Death-qualified jurors and the assumption of innocence: A cognitive dissonance perspective on conviction-prone verdicts

The conviction-prone behavior of death-qualified juries is a phenomenon that has been widely observed, but is not fully understood. This work presents a cognitive dissonance perspective as a possible mechanism that may be contributing to the high rate of conviction in death-qualified juries. This review contends that the selection procedures for death qualification may create juries with attitudes that are contrary to the fundamental assumption of innocence presupposed by the court. As a result of this conflict between juror attitudes and the assumption of innocence, dissonance will occur. One path to dissonance resolution may be the act of conviction. The empirical findings from juror studies support this dissonance interpretation of the conviction-prone status of death-qualified juries. This work also reviews the legal history of the death qualification process in Witherspoon v. Illinois (1968) and Hovey v. Superior Court (1980) and summarizes the social psychological criticism that process has received.     

Implicit Behavioral Mimicry: Investigating the Impact of Group Membership

Two experiments investigated the impact of group membership on non-conscious behavioral mimicry. Female participants viewed videotapes of female confederates who rubbed their faces whilst describing a picture. The extent to which the participant mimicked this face rubbing behavior was assessed from video footage taken using a hidden video-camera. Experiment 1 showed greater mimicry of a member of an in-group than of a member of an out-group. Experiment 2 showed both explicit and implicit liking of a target group to predict the extent of mimicry of a member of that group. There was a positive relationship between implicit liking and mimicry but a negative relationship between explicit liking and mimicry. Results are discussed in terms of processes underlying mimicry.

Developing a Core Competency Model and Educational Framework for Primary Maternity Services: a national consensus approach

BackgroundAn appropriately educated and competent workforce is crucial to an effective health care system. The National Health Workforce Taskforce (now Health Workforce Australia) and the Maternity Services Inter-Jurisdictional Committee funded a project to develop Core Competencies and Educational Framework for Primary Maternity Services in Australia. These competencies recognise the interdisciplinary nature of maternity care in Australia where care is provided by general practitioners, obstetricians and midwives as well as other professionals.ParticipantsKey stakeholders from professional organisations and providers of services related to maternity care and consumers of services.MethodsA national consensus approach was undertaken using consultation processes with a Steering Committee, a wider Reference Group and public consultation.FindingsA national Core Competencies and Educational Framework for Primary Maternity Services in Australia was developed through an iterative process with a range of key stakeholders. There are a number of strategies that may assist in the integration of these into primary maternity service provider professional groups’ education and practice.ConclusionsThe Core Competencies and Educational Framework are based on an interprofessional approach to learning and primary maternity service practice. They have sought to value professional expertise and stimulate awareness and respect for the roles of all primary maternity service providers. The competencies and framework described in this paper are now a critical component of Australian maternity services as they are included in actions in the newly released National Maternity Services Plan and thus have relevance for all providers of Australian maternity services.     

ASSESSING CHANGE IN FAMILY FUNCTIONING AS A RESULT OF TREATMENT: THE STRUCTURAL FAMILY SYSTEMS RATING SCALE (SFSR)

This article describes a theoretically based structural family assessment procedure designed for use in evaluating therapy outcome. The standardized procedure for eliciting family interaction consists of the administration of three family tasks. The family's interactional patterns on the tasks are evaluated along six dimensions of structural family functioning: Structure, Flexibility, Resonance, Developmental Stage, Identified Patienthood, and Conflict Resolution. A manual has been developed for standardizing ratings for research applications. The measure demonstrated good interrater and internal consistency reliability. Available evidence for the content, factor, and construct validity of the measure is presented. Clinical outcome research studies conducted with the measure provide evidence that the measure is sensitive to different types of structural family intervention modalities and that it discriminates between a structural family intervention versus a no treatment/wait list control condition as well as between a structural family intervention versus an individual psychotherapy treatment modality. Finally, the measure has been demonstrated to be nonreactive under both treatment and wait list conditions.     

Reliability and reactivity of three new functional assessment measures

This study of the reliability of three new tests of work performance considered the effect of test reactivity on measured performance. The tests are components of an employment screening battery designed for placement of applicants in automotive assembly jobs. Statistical measures of reliability were compared with a simple measure of test reactivity in a sample of 51 healthy adults. The effect of test reactivity on employment selection decisions using various cut scores was studied. Test reactivity is found to be a significant threat to reliability that must be considered when skill-based performance tests are used on a serial basis. When intended for use on a serial basis, such tests should be studied for both reliability and reactivity. In addition to reporting traditional statistical indices of reliability, an index of the reactivity should be reported.     

Some Effects of the Community on Cultural Integration*

Attitudinal and behavioral data indicative of cultural integration support the hypothesis of decreasing race/ethnic differences. The study data were collected from inmigrant Mexican-Americans and Negroes and a control group of Anglo residents at two points in time separated by eleven years. Tau is used to describe similarity or dissimilarity in race ethnic distributions within each year's data and as a measure of changing race/ethnic response across the eleven-year span.     

Space city revisited: patterns of legal outcomes in Houston homicide

This study re-examines, and updates, that of Lundsgaarde (1977), who found that among homicide offenders in Houston, Texas, in 1969, less than 50% of those who killed intimates or other family members were ever prosecuted for their lethal acts. The general pattern that emerges from our analysis of a random sample of 428 homicide cases during 1985 to 1994 indicates that killers of intimate partners or relatives are somewhat more likely to be prosecuted as offenders who were friends or strangers to their victims. Also during this 1985 to 1994 time period, the relative percent of defendants who were sentenced to a prison term of 20 years of less was smallest for those who killed intimate partners or other family members compared to those convicted of killing friends/acquaintances or strangers. As for sex-specific legal dispositions in cases of lethal violence against intimates or other relatives, we found that sanctions against women were considerably less severe than those against male offenders, in both time periods.     

Unwanted sexual contact on campus: a comparison of women's and men's experiences

While sexual victimization continues to be a problem on college campuses, recent attention has been drawn to understanding gender differences in victimization rates and consequences. To date, these studies remain relatively few in number. The current study surveyed 651 male and female undergraduate students about unwanted sexual experiences during 1 academic year. Comparison of men and women revealed expected differences in incidence rates, with women reporting higher rates of unwanted contact. Within the subsample of reported victims, however, there was gender similarity in terms of the context of unwanted sexual experiences. Analyses also revealed the negative consequences of these experiences for both men and women and low rates of disclosure regardless of gender. Across the full sample of students surveyed, there were interesting gender differences in knowledge of campus support services, with women more likely to have attended a prevention program and to have indicated greater knowledge of rape crisis services.     

The intersection of race, poverty and risk: understanding the decision to provide services to clients and to remove children

Studies have found that certain racial groups, particularly the children of African American families, are placed in foster care at a higher rate than children of other races. These families are also sometimes found to be afforded fewer services that might prevent these removals, relative to families of other races. It is unclear why this is so. Poverty has been suspected, and sometimes found, to be the primary cause of the disparity. Lacking in some of these analyses, however, was how risk of future abuse/neglect to the child entered into the decisions and particularly, how assumptions about race, poverty, and risk are factored into the decision-making process. It is important to understand this process if we are to find a way to correct it. The current study addresses this process.