Moving SPSS files to Stata

For the underlying datasets themselves, movement across various software platforms are most easily achieved via third-party software (I've used StatTransfer for decades). Migrating command (or setup or do) files across platforms, however, typically takes a bit more work. A recent discussion on the StataList (click here) walks through coding suggestions for a migration from SPSS to Stata.

Data on Malingering in Insanity Cases Over Time

A steady decline in insanity claims by defendants in criminal cases over time juxtaposes with a concurrent increase in claims that defendants are "malingering" or "feigning" insanity or mental illness in the service of an acquittal or a reduced sentence. Neuroscientific evidence, on both sides, features prominently in these trends. And in this setting, conventional wisdom implies that state evidence introduced relating to a claim of defendant malingering may exert out-sized (negative) influence on a defendant's insanity claim.

CELS 2026 -- Submission Deadline Extension

Call for Papers -- Deadline Extension

Conference on Empirical Legal Studies

October 2-3, 2026

 

The 2026 Conference on Empirical Legal Studies (CELS) is now accepting submissions. CELS will consider empirical papers spanning all areas of empirical legal studies. Authors are encouraged to submit works-in-progress; however, submissions should be completed drafts that include principal results. Submitted papers must be unpublished and expected to be unpublished at the time of the conference.

The paper submission deadline has been extended to Monday, June 22, 2026 (11:59 PM Central Daylight Time). The deadline will not be extended further. There is no charge for submissions.

To submit a paper, please click here.

If you have any questions about the submissions process, please contact the conference organizers at: celsnorthwestern2026@gmail.com. 

Data on Judicial Recognition of Multiparent Families

Many topics in family law, for both obvious and perhaps less than obvious reasons, garner a bit more "heat than light." As well, family law topics are comparatively under-explored empirically. A recent paper by Douglas NeJamie (Yale) and Courtney Joslin (UC Davis), The Legal Recognition of Multiparent Families: Findings from an Empirical Study, breaks from tradition as it brings data to questions surrounding the legal recognition of multiparent families.

The paper levers two datasets, including all electronically available judicial decisions (through 2022) engaging with multiparent statutes as well as "judicial decisions applying a functional parent doctrine over four decades." When it comes to the judicial decisions themselves, Figure 6 (below) makes clear that judicial activity, while growing, is an emerging trend.