Why Did They Do That? An Introduction to Forensic Decision Analysis - Softcover

Peterson, David W. W.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1430305282 ISBN 13: 9781430305286

Publisher: Lulu.com, 2006

Synopsis

Many legal disputes turn on some form of the question, Why did they do that? Using examples involving employment discrimination, political redistricting, jury selection and computer code theft, we demonstrate that a novel analytical framework connects these diverse cases. When this framework is applied to pay discrimination cases, it yields information that is more relevant to the issues in dispute than does the traditional framework.

About this title

About the Author

David W. Peterson studied electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin and at Stanford University. Following a stint in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, he joined the Northwestern University Graduate School of Management faculty, from which he migrated to Duke University, where he taught applied statistics for more than twenty years. In 1979 he founded PRI Associates, a statistical consulting and software development firm he headed until it was absorbed into a larger company. He and his wife live in Chatham County, N.C. on a small farm where they grow trees.

From the Back Cover

Though this book applies Forensic Decision Analysis to jury selection, employment discrimination, political redistricting, computer code theft and unfair job terminations, the method itself applies in many other situations as well. Almost any time a question arises about why people made the decisions they did, the principles described herein may help find the answer.

For instance ...

Were county school district principals assigned to schools based at least in part on their race relative to the race predominant among students there?

Were a company's stock options assigned false issue dates to maximize their value?

Has a securities trader had such regular success that she must have been acting on inside information?

Were voters confused by the layout of a ballot into voting for candidates they do not support?

Why don't more people vote?

Why don't more women study the physical sciences?

From the Inside Flap

What do murder, rape, state legislatures, computer programming and retirement planning have in common? They all can lead to litigation battles over why people chose to do things the way they did -- battles in which money, power, careers and even lives are at stake. In the pages that follow a veteran of such battles distills his experience with them into a coherent and objective method for determining the reasons behind controversial choices. Called Forensic Decision Analysis, this novel approach unites courtroom scientific evidence with the legal issues at bar more closely than ever before.

Edition details

• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1430305282
• ISBN 13: 9781430305286
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224