In the last two decades, federal judges in virtually all states have ordered state governments to alter dramatically the way they operate such institutions as prisons, hospitals, and mental health facilities. The research presented here seeks to improve our understanding of the budgetary linkage between the federal judiciary and state governments by examining the influence of court-ordered prison reform on state expenditures for corrections. Generally, the results indicate that the judiciary has had a limited but positive impact on capital outlays in one-half of the states examined. The influence on state operating expenditures for corrections has been even less noticeable. The analysis suggests that the judiciary's ability to exercise “the power of the purse” is tempered by the dynamics of state-level budgetary processes and the willingness of courts to adopt a comprehensive view of prison reform.

The judiciary & has no influence over either the sword or the purse.

—Alexander Hamilton

A state is not at liberty to afford its citizens only those constitutional rights which fit comfortably within its budget.

—U.S. District Judge

Frank M. Johnson, Jr.

The research presented here examines the effect of legal and extralegal resources on the likelihood of female-perpetrated homicides. It looks at the relationship between gender-specific rates of partner homicide in the United States for 1976–79 and 1980–84, and the availability of legal and extralegal resources for abused women, using states as the unit of analysis. Results indicate that the availability of such resources is associated with a decline in the rates of female-, but not male-, perpetrated homicides in 1980–84, compared to the 1976–79 time period. These findings suggest that legal and extralegal interventions can provide nonviolent alternatives for victims of male partner abuse.

The Texas post-Furman death penalty statute restricts capital punishment to a limited category of murders. If the defendant is found guilty of one of these crimes, the jury must address two and sometimes three questions in the punishment phase of the trial. Affirmative answers to the questions by all jurors result in an automatic death sentence. A “no” answer to any question results in an automatic life sentence. One of the three questions is whether the defendant presents a continuing violent threat to society. From 1974 to 1988, niney-two capital murderers had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment. These commutations allow a “natural experiment” to assess the predictions made by jurors that these individuals would present a future violent threat to society. Patterns of institutional and post-release behavior of this group were compared to similar patterns for defendants convicted of capital murder who were not predicted to be dangerous and who received life imprisonment over the same fifteen-year period. We found that although most capital offenders were model inmates, two commuted capital prisoners committed second murders, one while in prison and the other while in the community. We conclude with a discussion of the validity of current death statutes that require jurors to predict future dangerousness.

Three major child support guideline models are currently used in the United States to stimulate adequate levels of child support. To evaluate the effects of these guidelines, we examined cases filed before and after their introduction in three states that enacted different models. Overall, we found a modest increase in child support awards and few differences across models. The most substantial increases occurred in low-income cases in settings in which awards had historically been low. Guidelines also appeared to decrease the likelihood of a zero dollar award in cases that had previously lacked orders: those in which the father was unemployed and in which the obligor was female.

Post-guideline order levels in low-income families still fall short of the best available estimates of expenditures on children in intact households; they match expenditures in intact households in middle-and upper-income families. We consider several factors that may explain the limitations as well as the successes of guidelines in stimulating change.

Recent studies by Weitzman (1985) and Peters (1986) suggest that no-fault divorce has harmed women. The research presented here tests these findings by examining the effects of no-fault divorce on the financial situation of women using data on salary and wage income, home ownership, and child support from the National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS) of Labor Market Experience (Ohio State University Center for Human Resource Research [OSU], 1986) young women's cohort. The analyses do not support the hypothesis that no-fault divorce produces adverse financial effects. Rather, it appears that no-fault has had little effect on women's finances. Alternative models that might explain how divorce law affects the financial condition of women are suggested.

Legal control of aggressive acts within the family must be assessed against a background of other familial controls. This study identifies factors that control male aggression against female partners in intimate relationships. Hirschi's (1969) theory of the social bond, applied almost exclusively to delinquency, is used to test the importance of attachments, commitments, involvement, and beliefs in controlling husband-to-wife assault. By looking at males who do not assault their partners, we gain some insight into the ways in which legal policies might be structured to reduce domestic violence against women.

This paper examines William Taggart's article on the judicial power of the purse as it affects American prisons and jails. It argues that the central concerns in this area have involved issues of judicial propriety and judicial capacity rather than, as Taggart argues, whether judicially mandated expenditures disrupt normal budget processes. It then takes issue with Taggart's conclusions that the courts have had little impact on prisons and jails. Using his evidence, this paper argues that the courts have had a significant effect in transforming prisons and jails in at least one region of the country, the South.

This research examines the linkages among institutional legitimacy, perceptions of procedural justice, and voluntary compliance with unpopular institutional decisions within the context of political intolerance and repression. Several questions are addressed, including: To what degree do judicial decisions contribute to the acceptance of unpopular political decisions? Do court decisions have a greater power to legitimize than the decisions of other political institutions? Are courts perceived as more procedurally fair than other political institutions? Do perceptions of procedural fairness—be it in a court or legislative institution—contribute to the efficacy of institutional decisions? The basic hypothesis of this research is that to the extent that an institution employs fair decisionmaking procedures, it is viewed as legitimate and citizens are more likely to comply with its decisions, even when they are unpopular. Based on an analysis of national survey data, I conclude that, although perceptions of institutional procedure have little impact on compliance, institutional legitimacy does seem to have some effect. The United States Supreme Court in particular seems to have some ability to elicit acceptance of public policies that are unpopular with the mass public. This effect is greatest among opinion leaders. I conclude with some observations about how these findings fit with the growing literature on procedural justice and with some thoughts about the implications of the findings for the protection of democratic liberty.

