Term
| The four choices to make in psychology and law |
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Definition
| Equality/Discretion, Truth Seeking/Conflict Resolution, Due Process/Crime Control, Science/Law as a source of decision making |
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Term
| Due Process Vs. Crime Control |
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Definition
| Emphasis on protection from abuses by the police (10 criminals go free than 1 innocent suffer) Vs. Focus on the apprehention of criminals |
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Term
| Commonsense Justice Vs. Black-Letter Law |
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Definition
| The average citizen's moral compass, based on their belief of what is fair (discretion) Vs. Applying the law as written (no discretion) |
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Term
| Distributive Justice Vs. Procedural Justice |
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Definition
| Focus on the outcome of the case, do the ends justify the means? Vs. Was the process to get to the outcome fair? Consideration of the fairness of the methods to resolve a dispute |
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Term
Settlement Negotiations
AND
Plea Bargaining |
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Definition
90-95% of cases never go to trial
give/take, offer/demand, ends when the defendant puts a deal on the table and the plaintiff accepts it
accused pleads guilty to a lesser charge, so they don't go to trial, settled in private |
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Term
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Definition
"friend of the court" filed by a party uninvolved with the case but a strong view on the subject matter
provides the court with info on psychological science or other relevant court rulings to better inform the court in decision making |
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Term
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Definition
"let the decision stand"
precedents and case law are very important because justices don't like to contradict themselves or other judges/cases |
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Term
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Definition
A person with specialized knowledge of a subject relevant to a court case who is introduced to inform the trier of fact
(more likely to speak in favor of who hired the, sometimes considered irrelevant, can't make subjective either-or judgments) |
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Term
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Definition
| hired to provide data to answer questions about the effectiveness of a policy/law, design studies to make more effective, but these studies may disadvantage certain people (ethical?), or if they create a program that doesn't work their authority is questioned |
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Term
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Definition
| mental health professional who decides the competence, mental state of defendant at the time of the crime, emotional damage, and risk assessments |
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Term
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Definition
| work as a jury selection consultant, conduct public opinion surverys, prepare witnesses, advise lawyers on presentation strategies, conduct mock trials |
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Term
| "Law is an evolving human creation" |
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Definition
| laws are made as humanity evolves, no driving laws before cars, no texting and driving laws before cell phones |
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Term
| Criminal Case Vs. Civil Case |
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Definition
| society is injured so the state tries people to find if they're guilty/not guilty and decides their punishments, guilty beyond a reasonable doubt VS. disputes between two private entities: divorce, determining monetary compensation, based on preponderence of evidence whoever has more evidence 51%/49% |
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Term
| Layout of Federal/State Courts |
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Definition
Federal: district federal courts ->13 circut courts of appeal -> US Supreme Court
State: state trial courts -> intermediate appelate courts -> higher appeal courts -> supreme court |
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Term
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Definition
| pannel of prospective jurors drawn from a large list |
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Term
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Definition
| process by which judge and/or attorneys ask potential jurors questions to reveal biases |
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Term
| Procedural steps in a trial |
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Definition
1)opening statements (prosecution first)
2) witnesses testify (cross examination, recross)
3) all other evidence presented
4) closing arguments (pros first)
5) judge instructs jury
6) jury deliberates |
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Term
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Definition
| trial judges normally decide punishment for crimes, but they cannot increase the sentences based on what they believe made the crime worse |
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Term
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Definition
More likely in high school than middle/elementary
Most common is bullying
In college: date rape, hazing |
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Term
| Interventions to Reduce School Violence |
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Definition
-increase communication between administrators and students
-profiling is unhelpful because it targets people and shootings are too rare
-bullying is what needs to be changed because it causes shootings
-zero tollerance policies don't work because there's no discretion |
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Term
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Definition
-parent a criminal 4x more likely child will be
-50% heretibility for violent behaviors |
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Term
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Definition
| individuals who engage in frequent, repetive criminal activity with no remorse, constantly lying and manipulating, superficial, arrogant, don't learn from experience, blame others to rationalize behavior |
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Term
| Anti-Social Personality Disorder |
