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Full-Text Articles in Law

Making The Circle Stronger: An Effort To Buttress Aboriginal Use Of Restorative Justice In Canada Against Recent Criticisms, David Milward Dec 2008

Making The Circle Stronger: An Effort To Buttress Aboriginal Use Of Restorative Justice In Canada Against Recent Criticisms, David Milward

Dr. David Milward

The reliance of the Canadian criminal justice system on adversarial procedures and incarceration is not very effective or productive when dealing with Aboriginal crime. Restorative justice is often presented as a more constructive way of dealing with Aboriginal crime, and as a solution to Aboriginal over-incarceration. There have however been recent criticisms made against restorative justice that call into question its effectiveness as a medium of social control. These criticisms have the potential to enter policy discourses on justice and frustrate Aboriginal aspirations regarding the use of restorative justice. Restorative justice, notwithstanding the criticisms, still has the potential to provide …


18. Complex Questions Asked By Defense Lawyers But Not Prosecutors Predicts Convictions In Child Abuse Trials., Angela D. Evans, Kang Lee, Thomas D. Lyon Jul 2008

18. Complex Questions Asked By Defense Lawyers But Not Prosecutors Predicts Convictions In Child Abuse Trials., Angela D. Evans, Kang Lee, Thomas D. Lyon

Thomas D. Lyon

Attorneys’ language has been found to influence the accuracy of a child’s testimony, with defense attorneys asking more complex questions than the prosecution (Zajac & Hayne, J. Exp Psychol Appl 9:187–195, 2003; Zajac et al. Psychiatr Psychol Law, 10:199–209, 2003). These complex questions may be used as a strategy to influence the jury’s perceived accuracy of child witnesses. However, we currently do not know whether the complexity of attorney’s questions predict the trial outcome. The present study assesses whether the complexity of questions is related to the trial outcome in 46 child sexual abuse court transcripts using an automated linguistic …


Unchaste And Incredible: The Use Of Gendered Conceptions Of Honor In Impeachment, Julia Simon-Kerr May 2008

Unchaste And Incredible: The Use Of Gendered Conceptions Of Honor In Impeachment, Julia Simon-Kerr

Julia Simon-Kerr

The American rules for impeaching witnesses developed against a cultural background that equated a woman's "honor," and thus her credibility, with her sexual virtue. The idea that a woman's chastity informs her credibility did not originate in rape trials and the confusing interplay between questions of consent and sexual history. Rather, gendered notions of honor so permeated American legal culture that attorneys routinely attempted to impeach female witnesses by invoking their sexual histories in cases involving such diverse claims as title to land, assault, arson, and wrongful death. But while many courts initially accepted the notion that an unchaste woman …


The Csi Effect: What Can Forensic Science Really Tell Us?, Mary Sue Backus Mar 2008

The Csi Effect: What Can Forensic Science Really Tell Us?, Mary Sue Backus

Mary Sue Backus

No abstract provided.


17. Maltreated Children’S Understanding Of And Emotional Reactions To Dependency Court Involvement., Jodi A. Quas, Allison R. Wallin, Briana Horwitz, Thomas D. Lyon Mar 2008

17. Maltreated Children’S Understanding Of And Emotional Reactions To Dependency Court Involvement., Jodi A. Quas, Allison R. Wallin, Briana Horwitz, Thomas D. Lyon

Thomas D. Lyon

Little is known about the extent to which maltreated children understand what is happening during their participation in court proceedings, despite large numbers of children coming into contact with the legal system as victims of maltreatment. In the present study, maltreated 4- to 15-year-olds were interviewed about their understanding of dependency court on the day of their scheduled court visit. Their feelings about attending their hearings were also assessed, and after their hearing, their understanding of the decisions was examined. Age-related improvements in children’s understanding emerged. Also, children who were more knowledgeable about the legal system were less distressed about …


Recent Developments In Evidence Law, Liesa Richter Feb 2008

Recent Developments In Evidence Law, Liesa Richter

Liesa L. Richter

No abstract provided.


16. Coaching, Truth Induction, And Young Maltreated Children’S False Allegations And False Denials., Thomas D. Lyon, Lindsay C. Malloy, Jodi A. Quas, Victoria A. Talwar Feb 2008

16. Coaching, Truth Induction, And Young Maltreated Children’S False Allegations And False Denials., Thomas D. Lyon, Lindsay C. Malloy, Jodi A. Quas, Victoria A. Talwar

Thomas D. Lyon

This study examined the effects of coaching (encouragement and rehearsal of false reports) and truth induction (a child-friendly version of the oath or general reassurance about the consequences of disclosure) on 4- to 7-year-old maltreated children’s reports (N 5 198). Children were questioned using free recall, repeated yes – no questions, and highly suggestive suppositional questions. Coaching impaired children’s accuracy. For free-recall and repeated yes – no questions, the oath exhibited some positive effects, but this effect diminished in the face of highly suggestive questions. Reassurance had few positive effects and no ill effects. Neither age nor understanding of the …