Experimental research has recently shown a powerful impact on legal policy. An experiment demonstrating a deterrent effect of arrest on domestic violence has shaped public policy. Stimulated by efforts to publicize the results of the Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment (Sherman and Berk, 1984a), police departments were persuaded to adopt an arrest policy for misdemeanor domestic violence. Over one-third of respondents from U.S. police departments in 117 cities said their policy had been influenced by the experiment, although respondents from some departments that adopted an arrest policy did not recognize the experiment or its results. Lempert (1987, 1984), citing medical research as precedent, suggests that this impact is premature and inappropriate until replications are completed. However, we find no indication that medical research employs a standard of delaying adoption of research results prior to replication. Our analysis suggests that publicity can encourage replication of legal research at other sites and thus improve the knowledge base for policy recommendations.

The suppression of Islamic family law and the introduction of secular family law to govern family life in Turkey created a legal and regulatory environment that supported more egalitarian relationships within the rural household. Despite the lack of an organized political movement, by 1950 rural Muslim women had begun to use the courts in divorce and other conflicts, suggesting that Ataturk's reforms had diffused to the Anatolian provinces by this time. Female-initiated cases, in conjunction with other behavior such as reducing family size and pushing husbands to leave the extended patriarchal households of their fathers, indicate that rural Islamic women were striving toward more autonomy in their lives. This picture offers a sharp contrast to the image of the passive, submissive rural Islamic woman described in much of the social science literature on Turkey. It suggests instead that rural women were active participants in changing their life situations.

In 1985, laws mandating the wearing of automobile seatbelts went into effect in Illinois and in Yugoslavia. Although the form of the legislation was similar in both jurisdictions, the public response to the laws was very different in the two societies. In Illinois, there was public opposition, a protracted legal challenge to the law, and minimal enforcement by the police. In Yugoslavia, there was no public or legal challenge to the law yet strict enforcement. Compliance, however, was much greater in America than in Yugoslavia. Since previous studies of the impact of seatbelt laws in the United States and in other countries had found patterns of compliance that were similar to those in Illinois, the Yugoslav situation is anomalous. This unexpected finding raises questions concerning the importance of cultural context on the effectiveness of seatbelt laws, on the basic views of law in the two societies, on problems in testing deterrence theory cross-culturally, and on the problems and benefits of comparative research on the impact of legislation.

This review of work and trends in the sociology of law makes no claims to being exhaustive or comprehensive. If it succeeds in pinpointing and highlighting major work, important problems, and gaps in the field, in showing trends that have developed, and in suggesting ideas for future direction, we shall have accomplished our objectives.

Serious criticisms have been raised about divorce mediators' claim that they act as purely neutral facilitators of party-driven agreements. This paper reports on a study, based on tape recordings of mediation in the United Kingdom, intended to describe the strategies used by mediators and clients in the attempt to resolve disputes. It identifies a technique, labeled “selective facilitation,” through which clients may be steered in particular directions chosen by the mediator. This poses important questions for future evaluation studies and for the regulation of mediation practice.

In their paper in this issue Sherman and Cohn (1989) respond to arguments I made in this journal about when research is ripe for publicity. This paper continues the conversation by pointing out that policy-relevant research may be publicized at three levels: (1) in professional journals, (2) directly to those practitioners whose practice decisions might be informed by the research results, and (3) through the mass media. I then argue that the reliability of the results, the ability to communicate main findings precisely, and the likely effects of publicity are keys to responsible publicization at all levels. In weighing these factors researchers must regulate themselves, but to guide them the law and society community should seek to develop professional norms. I comment on some of the considerations that should guide such norms, using the Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment and the publicity it received as an example.

Strands of scholarly writing on corporate bankruptcy are scattered across the fields of economics, jurisprudence, political science, and policy analysis. These varied perspectives tend to share common weaknesses that point directly to adding a sociological voice to the debate. An analytic framework that emphasizes power, interorganizational ties, and the embeddedness of organizational action in a larger social structure yields new insights into “strategic bankruptcies,” such as the Chapter 11 filing of the Manville Corporation. In turn, this perspective leads to a questioning of some of the basic assumptions concerning the role and operation of bankruptcy law.

This paper examines the sentencing behavior of judges in a context characterized by significant legislative and social change. Data from Georgia are used to explore the ways in which judges accommodated their sentencing practices to a general crusade against drug use and to specific legislation that identified trafficking as criminal, set harsh penalties, and limited judicial discretion. The results suggest that judges selectively mitigated the harshness embodied in legislative pronouncements. The extent of mitigation depended on when sentencing occurred, the offense under consideration, and the offender's race. The impact of legislative changes appeared to be shortlived for the initial incarceration decision and more sustained for outcomes involving imprisonment, but modest for both. The target of symbolic policies, the trafficker, bore the brunt of increased punitiveness, but some spillover severity affected less serious drug offenders. Finally, the effect of race on sentences was influenced by legislative changes. During the height of legislative activity, differential treatment by race increased, further disadvantaging blacks, particularly black traffickers.