Preference For Sentences Research Articles

Race, Crime, and the Public’s Sentencing Preferences

Abstract We report findings from a conjoint experiment where respondents indicated what they viewed as an appropriate sentence for a series of hypothetical individuals convicted of federal crimes. The experiment signaled the race of the defendant by using distinctively “Black” and “white” names, allowing us to assess whether Americans are more punitive toward purportedly Black defendants. We also consider whether signals of the defendant’s race condition the effects of the crime and various defendant characteristics. Surprisingly, the direct effect of our signal of defendants’ purported race is null. We present evidence that this null finding is a product of offsetting tendencies: respondents who view persistent racial inequalities as the product of both past and ongoing institutional factors prescribed lengthier sentences for white defendants; those who discount these explanations prescribed lengthier sentences for Black defendants.1 We find only scattered evidence that the signal of defendants’ race moderates the effects of other characteristics of the crime and defendant. Our approach and findings not only offer insights into how racial attitudes shape perceptions regarding what constitutes just punishment for crimes in the contemporary United States, but also demonstrate a novel approach to studying this domain and point to an array of promising avenues for future research.

Stilistika Al-Qur’an

This paper reveals the linguistic phenomenon of the Qur'an with the central theme of forms of communication in Surah as-Syu'ara'. The problems studied include stylistics from aspects of phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics in verses relating to forms of communication, which are limited to surah ash-Syu'ara'. In Surah ash-syu'ara' there are several verses that contain several communisms, so the author is interested in analyzing using stylistics to reveal the linguistic phenomena of these verses. This paper is expected to be a reference for the development of other linguistic studies that take the same object, namely the Qur'an. This writing proves and shows that there is a spectacular value charge in the language of the Qur'an which is known as the content of i'jaz al-Qur'an. The theory used is the stylistic theory which the author limits to only three things: preference for lafadz, preference for sentences or the preferred meaning in a sentence, and deviations or deviations from the general rules of grammar. the object of the study is the construction of various forms of communication in the surah ash-Syu'ara'.

Functionally distinct language and Theory of Mind networks are synchronized at rest and during language comprehension.

Communication requires the abilities to generate and interpret utterances and to infer the beliefs, desires, and goals of others ("Theory of Mind"; ToM). These two abilities have been shown to dissociate: individuals with aphasia retain the ability to think about others' mental states; and individuals with autism are impaired in social reasoning, but their basic language processing is often intact. In line with this evidence from brain disorders, functional MRI (fMRI) studies have shown that linguistic and ToM abilities recruit distinct sets of brain regions. And yet, language is a social tool that allows us to share thoughts with one another. Thus, the language and ToM brain networks must share information despite being implemented in distinct neural circuits. Here, we investigated potential interactions between these networks during naturalistic cognition using functional correlations in fMRI. The networks were functionally defined in individual participants, in terms of preference for sentences over nonwords for language, and for belief inference over physical-event processing for ToM, with both a verbal and a nonverbal paradigm. Although, across experiments, interregion correlations within each network were higher than between-network correlations, we also observed above-baseline synchronization of blood oxygenation level-dependent signal fluctuations between the two networks during rest and story comprehension. This synchronization was functionally specific: neither network was synchronized with the executive control network (functionally defined in terms of preference for a harder over easier version of an executive task). Thus, coordination between the language and ToM networks appears to be an inherent and specific characteristic of their functional architecture. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Humans differ from nonhuman primates in their abilities to communicate linguistically and to infer others' mental states. Although linguistic and social abilities appear to be interlinked onto- and phylogenetically, they are dissociated in the adult human brain. Yet successful communication requires language and social reasoning to work in concert. Using functional MRI, we show that language regions are synchronized with social regions during rest and language comprehension, pointing to a possible mechanism for internetwork interaction.

Race, Juvenile Transfer, and Sentencing Preferences: Findings From a Randomized Experiment

In light of the expansion of punitive “get tough” policies for juvenile offenders, some researchers have uncovered evidence that juveniles who are waived to the adult court receive more severe sanc...

