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Court Review, Volume 47, Issue 4 (Table Of Contents)

Court Review: Journal of the American Judges Association

Articles

80 Creating a New Generation of Courts (Brian Ostrom, Roger Hanson, & Kevin Burke)

84 The Courtroom-Observation Program of the Utah Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission (Nicholas H. Woolf & Jennifer MJ Yim)

92 Is Procedural Fairness Applicable to All Courts? (Victor E. Flango)

96 Addressing Nonsystematic Factors Contributing to the Underrepresentation of Minorities as Jurors (Elizabeth Neeley)

102 The International Criminal Court: Our Differences in Jurisprudence (David Admire)

Departments

78 Editor’s Note

79 President’s Column

108 The Resource Page

Studying Juror Expectations For Scientific Evidence: A New Model For Looking At The Csi Myth, Donald E. Shelton, Gregg Barak, Young S. Kim

Court Review: Journal of the American Judges Association

After a jury acquittal, the prosecutor explains the loss to the assembled media by saying that the jurors demanded too much of the government. They “wrongfully” acquitted the defendant only because the television show Crime Scene Investigation (“CSI”), or one of its many spin-offs and copycats, overly influenced them. According to the prosecutor, the jurors could not separate reality from fiction when they did not see the same kinds of advanced scientific evidence during the trial that is commonly depicted on their television screens. This fictional scenario is played out in many criminal cases. The news media quickly …

Creating A New Generation Of Courts, Brian Ostrom, Roger Hanson, Kevin Burke

Court Review: Journal of the American Judges Association

Courts are under ever-increasing pressure to be more transparent and accountable. Regardless of whether this is driven by fiscal crises, policy makers’ concerns, or simple public outcry, a common question is, “What are courts doing to be efficient and effective?” If you are not careful, you might think a court is just another public body, like an executive agency, which public-administration experts want to reengineer.

Some judges understandably are resistant to developing their administrative side because—on the surface—managerial values clash with what judges know well and are trained to do: they make decisions and issue orders in individual cases after …

The International Criminal Court: Our Differences In Jurisprudence, David Admire

Court Review: Journal of the American Judges Association

On July 1, 2002, the International Criminal Court (ICC) became operational following establishment by the Rome Statute. The Court is made up of the Presidency, an Appeals Division, a Trial Division, Pre-Trial Division, the Office of the Prosecutor, and the Registry. The purpose of the Court is to provide a means to bring to justice the perpetrators of “the most serious crimes of concern to the international community . . . .” The crimes within the jurisdiction of the court are the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. To date, no crime of …

Should Judges Worry About The “Csi Effect”?, Simon A. Cole, Rachel Dioso-Villa

Court Review: Journal of the American Judges Association

These days it still seems like everyone is talking about the “CSI effect.” Attorneys seem to talk about it all the time. The 258 different articles using the term between 2002 and 2008 that we found through a LexisNexis search are undoubtedly only the tip of the iceberg of media mentions of this supposed phenomenon. Even academics are writing about it— already a handful of books, several dissertations in progress, and numerous scholarly journal articles detail the topic.

Fact Or Fiction? The Myth And Reality Of The Csi Effect, Steven M. Smith, Veronica Stinson, Marc W. Patry

Court Review: Journal of the American Judges Association

Anyone who has been to a crime lab or experienced the presentation of forensic evidence in open court knows that there is a disconnect between the way forensic science is depicted on popular television programs and the reality of criminal investigations. The number of forensically themed television shows and popular entertainment has exploded over the last decade, and shows such as Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) and its related spin-offs are among the most popular shows in North America. Indeed, CSI is consistently among the top ten shows in a given week, and CSI: Miami was rated the most …

Lawyer-Assistance-Program Attorneys And The Practice Of Therapeutic Jurisprudence, David B. Wexler

Court Review: Journal of the American Judges Association

In my recent book, Rehabilitating Lawyers: Principles of Therapeutic Jurisprudence for Criminal Law Practice, I sought to provide lawyers and other professionals engaged in the practice of criminal law a collection of practical and comprehensive materials that could help them achieve better results as well as greater satisfaction with their clients and cases. At least one of the contributors to the book also had some connection to a lawyer-assistance program—a program that helps lawyers having problems with drugs, alcohol, and mental illness. Such lawyers are now helped immensely by such programs in all states, and the lawyers in turn …

About The Authors, Volume 30 (2011)

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

About the editors and authors of volume 30 (2011) of To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development.

Nasis 2011: Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey Questionnaire, Bureau Of Sociological Research

Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey (NASIS)

[ About this Survey ] We need your help to learn about how Nebraskans' think, feel, and live. Your responses will help shape program and policy development in Nebraska now and into the future.

