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    The Supreme Court Considers New Case on Capital Punishment

    On April 16, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case challenging the constitutionality of a Louisiana statute that allows for the death penalty in cases involving child rape. More specifically, the court will determine whether the law violates the U.S Constitution’s Eighth Amendment, which prohibits “cruel and unusual punishments.” The case, […]

  • report

    Teens and Privacy Story on NPR

    Pew Internet Project researcher Mary Madden recently appeared on “All Things Considered” to discuss teens, social networking and privacy choices online.

  • report

    “Self-literacy” in the information age

    Over time, we may change the way we think about the persistence of the information we share in public and semi-public spaces. But at the moment, many adults are blissfully unaware of even the most basic information that might be found through a si…

  • report

    Obama and Wright Controversy Dominate News Cycle

    Summary of Findings Barack Obama’s March 18th speech on race and politics is arguably the biggest political event of the campaign so far. Fully 85% of Americans say they heard at least a little about Obama’s speech, and most (54%) say they heard a lot about it. Not surprisingly, Barack Obama has been far and […]

  • presentation

    Digital Footprints

    In the era of Web 2.0, individuals and organizations have gone beyond simply being findable to being intimately knowable. These digital footprints are blazing trails and stirring up issues about how we manage our own online identities and those of…

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    Why News of Iraq Dropped

    The tactical success of the surge and the tactical failures of the new Democratic Congress are among the reasons why the five-year-old conflict seems to have disappeared from the headlines. And then there are the competing demands of covering the most intriguing presidential campaign in recent memory.

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    Public Continues to Fault Government for Troop Care

    Summary of Findings A year after the problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and other military hospitals made major news, the public remains highly critical of the government’s performance in supporting and caring for soldiers who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan. Fully 72% say the government does not give enough support to soldiers […]

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    Public Attitudes Toward the War in Iraq: 2003-2008

    Five years after the start of the conflict in Iraq, many public evaluations of the situation in Iraq have turned more positive. But there has been no turnaround in the public’s opinion about the original decision to take military action in Iraq. While ratings of how things are going in Iraq have improved over the […]