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Abstract:
An underlying assumption in the nationwide policy shift toward transferring more juveniles to criminal court has been the belief that stricter, adult sentences will act as either a specific or general deterrent to juvenile crime. With respect to general deterrence - whether transfer laws deter would-be offenders from committing crimes - it is important to examine whether juveniles know about transfer laws, whether this knowledge deters criminal behavior, and whether juveniles believe the laws will be enforced against them. The current study is one of the first to examine juveniles' knowledge and perceptions of transfer laws and criminal sanctions. We interviewed 37 juveniles who had been transferred to criminal court in Georgia, obtaining quantitative as well as qualitative data based on structured interviewed questions. Four key findings emerged. First, juveniles were unaware of the transfer law. Second, juveniles felt that awareness of the law may have deterred them from committing the crime or may deter other juveniles from committing crimes, and they suggested practical ways to enhance juveniles' awareness of transfer laws. Third, the juveniles generally felt that it was unfair to try and sentence them as adults. Finally, the consequences of committing their crime were worse than most had imagined, and the harsh consequences of their incarceration in adult facilities may have had a brutalizing effect on some juveniles. The implications for general and specific deterrence are discussed.

juveniles, juvenile offenders, criminal law, family and children's law, law and society, experimental and empirical studies

Abstract:
This chapter discusses the research on the general and specific deterrent effects of transferring juveniles for trial in adult criminal court, identifies gaps in our knowledge base that require further research, discusses the circumstances under which effective deterrence may be achieved, and examines whether there are effective alternatives for achieving deterrence other than adult sanctions for serious juvenile offenders. As a backdrop to this analysis, the chapter first examines the role of public opinion in shaping the get tough policies, and how policy makers have misunderstood and perceived support for these policies.

Juvenile offenders, juvenile crime, punishment, sentencing, adult sanctions, transfer to criminal court, deterrence

Abstract:
In recent years, as juvenile justice systems across the country have become more punitive and courts have held that juveniles are entitled to adult-like levels of due process protection, the adjudicative competence of juveniles has increasingly come into question. To clarify this trend, we reviewed the current state of the law in the fifty states and the District of Columbia, focusing on recent court opinions and legislation as of January of 2000. We then summarize relevant empirical research on juveniles' competency-related capacities in delinquency proceedings. As a case study, we examine the development and implementation of juvenile competence legislation in Virginia, analyzing the legal, clinical, and practical considerations that arise from the recognition of a juvenile competence requirement. We conclude that the passage of a juvenile competence statute does not necessarily lead to an overwhelming number of juveniles being found incompetent. With quality training of evaluators and attorneys, further research on clinical components of adjudicative competency in juveniles, and legislative support and funding, a juvenile competence requirement can help ensure the fair and effective functioning of the modern juvenile court.

Juvenile, Adjudicative Competence, Competence to Stand Trial, Juvenile Court, Forensic Issues

Abstract:
Studies consistently show a high prevalence of mental disorders among criminal defendants. Forensic mental health issues thus arise frequently in the criminal justice system and are commonly encountered by prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges - much more so than some criminal law doctrines (e.g., necessity, duress, impossibility) routinely taught in criminal law courses. Yet rarely are students taught about mental illness, how to represent mentally ill clients, adjudicative competence, the mental health needs of various offender groups and how these unmet needs may contribute to criminal behavior, or the use of mental health mitigation evidence at sentencing. If taught at all, such topics are only part of a survey course in mental health law.

Forensic mental health issues should be an integral part of the criminal law curriculum, beginning with the first-year criminal law course. This Article presents recommendations for teaching mental health issues in first-year criminal law, presents empirical data indicating that first-year students have mixed, though generally positive, reactions to incorporating such non-traditional content into the course, and provides a syllabus for an upper-level course in criminal law and psychology. Incorporating mental health topics into the traditional criminal law curriculum is part of the ongoing trend in legal education towards expanding pedagogy beyond legal doctrine into relevant social science disciplines that can inform legal policy and students' understanding of the criminal justice system, perhaps more so than many of the doctrinal lessons we now teach.

