Future Pathways Out of Poverty in Rural Areas and Elsewhere

Previous chapters showed that there is no magic strategy to alleviate poverty or eliminate poverty completely in every community. This chapter presents the closing arguments of “why people are poor” and what poor people might do in the future to overcome their poverty trap. We ask, which way forward do Africans envisage as a future pathway out of chronic poverty in the 21st century? This question forms the central themes of this chapter and has provoked lively debates among villagers as to the successive stages of household progress from extreme poverty to economic self-reliance. Such moves in and out of poverty are apparent when looking at poverty in either absolute or relative terms. Hence, how can we ensure a more diverse, inclusive, and sustainable future for all?

Is courtroom discourse an ‘oral’ or ‘literate’ register? The importance of sub-register

By applying Multi-Dimensional Analysis, this study has provided a thorough description of the lexico-grammatical characteristics of courtroom discourse to see to what extent it employs both linguistic features of oral registers and literate registers. In particular, this study focuses on language used in the four public sub-registers (opening statements, direct examinations, cross-examinations, closing arguments) of courtroom discourse and analyzes how oral/literate each sub-register is, instead of characterizing courtroom discourse as oral/literate overall. Detailed interpretation of results focuses on Dimension 1 (involved and interactive vs. informational production) and 2 (narrative vs. non-narrative discourse) as these two dimensions are identified as universal parameters of register variation (Biber, 2014). A corpus of high-profile courtroom trials was compiled for this study that includes the O. J. Simpson criminal trial, the Boston Marathon bombing trial, and the Oklahoma bombing trial.

Forensic content of participation of the public prosecutor in preliminary hearing and judicial investigation

The subject of this research is the activity of the public prosecutor in court hearing. Methodological framework for this article is comprised of the dialectical, logical, formal-legal, and hermeneutical methods. The normative base consists of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, criminal procedure legislation, and local normative acts that regulate participation of the prosecutors in the judicial stages of criminal proceedings. Attention is focused on the theoretical and applied questions of participation of the public prosecutor in preliminary hearing and judicial investigation. The article reviews opinions of the scholars on participation of the prosecutor in court hearing, as well as the specificity of the prosecutor's work at the stage of state prosecution in court. The author substantiates the importance of preparedness of the public prosecutor to state prosecution, including fundamental examination of all materials pertaining to a criminal case for successful prosecution in the court of first instance. The conclusion is made that the effectiveness of state prosecution depends on the quality of preparedness of the prosecutor to court proceedings, which alongside the appropriate order of investigation of evidence, sufficiency and coherence of evidence, allow the public prosecutor to make the closing arguments.

Pulling It All Together

Chapter 7 addresses the challenges of presenting an argument with interview material. Since the volume and complexity of interview data make it challenging to present in written or oral form, the chapter offers strategies that help bring focus and order to the process. From the introduction to the presentation of findings to the closing arguments, the goal is to tell a convincing and compelling story that builds a strong case about how to solve the empirical and theoretical puzzles the interviews have addressed. Instead of highlighting examples primarily because they are “colorful,” it is important to select cases and quotes that best represent the larger patterns and core elements of your argument in order to build a powerful case supported by the findings. It is not sufficient to list quotes and assume their significance is obvious. The challenge is to present each piece of evidence in a textual context that makes its meaning clear and its significance unambiguous. The chapter then steps back to summarize the ways depth interviewing provides indispensable findings that lead to theoretical insights only it can provide. The key is to meld a systematic approach, rooted in the logical principles of scientific inquiry, with the investigation of unexplored research terrain that calls out for new analytic and empirical discoveries.

An Analysis of Engagement Resources in Courtroom Closing Arguments: A Case Study of Jodi Arias Case

Closing arguments are the last chance for prosecutors and defense lawyers to persuade a judge or jury during the trial, and they play an important role in the court trial, and engagement resources can help enhance the objectivity and persuasiveness of closing arguments. Therefore, this paper adopts engagement system to make a comparative analysis in the closing arguments of the prosecutor and the defense lawyer in Jodi Arias case and to explore the effects of engagement resources in arguments. The study found that dialogic contraction resources help compress the rebuttal space of the opposed views and that dialogic expansion resources help enhance the persuasiveness and objectivity of the arguments. Lawyers on both sides often use dialogic contraction resources, while the defense lawyer uses disclamation resources more frequently and the prosecutor uses proclamation resources more frequently.

The Experience of a Legal Career: Attorneys’ Impact on the System and the System's Impact on Attorneys

Because attorneys are essential to a fair legal process, it is important to understand the experience of a legal career. This article first reviews research on the influence of attorneys on the legal system, focusing on the effect on the influence of trial attorneys on ( a) juries, with a particular focus on attorney skill, behavior, trial decisions (i.e., joinder/severance, jury selection, opening arguments, witness selection, questioning style, cross-examination, objections, closing arguments), and characteristics (gender, race/ethnicity, attractiveness), and ( b) clients. The article then reviews the limited research on the role and impact of attorneys outside the litigation context, followed by the influence of the legal system on attorneys, with a focus on attorney distress (prevalence, causes, and consequences). The review concludes with a discussion of the overall relationship between attorneys and the legal system.

‘Please make your verdict speak the truth’: Insights from an Appraisal analysis of the closing arguments from a rape trial

It is common knowledge that language use inside the courtroom is an effective tool of persuasion; thus, even in cases where evidence is unreliable, men and women have found themselves facing charges, standing trial and, in the worst case scenario, wrongfully convicted of a crime. In this paper I examine one such case, in which a young American finds himself accused and, later, imprisoned for the rape of a minor, despite evidence to suggest otherwise. The case is taken from a database set up by The Innocence Project, a non-profit organisation comprising a team of volunteers working towards proving the innocence of over 200 individuals currently serving time for a crime that they insist they did not commit. More specifically, my analytical focus is on the closing arguments of the selected case for the purposes of acquiring insights into how the attorneys for each side make particular language choices in a final attempt to maximise the credibility of their version of events. To reveal how the defendant and the victim are portrayed by each of the lawyers and, moreover, whose feelings and/or character traits are brought to the forefront, an Appraisal analysis is carried out on the dataset.