Legal Studies Commons^™

An Investigation Of Socio-Psychological Factors That Influence Adolescent Gang Membership, Tanja Ballinger

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this study was to identify socio-psychological differences in youths who may be at risk to joining gangs.

Waco Tragedy Product Of Groupthink, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This opinion column employs the eight symptoms of groupthink specified by Irving Janis to evaluate whether the tragic end to the 1993 FBI siege of David Koresh’s Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas — which culminated in deaths of 76 civilians — could have been the product of groupthink.

Effects Of Lineup Modality On Witness Credibility, Hunter A. Mcallister, Robert H.I. Dale, Cynthia E. Keay

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Three experiments were conducted to explore the credibility of earwitness versus eyewitness testimony among American college students. Experiment 1 demonstrated that subjects were less likely to identify the perpetrator of a simulated crime in auditory lineups than in visual or auditory-visual lineups. In Experiment 2, subjects observed a videotaped witness from Experiment 1 make an identification. Contrary to actual accuracy data, subjects were as believing of the identifications made by auditory witnesses as they were of the identifications made by visual or auditory-visual witnesses. In Experiment 3, mock jurors in a simulated robbery trial believed auditory lineup identifications as much …

When Eyewitnesses Are Also Earwitnesses: Effects On Visual And Voice Identifications, Hunter A. Mcallister, Robert H.I. Dale, Norman J. Bregman, Allyssa Mccabe, C. Randy Cotton

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

In Experiment 1, subjects witnessed a mock crime either visually or both auditorily and visually. A visual lineup was conducted with either a guilty or an innocent suspect present. Identification accuracy of visual-only versus auditory-visual witnessed did not differ, although the diagnosticity ratio for the visual-only condition was more than twice as large. Thus, there was only limited support for auditory information interfering with encoding visual information. In Experiment 2, subjects witnessed a mock crime either auditorily or both auditorily and visually. A voice lineup was conducted with either a guilty or an innocent suspect present. Consistent with Yarmey’s (1986) …

The Development Of A Predictive Model Of Pretrial Misconduct, Donald R. Trapp

Dissertations and Theses

The problem of jail overcrowding has forced corrections officials and jail administrators to examine ways in which to better manage available jail space. Pretrial release and detention policies have been a target of this examination as pretrial defendants typically account for 50% of a jail's population. Standards for pretrial release exist, but their administration varies by jurisdiction. The impact of jail overcrowding on pretrial release policies has been to decrease the time available to render a decision. Recent efforts to standardize pretrial release standards in Oregon have not addressed the issue of expediency. The current study examines pretrial misconduct (failure …

Mmpi And The Juvenile Sex Offender Russell Funk, Russell Funk

Dissertations and Theses

This study examined the effectiveness of the MMPI in identifying juvenile sex offenders. This study examined the hypothesis that previously identified subscales of the MMPI (i.e., Toobert et al. (1959) Pe scale and Dolan (1986) Ic scale) could be used in discriminating juvenile sex offenders (n=l 02) (and subgroups of juvenile sex offenders i.e., pedophiles n=79, and incest perpetrators n=41) from a control group of 40 juvenile offenders who had been adjudicated for non-sex related crimes. The study yielded results which indicate that the Pe subscale was not effective in discriminating pedophiles from non-pedophile sex offenders or from the control …

Moral Development, Socioeconomic Status, And Family Intactness: Status Offenders Versus Criminal Offenders, Michael A. Glynn

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the possible differences between the two legally defined groups of juvenile delinquents (status offenders and criminal offenders) on the variables of moral development, socioeconomic status, and family intactness. Moral development was measured using Gibbs' Sociomoral Reflection Measure. Socioeconomic status was determined by the subject's parent's ranking on Nam's Occupational Status Score Index, and family intactness or non-intactness was determined from an examination of court records. The subjects were 106 males between the ages of 13 and 17 inclusive, and were evenly divided in the two legal categories. No significant differences were found between the two groups on …

The Mmpi : A Subscale (Ic) For The Identification Of Male Incest Offenders, Mary S. Dolan

Dissertations and Theses

The MMPI has been used extensively for the clinical assessment of deviancy among sexual offenders. In order to derive a diagnostic scale for the specific identification of male incest offenders, an item analysis, using MMPI data from offenders, compared MMPI data from a nonoffending control sample. The item analysis results were cross validated with MMPI data from a separate sample of incest offenders. Eleven MMPI items were found to be critical in discriminating male incest offenders from nonoffenders, and these items comprise the Ic experimental scale. On the basis of the Ic scale, male incest offenders evidence characterological disturbances in …

Violence In College Students' Dating Relationships, Carol K. Sigelman, Carol E. Jordan-Berry, Katharine A. Wiles

Office for Policy Studies on Violence Against Women Publications

In a survey of 504 college students examining predictors of violence in heterosexual relationships, over half of both men and women had committed at least one physically violent act. Modest associations between physical violence and sexual aggression were uncovered. In a series of discriminant analyses, men who abused their partners were not readily distinguished from men who did not, but tended to by young, low in family income, traditional in attitudes toward women, abused as children, currently living with a women, and from Appalachian areas.