Criminal Law, mental health law, legal education, mental disorders, forensic issues, teaching, pedagogy

Abstract:
Brain-damaged defendants are seen everyday in American courtrooms, and in many cases, their criminal behavior appears to be the product of extremely poor judgment and self-control. Some have a disorder in the frontal lobes, the area of the brain responsible for judgment and impulse control. Yet because defendants suffering from frontal lobe dysfunction usually understand the difference between right and wrong, they are unable to avail themselves of the only insanity defense available in many states, a defense based on the narrow McNaghten test. "Irresistible impulse" (or "control") tests, on the other hand, provide an insanity defense to those who committed a crime due to their inability to exercise behavioral control. Control tests have fallen into disfavor, however. Opponents of control tests offer three rationales for their abandonment: (1) that cognitive tests for insanity are sufficient, since those with impaired impulse control will also be cognitively impaired; (2) that mental health professionals are incapable of reliably assessing the capacity for impulse control, particularly in relation to criminal behavior, or of differentiating between a truly irresistible impulse and an impulse that is merely difficult to resist; and, therefore, that control tests lead to erroneous insanity acquittals; and, (3) that because "they directly pose the question of whether a person could control his or her behavior," control tests run counter to the law's assumption that people have free will and bear responsibility for their actions. Current neuroscience research presents a challenge to these claims. In the Article, I argue for a return to control tests for insanity, but with important doctrinal modifications.

Criminal behavior, insanity defense, control tests for insanity, brain-damaged defendants, legal insanity

Abstract:
The effect of gay and lesbian parenting on children has been the touchstone issue in much of the recent state litigation on same sex marriage, with opponents of same sex marriage arguing that there is a rational basis for denying marriage rights to gays and lesbians because the central purpose of marriage is procreation and childrearing, but that children are harmed or disadvantaged when raised by gay or lesbian parents. To interrogate this claim, I critique the social science research that informs the concerns frequently expressed about the possible negative effects of lesbigay parenting on children's emotional, psychosocial, and sexual development. In particular, I focus on research relevant to whether growing up in a lesbigay household is as positive an experience for children as growing up in a heterosexual household, as much of the literature to date has addressed the issue of whether lesbigay parenting is harmful to children. I conclude that the research fails to support the theory that denying marriage or parenting rights to same sex couples serves the welfare of children. I further argue that public opposition to gay marriage, particularly in the context of lesbigay parenting, is animated by a deeper concern - the proverbial 'elephant in the room' on gay rights issues. That elephant is the visceral disgust reaction that many Americans feel toward homosexual sex, and the resulting moral intuition that homosexuality and homosexual relationships are immoral. Thus, many people will conclude that it is better for children to be raised in heterosexual households because they do not want children exposed to the lesbigay 'lifestyle.' Nor do they want to increase the 'risk' that children will develop a homosexual orientation if they are raised by lesbigay parents. The article discusses new psychological research on moral decision making, which suggests that the 'moral' emotion of disgust is at the root of much of the opposition to gay rights. The disgust reaction is likely a byproduct of human evolution that fails to inform rational judgments about the policy questions surrounding lesbigay parenting and marriage rights.

Gay Marriage, Same-Sex Marriage, Gay and Lesbian Parenting, Gay and Lesbian Families, Sexuality

Abstract:
Juvenile court judges and others working in the juvenile justice system have a wide variety of dispositional and sentencing options available for the juvenile offenders under their jurisdiction. For serious, violent or chronic offenders, these options increasingly involve transferring juveniles from juvenile court for trial and sentencing in the criminal court as well as blended juvenile and adult sentences. This chapter provides an overview of the adjudicatory and dispositional options available for handling juvenile offenders in the juvenile and criminal justice systems. The research on adjudicatory and dispositional decision making is reviewed, and directions for future law and policy development are proposed.

juveniles, juvenile offenders, criminal law, family and children's law, law and society, experimental and empirical studies

Abstract:
This chapter provides an introduction to the major classes of mental disorder and the ways in which they are salient to selected aspects of American criminal and civil law, focusing particularly on criminal law issues.