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Definition
| pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others that begins in childhood and continues into adulthood |
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Term
| Executive Function Theory in Psychopathy |
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Definition
| Hare proposed psychopaths have a deficency in the left hemisphere of their brains that impairs their ability to plan and regulate behavior |
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Term
| Stimulation Seeking Theory in Psychopathy |
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Definition
| psychopaths are assumed to be constantly under-aroused, so by constant agressive thrill seeking they are trying to increase sensory input to put their arousal at a more tolerable level |
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Term
Differential Association Approach
to Criminal Behavior |
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Definition
criminal behavior requires socialization into a system of values that condones law breaking so the potential crime developes definitions of behavior to make crime acceptable
1) criminal behavior is learned through interactions/communication
2) when criminal behavior is learned it includes techniques, motives, rationalizations, and attitudes
3) a person becomes a deliquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to law violation
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Term
| Social Learning Theory of Crime |
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Definition
importance of reinforcements for developing new behaviors based on cognitive factors and vicarious learning
1) Familial influences ->see agression as a type of conflict resolution, may adopt it
2) subcultural influences -> enviroments (school) that provide context to support agression (rewards for it)
3) Symbolic models -> violent TV/videogames, effects on viewer |
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Term
Multiple-Component Learning Theory
of Crime |
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Definition
-attachment issues with parents
-getting into fights (based off vicarious learning of family)
-use violence to gain peer approval
-lack/delay of punishment
-no role model
-impulsive behavior, immediate gains
-gainsof crime outweigh losses |
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Term
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Definition
| being branded a criminal can create a self-fufilling phrophecy, accept label of "ex-con" and live up to the negative connotations by breaking more laws |
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Term
| Admissibility of Evidence |
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Definition
| probative value (ability to shed light on the dispute) must outweigh any potential predjucial effect (ability to unfairly bias the trier of fact) it might have |
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Term
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Definition
-ability to shed light on the debate: BUT
must be relevant to the case, and the evidence must be trustworthy in considering admissibility (best friend testimony Vs. police report) |
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Term
Standard for Admissibility of
Eyewitness Testimony |
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Definition
Neil V. Biggers, considering the totality of the circumstances is the eyewitness sufficiently reliable to testify?
-opportunity to see person, length of seeing person, confidence in choosing |
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Term
Confirmation Bias in the case of
eyewitness testimony |
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Definition
| police overrly on eyewitness identification, police stop looking and only find evidence to indite person identified, look for and interpret evidence in a way that incriminates the suspect |
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Term
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Definition
| variables under the control of criminal justice system like the type of line-up |
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Term
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Definition
| variables outside of the control of the criminal justice system who's impact on the eyewitness can only be estimated |
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Term
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Definition
| variable in eyewitness memory like the speed of the ID that does not directly coorelate with the reliability of the eyewitness, but insted measures a process that correlates with reliability |
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Term
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Definition
| victim tends to focus on the weapon instead of other stimuli |
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Term
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Definition
| people have limited capacity to process stimuli, so they unconscious focus on some and tune out others |
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Term
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Definition
high arousal leads to narrowing of attention to the most prominent/important cues
(like a weapon) |
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Term
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Definition
the amount of time between the event and being questioned about it
(longer retention interval less that will be remembered) |
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Term
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Definition
| details about an event that an eyewitness is exposed to post-facto like talking to other people that saw the same crime |
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Term
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Definition
| eyewitnesses are better at recognizing and identifying members of their own race |
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Term
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Definition
see people all at once, use relative judgment (pick the one that most resembles memory, based on people in line up)
more mistaken IDs this way |
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Term
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Definition
see one at a time, use absolute judgment (can't compare faces)
less mistaken IDs, and less accurate IDs too because there are fewer ID attempts overall |
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Term
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Definition
-confidence of eyewitness coorelates WEAKLY with accuracy
- jury thinks eyewitnesses are more reliable if they're confident even though they're NOT |
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Term
