlight the likelihood that face-to-face deliberation can lead citizens to feel more competent in their deliberative abilities.     

行政治理视野下的行政协商

我国传统的行政管理模式过于注重行政治理的威权性,而忽视了公民的主体性,因此难以适应现代行政治理之发展诉求。而行政协商是一种注重行政治理过程中公民与行政主体间的交往对话,凸显行政过程的公民参与性,以及行政治理活动之主体间良性互动的行政方式。它的兴起反映了人们对我国传统单方性、命令性和封闭性的行政治理模式之弊病的反思,回应并诠释了合作行政、柔和行政与开放行政等现代行政治理模式的发展诉求。当前,超越行政协商所面临的制度与现实困境,并不断促进其融入我国行政治理实践,不仅有利于推动我国行政治理模式之现代转向,而且有利于促进我国行政法治、行政善治之发展。