Review Article Of Psychology And Criminal Justice, Sanford J. Fox

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

An Educational-Counseling Program On Public Law 94-142 For Parents Of School-Aged Educable Mentally Handicapped Children, Patricia Coakley

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The passage of Public Law 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, mandates that parents of a handicapped child must be included in the educational planning and placement procedures for their child. The law requires (1) parent counseling and (2) parent participation in the planning of the child’s educational career. Yet almost six years after the passage of Public Law 94-142, the role of parent which emerges today appears to be one of passive involvement in the Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) process. The literature suggests this lack of active participation possibly stems from several sources: the parents’ …

The Effectiveness Of Rational Behavior Therapy In Reducing Anger Of Inmates, Dennis Jerome Meers

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the relative effectiveness of Rational Behavior Therapy and a waiting-list control condition for reducing the frequencies and intensities of anger of inmates. The sample consisted of 46 adult male inmates who attained elevated psychopathic deviate scale scores on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, and who expressed a desire to join an anger treatment group. The subjects in the treatment condition were exposed to fifteen group sessions of Rational Behavior Therapy, over an eightweek period. The subjects in the control condition experienced a no-treatment waiting-period. All subjects responded to pretest and posttest measures on the Novaco Anger Scale …

Judicial Incentives: Some Evidence From Urban Trial Courts, Greg A. Caldeira

IUSTITIA

In the following pages, I shall outline the basics of a method for studying the motivations of trial judges - or any public officials, for that matter - that I find particularly interesting and fruitful - "incentive theory". The use of incentive theory is, in my view, a preliminary contribution to an ongoing movement to fill glaring gaps in the literature on judicial motivation and trial judging.

A Study Of The Relationship Between The Adolescents' Knowledge Of Laws And Their Attitudes Towards The Police, Barbara Mccallum

Dissertations and Theses

Crime in the United States has risen at an alarming rate in the last few years and along with it, juvenile crime and delinquency. Society has had a difficult task trying to deal with this increased juvenile crime. Whereas the destructive, antisocial adult can be placed in prison or jail away from society, we are generally reluctant to institutionalize youth in such a manner. Rather, the feeling is that there is still hope for teenagers who commit crimes, that the community rather than institutions can and should be primarily responsible for trying to prevent and/or rehabilitate delinquents.

In the fall …

The Abused Child And His Parents, Richard David Young

IUSTITIA

Children in our society pass through a prolonged period of dependency during which they are taught the complex technological and social skills necessary for successful adult functioning. The child's experiences during this period can have profound effects on the development of his potential for meaningful interpersonal relationships, competency, and creativity. The child's dependence needs are the complement of the caretaker's nurturance. When nurturance fails or is inconsistent, societal loss merges with individual tragedy. Yet nurturance does occasionally fail. Some of those charged with the care of children abdicate their responsibilities, and do not provide the physical and/or emotional necessities for …

Predicting Delinquent Sub-Types With The Social History Questionnaire, Charles S. Sulcer

Masters Theses

A major problem encountered in the juvenile courts concerns the large number of young offenders placed on probation, as well as the seriousness of their violations. Representative studies by Jenkins and Glickman (1947), Hathaway and Monachesi (1953), and Shinohara and Jenkins (1967) have pointed out the complexities of delinquent behavior by indicating that most legal authorities are often unable to determine who will repeat illegal acts.

This problem necessitates some objective approach toward identifying potential repeaters and non-repeaters. Such a technique would be useful in studying the early stages of delinquent behavior and provide a means of studying the growing …

A Comparison Of Incarcerated And Non-Incarcerated Women Based On The M.M.P.I., Rose Marie Carter

Masters Theses

The field for research on women offenders provides an extensive opportunity for scientific investigation. Many writers (Gibbons, 1971; Cunningham, 1964; Sutherland, 1968) have discussed the causes of crime and their resulting social implications. Organized mass presentations of the movement of crime among women is negligible. Today female incarcerates make up approximately 11 per cent (Lerner, 1972) of the total number in state and federal penitentiaries. Previous research (Cunningham, 1964) on female felons found poor self-concept, excessive dependency and pathological emotionality to be a consistent pattern in women criminals. Other research (Apfeldorf, 1971; Guze, 1959) found criminal and non-criminal groups could …

Euthanasia Or Mercy Killings, George Joseph Nicoud

Bachelors’ Theses

In this modern and changing world new problems are constantly arising and older ones are being dispensed with. Man has to adapt himself almost daily to changing and more complex situations. The world has advanced to such an extent that in this present generation we are known as "human machines" rather than human beings. Men are worked until they drop off from the strain or they work until they are broken, decrepit old men, no longer a use to anybody and a burden to almost everybody. As our modernity progressed, so also did conventions and ideas. Ideas of morals changed. …