This survey includes questions on various topics, such as water issues, life processes, crime, and the media to name a few. Each section starts with a header to identify the topic related to the questions. We think you will find many, if not all, of the topics interesting and easy to answer.

68 questions; 12 pages

Prosecutorial Discretion And The Neglect Of Juvenile Shielding Statutes, Andrea L. Dennis

Nebraska Law Review

This Article reviews the failure of juvenile shielding statutes to take hold in the prosecution of cases involving child witnesses because of prosecutors’ discretionary decisions not to use these statutes. The Article investigates prosecutors’ pragmatic and doctrinal justifications for not utilizing juvenile shielding statutes and concludes that the proffered reasons are legitimate. Building on these insights, the Article concludes by offering legislative reform designed to revitalize juvenile shielding statutes. The discussion that follows proceeds in three parts. Part II describes the development of juvenile shielding laws, particularly the circumstances sparking the public and academic demand for protection of juvenile witnesses …

Death And Texas: The Unevolved Model Of Decency, Patrick Metze

Nebraska Law Review

Capital punishment practice in recent years has diverged from emphasis on guilt-innocence to dedicate virtually all resources to punishment issues. This Article attempts to avoid this myopic approach by taking stock of the current state of substantive capital law at its very foundation. After a brief history of modern death penalty jurisprudence and a restatement of the current rendition of Texas’s capital murder statute, this Article will focus first on two troubling themes in capital representation. First, how mens rea issues can address the lack of “diminished capacity” in Texas capital punishment law while suggesting a seldom used or understood …

Faith-Based Organizations In A System Of Behavioral Health Care, Mark Dekraai, Denise Bulling, Nancy C. Shank, Alan J. Tomkins

Nancy Shank Publications

Through community service activities, and ministries to members within their congregations, faith communities will encounter individuals with behavioral health needs. This article suggests that faith communities have inherent resources that can enhance the reach and effectiveness of behavioral health systems. A framework is presented that will create a bridge of understanding about how behavioral health can leverage faith organization assets and how faith organizations can actively assist adults, children and families with behavioral health needs within the context of their faith and their community.

Leading And Managing Those Working And Living In Captive Environments, John T. Eggers, Rebecca I. Porter, James W. Gray

United States Army: Publications

I magine you are the warden of a prison or the administrator of a jail, you enter the facility, and the heavy metal door clangs shut behind you. A riot breaks out and several members of your staff are taken hostage. Fires are set in various locations. The rioting inmates, members of a gang, attack other inmates who want no part in the rebellion and are only concerned for their safety. The decisions you as a leader make are literally matters of life or death, not only for yourself, but also for your staff and those incarcerated. The dynamics of …

Exploring Separable Components Of Institutional Confidence, Joseph A. Hamm, Lisa M. Pytlik Zillig, Alan Tomkins, Mitchel Herian, Brian H. Bornstein, Elizabeth Neeley

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Despite its contemporary and theoretical importance in numerous social scientific disciplines, institutional confidence research is limited by a lack of consensus regarding the distinctions and relationships among related constructs (e.g., trust, confidence, legitimacy, distrust, etc.). This study examined four confidence-related constructs that have been used in studies of trust/confidence in the courts: dispositional trust, trust in institutions, obligation to obey the law, and cynicism. First, the separability of the four constructs was examined by exploratory factor analyses. Relationships among the constructs were also assessed. Next, multiple regression analyses were used to explore each construct’s independent contribution to confidence in the …

Watching The Detectives: Crime Programming, Fear Of Crime, And Attitudes About The Criminal Justice System, Lisa A. Kort-Butler, Kelley J. Sittner Hartshorn

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Research demonstrates a complex relationship between television viewing and fear of crime. Social critics assert that media depictions perpetuate the dominant cultural ideology about crime and criminal justice. This article examines whether program type differentially affects fear of crime and perceptions of the crime rate. Next, it tests whether such programming differentially affects viewers’ attitudes about the criminal justice system, and if these relationships are mediated by fear. Results indicated that fear mediated the relationship between viewing nonfictional shows and lack of support for the justice system. Viewing crime dramas predicted support for the death penalty, but this relationship was …

Family Structure As A Social Context For Family Conflict: Unjust Strain And Serious Delinquency, Ryan Spohn, Don L. Kurtz

