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Articles 1 - 24 of 24
Full-Text Articles in Law and Psychology
An Archival Exploration Of Lineup Fairness In Eyewitness Research, Phoebe Kane
An Archival Exploration Of Lineup Fairness In Eyewitness Research, Phoebe Kane
Student Theses
In this study, we were interested in investigating if the Betaface facial analysis program reliably predicts eyewitness lineup choosing behavior. If face analysis programs are as good or better than human judgements, using them could be a reliably more efficient, reproducible, and equitable basis for choosing fillers and evaluating lineup fairness. We collected 27 datasets from eyewitness researchers and analyzed them to produce Betaface similarity values, which measured the similarity between all the photos in each array. We compared these Betaface data to the identification data from the original studies. Our analysis of the arrays via Betaface yielded data with …
The Association Between Mental Health Diagnoses And Trial Competency Assessments In Defendants: A Meta-Analysis, Danielle C. Severe
The Association Between Mental Health Diagnoses And Trial Competency Assessments In Defendants: A Meta-Analysis, Danielle C. Severe
Student Theses
In the realm of trial competency evaluations, there are a variety of methods used to evaluate whether an individual is fit to stand trial. Presently, forensic psychologists conduct trial competency evaluations in order to assess one’s ability to stand trial, but for persons with a mental health diagnosis, the generic competency measures are not the most effective means to assess one’s ability to stand trial, as mental health diagnoses impair cognitive functions that are required in judicial proceedings. Forensic psychologists have opted to utilize other assessment methods such as the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool – Criminal Adjudication [MacCAT-CA] and Fitness …
Inducing Empathy In Jurors In A Capital Penalty Phase Trial: An Examination Of How To Reduce Jurors' Death Sentence Decisions, Klaudia Zuraw
Inducing Empathy In Jurors In A Capital Penalty Phase Trial: An Examination Of How To Reduce Jurors' Death Sentence Decisions, Klaudia Zuraw
Student Theses
The present research explores whether inducing empathy in death-qualified mock jurors leads to fewer death sentences in a penalty phase trial. Previous research has shown that inducing empathy in jurors leads to lesser sentences and perceived responsibility of the perpetrator for the crime. However, none of this research has examined death penalty cases, and most have focused on instances where the victim was also the perpetrator of a separate crime against the defendant (e.g., abuse). Extending this line of research, the present study examines whether these results extend to instances where the perpetrator and victim are strangers. Additionally, considering the …
Traumatized Defendants, Troubled Attorneys: The Impact Of Vicarious Trauma On The Defense Attorney-Client Relationship, Charise Peters
Traumatized Defendants, Troubled Attorneys: The Impact Of Vicarious Trauma On The Defense Attorney-Client Relationship, Charise Peters
Student Theses
Approximately 90% of justice-involved youth have experienced some form of trauma by the time they become involved in the justice system, and attorneys report being negatively impacted by their work with trauma-exposed populations generally. Yet, research has not focused on how varying degrees of youth trauma can impact attorney decisions and if that differs based on youth race. This study, therefore, explored vicarious trauma and its impact on juvenile defense attorneys, including how an attorney’s experience of vicarious trauma impacts case handling and perception of their youth client and how that differs based on client race and trauma history. We …
Perception Of Police And The Mediation Of Memory Distortion Via Trauma: Body Worn Camera Footage Of An Emotional Police-Citizen Encounter, Arlyn Abreu
Student Theses
This present study calls to question the objectivity of police body-worn camera (BWC) footage. Proponents assume that BWCs will be a panacea in a climate of heightened tensions between officers and communities. In spite of this, our findings challenge the rhetoric, and the purpose BWC is intended to serve. We explored its implications on memory distortion by posing two questions (a) can people come to remember BWC footage as more traumatic than they initially experienced (b) to what degree can external information and internal influences impact peoples' judgment about a traumatic event. We addressed both questions in this two-part study, …
Intellectual Disability, Risk, And Recidivism In An American Sample Of Incarcerated Sexual Offenders, Perry A. Callahan
Intellectual Disability, Risk, And Recidivism In An American Sample Of Incarcerated Sexual Offenders, Perry A. Callahan
Student Theses
Research suggests that intellectual disabilities (ID) are prevalent among people who sexually offend. Those with ID may differ from their non-disabled counterparts with regard to risk factors associated with recidivism. Additionally, actuarial measures of risk, which are used to make determinations on sentencing and civil commitment, appear to differ in their predictive accuracy among individuals with and without ID. Despite this, little data exists on recidivism in this population, particularly among incarcerated individuals in the United States. The present study sought to compare individuals with and without ID on rates of re-offense, actuarial risk scores, and rates of civil commitment. …
