Background characteristics of judges at all levels of our judicial system are often used to predict the kinds of decisions they will make on legal questions. Two rival hypotheses compete to explain policy makers' decisions: (1) values absorbed throughout their lives as reflected in the demographic profiles of the individuals and (2) the immediate pressures placed upon them by the social- political context in which they make their decisions. A criticism of traditional judicial behavioral research is that scholars often focus on one type of causal variable to the exclusion of all others. This Research Opportunities for Women Planning Grant will allow the investigator to do preliminary research prior to submitting a request for a larger study that will both measure and differentiate between demographic and contextual variables which influence judges' decisions. The research will use environmental and natural resource management cases which deal with economic regulation. During this planning phase, a data base of court cases on environmental policy will be developed and measures will be created. The bulk of the investigator's time during this phase will be devoted to various conceptual and measurement problems which need to be resolved. Little is known about whether values accepted during the early socialization process continue to dominate an individual's thinking or whether pressures from the immediate environment exert more influence. By beginning this investigation in the judicial arena, we may be able to expand general theory concerning the socialization process.
