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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
The Case For Clear And Convincing Evidence: Do Our Laws Value Property Over Children?, Tricia P. Martland
The Case For Clear And Convincing Evidence: Do Our Laws Value Property Over Children?, Tricia P. Martland
Justice Studies Faculty Publications
Our laws reflect our values. What we value, we make laws to protect. In this article, Tricia Martland describes the child custody statute in North Dakota, which is the only state to use “clear and convincing” standard of evidence. This means that children will not be placed with parents with a history of domestic violence unless there is clear and convincing evidence of their rehabilitation. Other states deem the clear and convincing standard too stringent. Yet this standard is often used with regard to property title. Do our laws indicate that we value things over children? Changing policy to apply …
Police Criminal Charging Decisions: An Examination Of Post-Arrest Decision-Making, Scott W. Phillips, Sean P. Varano
Police Criminal Charging Decisions: An Examination Of Post-Arrest Decision-Making, Scott W. Phillips, Sean P. Varano
Justice Studies Faculty Publications
Scholars have encouraged studies of police decision-making to move beyond the arrest decision into research that broadens the understanding of police behavior. The criminal charge placed by officers against offenders is largely an untouched area of study. Examining criminal charging decisions goes beyond simple dichotomous decisions, such as arrest, but instead explores the area of police leniency or punitiveness. Randomly constructed vignettes describing a domestic violence incident were given to officers from four agencies. Officers indicated the criminal charges they would likely list against an offender if they were to make an arrest. Serious criminal charges were often supported by …