Hedonic Adaptation And The Settlement Of Civil Lawsuits (With J. Bronsteen & J. Masur), Christopher J. Buccafusco Jan 2008

Hedonic Adaptation And The Settlement Of Civil Lawsuits (With J. Bronsteen & J. Masur), Christopher J. Buccafusco

Christopher J. Buccafusco

This paper examines the burgeoning psychological literature on happiness and hedonic adaptation (a person's capacity to preserve or recapture her level of happiness by adjusting to changed circumstances), bringing this literature to bear on a previously overlooked aspect of the civil litigation process: the probability of pre-trial settlement. The glacial pace of civil litigation is commonly thought of as a regrettable source of costs to the relevant parties. Even relatively straightforward personal injury lawsuits can last for as long as two years, delaying the arrival of necessary redress to the tort victim and forcing the litigants to expend ever greater …


Evidence Codification And Transubstantive And Bifurcated Evidence Codes, John Capowski Dec 2007

Evidence Codification And Transubstantive And Bifurcated Evidence Codes, John Capowski

John J. Capowski

No abstract provided.


Protecting Whistleblowers By Contract, Richard E. Moberly Dec 2007

Protecting Whistleblowers By Contract, Richard E. Moberly

Richard E. Moberly

Numerous statutes and the tort of wrongful discharge purport to prohibit companies from retaliating against employee whistleblowers. However, whistleblowers often lose retaliation lawsuits because these statutory and common law tort protections depend upon a variety of nuanced factors, such as the employer for whom the whistleblower works, the kind of wrongdoing reported, the way in which the employee blew the whistle, and, under some laws, the willingness of an administrative agency to investigate the whistleblower’s claim. Given these difficulties, this Article explores an alternate route for whistleblower protection: enforcing the existing contract protections that private employers currently provide employees when …


From A Plane Crash To The Conviction Of An Innocent Person: A Call On Lawmakers To Establish That Forensic Evidence Is Inadmissible Unless Forensic Equipment Is Developed As A Safety-Critical System, Dr. Boaz Sangero, Dr. Mordechai Halpert Dec 2007

From A Plane Crash To The Conviction Of An Innocent Person: A Call On Lawmakers To Establish That Forensic Evidence Is Inadmissible Unless Forensic Equipment Is Developed As A Safety-Critical System, Dr. Boaz Sangero, Dr. Mordechai Halpert

Prof. Boaz Sangero

According to existing law, a criminal conviction may be based on a single piece of scientific (forensic) evidence. Thus, for example, a DNA match could, on its own, lead to a conviction and a prolonged term of imprisonment, or even a death sentence. A testing error might result in the conviction of an innocent person. Therefore, the state has a duty to ensure that such evidence is as reliable as possible. This article protests an inconceivable situation: that the development of forensic equipment, which is designed to produce evidence that can be relied on in a criminal trial, is not …


Establishing Separate Criminal And Civil Evidence Codes, John J. Capowski Dec 2007

Establishing Separate Criminal And Civil Evidence Codes, John J. Capowski

John J. Capowski

This article suggests that the Federal Rules of Evidence (Rules) should be separated into distinct criminal and civil evidence codes. The arguments for this separation are both practical and theoretical, and this article is the first comprehensive discussion of this proposed separation.

The most important of the arguments for bifurcation is that our current unified evidence code leads to inappropriate admission decisions. These inappropriate admission decisions most often occur when the interpretation of a rule in a criminal case is applied in later civil law cases. This result is in part because our rules, and their interpretations, are transubstantive; they …


8. The Supreme Court, Hearsay, And Crawford: Implications For Child Interviewers., Thomas D. Lyon Dec 2007

8. The Supreme Court, Hearsay, And Crawford: Implications For Child Interviewers., Thomas D. Lyon

Thomas D. Lyon

We are entering the golden age of child interviewing. After years of research emphasizing how children's statements may be corrupted by coercive questioning practices, a number of researchers have shifted their focus toward finding means of increasing the accuracy and completeness of children's reports. Interviewers can now refer to a body of research identifYing good interview practice (Lamb, Hershkowitz, Orbach, & Esplin, 2008).


15. Truth Induction In Young Maltreated Children: The Effects Of Oath-Taking And Reassurance On True And False Disclosures., Thomas D. Lyon, Joyce R. Dorado Dec 2007

15. Truth Induction In Young Maltreated Children: The Effects Of Oath-Taking And Reassurance On True And False Disclosures., Thomas D. Lyon, Joyce R. Dorado

Thomas D. Lyon


Objective: Two studies examined the effects of the oath or reassurance (“truth induction”) on 5- to 7-year-old maltreated children’s true and false reports of a minor transgression.
Methods: In both studies an interviewer elicited a promise to tell the truth, reassured children that they would not get in trouble for disclosing the transgression, or gave no instructions before questioning the child. In Study 1, children were encouraged to play with an attractive toy by a confederate, who then informed them that they might get in trouble for playing. In Study 2, a confederate engaged children in play, but did not …