Rising juvenile crime rates during the 1970s and 1980s spurred state legislatures across the country to exclude or transfer a significant share of offenders under the age of eighteen to the jurisdiction of the criminal court, essentially redrawing the boundary between the juvenile and adult justice systems. Jeffrey Fagan examines the legal…

The Violent and Repeat Juvenile Offender Act of 1997 (S-10) contains provisions that would affect youths arrested for criminal offenses and status offenses (acts that are not crimes if committed by adults). A telephone survey was conducted by Opinion Research Corporation to determine public opinions about the provisions of S-10. A national…

Some of the most critical and troubling issues in juvenile justice are addressed to serve as a catalyst and resource for developing sound juvenile justice public policy decisions. The following chapters examine juvenile court policies, special issues, and cost-effective interventions, and present findings of a national survey of public attitudes…

This pamphlet, one of a series published by the Public Affairs Committee, presents an overview of some of the legal and social issues raised about pornography and obscenity. (The author regards these two terms as synonymous.) The pamphlet first presents a brief history of the censorship of books in England, the American colonies, and the United…

Ethnographic interviews were conducted to determine how criminals assessed their treatment by the media. Twenty-five inmates, all participants in a mass media communications journalism course at Pendleton Reformatory in Pendleton, Indiana, were videotaped while answering the question: How do you regard the treatment given you by the media during…

Following the passage of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, a Senate hearing was held to examine whether the prescriptions set forth in the Act could function and how they could be implemented as part of the U.S. government's drug strategy. This transcript of the hearing contains statements (in order) by: Senators Joseph R. Biden…

Although there is a vigorous national debate regarding effective drug policy, such policies are implemented at the local level. Using a national sample of prosecutors, we examine reported typical processing for first-time juvenile marijuana, cocaine, or crack possession/sales offenders. The relationship between drug offense charge and adjudication…

Using PsychInfo review of rape and sexual assault publications, the period of greatest fertility coincided with the establishment (1975) and demise (1987) of the National Center for the Prevention and Control of Rape. To document what has been learned and when, the era in which new rape concepts entered the literature is summarized and important…

Native American Studies programs, however small, are the Native community's academic foothold in higher education. To maintain and expand this foothold of approximately 105 programs on university and college campuses throughout the United States, Native American Studies must continue to develop its professional capacity to act as an "independent…

The manual was written by the National Council of Jewish Women to provide guidelines for volunteer legislative action and community service for individuals in the area of child abuse and neglect. After an overview which details some of the causes of child abuse, information on child abuse and neglect legislation in each state is presented.…

Resolution of conflicts and disputes in traditional Athabascan society was based on assumptions that: (1) the authority of the leader was absolute, for as representative of both village and victim, he was limited only by the fact that the crime had to be serious enough for third party intervention and that severe sanctions demanded village…

The problem of arrests not ending in conviction is described in terms of its magnitude and costs. Three major aspects of the role of the police in influencing what happens after arrest are studied. Factors such as tangible evidence and witnesses are influenced by the time between the offense and the arrest. The characteristics of the officers…

Use of communication theory in an analysis of the court proceedings of the Jean Harris murder trial suggests that Harris contributed to her conviction with her inconsistent use of language and her refusal to remain in low-profile. Harris' defense attorney attempted to portray her as an upstanding, well-bred member of the community, and as a…

As this author traveled around the country, many university professors and domestic violence advocates told him that prosecuting or even intervening with social services is morally "wrong" in cases in which parents fail to protect their children. There are two problems with these arguments. First, these arguments assume that mothers should "never"…

An impact evaluation of eight courts training project (CTP) institutes funded by the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration was conducted. After a literature search and visits to potential evaluation sites in all fifty states, twelve sites were selected from a random stratified sample of court systems. Data were obtained from 1047 respondents…