Mental Illness, Mental Disorders, Mental Health Law

Abstract:
‎We summarize the most systematic work on George W. Bush's psyche. SAT scores and other available measures indicate that Bush has ‎sufficient intelligence to serve as president. Yet the best studies, in which raters evaluate ‎statements without being aware of their source, suggest that Bush lacks integrative complexity ‎and thus views issues without nuance. The leading personality ‎theory (the “5-Factor Model”), as measured by the NEO Personality Inventory, suggests that ‎Bush is highly extraverted but not very agreeable or conscientious. He also scores low on ‎‎“Openness to Experience." Similarly, using the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria, Bush fits the “Outgoing,” “Dominant (Controlling),” and “Dauntless” personality ‎patterns, which together constitute a style given to lack of reflection, superficiality, and ‎impulsivity. When compared to other presidents, Bush most closely resembles Jackson, Reagan, ‎and Harding, but is very unlike his father, George H.W. Bush. ‎

We apply these findings to discussions of President Bush's decision-making in the ‎cases of his most notable success, education reform, and his most notable failure, the Iraq war. ‎We argue that Bush's psychological predispositions were particularly noteworthy in the latter, in ‎part because greater presidential power in foreign policy magnifies the impacts of leader personality.‎

Bush, presidential greatness, presidential leadership, Iraq war, No Child Left Behind Act

Abstract:
An underlying assumption in the nationwide policy shift toward transferring more juveniles to criminal court has been the belief that stricter, adult sentences will act as either a specific or general deterrent to juvenile crime. With respect to general deterrence - whether transfer laws deter would-be offenders from committing crimes - it is important to examine whether juveniles know about transfer laws, whether this knowledge deters criminal behavior, and whether juveniles believe the laws will be enforced against them. The current study is one of the first to examine juveniles' knowledge and perceptions of transfer laws and criminal sanctions. We interviewed 37 juveniles who had been transferred to criminal court in Georgia, obtaining quantitative as well as qualitative data based on structured interviewed questions. Four key findings emerged. First, juveniles were unaware of the transfer law. Second, juveniles felt that awareness of the law may have deterred them from committing the crime or may deter other juveniles from committing crimes, and they suggested practical ways to enhance juveniles' awareness of transfer laws. Third, the juveniles generally felt that it was unfair to try and sentence them as adults. Finally, the consequences of committing their crime were worse than most had imagined, and the harsh consequences of their incarceration in adult facilities may have had a brutalizing effect on some juveniles. The implications for general and specific deterrence are discussed.

Abstract:
Self-help books for psychological disorders have become increasingly popular, yet there is surprisingly little research on their scientific status or overall utility. The authors identified 50 top-selling self-help books for anxiety, depressive, and trauma-related disorders. Using a scale derived from the literature on bibliotherapy, expert psychologists rated each book on overall usefulness, grounding in psychological science, the extent to which it offers reasonable expectations, the extent to which it offers specific guidance for implementing the self-help techniques and for monitoring treatment progress, and whether it offers potentially harmful advice. The results revealed strong intercorrelations among the scales, such that books scoring high along one dimension tended to score high along others. There was wide variability in the overall quality of the books, but several factors emerged as predictors of book quality. The most highly rated books tended to be those having a cognitive behavioral perspective, those written by mental health professionals, those written by authors holding a doctoral degree, and those focusing on specific problems. Implications of the findings, including specific recommendations for authors and consumers of self-help books, are discussed.

bibliotherapy, self-help, anxiety, depression, trauma

Abstract:
Provides an overview of research on the deterrent effects of transferring youth from juvenile to criminal courts, focusing on large-scale comprehensive OJJDP-funded studies on the effect of transfer laws on recidivism. The Bulletin reviews all of the extant research on the general and specific deterrent effects of transferring juveniles to adult criminal court.

Transfer Laws, Waiver Laws, Deterrence, Juvenile Offenders

Abstract:
This article reviews the new book by Martha Peters and Don Peters, Juris Types: Learning Law Through Self-Understanding (2007). The book proposes that legal pedagogy and student learning strategies be guided in part by Carl Jung's Psychological Type Theory and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator ("MBTI"). The MBTI is one of the most widely used personality tests in the world today, although the test has never been accepted in the academic community. This paper reviews the history of the development of the MBTI, and the empirical research on its validity and reliability, to explain why the test and its associated theory has been discredited. Law schools (and other organizations) would be wise not to adopt Jungian theory or the MBTI - pseudoscientific variants of the newspaper horoscope - to improve teaching, learning, interpersonal communication skills, or self-understanding, but for reasons well understood by psychologists, their appeal is difficult to resist.

