David S Tait

Biographic Data

ID4421089
NAMEDavid S Tait
GIVEN NAMESDavid S
FAMILY NAMETait
SIGNATURETAIT D S
AFFILIATIONSWestern Sydney University
ORCID0000-0002-1121-7702
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS36
TOTAL CITATIONS43
AUTHOR COUNT36
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1950
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2025
H-INDEX4

  • Imagining the metaverse court: A conversation between science fiction and Shakespeare

    Open AccessDavid Tait, David S Tait et al.ARTICLEFrontiers in Sociology2025

    This article explores the concept of a metaverse courtroom by engaging in an imaginative dialogue between Shakespeare's Hamlet and Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash . Using Connolly's method of juxtaposing distinct intellectual traditions, the analysis examines key aspects of justice processes—presence, facework, movement, adversarialism, and evidence presentation—in virtual spaces. Drawing on insights from dramaturgy, the sociology of emotions, and s…

  • Emotions in the metaverse court: Proposed Frameworks and Methodologies

    Meredith Rossner, David Tait et al.ARTICLEEmotions and Society2025Cited by: 1References: 9

    As courts evolve to include virtual justice spaces, new opportunities arise to expand our approaches to studying and understanding emotions in these settings. In this article, we explore how to research emotions in virtual courts, including in metaverse courts, where avatars may be embedded in an immersive virtual environment. We begin by laying out key concepts from performance and ritual theories and the sociology of virtual reality, media and …

  • Restorative spaces: How does the organisation of space contribute to the experience of justice

    David Tait, David S Tait et al.ARTICLEThe International Journal of…2022

  • Sound and credibility in the virtual court: Low audio quality leads to less favorable evaluations of witnesses and lower weighting of evidence

    Elena Bild, Annabel Redman et al.ARTICLELaw and Human Behavior2021

    OBJECTIVES: Recent virtual court proceedings have seen a range of technological challenges, producing not only trial interruptions but also cognitive interruptions in processing evidence. Very little empirical research has focused on how the subjective experience of processing evidence affects evaluations of trial participants and trial decisions. Metacognitive research shows that the subjective ease or difficulty of processing information can af…

  • Justice reimagined: Challenges and opportunities with implementing virtual courts

    Meredith Rossner, David Tait et al.ARTICLECurrent Issues in Criminal Justice2021

    While video technology has long been a feature of courtrooms, during the pandemic, courts underwent a seismic shift towards virtual hearings. Physical courtrooms shut their doors and hearings were moved to a virtual space. This transformation was fast, radical, and likely to permanently alter the landscape of justice. In this article, we review the strategies courts in Australia and the United Kingdom (UK) adopted in response to the pandemic and …

  • Presence and participation in a virtual court

    Open AccessMeredith Rossner, David S TaitARTICLECriminology & Criminal Justice2021Cited by: 2References: 14

    The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in the use of video-mediated justice practices. However, such developments have already been transforming justice over the course of the previous 20 years. Scholars and legal professinals have expressed concerns over how remote appearance in court impacts perceptions of the accused. In this article, we consider some of these concerns and explore the concept of the ‘distributed court’ as a potential rem…

  • Divination and Sacrifice

    David Tait, David S TaitCHAPTERKonkomba of Northern Ghana2018

    A diviner undergoes a testing rite when in his early twenties and thereafter may practise. As a consequence of the diviner&s;s work after unnatural or unfortunate events, ritual action can be taken by the groups concerned to remove any ritual impurity or to correct lapses from standards of behaviour which led to those events. By sacrifice or by repentance the group that has suffered loss or misfortune may be assured of better times to come. Divin…

  • The Political System: Conclusion

    David Tait, David S TaitCHAPTERKonkomba of Northern Ghana2018

    The Political System of structures expresses the values of Konkomba society, the paramount values of loyalty to the clan and love of its territory, for no Konkomba will ever admit that his harsh country is in any way inferior to surrounding lands. The social structure of a society is, in part, a function of its ecology. Population increase in a settlement means that there is not enough land for all and fission takes place and settlers seek new la…

