Risk Assessment and Post-Release Recidivism in a Sample of Juvenile Homicide Offenders

Given recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings regarding the constitutionality of juveniles who received mandated life sentences, questions have arisen in the field of criminology regarding how these offenders will adjust if someday released. Risk scores were calculated for 59 male juvenile homicide offenders (JHOs) based upon the eight domains in the Youth Level of Supervision/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI) and used to examine recidivism among the 48 JHOs who were released. Sample subjects were charged as adults for murder and attempted murder in the 1980s, convicted, and sentenced to adult prison. Chi-square analyses were used to assess the relationship between risk score category and two measures of recidivism, which were general arrests and violent offenses. Results indicated risk scores failed to predict both general and violent recidivism. Implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Concern at opaque US Supreme Court rulings grows

Significance The Court’s institutional legitimacy to interpret and sometimes invalidate laws affecting major issues may be undercut by this resort to procedural shortcuts, as they remove the normal public briefings, arguments and explanations of decisions that underpin the Court's authority. Impacts A Court renowned for its reluctance to upset settled legal expectations is changing law without the use of rigorous procedures. The Court’s legitimacy may be damaged by continued use of unsigned orders that have lasting legal consequences. President Joe Biden’s commission on Supreme Court reform has put the use of the shadow docket on its agenda.

Intellectual disability and mental illness among women sentenced to death in the U.S.: Constitutional and evidentiary dilemmas

This study examined the cases of women on death in which evidence of the defendant’s intellectual disability or mental illness was presented at trial. Of the total population of 52 women on death row at the beginning of 2020 and seven recently-executed women, over 50% qualified for the study. According to expert testimony, most of the women in the sample had a below-average IQ score and/or a neurological deficit, and all but three suffered from a serious mental illness. Almost all had abusive and dysfunctional backgrounds. Recent Supreme Court rulings have banned the execution of defendants with intellectual disability and opened the door to a consideration of execution exemption for defendants with severe mental illness or brain abnormalities. However, considerable judicial equivocation over the meaning and measurement of mental impairments remains. Even as a mitigating factor, the mental health problems of the defendants in this study were given little weight.

The Kalimantan Forest Fires: An Actor Analysis Based on Supreme Court Documents in Indonesia

Forest fires in Indonesia are of a local, national, and global concern, which is why the activities of local actors have emerged as a new problem in Indonesia, especially in Kalimantan. The current study employed a network content analysis method to examine the involvement of actors in forest fire cases based on Supreme Court decisions, complemented by several reputable online news sources such as kompas.com, detik.com, and tribun.com. By examining the cases, the actors involved were able to be identified as key actors, contest setters, and subject actors. Key actors, referring to companies and landowners, were found to have high correlations between one another. Moreover, key actors were observed to be involved in providing funds for land clearing or burning, yet they remained legally untouchable. Meanwhile, contest setters—permanent employees—were found to be the most involved in land burning/clearing, and they were often convicted in the Supreme Court rulings as they were merely commoners, farmers, and jobseekers in need of cash. Nevertheless, the subject actors, i.e., jobseekers and farm workers, were seen to have a weak relationship with key actors in the Supreme Court rulings, particularly in terms of forest burning and its operational funding.

A Look Back: Church, state, and Kappan

In this monthly column, Kappan managing editor Teresa Preston looks back at how the magazine has covered questions related to the role of religion in public schools. Authors considered how Supreme Court rulings affected school policy and practice, whether religious instruction is necessary for promoting positive values, and how to encourage respect in a religiously diverse world.

Legislative Department

This chapter assesses Article V of the Oklahoma constitution, which concerns the legislative department. Section 1 states that “the Legislative authority of the State shall be vested in a Legislature, consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives.” However, “the people reserve to themselves the power to propose laws and amendments to the Constitution and to enact or reject the same at the polls independent of the Legislature, and also reserve power at their own option to approve or reject at the polls any act of the Legislature.” Section 2 provides for the designation and definition of reserved powers. Initiative means the power of the people to propose bills, and to enact or reject them at the polls. Referendum is the right of the people to have bills passed by the legislature submitted to the voters for their approval. Meanwhile, in May 1964, the Oklahoma constitution was amended to conform to the U.S. Supreme Court rulings. The amendment passed and Sections 9 through 16 were replaced with Sections 9A through 11E. The chapter then details the provisions for the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Response of India towards Torture and Custodial Violence

The chapter deals with the legal framework in India against torture and custodial violence and the response and role of the Indian police force in such crimes. It also gives statistical data on violence taking place in the country at the hands of the police and armed forces. It provides a summary of the report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on arbitrary and extra-judicial executions. The chapter also discusses the right to protection against torture and the views and verdicts of the Supreme Court of India, and highlights the role of statutory bodies and commissions such as the Law Commission of India and the National Police Commission in preventing torture and custodial violence. Therefore, this chapter has reference to several laws of the country and the Constitution of India and its provisions, and it cites some cases and Supreme Court rulings for preventing torture and custodial violence, which provides India’s response towards the prevention of torture and custodial violence and protecting victims as well as every citizen from such crimes.

The Politics of the Pill

This book assesses the impact of gender in shaping debates over birth control in the United States. While situating itself in the appropriate historical context, this book’s primary focus is on the controversies surrounding insurance coverage of contraception between Congress’s 2009 deliberations over the Affordable Care Act and the Supreme Court’s 2016 ruling in Zubik v. Burwell. Specifically, the book addresses three interrelated questions about the politics of the pill during this often contentious seven-year period: Who spoke? What did they say? Did it matter? In answering these questions, the book casts a wide net, examining legislative floor debates, committee hearings, statutory wording, amicus briefs, media coverage, Supreme Court rulings, and public opinion polls. Throughout this examination, the book emphasizes the ways in which contraception fit into broader conversations about morality, women’s agency, and reproductive health, and it considers how gender intersected with other identities (e.g., religion and partisanship), in driving media frames, policy narratives, and political attitudes. The book’s central argument is that who has a voice significantly impacts policy deliberation and outcomes. While women’s participation in contraception debates was limited by a lack of gender parity in the media, the legislatures, and the courts, women nevertheless shaped policy making on birth control in myriad and interconnected ways. Put simply, the inclusion and exclusion of women is essential to understanding the tenor, quantity, and quality of contraception debates across time, place, and venue.