Oblivious ‘Sex Traffickers’: Challenging stereotypes and the fairness of US trafficking laws

In this paper, we explore third parties who unexpectedly fell within the legal definition of a sex trafficker. The anti-trafficking lobby and media stories frequently portray traffickers as organised, psychopathic, violent, and child kidnappers. We dismantle these depictions by showing the unexpected people who qualify as traffickers. This paper incorporates findings from two studies involving eighty-five third parties in New York City and forty-nine in Chicago. We analyse how teenagers, drivers, and boyfriends qualify as traffickers under US law. We find that two-thirds of them hold inaccurate views about the difference between sex trafficking and facilitating prostitution. Trafficking can be incidental or temporary, and traffickers in these samples were often oblivious to their legal status, potentially resulting in lengthy prison sentences. We conclude by calling for differential sentencing based on traffickers’ age, and awareness campaigns designed to alert third parties of the legal distinctions between pandering and sex trafficking

LAWYERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE FAIRNESS OF JUDICIAL ASSISTANCE TO SELF-REPRESENTED LITIGANTS

How much assistance should a trial judge provide a self-represented litigant [SRL] before the judge’s impartiality will be reasonably questioned? This question has been of continuing concern to both the bench and bar ever since the rise of the pro se litigation movement in the late 1990s, particularly in the context of “mixed” cases involving an SRL and a represented party. Case law and ethics codes provide inconsistent decisions and vague guidelines for judges, who must balance their duty to provide reasonable assistance with their duty to ensure a fair trial for all parties. This paper reports the results of a survey administered to 210 Canadian family law practitioners who were presented with 16 hypothetical scenarios involving an SRL and a represented party. Respondents indicated their views regarding the impartiality and helpfulness of the trial judge in each scenario, involving various procedural defaults by the SRL and different forms of judicial assistance or lack thereof. The results indicate that lawyers' perceptions of a judge's impartiality are affected, inter alia, by the favourability of the outcome for the SRL, and whether the assistance provided dealt with procedural or substantive matters. Future research is needed to determine whether a consensus can be established regarding perceptions of lawyers, lay persons, and judges regarding which forms of assistance are reasonable and required, permissible, or impermissible. Jusqu’à quel point un juge de première instance peut-il venir en aide à une partie qui se représente elle-même sans que son impartialité puisse raisonnablement être mise en doute? Cette question ne cesse de préoccuper les juges et les avocats depuis l’essor qu’a pris le phénomène de l’autoreprésentation à la fin des années 1990, en particulier dans le contexte des cas « mixtes », impliquant une partie qui se représente elle-même et une partie représentée par un avocat. La jurisprudence et les codes de déontologie fournissent des décisions contradictoires et des lignes directrices vagues aux juges, qui doivent trouver un équilibre entre leur devoir de fournir une aide raisonnable et leur obligation d’assurer un procès équitable à toutes les parties. Le présent article expose les résultats d’une enquête réalisée auprès de 210 spécialistes du droit de la famille du Canada, auxquels on a soumis 16 scénarios hypothétiques impliquant une partie se représentant elle-même et une partie représentée par un avocat. Les répondants ont indiqué leur point de vue quant à l’impartialité et à l’aide accordée par le juge de première instance dans chacun des scénarios. Les scénarios comportaient diverses erreurs de procédure commises par la partie se représentant elle-même et différentes formes d’aide judiciaire ou l’absence d’aide de cette nature. Les résultats indiquent que la façon dont les avocats perçoivent l’impartialité d’un juge est affectée, entre autres, par la mesure dans laquelle l’issue est favorable pour la partie se représentant elle-même et par le fait que l’aide a porté sur des procédures ou sur des questions de fond. Il faudra d’autres recherches pour déterminer si un consensus peut être atteint relativement à la façon dont les avocats, les non-initiés et les juges perçoivent les formes d’aide qui sont raisonnables et requises, autorisées ou interdites

LAWYERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE FAIRNESS OF JUDICIAL ASSISTANCE TO SELF-REPRESENTED LITIGANTS

