Law and Psychology Commons^™

The Noisy "Silent Witness": The Misperception And Misuse Of Criminal Video Evidence, Aaron M. Williams

Indiana Law Journal

This Note examines recent developments in the research of situational video evidence biases. Part I examines the current and growing body of psychological research into the various situational biases that can affect the reliability of video evidence and the gaps in this research that require further attention from researchers and legal academics. Because these biases do not “operate in a vacuum,” Part I also examines some of the recent and exciting research into the interaction between situational and dispositional biases. Part II examines the development of camera and video processing technology and its limitations as a means of mitigating such …

Why Exempting Negligent Doctors May Reduce Suicide: An Empirical Analysis, John Shahar Dillbary, Griffin Edwards, Fredrick E. Vars

Indiana Law Journal

This Article is the first to empirically analyze the impact of tort liability on suicide. Counter-intuitively, our analysis shows that suicide rates increase when potential tort liability is expanded to include psychiatrists—the very defendants who would seem best able to prevent suicide. Using a fifty-state panel regression for 1981 to 2013, we find that states which allowed psychiatrists (but not other doctors) to be liable for malpractice resulting in suicide experienced a 9.3% increase in suicides. On the other hand, and more intuitively, holding non-psychiatrist doctors liable de-creases suicide by 10.7%. These countervailing effects can be explained by psychiatrists facing …

Law And Identifiability, Daphna Lewinsohn-Zamir, Ilana Ritov, Tehila Kogut

Indiana Law Journal

Psychological studies have shown that people react either more generously or more punitively toward identified individuals than toward unidentified ones. This phenomenon, named the identifiability effect, has received little attention in the legal literature, despite its importance for the law. As a prime example, while legislators typically craft rules that would apply to unidentified people, judges ordinarily deal with identified individuals. The identifiability effect suggests that the outcomes of these two forms of lawmaking may differ, even when they pertain to similar facts and situations.

This Article is a preliminary investigation into the relevance of the identifiability effect for law …

Identifying Criminals’ Risk Preferences, Murat C. Mungan, Jonathan Klick

Indiana Law Journal

There is a 250-year-old presumption in the criminology and law enforcement literature that people are deterred more by increases in the certainty rather than increases in the severity of legal sanctions. We call this presumption the Certainty Aversion Presumption (CAP). Simple criminal decision-making models suggest that criminals must be risk seeking if they behave consistently with CAP. This implication leads to disturbing interpretations, such as criminals being categorically different from law-abiding people, who often display risk-averse behavior while making financial decisions. Moreover, policy discussions that incorrectly rely on criminals’ risk attitudes implied by CAP are ill informed, and may therefore …

Dualism And Doctrine, Dov Fox, Alex Stein

Indiana Law Journal

What kinds of harm among those that tortfeasors inflict are worthy of compensation? Which forms of self-incriminating evidence are privileged against government compulsion? What sorts of facts constitute a criminal defendant’s intent? Existing doctrine pins the answer to all of these questions on whether the injury, facts, or evidence at stake are “mental” or “physical.” The assumption that operations of the mind are meaningfully distinct from those of the body animates fundamental rules in our law.

A tort victim cannot recover for mental harm on its own because the law presumes that he is able to unfeel any suffering arising …

Last Stand? The Criminal Responsibility Of War Veterans Returning From Iraq And Afghanistan With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Thomas L. Hafemeister, Nicole A. Stockey

Indiana Law Journal

As more psychologically scarred troops return from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, society's focus on and concern for these troops and their psychological disorders has increased With this increase and with associated studies confirming the validity of the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) diagnosis and the genuine impact of PTSD on the behavior of war veterans, greater weight may be given to the premise that PTSD is a mental disorder that provides grounds for a "mental status defense, " such as insanity, a lack of mens rea, or self-defense. Although considerable impediments remain, given the current political climate, Iraq and Afghanistan …

