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Dodd, C. G., Courrégé, S. C., & Weed, N. C.
Broadband assessment of personality and psychopathology may identify problems of clinical significance (e.g., suicidality, self-injury, untreated mental illness) not assessed in popular juvenile risk assessment tools. To investigate this possibility, we conducted multi-source, multi-method assessments of 11 community-dwelling juvenile offenders in a rural Midwestern county. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent-Restructured Form (MMPI-A-RF) and Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI) scores were obtained for each youth and operationalized with a descriptive q-sort. Criterion q-sort descriptions of the youth were obtained from the youth, caregivers, probation offi cers, therapists, and school staff . Scores on both instruments produced similar, reliable, and valid youth descriptions. In regression analyses, YLS/CMI profi les accounted for more variance in the criterion descriptions than the MMPI-A-RF (M ΔR2 = .26).
Kalle, A., Hammock, G.
Camera perspective bias demonstrates that videos of police interrogations focusing on the suspect yield higher ratings of guilt. This bias may generalize to police body camera videos that also focus on the suspect, particularly when observers with strong implicit racial attitudes watch a video with a racial minority suspect. We tested whether focusing on the citizen, police officer, or both influenced perception of a filmed police encounter. Compared to those who watched the officer or both individuals, those who focused on the citizen rated the citizen more negatively and the officer more positively. Participants' implicit racial attitudes significantly predicted judgments of the officer and citizen for all measures.
Kyle Gamache, K., Zaitchik, M. C., Platania, J., Rieger, D. J.
Preventive detention laws are intended to protect the community while providing continuing offender rehabilitation. The concept of preventive detention frequently challenges the notion of 'just desert'. With respect to civil commitment, defendants are held involuntarily for treatment beyond their sentencing. In a criminal context, defendants may be held in lieu of a criminal conviction. In the current study, we assessed the public's level of tolerance for preventive detention. We were interested in evaluating whether and to what extent a "crime hierarchy" exists for preventive detention; i.e., a perception that certain crimes are deserving of preventive detention compared to others. The results indicate that societal justifications for such confinement may stem from inherent perceptions of dangerousness rather than adherence to specific sentencing goals, political ideology, or criminal offense. This study's findings suggest that the pubic is highly tolerant of the use of preventive detention, particularly with crimes viewed as abborent or dangerous.
Nodeland, B., Saber, M.
With increased attention given to highly publicized incidents of school shootings, Texas is among a handful of states that considered the implementation of a concealed carry policy on their university campuses. Texas State Senate Bill 11 (SB11) made it legal for handgun license holders to carry concealed handguns on college and university campuses, however, the debate surrounding campus carry continues as most states have made no such provision. The university surveyed, like many other in the state, held educational and information sessions to inform students, faculty and staff of the guidelines of the campus carry policy. The current study explores students and faculty/staff attitudes toward campus carry at a midsize southern suburban university in Texas shortly after the implementation of SB11 considering their awareness of the change to the campus carry policy. Findings suggest that students and faculty/staff have similar concerns surrounding campus carry, and also that similar factors predict their support, or lack thereof, for the policy.
Emily Pica, E., Pozzulo, J., Sheahan, C. L., Pratt, K.
The current study examined whether eyewitness age (5-, 10-, 15-years-old), eyewitness familiarity with the defendant (personally familiar, casually familiar, stranger), and nature of the crime (personal, non-personal) infl uenced jurors' judgments. Undergraduate students (N = 568) read a case summary where the eyewitness reported being victim to an abduction or victim of a bike theft and were asked to render a dichotomous verdict, continuous guilt rating, and answer questions regarding their perceptions of the defendant and the eyewitness' identification. Familiarity and nature of the crime interacted to infl uence guilt ratings, perceptions of the defendant, and perceptions of the eyewitness' identification. Jurors reported higher guilt ratings, lower perceptions of the defendant, and were more likely to believe the eyewitness' identification was accurate when the eyewitness and defendant were familiar with each other and the crime was personal compared to nonpersonal. These results suggest familiarity between witnesses and defendants can infl uence
Matthew P. West, M. P., Boppre, B., Miller, M. K., Barchard, K.
At the penalty phase of capital trials, emotionally charged testimony can be presented about the loss of the victim (Victim Impact Statement; VIS) or the potential loss of the defendant (Execution Impact Statement; EIS). This experiment examined how these impact statements influence mock jurors' decisions while accounting for evidence strength using a 2 (VIS or no VIS) X 2 (EIS or no EIS) X 2 (high aggravator case or high mitigator case) between-subjects design. Overall, results suggest impact statements do not stronglyinfluence jurors' decisions. In contrast, evidence strength and perceptions of the defendant strongly predicted jurors’ weighing of aggravators and mitigators and their sentencing decisions. Implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed.