Gender Disparities in Plea Bargaining

Across wide-ranging contexts, academic literature and the popular press have identified pervasive gender disparities favoring men over women in society. One area in which gender disparities have conversely favored women is the criminal justice system. Most of the empirical research examining gender disparities in criminal case outcomes has focused on judges’ sentencing decisions. Few studies have assessed disparities in the steps leading up to a defendant’s conviction, where various actors make choices that constrain judges’ ultimate sentencing discretion. This Article addresses this gap by examining gender disparities in the plea-bargaining process. The results presented in this Article reveal significant gender disparities in this stage of the criminal justice system. Female defendants are about twenty percent more likely than male defendants to have their principal initial charge dropped or reduced. These gender disparities are greater in cases involving misdemeanors and low-level felonies. In cases involving serious felonies, male and female defendants achieve similar outcomes. Defendants’ criminal histories also play a key role in mediating gender disparities. While female defendants with no prior convictions receive charge reductions more often than male defendants with no prior convictions, male and female defendants with prior convictions are afforded similar treatment. These patterns in gender disparities suggest that in these “low information” cases gender may be being used as a proxy for a defendant’s latent criminality and likelihood to recidivate. Building upon these results and the existing literature documenting racial disparities in criminal case outcomes, the Article explores the intersection of gender and race in determining disparities in the plea-bargaining process. The results indicate that gender and racial disparities complement each other in a way that yields additive effects. The charge reduction rate for white female defendants is more than double that of black male defendants. White male and black female defendants experience similar charge reduction rates, in between those of white female and black male defendants. Consistent with the pattern of gender disparities documented in the Article, these intergroup disparities are greater in cases involving misdemeanor offenses and defendants with no prior convictions

Electoral Cycles Among U.S. Courts of Appeals Judges

We find field evidence for what experimental studies have documented regarding the contexts and characteristics that make individuals more susceptible to priming. Just before U.S. Presidential elections, judges on the U.S. Courts of Appeals double the rate at which they dissent and vote along partisan lines. Increases are accentuated for judges with less experience and in ideologically polarized environments. During periods of national reconciliation—wartime, for example—judges suppress dissents, again, especially by judges with less experience and in ideologically polarized environments. We show the dissent rate increases gradually from 6% to nearly 12% in the quarter before an election and returns immediately to 6% after the election. That highly experienced professionals making common law precedent can be politically primed raises questions about the perceived impartiality of the judiciary. We cannot rule out the possibility that judges—who profess to be unbiased—are intentionally biased, which also raises the question of intentional bias of professionals who claim to be unbiased

VO2max changes in English futsal players after a 6-week period of specific small-sided games training

Futsal is a high-intensity, intermittent sport where accelerations and short sprints are performed at maximal or sub-maximal intensity. These efforts are interspersed by brief recovery periods, during 2 halves of 20 minutes stopping clock. Aerobic endurance inevitably plays a key role in the players’ performance. The aim of this study was to analyse the VO2 max progression and the agility (with and without ball) of English futsal players during a 6-week period of small-sided games practice. Two teams volunteered to participate in this study; an experimental group (EG), which performed a specialised small-sided training regime and a control group (CG) (normal training regime). VO2max was estimated from the results of the 20-metre Multi-Stage Fitness Test. The VO2max of the futsal players in the EG improved significantly (58.73±2.41 ml/kg/min vs. 60.11 ± 2.99 ml/kg/min, p=0.04). The same player's agility and agility with ball performance did not report any significant changes in either group. The results showed that periodisation, training sessions and methods based on small-sided games, which implied a change in the number of players, the size of the pitch and the task constraints, were adequate to increase aerobic endurance

For me, it was a liberation, like being free again. A qualitative approach to the care trajectories of divorced mothers in Spain

This article deals with the causes and consequences of divorce in a group of women with minor children in Spain, a country in Southern Europe that presents a pre-eminently familistic character based on a marked division of gender roles. We detected an imbalance between qualitative and quantitative studies on this topic, of which the latter are more numerous in the recently published literature. For this reason, here we wish to show the people behind the data by conferring two questions making up the analysis axes of this research. First, we deal with the causes of couple breakups, which are related to inequality in the distribution of housework and care tasks in all cases. Second, we analyse their speeches about work and family conciliation after divorce, with particular importance given to the presence, or not, of a strong family network