Intonation influences processing and recall of left-dislocation sentences by indicating topic vs. focus status of dislocated referent

We tested the effects of two intonation contours on the processing and cued recall of German sentences with a left-dislocated subject vs. object: (i) a rising accent on the dislocated phrase, followed by a rising-falling hat contour on the main clause; (ii) a falling accent on the dislocated phrase, followed by a falling accent plus subsequent deaccentuation. The contours had differential effects depending on the grammatical function of the dislocated phrase (subject/object) and, for the recall, on the cue type for the recall (subject/object), in certain conditions overriding the subject-before-object preference normally found in processing. To account for the findings, we propose: (1) Contour (i) signals the topic status of the referent of the dislocated phrase. Contour (ii) signals that referent's focus status. (2) Topics are referents that serve as an address in a structured discourse representation in working memory under which information about that referent is stored. (3) Subjects are default topics, whereas objects are not, so that topic-marking an object is motivated, which results in an object-before-subject preference for sentences with topical objects during processing. (4) Retrieval of information from an address incurs a lower processing load if the appropriate address is cued than if some other referent is cued.

Do You Receive a Lighter Prison Sentence Because You Are a Woman or a White? An Economic Analysis of the Federal Criminal Sentencing Guidelines

Abstract Using data obtained from the United States Sentencing Commission’s records, we examine the extent to which the Federal Criminal Sentencing Guidelines curbed judicial sentencing preferences based on gender, race, and ethnicity. Our structural utility maximization model of judicial sentencing and a new generalized nonlinear decomposition methodology allow us to conduct a counterfactual exercise examining the impact of the guidelines on sentences during our period of study. Our results indicate that under the guidelines, and after controlling for circumstances such as the severity of the offense and past criminal history, judicial preferences strongly favor women while also disadvantaging Black men. In most of our estimates, we find that in the absence of the guidelines, judicial preferences would have increased the unexplained gap. Our findings stand up to a wide variety of robustness checks.

Read and Respond: The ‘Y’ Generation Speaks

The age of revolutionised internet fora has addressed Swain's (1985) primordial concern for successful language acquisition as interaction platforms for non-native speakers of the ‘Y’ generation. This paper reports a study investigating the effects reading materials, influence of background knowledge and sentence preference in forum contributions of two groups of university student pioneered through an online forum endeavor conducted after classroom hours. Contributions on current issues displayed evident findings of how reading materials are perceived and value of freedom of expression proves the vibrant of internet fora no longer serve learners as conservative training grounds but a discourse arena.

Race and Gender Differences Under Federal Sentencing Guidelines

Using data from the United States Sentencing Commission, we examine how judicial biases may have influenced sentences during the era of the Federal criminal sentencing guidelines. Our utility maximization model of judicial sentencing preferences leads to a partially censored ordered probit model that accounts for mass points in the sentencing distribution that occur at the upper and lower guideline limits and at sentences involving no prison time. Our results indicate that racial- and gender-based discrepancies exist, even after controlling for circumstances such as the severity of the offense and past criminal history.

Sympathy for the Devil? Child Homicide, Victim Characteristics, and the Sentencing Preferences of the American Conscience

The act of killing a child attracts a deluge of media attention but a relative drip of sociological literature. This thesis deconstructs American views of child homicide and uses multivariate logistic regression analysis to conduct the first experimental test of the effects of victim characteristics (such as age) on sentencing recommendations in four different homicide scenarios: accidental, drunken, impulsive, and premeditated. The findings illuminate the link between social norms and sentencing severity. Three conclusions may be drawn: first, child sympathy does not appear to vary by the respondent's demographic traits; second, child killers are sentenced more harshly than the killers of adults, but only when criminal intent is evident; and third, while there is a positive relationship between youth of the victim and the severity of punishment assigned to the offender, the effects for child and teen homicide are not so dissimilar as to contradict existing legal statutes in the United States.

The role of death qualification and need for cognition in venirepersons' evaluations of expert scientific testimony in capital trials

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of death qualification in venirepersons' evaluations of expert scientific testimony in capital trials. 200 venirepersons from the 12th Judicial Circuit in Bradenton, FL completed a booklet that contained the following: one question that measured their attitudes toward the death penalty; one question that categorized their death-qualification status; the Need for Cognition (NFC) scale (Cacioppo, Petty & Kao, 1984); a summary of the guilt phase of a capital case (which included the cross-examination of the state's expert witness); verdict preference; five questions concerning participants' evaluations of the expert's testimony; the penalty phase of a capital case; sentence preference; and standard demographic questions. Results indicated that death-qualified venirepersons were more likely to demonstrate a low need for cognition and view ambiguous expert scientific testimony as valid, important in their decision-making processes, unbiased, and of high quality. Finally, death-qualified participants were more conviction- and death- prone than their excludable counterparts. Surprisingly, death-qualified and excludable jurors did not differ with respect to whether or not they felt that the expert followed correct procedures. Legal implications and applications are discussed.

