This paper is the third in a series of articles describing the results of efforts to investigate ways in which the burdens of proof applicable in criminal and civil trials could be defined more precisely and more objectively. The burden of proof for determining guilt in criminal trials in American courts is the presentation of evidence which would lead “a reasonable man” to believe “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the defendant did indeed commit the act for which he was charged. This standard is applicable to all criminal acts irrespective of their heinousness or the circumstances under which they were committed. In civil actions the burden of proof necessary for determining negligence on the part of the defendant is “by preponderance of the evidence.”

Statistics has been called the science of uncertainty. Central to this science is the concept of probability. Operationalizing probability, however, has provided statisticians with many difficulties over the years, and to this day no complete agreement has been reached on this extremely important issue.

Plaintiffs in civil cases and the prosecution in criminal actions generally have the “burden” of proving all factual issues material under the applicable substantive law. The effect of so placing this burden is twofold. First, it compels the plaintiff, or prosecution, to produce a quantum of evidence sufficient to persuade the judge that a reasonable jury could (not should), on the basis of that evidence, find that the burden has been “carried” and that the requisite facts have been proven. If the judge finds the evidence inadequate for that purpose, he will direct a verdict for the defendant. The second effect results from the revelation of this burden to the jury so that it may consider it in its deliberations. No matter how that burden is described to the jury, some disadvantage should accrue to the party bearing it. The Simon/Mahan study raises a number of interesting questions about the extent to which that disadvantage can be quantified and how juries will react to that quantification.

The subject matter of field research in urban legal studies is as broad or as narrow as we choose to define the field. The chief concern of this paper is research strategies. What type of research is a law school capable of doing? What type of research is appropriate—for a professional school that is part of a university and for a student body that is growing increasingly bored and frustrated at what it regards as an irrelevant curriculum?

Some standard conflicts seem to appear again and again in the relationship between law and medicine. Lawyers are accused of showing undue concern for the past, for formalities, for retribution, and for deterrence, as well as having a basic lack of skill in the handling of human needs. Medical people are accused of disregarding law and the needs of society, and also of often overstepping individual rights in their eagerness as “good-doers.” Imperialists within both camps demand more scope for their particular approach. Delinquents, drinkers, psychopaths, or drug abusers—a continuous battle rages between these major professions as to whom these problems belong. There are property claims in human and social problems as well as in land.

The police in several Western countries have been the object of a good deal of dissatisfaction lately, whether in open confrontation with rioters and demonstrators, or as the object of severe criticism by the courts and civilian review boards. Since the respect and cooperation of the public are essential for effective police operation–in reporting crimes, assisting officers, testifying in court, or in less direct ways–police departments have begun to turn their attention to the sources of this tension. Simultaneously, this problem has become a focus of study for a number of social scientists (see, for example, Banton, 1964; Bordua, 1967; Cumming et al., 1965; Gardiner, 1969; Goldstein, 1963; Gourley, 1954; Skolnick, 1966; and Wilson, 1968). We have undertaken a study of some aspects of the relationship between the police and the public in Israel, in the context of a wider series of studies on patterns of contact between bureaucratic organizations and their clients. There may be factors in this relationship which are not evident in other countries; for example, Israeli police are organized on a national basis with centralized control rather than by local departments as in the American system, and the Israeli police are integrated with the national security effort. These very differences, however, may clarify some fundamental elements of the police-public encounter in general.

Attempts to understand the etiology of crime, delinquency, and other forms of deviance have approached these complex phenomena in a number of ways. In terms of the unit' under study, these methods can be summarized as follows: (1) delinquent gangs (see, for example, Thrasher, 1927; Yablonsky, 1959; and Short, 1968) or other deviant groups, for example the Mafia (Lewis, 1964; Allen, 1962); (2) particular deviants, like marijuana users (Becker, 1963) or thieves (Sutherland, 1963); (3) particular types of deviants over time, such as sociopathic delinquents (Robins, 1966); (4) delimited areas of a city compared to other areas on rates of delinquency, crime, or mental illness (Faris and Dunham, 1939; Shaw and McKay, 1942; McKay, 1967); and (5) comparisons of crime rates for cities (Ogburn, 1935; Schuessler and Slatin, 1964). Studies of the total pattern of deviance within a city are lacking. Such a study, with the goal

This essay was done as part of a larger bibliographic project on the ethnography of law, begun by Laura Nader and her students at the University of California in the early 1960s. A summary of the results of this project was published in 1966 under the title “The Ethnography of Law: A Bibliographic Survey” (Nader et al., 1966). This work's more than 700 entries surveyed the literature on customary law in seven continental areas—Africa, Asia, the Near East, Europe, Oceania, and the Americas—as they were in 1964-1965. With the help and encouragement of the original compilers, the work of revising and updating the earlier bibliography was begun. This work is still in progress. However, to stimulate further suggestions for the project, we have written this summary of trends in the literature on customary law. The summary retains the division of the earlier bibliography into major continental areas, together with a section on comparative, general, and theoretical works.