Center on Children, Families, and the Law: Faculty Publications

Two major themes in the delinquency literature are the roles of family structure and childhood victimization. Combining these two lines of research, the current project examines the unique contribution of family structure and victimization on the serious delinquency of a nationally representative sample of adolescents. In addition, we examine whether the form of families serves to condition the relationship between victimization and delinquency. Past research indicates that abuse is more likely to occur in two-parent families of a ‘‘mixed’’ form, specifically in the presence of a live-in boyfriend or stepfather. However, little is known regarding the impact of victimization on …

Pregnancy And Mental Health Of Young Homeless Women, Devan M. Crawford, Emily C. Trotter, Kelley J. Sittner Hartshorn, Les B. Whitbeck

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Pregnancy rates among women in the U.S. who are homeless are much higher than rates among women who are housed (Greene & Ringwalt, 1998). Yet little research has addressed mental health, risk and resilience among young mothers who are homeless. This study utilizes a sample of women from the Midwest Longitudinal Study of Homeless Adolescents (MLSHA) to investigate pregnancy and motherhood over three years among unaccompanied homeless young mothers. Our data are supplemented by in-depth interviews with a subset of these women. Results show that almost half of sexually active young women (n = 222, μ age = 17.2) had …

The Effect Of Early Maltreatment, Victimization, And Partner Violence On Hiv Risk Behavior Among Homeless Young Adults, Lisa A. Melander, Kimberly A. Tyler

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Purpose: The purpose of our study was to examine the relationship between child maltreatment, physical and sexual victimization, and partner violence victimization with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) risk behaviors among a sample of homeless young adults from the midwestern United States.
Methods: Data are from the Homeless Young Adult Project. A total of 199 young adults aged 19–26 years were interviewed over 14 months using a systematic sampling strategy. The final sample included 172 young adults who were homeless or had a history of running away and being homeless.
Results: Results from the path analysis revealed that sexual abuse is …

The Silence Of Gideon’S Trumpet: The Court’S Inattention To Systemic Inequities Causing Violations Of Speedy Trial Rights In Vermont V. Brillon, 129 S. Ct. 1283 (2009), Jordan Glaser

Nebraska Law Review

Barker v. Wingo, Gideon v. Wainwright, and Vermont v. Brillon discuss principles and declarations of rights that can be used effectively in future cases. However, the foregoing cases and discussion demonstrate the need for a more responsive jurisprudence regarding speedy trial rights and the indigent defendant’s right to counsel. As a step towards addressing these issues, this Note proposes that future Supreme Court decisions should acknowledge the effects indigent defense systems have on the quality of legal presentation provided to indigent defendants. By doing so, the Court will help realize the promise of Gideon and ensure the protection of constitutional …

Daviborshch's Cart, David Fraser

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

In the spring of 1942, Nazi forces occupying the Ukraine launched a wave of executions targeting the region’s remaining Jewish communities. These mass shootings were open, public, and intimate. Although the victims themselves could never testify against their killers, many eyewitnesses could and did identify the perpetrators. Among these communities, three local men from the villages of Serniki, Israylovka, and Gnivan were intimately implicated in such killing operations: Ivan Polyukhovich, a forester in the German-controlled administration; Heinrich Wagner, a Volksdeutscher liaison officer; and Mikolay Berezowsky, a member of the local police force. More than fifty years later, these three men …

A Deterrence Model To Curbing Human Trafficking In The United States, Michelle Crawford Rickert

Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking: 2nd (2010)

Human trafficking is squarely a criminal justice problem. In order to eradicate human trafficking the traffickers need to be deterred from engaging in the business of trafficking in people. From a law and economics perspective, optimal deterrence is reached when a sentence or fine is just greater than the probability of getting caught multiplied by the benefit to the criminal. Utilizing this model, the proposed presentation will attempt to demonstrate how to sufficiently deter the trafficker by increasing probability of prosecutions through local laws, increasing the fines and sentences of traffickers once convicted, and increasing the certainty of detection through …

Media Representation And Human Trafficking: How Anti-Trafficking Discourse Affects Trafficked Persons, Caroline S. Wallinger

Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking: 2nd (2010)

Competing representations of human trafficking in the media and within the movement have contributed to a general confusion of public perceptions of human trafficking as a social phenomenon. Various activist and political groups have, over the years, divided, delineated and classified trafficking into a series of categories including sex trafficking, labor trafficking and child exploitation. These categories have become an integral part of the collective understanding of human trafficking and they have played a primary role in the crafting of national and international anti-trafficking legislation.