The Role of Death Qualification in Capital Trials Involving Juvenile Defendants1

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of death qualification in capital trials involving juvenile defendants. Two hundred residents of the 12th Judicial Circuit in Florida completed a booklet of stimulus materials that contained the following: One question that measured participants' level of support for the death penalty; One Witt death‐qualification question; a summary of the guilt and penalty phases of a capital case involving either an adult or a juvenile defendant; sentence preference; the Revised Legal Attitudes Questionnaire (RLAQ); and standard demographic questions. Results indicated that death‐qualified participants were more likely to sentence both defendants to death. In addition, death‐qualified participants were more likely to recommend the death sentence for the juvenile defendant. Legal implications are discussed.

The impact of death qualification, belief in a just world, legal authoritarianism, and locus of control on venirepersons' evaluations of aggravating and mitigating circumstances in capital trials

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of death qualification, belief in a just world (BJW), legal authoritarianism (RLAQ), and locus of control (LOC) on venirepersons' evaluations of aggravating and mitigating circumstances in capital trials. 212 venirepersons from the 12th Judicial Circuit in Bradenton, FL, completed a booklet that contained the following: one question that measured their attitudes toward the death penalty; one question that categorized their death-qualification status; the BJW, LOC, and RLAQ scales; a summary of the guilt and penalty phases of a capital case; a 26-item measure that required participants to evaluate aggravators, nonstatutory mitigators, and statutory mitigators on a 6-point Likert scale; sentence preference; and standard demographic questions. Results indicated that death-qualified venirepersons were more likely to demonstrate higher endorsements of aggravating factors and lower endorsements of both nonstatutory and statutory mitigating factors. Death-qualified participants were also more likely to have a high belief in a just world, espouse legal authoritarian beliefs, and exhibit an internal locus of control. Findings also suggested that venirepersons with a low belief in a just world and an external locus of control demonstrated higher endorsements of statutory mitigators. Participants with legal authoritarian beliefs revealed higher endorsements of aggravators and lower endorsements of nonstatutory mitigators. Legal implications and applications are discussed.

An Analysis of Factors Related to Prosecutor Sentencing Preferences

Three types of variables have been identified as related to prosecutor decision making in the screening and settlement stages of criminal case-processing—legal, extralegal, and resource variables. The current analysis examines the degree to which these classes of variables affect prosecutor sentence preferences. Ordinary least squares regression is used to relate factors that prosecutors regard as germane to forming sentence preferences to a measure of sentence restrictiveness. Analyses reveal a diminished reliance on legal and extralegal variables in the determination of preferred sentences. In their stead, the available correctional placement options within a prosecutor's jurisdiction as well as the personal values of prosecutors appear to determine the level of sentence restrictiveness that prosecutors desire.

Relationship between cognitive style and defensive style.

This study examines psychoanalytic psychology, theories of cognitive style, and cognitive developmental psychology to examine the relationship between cognitive style and defensive style. A new set of cognitive styles of visual attention is formulated at the following developmental levels: (1) global, (2) local, (3) global-plus-local at the concrete operational level, and (4) global-plus-local at the formal operational level, 50 subjects were administered global-local sorting tasks, the Sentence Preference Test, the Embedded Figures Test, and the Defense Style Questionnaire. Analysis provided mixed support for the hypothesized cognition-defense relationship. Results suggested that the "pure" character types are not typical and that their styles of cognition and defense are positively correlated, not independent as expected. However, possible measurement problems preclude any firm conclusions at this time.

Some Thoughts About Retributivism

The quotations above illustrate a dramatic change in the regard in which courts and legislators hold the doctrine of retributivism. That doctrine, seemingly rejected by the Supreme Court a century ago, is today the official basis for penal policy in the nation's most populous state and an acceptable basis on which to send convicts to their deaths. This shift on the part of official legal sentiment parallels a shift in the views of philosophers and legal scholars. Fifty years ago a defender of retributivism acknowledged the general belief "that the retributive view is the only moral theory except perhaps psychological hedonism which has been definitely destroyed by criticism."1 Contemporary scholars assert, however, that retributivism is no longer "the poor relation in the family of theories of punishment" but "seems to be in the ascendant,"2 and in particular "has replaced rehabilitation as the conventional justification for the amount of punishment."3

Lay and Professionals' Beliefs about Crime and Criminal Sentencing

A conceptual framework, schema theory, is presented to understand and compare lay and professionals' beliefs about crime and evaluations of the criminal justice system. Questionnaires were administered to a sample of probation officers ( N = 145) and laypersons ( N = 179) to examine differences between laypersons and probation officers' beliefs about burglary characteristics and evaluations of judicial sentencing. As expected from schema theory, laypersons were significantly more likely than probation officers to report that the burglar carried a weapon, had a longer adult and juvenile record, and was likely to commit physical harm in the future. In their evaluations of criminal sentencing, probation officers relied on their perception of the congruency between their own sentencing preferences and their impressions of judicial sentencing. Directions for future research are discussed.

