Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Statistics and the Law (Wiley Classics Library)? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Statistics and the Law (Wiley Classics Library). Check out the link below:
>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers
Statistics and the Law (Wiley Classics Library) Review
This is a paperback version printed in 1994 in the Wiley Classic series. The classic series takes popular Wiley publications in probability and statistics and reprints them in more affordable paperback form. In this case DeGroot, Fienberg and Kadane edited a series of papers on statistics as it relates to the law. I have the original hardbound copy that was published in 1986. The classics usually do not incorporate any changes. They are merely more recent copies of the text in paperback form.The book contains 14 articles preceded by a preface from the editors. In 1980 the City of New York and others sued the Bureau of the Census for an assumed undecount of their population due to difficulties in counting the homeless and the illegal aliens. An undercount would cost New York some seats in the house of representatives as well as a possible reduction in funding from federal programs linked to the census count. This was the beginning of a much more public presence of statistics in the courtrooms as expert statistical witnesses such as Joseph Kadane and David Freedman argued out in court the merits and pitfalls of a possible methodology to adjust the census for the undercount.
After that the presence of statistical witnesses, who previously appeared infrequently in medical liability cases including class action suits against drugmakers and medical device producers and occasional job discrimination suits, grew to a much more prominent role which included probabilistic estimates related to DNA matching in the O. J. Simpson murder trial. the articles in this book are as follows:
1. An article by Paul Meier, Jerome Sacks and Sandy Zabell on an employment discrimination case in Hazelwood that was decided by the US Supreme Court. Stephen Fienberg was a discussant on this paper.
2. An article by Benjamin King on the use of statistics in antitrust litigation.
3. An article by Michael Finkelstein and Hans Levenbach on the use of regression methodology to estimate damages in price-fixing cases.
4. An article by Delores Conway and Harry Roberts regarding the use of regression in employment discrimination cases. There are also discussants for this article.
5. G. A. Whitmore wrote an article about how a labor dispute at a Reynolds Aluminum plant led to an uncontrolled shutdown of hundreds of aluminum-reduction cells. The company wound up suing the workers union for damages due to lost prodcution from the strike and damage to equipment due to the shutdown. It took 12 years for the Quebec Superior Court to make a decision. The article tells about the statistical methods and expert statistical witnesses that played a role in the case.
6. William Fairley and Jeffrey Glen tell about how Brink's Inc. had employees that collected the money from the New York City parking meters were conviced of stealing some of the coins that they collected for the City. After the conviction New York sued Brinks for negigence in the suprevision of these employees. The authors relate how statistical analysis was crucial in reaching a verdict and finding the amount of the damage it lost revenue to the City. Bruce Levin provides expert comments about the paper.
7. The authors, John Pincus and John Rolph from the Rand Corporation, were expert witnesses testifying in the defense of the State of Washington with regard to the amount of educational funding given to the school districts by the state. The analysis leading to the authors' testimony was a study of the relationship between the amount of money the school districts spend to educate their student and the performance of their students on standardized tests. Since the authors could not find a relationship they concluded that spending more money on the schools would not have a big impact on the amount or quality of the education the children receive.
8. Martin Geisel and Jean Masson write about capital market analysis in antitrust litigation.
9. Robert Coulam and Stephen Feinberg address the issue of the use of court-appointed expert statistical witness. After discussing rule 706 which allows a judge at his discretion to appoint a statistical expert to a case the authors study in detail a Title VII class action suit of sex discrimination in hiring, initial job placement, promotions, wages and the quality of work as compared to men in similar positions.
10. Joseph Kadane relates his experience as an expert statistical witness in a case involving whether or not skill is involved in playing an electronic draw poker game. John Lehoczky acts as a discussant.
11. Don Berry and Seymour Geisser discuss the use of blood testing for hereditary factors in determining the result of a paternity suit. bayes theorem and accompanying statistical assumptions along with the errors that can be made from laboratory testing can have major effects on the results. Don Ylvisaker is a discussant to the article.
12. Dennis Gilliland and Paul Meier look into the possibility of reversing the outcome of an election by contesting the legality of some of the votes. Given the closeness of the 2000 election some 14 years after the publication of this book. The issue addressed in the possible reversal of a result when k votes are removed for legality issues. The authors base their inference on the hypergeometric probability distribution associated with with the random removal of k votes. Herbert Robbins provided his comments.
13. Gordon Apple, Bill Hunter and Soren Bussgaard consider how scientific data comes to bear on environmental regulation. D. E. Splitstone provides commentary.
14. In the last article Herb Solomon looks at how statistical confidence intervals get used in legal settings.
This is a very interesting set of papers for statisticians to contemplate. There are times when we may be asked to serve as an expert witness either for the prosecution or the defense. I was once asked to provide a deposition on a class action suit regarding the relative high rate of failure for a particular pacing lead produced at Pacesetter Corporation by parent company Siemens. The issue was whether or not the company was negligent about implanting the leads based on reliability data they came back to them. The issue was really a question of when the information was available and if it was serious enough to have helped to decide to recall the product sooner. As I was the main statistician still at the company who had access to the data the prosecutors wanted to know when the information was available to upper management. Our defense lawyers prepared me well for the case and how to best offer testimony.
Statistics and the Law (Wiley Classics Library) Overview
Describes a wide variety of applications of statistical concepts in legal settings, as well as cases in which statistical analyses were important elements. Several chapters are devoted to employment discrimination and antitrust violation, two areas of litigation that rely heavily on statistics. Contributors discuss the correct choice and use of statistical techniques in the assessment of damages, the measurement and quantification of skill (in a case deciding whether video poker games require skill), the determination of disputed paternity and elections, and other areas where statistics are used in legal cases. Many of the chapters are written by the statisticians who actually participated in the cases under discussion.Want to learn more information about Statistics and the Law (Wiley Classics Library)?
>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now