This paper stems from a master‘s thesis which analyzes the discourse on human trafficking, its …

Novels, Public Policy And Anti-Trafficking Efforts, Donna M. Bickford

Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking: 2nd (2010)

The discourses on trafficking circulating in the public sphere help construct public response. Representational strategies in literature offer mechanisms to inform how we think about and wrestle with complex issues. So, as we’re thinking about what we know and what we need to know, it’s important to also think about how we know, and to acknowledge that representations have impact and symbolic power. Although human trafficking encompasses both sex and labor trafficking, in the U.S. we have seen the most attention paid to sex trafficking; no wonder, then, that our cultural products reflect that emphasis. Documentary films on the topic …

A Protocol Against Trafficking In Persons: Is It Enough? The Impact Of A Trafficking Treaty, Michelle Forrest

Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking: 2nd (2010)

What has been done?
UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime
-Sept. 29, 2003, by the UN General Assembly

Action against/Convention on Trafficking in Human Beings
-Feb. 1, 2008 by the Council of Europe

Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000
-January, 2006, by US Congress

Mcnair News, Volume 5, Number 1, Fall 2010

McNair News: Newsletter of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln McNair Scholars Program

Meet the 2010 McNair Cohort
Scholars Present at National McNair Conference
Making the Transition from Student to Scholar
Mentor Spotlight - Dr. Carl Nelson
Khoa Chu Earns NASA Research Internship
Brittany Sznajder-Murray Completes Summer Research at Ohio State
Alumni News: Advanced Degrees
Scholars Receive 2010-11 UCARE funding
Kudos to Scholars and Alumni: Masoud Mahjouri-Samani & Tyler Scherr
Getting the Most Out of a Research Conference

Most Popular Downloads -- July 2010

Institutional Repository Information

The Top 142 articles (those with 100 or more downloads) were accessed 26,049 times. The next 27,221 articles were downloaded at least once and 189,840 times in all, for a total month’s downloads in July 2010 of 215,889. The remaining 4,744 articles (14%) were not downloaded during the month.

The ten most popular articles were:
Electronic Rodent Repellent Devices: A Review of Efficacy Test Protocols and Regulatory Actions
G89-947 Buying Meat by the Serving
Test 1012: John Deere 4020 Power Shift
Test 1001: Ford 4000, 4600 and 4610 8-Speed Gasoline (Also Ford 4000 Gasoline Row Crop and Super Utility)
Alleviating …

Student And Faculty Perceptions Of Technology’S Usefulness In Community College General Education Courses, William L. Moseley

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Educational institutions of all levels invest large amounts of time and resources into instructional technology, with the goal of enhancing the educational effectiveness of the learning environment. The decisions made by instructors and institutions regarding the implementation of technology are guided by perceptions of usefulness held by those who are in control. The primary objective of this mixed methods study was to examine the student and faculty perceptions of technology being used in general education courses at a community college. This study builds upon and challenges the assertions of writers such as Prensky (2001a, 2001b) and Tapscott (1998) who claim …

Predicting Problematic Approach Behavior Toward Politicians: Exploring The Potential Contributions Of Control Theory, Douglas Owen Cacialli

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The potential merits of Carver and Scheier's (1981) control theory in the prediction of targeted violence are reviewed and several novel indicators of risk that are consistent with this theory are suggested for study. It was hypothesized that: (a) similarity between inappropriate contact with politicians and extremist group literature and writings; (b) the temporal proximity to violent or otherwise criminal actions and notable anniversaries of such groups; (c) detailed specification of a plan to engage in problematic approach behavior, and; (d) self-focus, will be significant predictors of problematic approach behavior. A sample of 506 individuals who engaged in threatening or …

Attorney General’S Annual Report To Congress And Assessment Of U.S. Government Activities To Combat Trafficking In Persons

United States Department of Justice: Publications

Introduction

The victims of modern slavery have many faces. They are men and women, adults and children. Yet, all are denied basic human dignity and freedom…. We must join together as a Nation and global community to provide [a] safe haven by protecting victims and prosecuting traffickers. With improved victim identification, medical and social services, training for first responders, and increased public awareness, the men, women, and children who have suffered this scourge can overcome the bonds of modern slavery, receive protection and justice, and successfully reclaim their rightful independence.

~ President Barack Obama

Despite [our] achievements, there is much …

Orwellian Language And The Politics Of Tribal Termination (1953–1960), Casey Ryan Kelly

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

From 1953 to 1960, the federal government terminated sovereign recognition for 109 American Indian nations. Termination was a haphazard policy of assimilation that had disastrous consequences for Indian land and culture. Nonetheless, termination cloaked latent motivations for Indian land within individual rights rhetoric that was at odds with Indian sovereignty. Termination highlights the rhetorical features of social control under capitalism portrayed in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), in which opposing principles are fused and inverted. This essay critiques termination’s Orwellian language to show how ideographs of social liberation are refashioned by the state to subvert Indian sovereignty and popular dissent.