How much assistance should a trial judge provide a self-represented litigant [SRL] before the judge’s impartiality will be reasonably questioned? This question has been of continuing concern to both the bench and bar ever since the rise of the pro se litigation movement in the late 1990s, particularly in the context of “mixed” cases involving an SRL and a represented party. Case law and ethics codes provide inconsistent decisions and vague guidelines for judges, who must balance their duty to provide reasonable assistance with their duty to ensure a fair trial for all parties. This paper reports the results of a survey administered to 210 Canadian family law practitioners who were presented with 16 hypothetical scenarios involving an SRL and a represented party. Respondents indicated their views regarding the impartiality and helpfulness of the trial judge in each scenario, involving various procedural defaults by the SRL and different forms of judicial assistance or lack thereof. The results indicate that lawyers' perceptions of a judge's impartiality are affected, inter alia, by the favourability of the outcome for the SRL, and whether the assistance provided dealt with procedural or substantive matters. Future research is needed to determine whether a consensus can be established regarding perceptions of lawyers, lay persons, and judges regarding which forms of assistance are reasonable and required, permissible, or impermissible. Jusqu’à quel point un juge de première instance peut-il venir en aide à une partie qui se représente elle-même sans que son impartialité puisse raisonnablement être mise en doute? Cette question ne cesse de préoccuper les juges et les avocats depuis l’essor qu’a pris le phénomène de l’autoreprésentation à la fin des années 1990, en particulier dans le contexte des cas « mixtes », impliquant une partie qui se représente elle-même et une partie représentée par un avocat. La jurisprudence et les codes de déontologie fournissent des décisions contradictoires et des lignes directrices vagues aux juges, qui doivent trouver un équilibre entre leur devoir de fournir une aide raisonnable et leur obligation d’assurer un procès équitable à toutes les parties. Le présent article expose les résultats d’une enquête réalisée auprès de 210 spécialistes du droit de la famille du Canada, auxquels on a soumis 16 scénarios hypothétiques impliquant une partie se représentant elle-même et une partie représentée par un avocat. Les répondants ont indiqué leur point de vue quant à l’impartialité et à l’aide accordée par le juge de première instance dans chacun des scénarios. Les scénarios comportaient diverses erreurs de procédure commises par la partie se représentant elle-même et différentes formes d’aide judiciaire ou l’absence d’aide de cette nature. Les résultats indiquent que la façon dont les avocats perçoivent l’impartialité d’un juge est affectée, entre autres, par la mesure dans laquelle l’issue est favorable pour la partie se représentant elle-même et par le fait que l’aide a porté sur des procédures ou sur des questions de fond. Il faudra d’autres recherches pour déterminer si un consensus peut être atteint relativement à la façon dont les avocats, les non-initiés et les juges perçoivent les formes d’aide qui sont raisonnables et requises, autorisées ou interdites

Superiority of the Left Hemisphere in the Recognition of Emotional Faces

Thirty-two right-handed university students (16 males and 16 females) participated in a choice reaction time study assessing the perception of hemispheric differences in positive (happiness, surprise) and negative (anger, disgust) facial affect. Subjects were exposed to slides of facial expressions in either the left or right visual field, and latency of affect identification was measured by having each subject move a lever forward or backward in a specified direction to indicate the emotion perceived. An analysis of variance with repeated measures over hand used, visual field, and affect across sex of subject revealed significant main effects for visual field, affect and sex of subject. In contrast to prior studies, the emotional faces were perceived faster in the right visual field than in the left visual field. This finding is explained in terms of the more demanding analytical task chosen in contrast to previous research which typically employed a holistic matching or recognition task. The faster perception of positive affect may be attributed to the increased salience of the facial cues present in those faces displaying happiness or surprise. Finally, the faster response of males supports existing data suggesting greater cerebral lateralization in the male brain

Victim-Offender Overlap: Risky Spaces, Deviant Subculture, and Revenge Motives in Committing Fraud in Cyberspace

This study contributes to understanding victim-offender overlap (Berg & Mulford, 2020) in cyber fraud scams. Adults (N = 476) completed a Qualtrics online survey. Online peer encouragement and perceiving themselves as a target were consistent predictors across all three measures of victim-offender overlap and predicted perpetrating cyber fraud scams after controlling for low self-control and prior victimization. The offender first group were more likely to see themselves as a target and feel vengeful and were less likely to experience emotional distress or feel defeated than the victim first group. Social learning and emotions contribute to the victim-offender overlap

Formation of beliefs about criminal events and punishment: Contextual factors and biased recall.

Formation of beliefs about criminal events and punishment: Contextual factors and biased recall

Hemispheric Differences in the Perception of Positive and Negative Faces

Thirty-two right-handed subjects (15 males and 17 females) participated in a study investigating the effects of the perception of positive and negative emotional stimuli on choice reaction time. Slides of faces showing positive (happy, surprise) or negative (anger, disgust, sadness) affect were presented via a tachistoscope to either the right or left visual field. A 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 mixed analysis of variance with repeated measures over the factors of hand used by visual field by affect across sex of subject revealed a main effect for visual field (with slightly faster responses to stimuli presented in the right visual field) and a strong affect by visual field interaction with positive facial slides identified more quickly than negative facial slides when presented to the right visual field

Reward Allocation by Impartial Allocators to Friend or Stranger Co-Workers Under Equal and Unequal Ability and Performance

The effects of a relationship variable (friends, strangers), an ability variable (equal, unequal), and a performance variable (equal, unequal) were studied in 40 male and 40 female university students. Eight versions of a hypothetical vignette were prepared to manipulate the eight treatment combinations. After reading an assigned vignette, subjects were asked to allocate $90 between two stranger or friend co-workers. Among other effects, the Relationship by Ability by Performance interaction was significant. The stranger, unequal ability, unequal performance allocations to the lower ability co-worker were significantly higher than the stranger, equal ability, unequal performance allocations, and the stranger, unequal ability, unequal performance allocations were higher than the friends, unequal ability, unequal performance allocations; this difference approached significance (p\u3c.06). The questionnaire data revealed that, despite having favored strangers, the impartial allocators expected strangers to be less satisfied with their distribution than friends with their distribution. In this study, impartial allocators tended to compensate strangers to a greater extent for low performance or ability than friends or, alternatively, were more likely to ignore performance and ability differences between strangers than between friends