We propose that institutions such as the U.S. Supreme Court can lead individuals to update their perceptions of social norms, in contrast to the mixed evidence on whether institutions shape individuals' personal opinions. We studied reactions to the June 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of same-sex marriage. In a controlled experimental setting, we found that a favorable ruling, when pre...

1 The first section of a three-part article on Compstat, an information-driven managerial process, examines four crime-reduction principles that form the basis of the technique. Agencies must ensure that they are prepared to handle situations involving officers in crisis. 26 Eight Supreme Court decisions of particular importance to law enforcement are summarized. Contributors' opinions and stat...

Although Medicaid is regarded as a federal entitlement program, nowhere does the Medicaid statute explicitly recognize a federal right of action to enforce recipients' rights. Arguably, the Supreme Court, rather than Congress, first recognized the right of Medicaid recipients to protection of federal law. A controversial 2001 federal court decision, however, called into question the continuing ...

Using a pooled data set consisting of 20 annual observations on each of eleven major industry groups, I estimate the effects of overtime pay regulation on weekly work schedules. After controlling for workweek trends within industries, the sharp expansions in overtime pay coverage resulting from legislative amendments and Supreme Court decisions produced no discernible impact on overtime hours. ...

To what extent is criminal behavior in adolescence attributable to risk appraisal? Using two large cross-sectional samples (N = 929, age range: 10-30 years; and N = 1,357, age range: 12-24 years), we examine whether (a) reward bias in risk appraisal is more prominent in adolescence and (b) the association between risk appraisal and criminal behavior is stronger during adolescence than at other ...

Genetic testing is becoming more common and more powerful by the day. The costs of the underlying DNA sequencing technology are plummeting, making it likely that tests based on it will become even more pervasive. The use of tests to determine DNA sequence to help make clinical decisions is here to stay. DNA sequencing is also finding new uses in forensics, determination of ancestry, understandi...

The Supreme Court decision O'Connor v. Donaldson (1975) has been widely interpreted to assert that dangerousness is a constitutional requirement for civil commitment. This interpretation is a misreading of the decision, which actually addressed the conditions disallowing indefinite, involuntary custodial confinement and not the requirements for an initial commitment. An excessive reliance on da...