The Unabomber Revisited: Reexamining The Use Of Mental Disorder Diagnoses As Evidence Of The Mental Condition Of Criminal Defendants, Adam K. Magid

Indiana Law Journal

This Article revisits a longstanding debate concerning the appropriateness of diagnostic evidence in criminal cases in which a defendant’s mental condition is at issue. As illustrated through a case study of Theodore Kaczynski, more widely known as the “Unabomber,” a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia poses a risk of confounding a judge or jury attempting to ascertain an accurate picture of the mental state of a criminal defendant, specifically by (i) suggesting symptoms not actually present, (ii) creating a distorted picture of symptoms that are present, and (iii) suggesting organic, determinative factors as the mechanism behind a defendant’s actions, even where …

"Lies, Damned Lies, And Statistics"? Psychological Syndrome Evidence In The Courtroom After Daubert, Krista L. Duncan

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Freud And Critical Legal Studies: Contours Of A Radical Socio-Legal Psychoanalysis, David S. Caudill

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Emerging "Victim Factor" In The Supreme Court's Criminal Jurisprudence: Should Victims' Interests Ever Prevent A Court From Overturning A Conviction And Ordering A Retrial?, Roger A. Pauley

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Incompetent Principals, Competent Third Parties, And The Law Of Agency, Alexander M. Meiklejohn

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Jensen And The Science Of Psychometrics: A Legal Perspective - Bias In Mental Testing, By Arthur R. Jensen, Bryant Garth

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Public Law 94-103: An Implied Private Right Of Action To Enforce The Right To Treatment For Institutionalized Mentally Retarded Persons, John Cahalan

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Psychological Stress Evaluator: The Theory, Validity And Legal Status Of An Innovative "Lie Detector", William H. Kenety

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Due Process And The Insanity Defense: The Supreme Court's Retreat From Winship And Mullaney, Jeffrey A. Burger

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Lawyer In The Interviewing And Counselling Process, By Andrew S. Watson, Margaret C. Attridge

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Administrative Discharge Procedures For Involuntary Civilly-Committed Mental Patients: An Alternative, Barbara Woodall Kragie

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Psychologist: A Neglected Legal Resource, Eugene E. Levitt

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Indiana's Sexual Psychopath Act In Operation, Anthony Grannuchi, Susan Jamart Granucchi

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Indiana's Sexual Psychopath Statute, Janet Ruesch Pauls

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Psychiatry And The Dilemmas Of Crime, By Seymour L. Halleck, Andrew S. Watson

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Psychiatric Examination Of Victim-Witnesses Of Sexual Offenses, Edward L. Volk

Indiana Law Journal

Recent Decision

Eugenic Sterilization In Indiana

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Criminal Psychology, Edited By Richard W. Nice, Winfred Overholser

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Private Responsibility For The Costs Of Care In Public Mental Institutions, David W. Mernitz

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Use Of Subnormal Mentality To Discredit

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Mental Incompetence In Indiana: Standards And Types Of Evidence

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Mental Disease And Criminal Responsibility-M'Naghten Versus Durham And The American Law Institute's Tentative Draft, Jerome Hall

Indiana Law Journal

On April 5, 1957 a Conference Panel discussion on Mental Disease and Criminal Responsibility was held at the Harvard Law School during the annual meeting of the First and Second Circuits of the American Law Student Association. The participants were Professor Abram J. Chayes, Harvard, who had assisted in the preparation of the Durham opinion and who presented that view; Professor Herbert Wechsler, Columbia, Chief Reporter of the American Law Institute's Model Penal Code, who presented that view; and Professor Jerome Hall, Indiana, who presented the M'Naghten view. Professor Louis L. Jaffe, Harvard, presided. Unfortunately, Professor Chayes' and Professor Wechsler's …

Administration Of The Criminal Sexual Psychopath Statute In Indiana, Elias S. Cohen

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Due Process Rights Of Mentally Ill Parents In Nonconsensual Adoptions

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.