Legal education, teaching and learning, Jungian Theory, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

Abstract:
Sentencing is where much of the action is in criminal practice, particularly since ninety percent or more of cases never go to trial but are settled through plea bargains. Acting within the constraints of applicable presumptive or mandatory sentencing guidelines, probation officers, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges typically rely on their instincts and experience to fashion a sentence based upon the information available about the offense and offender. But relying upon gut instinct and experience is no longer sufficient. It may even be unethical – a kind of sentencing malpractice that produces sentencing recommendations and decisions that are neither transparent nor entirely rational. Rather, selecting the sentencing option(s) that will best reduce recidivism through deterrence, incapacitation, or rehabilitation is a scientific question that should be informed by the science of best practices – that is, “evidence-based practices.”

This introductory article for the Chapman Journal of Criminal Justice’s Symposium Issue on Evidence-Based Sentencing, provides an overview of the scientific and legal issues underlying the evidence-based approach and an introduction to the articles in the symposium issue.

sentencing, evidence-based, risk assessment, empirical, recidivism

Abstract:
This book explores and offers remedies to the culture of political correctness in American higher education. We focus on the problem of liberal political orthodoxy in teaching and scholarship and seek to understand how diversity – of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation, but not of ideas -- has become the dominant ideology in higher education. The dearth of conservative, libertarian, and neoliberal thinkers limits the type of questions asked and the phenomena studied; hinders credibility and dialogue between academic experts and large swaths of voters and policymakers; and, by limiting students’ exposure to different ideas, inhibits the ability of the university to produce thoughtful citizens. The book provides the most current and comprehensive statistical analysis of the relative rarity of conservative and libertarian professors, and takes an in-depth look at the effects of political correctness on specific academic disciplines, including political science, history, English, anthropology, and linguistics. It also explores the psychological and sociological mechanisms by which such imbalance comes about, and considers how and why academia stresses demographic diversity while largely eschewing political diversity. The book’s contributors contend that a combination of faculty composition, self-selection by conservatives, discrimination against conservatives in faculty hiring, and the tendency of political correctness to favor liberal views has produced a situation where conservative perspectives are often underrepresented in higher education. The contributors to this volume offer a range of solutions: programs or centers within universities, which operate outside official departments and allow conservative faculty to freely explore particular topics with sympathetic students; a larger role for alumni and trustees in overseeing their institutions; and a change in how liberal arts scholars understand themselves—not as provocative debunkers of accepted ideas, but as discoverers of truth.

Higher Education, Political Correctness, Multiculturalism, Politics, Education Reform

Abstract:
Parent training is consistently highlighted as one of the most effective means of preventing delinquency and treating young children with conduct problems, and it has proven to be one of the most cost-effective interventions for doing so. There is, however, far less evidence supporting the efficacy of parent-training programs with adolescents and juvenile offenders. Nonetheless, it still seems to be one of the more promising methods for treating the behavior problems of adolescent delinquents, especially when used in conjunction with other carefully selected program components. We begin with an overview of parent training, highlighting the key components of successful programs. Research on the efficacy of parent training in the treatment of behavior problems among children and adolescents is discussed, particularly the differential impact of parental-training programs with specific groups of youths and families. We then discuss the ways in which parent training has been combined with other interventions in the treatment of delinquency. We conclude with a discussion of the problems encountered in implementing parent training, including recommendations for meeting the unique challenges of effective program implementation.

Parent Training, Parent Management Training, Juvenile Offenders

Abstract:
When mental health experts provide information to courts on the results of a risk assessment conducted on a defendant or patient, they engage in “risk communication.” We examined the effects of four different forms of risk communication (prediction, categorical, risk factors/risk management, or hybrid) on judges’ (n = 253) perceptions of risk assessment evidence introduced in a case where they must decide whether to release from the hospital an individual found not guilty by reason of insanity. Judges who received information in the risk factors/risk management form were more likely to release the patient than were those who received prediction - based or categorical risk information. Judges with greater experience hearing cases involving risk assessment evidence were also more likely to release. Moreover, judges who had positive attitudes towards risk assessment and social science evidence in general, were more likely to find the risk assessment evidence introduced in the particular case to be understandable, relevant, and dispositive. Implications of the results for how mental health experts communicate risk information to the courts are discussed.

Risk communication, risk assessment, judicial decision making, violence