5 research outputs found
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The Gradual Warm-Up: The United States Supreme Court's Reliance on Social Science Research in Constitutional Criminal Law and Procedure Opinions, 2001-2015
The United States Supreme Court, through its published opinions, influences the shape of American civil liberties to a greater degree than perhaps any other institution. The Court's reliance on evidence-based research in reaching their opinions matters and should provide a superior basis for decision-making. It also indicates to scholars whether this same research is of practical value to policy-makers. This study examines the frequency to which the Court cites such research and then breaks down the citations by Constitutional Amendment and type of Court opinion. Results indicate overtime the Court has incrementally increased its use of social science research in its criminal procedure opinions
Exploring Lawyer Misconduct: An Examination of the Self-Regulation Process
Although white-collar professionals are often held in high esteem, sometimes persons in privileged positions engage in misconduct. Unfortunately, very little is known about the correlates associated with professional misconduct and even less is known about the sanctioning process among lawyers who are licensed by state bar associations and therefore subject to the bar rules regulating their professional conduct. We examine 213 complaints filed in one fiscal year with the Florida Bar alleging attorney misconduct and evaluate the factors that influence whether the complaint continued through or was discarded at each stage of the self-regulated grievance process. Using selection models that examine both the staff’s decision to send a case forward to the grievance committee as well as the grievance committee’s recommendation about sanctioning the lawyer, results show that both legal and extra-legal variables are related to these two processes
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Predicting the length of jury deliberations
Juries represent a critical part of the criminal justice process, often entrusted to reach guilt/innocence verdicts and also asked to decide between punishment options. Unfortunately, there has been little empirical criminological research examining the variation in the length of jury deliberations and the factors that may be related to this length. This exploratory study uses data from 144 federal criminal trials in the Eastern District of Texas over a six-year period in order to examine the length of these deliberations as well as some of the legal characteristics that may be associated with deliberation length, including the number and complexity of the charges, trial length, the time between offense and indictment, and whether defense counsel was retained or appointed. Results indicate that lengthy trials, those involving a higher number of counts, and cases where there is a long length of time between offense and indictment are related to longer deliberation times while economic crimes are related to shorter deliberation times. Additionally, the results suggest that privately retained counsel is related to longer deliberation times in non-economic compared to economic crimes. Future research directions are highlighted
Recommended from our members
Exploring Lawyer Misconduct: An Examination of the Self-Regulation Process
Although white-collar professionals are often held in high esteem, sometimes persons in privileged positions engage in misconduct. Unfortunately, very little is known about the correlates associated with professional misconduct and even less is known about the sanctioning process among lawyers who are licensed by state bar associations and therefore subject to the bar rules regulating their professional conduct. We examine 213 complaints filed in one fiscal year with the Florida Bar, alleging attorney misconduct and evaluate the factors that influence whether the complaint continued through, or was discarded at, each stage of the self-regulated grievance process. Using selection models that examine both the staff's decision to send a case forward to the grievance committee as well as the grievance committee's recommendation about sanctioning the lawyer, results show that both legal and extra-legal variables are related to these two processes