Behavioral Sciences & the Law最新文献

Transgender experiences have been attested since the dawn of civilization. Long before gender was reinterpreted as socially constructed and non-binary by 20th-century Western scholarship, concepts such as not belonging to the gender assigned at birth, transitioning, and being "neither a man nor a woman" integrated the belief systems and practices of various societies worldwide. This review examines anthropological and historical records of trans, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming behavior spanning six continents and five millennia. Moreover, we investigate how trans experiences interact with local traditions, family structures, laws, religions, and other social institutions. Finally, we explore trans-inclusive historiographical trends and discuss the relevance of transgender history awareness for professional and academic endeavors beyond the social sciences.

Sexual recidivism rates based on arrests or convictions underestimate actual reoffending due to underreporting. A previous Monte Carlo simulation estimated actual recidivism rates under various reporting and conviction assumptions but did not account for desistance-the decreasing likelihood of reoffending over time. This study addresses that gap by incorporating a 12.3% annual desistance rate (from a well-known empirical study) and exploring its impact alongside varying charge rates (100%-5%). The results showed that reductions in charge rates lead to disproportionately large increases in recidivism. For instance, lowering the charge rate from 50% to 25% results in a much larger increase in actual recidivism than reducing it from 100% to 75%, despite both being 25% reductions. This indicates that as charge rates decrease, actual recidivism grows more sharply. A sensitivity analysis also examined desistance rates of 0%, 5%, 12.3%, and 20%. Higher desistance rates cause reoffending to occur earlier but have little impact on long-term totals. Over 25 years, reoffending rates remain similar across desistance rates, suggesting desistance affects the timing, but not the overall amount of reoffending.

Existing within hierarchical kinship networks, requiring patronage of gurus, hijras, a 'third' gender community, undergo mandatory apprenticeship to a commune life through a discipleship-lineage system where castration is seen as a necessary truth and final rite of passage to achieve a virtuous hijra identity. This article examines the subjectivities of hijras from working-class backgrounds and narrows its focus to analyse how individual hijras develop an understanding of themselves from their occupied subject positions in the larger hijra community shaped by internal hijra cultural traditions (parampara) manifested through rituals of harm. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork of 10 years in New Delhi and its neighbouring states, this article discusses the genealogies of wound cultures through castration in the hijra community acquired through their experiential and vernacular knowledge systems of self-flagellation as a practice of ethical self-making for their sacred rebirth in a nirvana (a state of freedom from all suffering) body.

The Pareto principle is based on the concept that roughly 80% of outcomes are generated by 20% of inputs, efforts, or contributors within a group. Using a national sample of U.S. prison inmates, we examined various percentile rankings of self-reported institutional misconduct to determine how much disorder is created behind bars by the most prolific offenders. Findings revealed that, regardless of sex, the top 20% of inmates were responsible for approximately 90% of all rule violations and write-ups received. These general patterns remained similar even after adjusting infractions for time served in prison. Further analyses indicated that membership within these high-rate groups was often significantly predicted by those who were younger, black, had more extensive criminal histories, committed violent crimes, resided in state facilities, anticipated being released, used drugs prior to their arrest, were diagnosed with a personality disorder or ADHD, and exhibited worse negative affect. Some sex-specific effects were also observed. The disproportionate impact these chronic offenders have on the prison environment is detrimental to all individuals who live and work around them. Future research should investigate specific types of misconduct, distinct time intervals of incarceration, and facility effects such as management style, security levels, or offender composition.

Having addressed the nature and complexity of intersexuality including commonalities with and differences from the transgender condition, we now address major legal challenges to the bisexual status quo through the legal advancement of rights for intersexual persons. Identified here are four domains in which the rights of intersex individuals are being advanced through litigation and legislation: (a) Sex assignment at birth and in early childhood, including the individual's right to consent and self-determination and to be spared from surgery that is not needed for medical reasons; (b) the right to change one's legal sex on legal documents such as birth certificates and passports, (c) the right of intersex persons to marry, and (d) the right not to be discriminated against. Within this legal framework, we identify commonalities with and differences from the struggle for rights within the transgender community.

Gender affirming surgeries are procedures that are used by transgender and gender diverse individuals to align their bodies to their gender identities. These have been shown to improve the mental health and wellbeing of those individuals who choose to access them. Rates of regret associated with gender affirming surgeries are low, and in addition to improving mental health and quality of life, these procedures have the potential to make it safer for transgender and gender diverse people to move through the world. This article provides a narrative review that places gender affirming surgeries in the current sociopolitical context of the United States. It describes common types of gender affirming surgery, protocols for surgical assessment, and the risks and benefits of surgery.

A link between parental involvement in school and student victimization in school is often assumed, but empirical studies have shown inconsistent results. Research suggests that the quality of student-teacher relationships could potentially serve as a crucial mediating factor in the link between parental school involvement and student victimization in school. However, the proposition in question lacks sufficient empirical evidence to substantiate it. This paper examines how parental school involvement indirectly influences student victimization by peers and teachers in school mediated via the quality of student-teacher relationships. Additionally, it further investigates sex differences in the patterns of relationships among parental school involvement, quality of student-teacher relationships, and student victimization by peers and teachers in school. Data were derived from a nationally representative sample of 934 junior high school students and their parents/caregivers in Taiwan. The results revealed that parental school involvement had a nonsignificant direct association with school victimization by peers and teachers, but a significant indirect association with both types of school victimization mediated via the quality of student-teacher relationships. These findings are applicable to both boys and girls. To reduce school victimization, policies and intervention programs could consider promoting parental school involvement and the quality of student-teacher relationships.

We conducted a pre-registered meta-analysis of studies that directly compared the predictive validity of risk assessment tools to unstructured judgments of risk for violent, any, or sexual offending. A total of 31 studies, containing 169 effect sizes from 45,673 risk judgments, met inclusion criteria. Based on the results of three-level mixed-effects meta-regression models, the predictive validity of total scores on risk assessment tools was significantly higher than that of unstructured judgments for predictions of violent, any, and sexual offending. Tools continued to outperform unstructured judgments after accounting for risk of bias. This finding was also robust to variations in population, assessment context, and outcome measurement. Although this meta-analysis provides support for the use of risk assessment tools, it also highlights limitations and gaps that future research should address.

A court may move the location of the trial to another jurisdiction if the jury pool is deemed biased by the judge, a legal maneuver based on a "Change of Venue" motion (CoVm). We surveyed the frequency and the factors associated with granting the motion at the state level when the defendant was charged with murder. We reviewed court transcripts of appealed murder convictions during the 2000-2020 years from Nexis. We complied a sample of 832 CoVm and conducted a nested regression analysis. We repeated the procedure with a subset of 360 CoVm for which we could identify the race of the defendant and victim. Overall, the success rate of CoVm was 23.5% but varied widely between the states. The motion was more likely to be granted in jurisdictions with smaller populations and a policeman was the victim. It was also found that Black and Latino defendants were less successful than Whites in winning CoVm. The racial disparity in CoVm decisions is especially concerning given past findings that people of color suffer heightened negative local pretrial publicity. In light of the findings, we advocate for a more uniform state legislation.