Drawing on the responses provided by a survey of state court judges (N = 400), empirical evidence is presented with respect to judges’ opinions about the Daubert criteria, their utility as decision-making guidelines, the level to which judges understand their scientific meaning, and how they might apply them when evaluating the admissibility of expert evidence. Proportionate stratified random sampling was used to obtain a representative sample of state court judges. Part I of the survey was a structured telephone interview (response rate of 71%) and in Part II, respondents had an option of completing the survey by telephone or receiving a questionnaire in the mail (response rate of 81%). Survey results demonstrate that judges overwhelmingly support the “gatekeeping” role as defined by Daubert, irrespective of the admissibility standard followed in their state. However, many of the judges surveyed lacked the scientific literacy seemingly necessitated by Daubert. Judges had the most difficulty operationalizing falsifiability and error rate, with only 5% of the respondents demonstrating a clear understanding of falsifiability and only 4% demonstrating a clear understanding of error rate. Although there was little consensus about the relative importance of the guidelines, judges attributed more weight to general acceptance as an admissibility criterion. Although most judges agreed that a distinction could be made between “scientific” and “technical or otherwise specialized” knowledge, the ability to apply the Daubert guidelines appeared to have little bearing on whether specific types of expert evidence were designated as “science” or “nonscience.” Moreover, judges’ “bench philosophy of science” seemed to reflect the rhetoric, rather than the substance, of Daubert. Implications of these results for the evolving relationship between science and law and the ongoing debates about Frye, Daubert, Joiner, and Kumho are discussed.

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The authors present previously unreported results from a nationwide survey (N ϭ 325) of state trial judges (S. I. Gatowski et al., 2001) that was conducted pre-Kumho. The authors report how the 1993 Daubert guidelines were applied to psychological syndrome and profile evidence, and the impact of the decision on the admissibility of such evidence. They found that judges' views of and experience with psychological testimony varied widely and that most judges neither understood nor applied the more technical Daubert guidelines, such as falsifiability and error rate, when assessing psychological evidence. Overall, the findings suggest that Daubert's impact on the admissibility of psychological syndrome and profile testimony is negligible and that most judges are more comfortable with pre-Daubert standards when this type of testimony is proffered.Psychological testimony has been controversial since initial efforts to offer such opinions in court (Smith, 1989;Yuille, 1989) and has become even more problematic with the dramatic increase in the use of such testimony (Faust & Ziskin, 1988). The use of psychological syndromes and profiles in courtroom testimony has been problematic for decades, as indicated by a

Continuous Quality Improvement is the term used to measure progress toward achieving safety, permanency, and well-being for children in foster care. This report highlights the results of a 2014 survey conducted by the National Resource Center on Legal and Judicial Issues asking states to identify how they are using performance measures to improve the lives of children in care, which measures are being used, whether the newly-created well-being measures are being integrated into the original set of court performance measures, and how performance measures are being used to support Continuous Quality Improvement. Although there is much more to do, the number of performance measures being used, the number of states sharing data between courts and child welfare agencies, and the number of documented examples of improvement in lives of abuse and neglected children are all encouraging signs. "Continuous quality improvement is the complete process of identifying, describing, and analyzing strengths and problems and then testing, implementing, learning from, and revising solutions." U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children's BureauThe Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) process begins with identifying specific desired outcomes. In child welfare, those desired outcomes of safety, permanency, and well-being of every child in foster care were enshrined in the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997. But how is progress towards goal achievement measured? Outcome

This study examined the impact of judicial experience and expectancy-related case factors on perceptions of risk in decisions to terminate parental rights. One hundred and thirty-three child abuse and neglect court judges read a simulated child protection case and decided whether to terminate parental rights. Three expectancy-related case factors (sibling presence, parent support, and information regarding the child's potential adoptability) were varied across eight experimental conditions. Data regarding judges' experience, emotion, cognitive style, and certain demographic variables were analyzed in relation to their perceptions of risk for the child returning home and the child remaining in foster care. Expectancy-related case factors predicted risk perception for experienced judges only. In contrast, emotion, cognitive style, and demographic variables predicted less experienced judges' decisions.