Emotional Trials

Women criminal defense attorneys routinely handle cases that would grossly offend the sensibilities of the ordinary woman or man. Often asked to use their gender as a strategy to strengthen the defense, they struggle with myriad moral and ideological conflicts inherent in representing men accused of such violent crimes against women as rape, domestic abuse, and child molestation. This groundbreaking work explores how women attorneys manage those conflicts, how they use ideologies in defense of their work, and how they cope with the emotional stress of their professional lives. Drawing on extensive interviews and ethnographic research, Cynthia Siemsen presents thirteen provocative case studies to illustrate the unique interplay between ideology and emotion in these women. Skillfully blending the words of criminal attorneys themselves with a solid theoretical framework, she explores the ways in which women's perspectives about their identities, roles, and emotions evolve through three distinct stages: early, mid-career, and seasoned attorney. Siemsen argues convincingly that the stresses of public defense work, including dealing with such burdens as California's stringently enforced three-strikes law, create much more conflict for women than intrinsic contradictions between feminist beliefs and professional ideologies. The longer a woman practices law, the author finds, the better she becomes at managing her emotions by strictly adhering to the constitutional ideal of protecting individual rights. An appendix, "Ambivalent Identities: Men of Color Who Prosecute Their 'Own,'" offers a comparative viewpoint of the experiences of African American male prosecutors. This insightful volume offers a unique lens through which to view the work lives of women criminal defense attorneys and sheds new light on how they resolve and survive the moral dilemmas and emotional stress of their jobs.

"I really loved it...Appalachian Trials is full of specific tactical tips for mental preparation, which is key well beyond the AT." - Tim Ferriss, author of New York Times Best Selling The 4-Hour Workweek and The 4-Hour Body Each year, it is estimated that more than 2,000 people set out to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail, yet seven in ten ultimately fall short of their goal. Given the countless number of how-to books and websites offering information about logistics, gear, and endurance training, one would think that more people would finish this 2,200 mile trek. Why then, do so many hikers quit prematurely? After successfully thru-hiking the AT in five months with zero prior backpacking experience, author, Zach Davis, is convinced he's discovered the answer. Aspiring thru-hikers, Davis tells readers, are preparing the wrong way- sweating on the StairMaster, meticulously plotting each re-supply box, or obsessing over the a synthetic or down sleeping bag or perfect pair of socks. While the AT undoubtedly presents extraordinary physical challenges, it is the psychological and emotional struggles that drive people off the trail. Conquering these mental obstacles is the key to success. This groundbreaking book focuses on the most important and overlooked piece of equipment of all- the gear between one's ears. Filled with first-hand, touching yet humorous vignettes and down-to-earth advice that both instructs and inspires, Appalachian Trials gives readers the mental road map they'll need to hike from Springer Mountain to Mt.Katahdin. In Appalachian Trials readers will learn: Goal setting techniques that will assure hikers reach Mt. Katahdin The common early stage pitfalls and how to avoid them How to beat "the Virginia Blues" The importance of and meaning behind "hiking your own hike" 5 strategies for unwavering mental endurance The most common mistake made in the final stretch of the trail Tips for enjoying rather than enduring each of the five million steps along the journey Strategies for avoiding post-trail depression and weight gain In addition, the Bonus Section of Appalachian Trials includes: A thorough chapter on gear written by thru-hiker of the AT and Pacific Crest Trail, and professional backpack gear reviewer Information about the trail's greatest and most unknown risk and how to guard against it 9 tips for saving money before and during your thru-hike A thorough FAQ section including information ranging from how to obtain sponsorship, to the best stove for the trail, to avoiding chafing, and much more

This engaging ethnography examines the gendered nature of today's large corporate law firms. Although increasing numbers of women have become lawyers in the past decade, Jennifer Pierce discovers that the double standards and sexist attitudes of legal bureaucracies are a continuing problem for women lawyers and paralegals. Working as a paralegal, Pierce did ethnographic research in two law offices, and her depiction of the legal world is quite unlike the glamorized version seen on television. Pierce tellingly portrays the dilemma that female attorneys face: a woman using tough, aggressive tactics—the ideal combative litigator—is often regarded as brash or even obnoxious by her male colleagues. Yet any lack of toughness would mark her as ineffective. Women paralegals also face a double bind in corporate law firms. While lawyers depend on paralegals for important work, they also expect these women—for most paralegals are women—to nurture them and affirm their superior status in the office hierarchy. Paralegals who mother their bosses experience increasing personal exploitation, while those who do not face criticism and professional sanction. Male paralegals, Pierce finds, do not encounter the same difficulties that female paralegals do. Pierce argues that this gendered division of labor benefits men politically, economically, and personally. However, she finds that women lawyers and paralegals develop creative strategies for resisting and disrupting the male-dominated status quo. Her lively narrative and well-argued analysis will be welcomed by anyone interested in today's gender politics and business culture.

This book presents social, cognitive and neuroscientific approaches to the study of self-control, connecting recent work in cognitive and social psychology with recent advances in cognitive and social neuroscience. In bringing together multiple perspectives on self-control dilemmas from internationally renowned researchers in various allied disciplines, this is the first single-reference volume to illustrate the richness, depth, and breadth of the research in the new field of self control.

A timely book containing foundations and current research directions on emotion recognition by facial expression, voice, gesture and biopotential signals This book provides a comprehensive examination of the research methodology of different modalities of emotion recognition. Key topics of discussion include facial expression, voice and biopotential signal-based emotion recognition. Special emphasis is given to feature selection, feature reduction, classifier design and multi-modal fusion to improve performance of emotion-classifiers. Written by several experts, the book includes several tools and techniques, including dynamic Bayesian networks, neural nets, hidden Markov model, rough sets, type-2 fuzzy sets, support vector machines and their applications in emotion recognition by different modalities. The book ends with a discussion on emotion recognition in automotive fields to determine stress and anger of the drivers, responsible for degradation of their performance and driving-ability. There is an increasing demand of emotion recognition in diverse fields, including psycho-therapy, bio-medicine and security in government, public and private agencies. The importance of emotion recognition has been given priority by industries including Hewlett Packard in the design and development of the next generation human-computer interface (HCI) systems. Emotion Recognition: A Pattern Analysis Approach would be of great interest to researchers, graduate students and practitioners, as the book Offers both foundations and advances on emotion recognition in a single volume Provides a thorough and insightful introduction to the subject by utilizing computational tools of diverse domains Inspires young researchers to prepare themselves for their own research Demonstrates direction of future research through new technologies, such as Microsoft Kinect, EEG systems etc.

This book presents an empirically rigorous and theoretically sophisticated account of political trials.