Teaching an Innocence Case Review Course to Undergraduate Students

After two years of experience in overseeing groups of undergraduate and graduate criminal justice students in an Innocence Case Review course at the University of Central Missouri (UCM), the authors reviewed the structure of the course and the attitudes of the participating students. An examination of Innocence Case Review current procedures in undergraduate institutions and law schools provides background for course design. This article summarizes the findings of the students’ experiences, reactions, and attitudes of their yearlong case screening efforts, and to the criminal justice system in general. The first part of this article examines the literature on innocence case review classes at both undergraduate institutions and law schools exploring different learning styles and strategies inherent in this type of class. It also explores the skills necessary for case review, and the skills students can take to other classes and professions. The second part reviews the structure of our courses as initially created and implemented for the last two academic years at UCM and the modifications the instructors felt necessary for the future. The third part examines the survey conducted by the UCM’s Innocence Case Review class, including student suggestions for class improvements and advice to students selected for the new academic year. The benefits and abilities gained by the students through this course become apparent. The fourth part discusses and evaluates the current class structure and reforms suggested by the UCM students, the professors’ experience, and as indicated by other universities. The conclusion reviews findings gathered from the current course as well as examining other universities’ courses, and the value students experience from participating in this experiential or engaged learning.     

Telecommunication (not broadcasting)

Jack M. Nilles, et al. The Telecommunications-Transportation Tradeoff (New York: Wiley-Interscience, 1976--$22.95)

Geoffrey Wilson's The Old Telegraphs [London: Phillimore (Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield), 1976--£7.50 with U.S. price of $18.75]

Information Resources Policy, Annual Report 1975- 76 (two volumes, $23.50, paper, 36 and 49 pp.)

Information Logistics: Local Distribution (Delivery) of Information, by Wallace P. Wormley (August 1976, 89 pp., $10.90, paper)

Separations Procedures in the Telephone Industry: The Historical Origins of a Public Policy, by James W. Sichter (August 1976, 146 pp., $10.90, paper)     

Darwin's Down house

Six years after his return from the voyage of the Beagle, Darwin moved his family to the country, where he spent the rest of his life conducting experiments, writing, and raising a family. English Heritage recently purchased Down House and is restoring the house and grounds to look as they did during Darwin's life.     

Modeling a century of citation distributions

The prevalence of uncited papers or of highly cited papers, with respect to the bulk of publications, provides important clues as to the dynamics of scientific research. Using 25 million papers and 600 million references from the Web of Science over the 1900–2006 period, this paper proposes a simple model based on a random selection process to explain the “uncitedness” phenomenon and its decline over the years. We show that the proportion of cited papers is a function of (1) the number of articles available (the competing papers), (2) the number of citing papers and (3) the number of references they contain. Using uncitedness as a departure point, we demonstrate the utility of the stretched-exponential function and a form of the Tsallis q-exponential function to fit complete citation distributions over the 20th century. As opposed to simple power-law fits, for instance, both these approaches are shown to be empirically well-grounded and robust enough to better understand citation dynamics at the aggregate level. On the basis of these models, we provide quantitative evidence and provisional explanations for an important shift in citation practices around 1960. We also propose a revision of the “citation classic” category as a set of articles which is clearly distinguishable from the rest of the field.     

Training myths: False beliefs that limit the efficiency and effectiveness of training solutions,part 1

This article questions commonly held beliefs about training as a component of performance improvement solutions. Rather than being based on theoretical and empirical support, many beliefs about training are based on little more than myth. Part 1 of this article presents myths about the relationship of training and performance and myths about determining training content. Training fails when the performance problem is caused by something other than a lack of knowledge or skill. And it is compromised when we fail to include only the essential content.     

Cultural capital as whiteness? Examining logics of ethno-racial representation and resistance

There is a significant, longstanding tradition in British sociological research that renders cultural capital synonymous with whiteness. This article suggests that one substantive factor that contributes to the enduring relationship between whiteness and cultural capital is the paucity of research on the Black and ethnic minority middle classes. Studies of social class in the United Kingdom frequently render middle-class life synonymous with whiteness and all too often fix ethno-racial identities to the working classes. The article draws on a 14-month comparative ethnography as a case study to provide an asset-based reading of cultural capital among the Black Caribbean middle classes in Britain. The findings suggest that the seemingly exclusive link between whiteness and cultural capital is problematised by Black Caribbean young people, and therefore should be further critiqued in sociological and educational research, especially when developing cultural capital analyses.