| Adverse Childhood Experience Study |
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Definition
17,000 middle age (52/3) people with health care, asked about ACEs (incarserated, mentally, absentee, substance abuser parents), asked about current health
Major findings: ACEs much more common than thought, 52% at least 1, 25% 2+, most common: live with substance abuser
-strong relationship between # of ACEs and liklihood of having a negative outcome later in life |
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Term
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Definition
longitudinal study, 900 abused/neglected children paired with ones that weren't a/n but same age, gender, race
-determined relationship between a/n and poor decisions laterinlife
-a/n significantly more likely to be arrested for violent crimes
-a/n significantly more likely to be disgnosed with dysthymia and antisocial personality disorders
-but these were no longer significant when researchers controlled for stressful life events that predicted mental health outcomes: a/n more stressful life events |
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Term
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Definition
Men: 3.6%
Women: 9.7%
-more likely for women if trauma results from a crime |
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Term
| Why research on trauma provides hope |
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Definition
| -research finds negative outcomes are not inevitable in childhood victims because further trauma and stress can be prevented |
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Term
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Definition
meets the qualifications to be a witness
-decided by the judge because it's a question of law |
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Term
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Definition
weight placed on a competent witness's testimony
-decided by the trier of fact |
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Term
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Definition
-once presumed to be incompetent if under 7
-now on case by case basis
-more info on development |
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Term
Competence of Witnesses
is Determined By: |
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Definition
1) ability to understand oath (truth/lie)
2) capacity to accurately perceive events
3) ability to accratly encode events (memory)
4) ability to verbalize/explain memories to answer questions |
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Term
| Investigative Interviews With Children |
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Definition
1) build rapport
2) ask child to tell in their own words what happened (open-ended questions)
3) ask specific questions about the information they volunteered |
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Term
Effects of Children
Testifying in Court About Abuse |
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Definition
short-term: anxiety, vomitting
long-term: mental effects, trauma |
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Term
| Child Witnesses and Suggestibility |
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Definition
-children are more suggestible than adults, but they are NOT HIGHLY suggestilbe
-younger the child the more suggestible (3-6 most because just developing verbal skills)
-suggestive/leading questions increase it
-misleading questions that require interpretation are the most suggestible
-suggestibility increases if the event was stressful |
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Term
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Definition
| confessions from in-custody interrogations are only admissible if the suspect gave it voluntarily and knew their rights against self-incrimination |
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Term
| When are interrogation-induced false confessions most likely to happen? |
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Definition
| during high-stakes cases like homicides becase police are under pressure and are more likely to use pshcyologically coerive tactics to wear suspects down |
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Term
| Police Process of Interrogating |
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Definition
1) "softening-up" isolate suspect, build rapport, try to get people to waive miranda rights
2) start with small questions, gradually getting to crime
3) persuade person to tell their side of the story |
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Term
| Maximization Interrogation Technique |
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Definition
| detective attempts to intimidate the suspect and make them feel like denial is hopeless, accuse the suspect of lying, identify inconsistencies in story, emphasizing seriousness of crime (bad cop) |
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Term
| Minimization Interrogation Technique |
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Definition
| cop plays nice, tries to "help" the suspect save face, give suspect moral justification for what happened, use scenerios of what could have happened to reduce feelings of guilt, express empathy, play crime off as trivial |
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Term
| Types of False Confessions: |
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Definition
1) Voluntary - notoriety, fame
2) Compliant - short-term gains outweight long-term consequences
3) Internalized - person creates a false memory and actually believes they did it |
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Term
| Fundamental Attribution Error |
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Definition
jurors do not give significant weight to the external situation around the crime, assume people who commit crimes have bad internal, stable forces
-in confessions: jury takes confessions at face value and assume they're guilty because they confessed |
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Term
| How recording interrogations influences the viewer |
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Definition
| -if the suspect confesses on camera, and the camera is only pointed at them, then the confession seems more voluntary, but if the police officer is in the frame it appears less voluntary (see external pressure) |
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Term
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Definition
attribute causation to one stimulus because it's more conspicuous than others
(on recorded confessions, if you can only see the suspect then their confession seems more voluntary because the detective isn't in the frame) |
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