  • Links between Clans

    David Tait, David S TaitCHAPTERKonkomba of Northern Ghana2018

    The two major links between clans are first, the reciprocal relation of being ritual partners to each other and secondly, the relation between clans that are parent and filial clan to each other. Clans that are ritual partners are often contiguous and always near to each other; consequently the giving of assistance in burial ceremonies is an easy matter. When a clan is segmented into two major lineages, each major lineage regards the other as rit…

  • The Territorial Organization 1

    David Tait, David S TaitCHAPTERKonkomba of Northern Ghana2018

    The Konkomba people is made up of a number of tribes which may be distinguished in the following ways: they occupy territorial units; they have different face marks; clans of one tribe may stand in ritual relations to each other; and finally, clans of the same tribe assist each other in inter-tribal warfare. The district can be defined as a territorial unit containing an Earth shrine and inhabited by a clan. It is the largest defined territorial …

  • The Lineage Over Time

    David Tait, David S TaitCHAPTERKonkomba of Northern Ghana2018

    The extended house is a unit of three generations&s; depth, the descendants of a common grandfather through both males and females. The extended house has a localized agnatic core which, in terms of generation depth, may coincide with the nuclear lineage or may be shorter. Two possible structural processes may be postulated to explain lineage variation. First, it may be that the major lineage in time grows in numbers and complexity to divide and …

  • Relations with neighbouring peoples

    David Tait, David S TaitCHAPTERKonkomba of Northern Ghana2018

    The Konkomba people live in what was formerly the French and British Mandated Territory of Northern Togoland and principally about the banks of the Oti river and on the Oti plain north and west of the Basare and Kotokoli hills. The relations of Konkomba with the Tobote and Kabre differ from those with the Dagomba and the Tshakosi. Their neighbours to the west are the Dagomba. This people is known to Konkomba as the Bedagbam ; they speak of themse…

  • The Family, Household and Minor Lineage 1

    David Tait, David S TaitCHAPTERKonkomba of Northern Ghana2018

    This chapter seeks to show how far the actual forms of the Konkomba family and household coincide with their forms as conceived by the people themselves. For the household is part of a larger grouping, the minor lineage group, which consists of all men of the minor patrilineal segment plus their wives and their unmarried daughters. In daily intercourse Konkomba move easily in and out of each other&s;s compounds, although one may not step over a b…

  • Ecology

    David Tait, David S TaitCHAPTERKonkomba of Northern Ghana2018

    Ecological space and time are expressions of the relation of a people to their habitat and this is a fairly simple relation in terms of farm work and the solar cycle. The market cycle yields a second dimension of space and time, the one which Konkomba most frequently use in their thinking. Just as ecological time has its ritual points in the cycle—the new food rites, the annual purification of the Earth—so too market time has its ritual points in…

  • The Clan and Lineage System

    David Tait, David S TaitCHAPTERKonkomba of Northern Ghana2018

    The district, the largest territorial unit of Konkomba organization, is occupied by a clan, the largest unit of political organization. The clan is a structure composed of lineages, themselves genealogical structures, and between lineages of one clan agnatic relationship is assumed, even though no ancestor common to all lineages is known. The clan is a segmentary system of enduring, agnatic lineages which on the levels of the major and minor line…

  • Marriage and the Extended House

    David Tait, David S TaitCHAPTERKonkomba of Northern Ghana2018

    Konkomba practise the betrothal of infant girls to young men in their early twenties who thereafter give bride service and pay bride corn to their parents-in-law, until the girl is of an age to marry. The age of marriage for men is delayed until the age of forty, but from adolescence onwards they carry on love affairs. The rules relate primarily to individual men and women but they are extended in various ways to include not only the extended hou…