La Literatura en la Enseñanza del Inglés a través de Alice in Wonderland

Este TFM pretende defender el valor que tiene la literatura como recurso didáctico en el aprendizaje del inglés como segunda lengua. Más allá del tradicional esquema que la vincula a la destreza lectora, la literatura puede ampliar sus horizontes hacia el resto de destrezas y resultar una forma novedosa de estimular y desarrollar valores que solemos asociar al disfrute de la misma fuera del aula. En el TFM se analiza el lugar que la literatura ha tenido en las estrategias pedagógicas tradicionales, así como su necesaria adaptación a los avances metodológicos en el estudio de las L2. Tras intentar discernir el papel que se le da en los marcos legislativos actuales, se presenta el diseño de una situación de aprendizaje ideada para el 2º curso de Bachillerato, que recoge actividades relacionadas con dos pasajes de Alice in Wonderland. Pretendo demostrar con ellas que a partir del desarrollo de las capacidades que fomenta la lectura intensiva, el uso de la literatura estimula el de una serie de competencias, por lo que su uso en las aulas queda justificado.Abstract. This Master’s Degree Project intends to defend the significance of literature as a didactic resource when learning English as a second language. Reaching further beyond the traditional pattern that links it to reading, literature can expand its horizons into the rest of skills and turn out to be a new way of stimulating and developing values that we tend to associate to the enjoyment of literature outside the classroom. This Master’s Degree Project analyzes the role that literature enjoyed in traditional pedagogical strategies, as well as its necessary adaptation to the methodological developments in the study of L2. After trying to discern its capacities in the current legislative framework, a design of a learning situation for the second course of Bachillerato is offered. It includes some activities related to two excerpts from Alice in Wonderland. I would like to demonstrate through them that, from the development of abilities that support intensive reading, the use of literature stimulates a series of competences and is, therefore justified as a reliable source

The petition of right and the core aims of the administrative silence, plus some doctrinal conceptions

Este artículo de reflexión es resultado de la investigación titulada “Disquisiciones jurídicas sobre el silencio administrativo en Colombia” realizado al interior del grupo de investigación de Estudios Sociales, Políticos y Jurídicos del programa de Derecho de la Universidad Autónoma del Caribe. Se realiza un análisis de algunos aspectos del derecho de petición y del controversial tema del silencio administrativo en sus diferentes variantes, subrayando algunas concepciones de carácter doctrinario de notables tratadistas del derecho administrativo al igual que la jurisprudencia pertinente. Se busca explicar y justificar la razón de ser de tal institución, así como destacar la postura asumida por el autor frente a los interrogantes que se suscitaron durante la investigación. Es relevante destacar las escasas disposiciones incluidas en el Código Contencioso Administrativo del país, particularmente las referidas al silencio negativo sustancial y al silencio procesal, lo cual permitió que las reflexiones iniciales se convirtieran en un proyecto de investigación.Abstract: This article is the result of a research project entitled “Legal disquisitions about administrative silence in Colombia” carried out within the research group of social, political and legal studies law program at the Autonomous Caribbean University. An analysis of some aspects of the right of petition and the delicate and controversial issue of administrative silence is done in its different variants, highlighting some doctrinal conceptions of notable writers on administrative law as jurisprudence, which tend to explain and justify the rationale for such an institution. , And obviously, the position we took about this questions that were raised during the investigation. It is incredible that the few provisions included in the Administrative Code of the country, particularly those affecting the substantial negative silence and silence procedure, have allowed us to take more on the account about so interesting on discipline, having been really surprised, because it initially prepared as a simple test for a magazine or legal disclosure information eventually grew into a research project

Exploiting the synergism among physical and chemical processes for improving food safety

This article provides an overview of recent published information on the subject of synergistic lethal effects that emerge from the combination of physical and/or chemical processes applied to enhance food safety. Despite important recent advances in non-thermal technologies, the greatest synergistic lethal effects emerge from combining them with traditional, relatively mild heat treatments. The combined application of antimicrobials has shown that their main constituents interact effectively, and great synergistic effects have been described with the capacity of either inhibiting or inactivating pathogens. Moreover, natural antimicrobials are more effective when pathogens are previously damaged sublethally by the application of physical technologies. Such combinations allow for a considerable reduction of treatment intensity and costs, along with a noticeable improvement in food quality and safety