Formation and change in lay evaluations of criminal sentencing: Misperception and discontent.

In public opinion polls, a substantial proportion of lay respondents report that judges are too lenient. We examine the factors that contribute to this perceived judicial leniency. The majority of lay respondents in our study said that judges are “too lenient” in their sentencing of burglary offenders; yet, their own sentencing preferences were more lenient than the required minimum sentence for residential burglary. Our survey and experimental data suggest that citizens' opinions are formed by their inaccurate impressions of the seriousness of actual criminal cases as well as actual judicial sentencing practices. Our experimental research indicates that opinions of judicial leniency can be changed by providing respondents with an example of the typical case that comes before the court. Directions for future research are discussed.

Popular Moderation Versus Governmental Authoritarianism: An Interactionist View of Public Sentiments Toward Criminal Sanctions

Public opinion polls consistently highlight discontent with criminal court sentencing practices. Generally, respondents find courts to be too lenient. Although these findings are often used in political arguments as evidence of a cogent public desire for harsher sentencing, the conclusion is suspect. Since such surveys generally do not ask respondents to consider contingencies such as offense circumstances, behavioral content of various sentences, or fiscal cost differentials, conventional assessments of public attitudes toward sentencing are deficient in two respects. First, they do not simulate the decision-making task facing judges. Second, they do not allow citizens to consider the relative fiscal costs of current and alternative sentencing practices. By incorporating these two elements, the present study approximates an interactionist approach to the issue of public sentiments toward criminal sanctions. A probability sample survey of 816 Illinois adult residents reveals that, on several dimensions, the public is less vengeful than typically portrayed in public opinion poll and media accounts. Central findings concern public preferences for the sentencing of convicted residential burglars. In particular, there is a strong preference for community sentences, yet a desire for a sanction stronger than straight probation. Such findings are noteworthy given the policy context of recent mandatory incarceration legislation for this offense. Thus this study provides evidence of a previously unremarked phenomenon of legislative sanction escalation far exceeding public preferences.

Orthogonal coding of linear prediction log area ratios

In this experimental study, the principal‐components statistical analysis procedure was used to obtain an uncorrelated orthogonal parameter set derived from a linear transformation of LPC log area ratios. The log area ratios of continuous speech for several adult male and female speakers were computed using an autocorrelation linear predictive vocoder analyzer. Group‐averaged principal‐components basis vectors, the coefficients for the linear transformations of the log area ratios, were calculated for the male and female speaker groups. Speech was synthesized with a residual‐excited LP vocoder using LP coefficients derived from a small number of group‐averaged log area ratio principal‐components factors. A sentence preference experiment was conducted in order to compare speech synthesized from LP log area ratio principal components versus speech synthesized from spectral band energy principal components and speech synthesized from a standard LP vocoder. The results of the sentence preference experiment indicate that the orthogonal LP log area ratio parameters are inferior to both spectral band‐energy orthogonal parameters and to the original LP coefficients, in terms of the information retained for a given number of parameters. The apparent discrepancy in the findings of the present study versus the results of an earlier experiment [M. R. Sambur, “An Efficient Linear Prediction Vocoder,” Bell Syst. Tech. J. 54, 1693–1723 (1975)] is probably due to the analysis techniques of the previous experiment (analysis applied separately for each sentence and each speaker) as compared to the more general analysis conditions of the present study (one set of basis vectors used to characterize a long speech passage for several speakers).

PREDILECTION FOR GENERALISING AND ABSTRACTING

Summary. This study reports the development of a sentence preference test designed to contrast tendencies to abstract, generalise and particularise in thinking. Certain terms carry both general and abstract meanings. Using such words in sentences bringing out these differing meanings provides an indication of readiness to use abstractions and generalisations. A variety of samples of secondary school pupils in the age range 11+ to 16 years were used to provide evidence of reliability and validity, and also to trace changes with age of responses to the sentences. The results confirm earlier work with a word test which showed that tendencies both to generalise and abstract increase during adolescence.The potentialities of the technique are discussed in relation to language usage and comprehension and to higher level thinking processes required during secondary school and afterwards in higher education.