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Jonathan D. Casper Ph.D.
Yale University
Professor; Research Faculty, Center for Urban Affairs and Policy Research.

American politics, law & politics. His research focuses on the legal system, including the role of lawyers in the appellate process, the Supreme Court and national policy making, plea bargaining and sentencing in criminal courts, and jury decision-making. He is the author of five books and monographs, including American Criminal Justice: The Defendant's Perspective, and Lawyers Before the Warren Court.

Casper is currently completing a book manuscript, co-authored with Shari Seidman Diamond, based upon a large-scale study of jury decision-making that involved responses to videotaped trials presented to nearly 2,000 Cook Country citizens called for jury service at two courthouses. The study examines the effects of judicial rules that require withholding of information from jurors in service of channeling their behavior and the effects of varying types of expert witness testimony. The study's theoretical framework employs concepts from cognitive psychology dealing with information processing. He is currently beginning a new project, in collaboration with Dennis Chong, dealing with the frequency of hate-speech on college campuses, the relationship of life experiences and political beliefs and attitudes to tolerance of hate-speech, and the effects of efforts by universities to reduce the frequency of hate speech. 

[e-mail: j-casper@northwestern.edu]