  • Konkomba Sorcery 1

    David Tait, David S TaitCHAPTERKonkomba of Northern Ghana2018

    The Konkomba say that anyone may be a sorcerer and that anyone may be accused of sorcery. Konkomba sorcery may be taught by a father to his son or by a mother to her daughter. The essence of Konkomba sorcery appears to be this use of medicines. The Konkomba lineage is not so protected: the possibility of accusing an agnatic kinsman of learning his sorcery from his father exposes that lineage to disruption. Young women accused of sorcery thus belo…

  • Rituals and spaces in innovative courts

    David Tait, David S TaitARTICLEGriffith Law Review2018

    Innovative justice forums form a small but important part of the justice landscape in Australia and elsewhere. These include many civil and protective tribunals, local dispute centres, special purpose courts like drug or Indigenous courts, restorative justice conferences and – particularly relevant to this special issue –neighbourhood justice centres. Innovative forums like these are designed to be problem-solving: the focus is on achieving outco…

  • The Konkomba of Northern Ghana: Edited From His Published and Unpublished Writings by Jack Goody

    David Tait, David S TaitBOOKKonkomba of Northern Ghana2018Cited by: 13

    Originally published in 1964 this book made available for the first time David Tait's writings on the Konkomba with whom he lived and worked for 5 years. Including some previously unpublished material, this volume discusses the political system of the Konkomba but includes aspects of social and religious life

  • The Dock on Trial: Courtroom Design and the Presumption of Innocence

    Open AccessMeredith Rossner, David Tait et al.ARTICLEJournal of Law and Society2017Cited by: 3

    This article examines the place of the criminal dock in courtroom design. Challenges to the use of the dock have been based upon the inability of the defendants to hear effectively, to communicate with counsel, to maintain their dignity, and to benefit from the presumption of innocence. Increasingly courts are incorporating secure docks, where defendants are partially or completely surrounded by glass (or in some countries, metal bars). To what e…

  • Digital Evidence in the Jury Room: The Impact of Mobile Technology on the Jury

    Laura McDonald, Laura W McDonald et al.ARTICLECurrent Issues in Criminal Justice2015

    Wireless technology and mobile devices are transforming the way courts administer justice, with the increasing use of smartphones, iPads and other tablets by practitioners, judges and juries. In the jury room, mobile devices have the potential to simplify the provision and use of information and facilitate more efficient deliberations and overall decision-making. But before such technology can become commonplace in the jury room, courts would ben…

  • Managing a Royal Sex Abuse Scandal: How Three Religious Traditions Have Dealt with the David and Bathsheba Story

    David Tait, David S TaitARTICLEGriffith Law Review2013

    Managing sex abuse scandals is a challenge for many contemporary institutions, including churches, synagogues, madrassas, schools and youth groups. Some religious bodies, however, already have considerable experience in managing scandals – their sacred texts are full of dangerous stories that have shocked and challenged them over many centuries. The story of David and Bathsheba, for example, combines three themes central to the current crisis: se…

  • Using the tax system to collect fines

    Open AccessBruce Chapman, Arie Freiberg et al.ARTICLEAustralian Journal of Public…2004Cited by: 2References: 1

    In this article we consider the possibility that fines could be collected through the tax and social welfare systems in the same way as higher education contributions and child support payments are currently administered. We argue that the existing system of fine collection and enforcement leads to high default rates and reduces the usefulness of fines as a sanction. We consider a range of models for the implementation of an income‐related fine c…

  • Male peer support and a feminist routing activities theory: Understanding sexual assault on the college campus

    Martin D Schwartz, W S Dekeseredy et al.ARTICLEJustice Quarterly2001

    Routine activities theorists traditionally have assumed offenders' motivation and victims' suitability from demographic correlates, and have done little to study effective guardianship. In this paper we ask questions directly of male date rape offenders to test the proposal that male peer support provides motivation; we ask lifestyle questions directly of both female victims and male offenders; and we discuss the extent to which abusive peers eli…

  • Bien juger: Essai sur le rituel judiciaire

    David Tait, David S Tait et al.ARTICLEContemporary Sociology A Journal…1998