The Coercion Of The Trial Penalty, Kristen C. Akin
The Coercion Of The Trial Penalty, Kristen C. Akin
Student Theses
Prosecutors, defendants, and defense attorneys must make decisions as to whether to accept a plea offer or proceed to trial every day. Approximately 95% of state and federal convictions result from guilty pleas (Redlich et al., 2017; Thaxton, 2013; Gazal-Ayal & Tor, 2012; Redlich & Shteynberg, 2016; Edkins, 2011; Weatherly & Kehn, 2013; Helm et al., 2018; Gregory et al., 1978). Some estimate this number to be as high as 97% to 99% (Redlich & Bonventre, 2015; Helm et al., 2018). It is also estimated that every two seconds a defendant pleads guilty (Redlich & Bonventre, 2015). In 1980, 19% …
Children’S Ability To Understand And Respond To Wh- Questions About The Mechanics Of Abuse, Kaileigh P. Conti
Children’S Ability To Understand And Respond To Wh- Questions About The Mechanics Of Abuse, Kaileigh P. Conti
Student Theses
One type of forensically-relevant information that can be difficult to obtain is that pertaining to the “mechanics of abuse.” More specifically, information that includes the descriptions of body positioning and clothing placement. Generally, the recommended strategy for questioning children in legal and forensic settings is to use broad invitations (e.g., “Tell me everything that happened”) and wh- questions (e.g., who, what, where, when, why, how). However, when it comes to the mechanics of abuse, there is some conflicting evidence. Some research suggests open-ended wh- questions are best in cases where the mechanics are hard to describe (e.g., intermediate clothing placement) …
Individuals Who Have Been Convicted Of A Sex Offense: Attitudes On Legislation And Policy, Brenna L. Scott
Individuals Who Have Been Convicted Of A Sex Offense: Attitudes On Legislation And Policy, Brenna L. Scott
Student Theses
Sex offender legislation, both at the state and federal level, was designed to keep communities safer. However research suggests that many of these laws do not decrease recidivism and in some cases may increase risk for reoffending. Despite this there has been little movement to repeal these laws. As such, it is important to understand how the current legislation impacts individuals who have committed a sex offense and their ability to successfully reintegrate into communities post-incarceration and what if anything can be done to improve existing laws. The current study surveyed 46 individuals convicted of sex offenses about their opinions …
Parental Plea Bargain Recommendations To Their Child In A Juvenile Court Setting, Aliya J. Birnbaum
Parental Plea Bargain Recommendations To Their Child In A Juvenile Court Setting, Aliya J. Birnbaum
Student Theses
This study examined parent acquiescence to attorney recommendations pertaining to plea bargain decisions, as well as whether this differed based on the racial similarity between an attorney and their juvenile client’s parent. Past research has shown that youth are vulnerable to the influence of perceived authority figures in a plea-bargain setting, leading them to rely heavily on the input of their parents and attorneys for how to plead. This study expands the literature to include how attorney race impacts parents’ plea decisions. A sample of parents of youth aged 11- 17 read a vignette, in which attorney race was manipulated, …
Quantitative And Qualitative Assessment Of Interrogation Expectations, Shereen R. Lewis
Quantitative And Qualitative Assessment Of Interrogation Expectations, Shereen R. Lewis
Student Theses
Interrogation expectations (IE) is a construct that suggests expectations of custodial interrogations affect suspects’ Miranda waiver decisions while under interrogation. Prior research has examined IE quantitatively but there has been no prior research examining IE qualitatively. This current research conducted both a quantitative and qualitative analysis of IE using a sample of 335 participants from the United States. This research took the form of an online survey using Prolific (www.prolific.co) to recruit participants, Qualtrics (www.qualtrics.com) to record data, and SPSS and Nvivo to analyze quantitative qualitative data. It was hypothesized that substantial individual variation in IE will be found in …
Litigation Strategies For Suggestive Identification Evidence, Elaina Welch
Litigation Strategies For Suggestive Identification Evidence, Elaina Welch
Student Theses
To determine the best litigation strategy for defense attorneys presented with suggestive eyewitness evidence, I tested the influence of identifications obtained through in-court and out-of-court identification procedures on jurors’ decision-making. I recruited Mock jurors through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) (N = 375) to watch a videotaped simulation of a robbery trial in which I varied whether the eyewitness made an in-court or out-of-court identification and the suggestiveness of the out-of-court identification procedure. Watching a trial with either an in-court or out-of-court identification procedure increased jurors’ likelihood to convict. Mock jurors who viewed a trial with an out-of-court identification procedure …
Juveniles Tried As Adults:The Impact Of Youth Demographic Factors On Juror Perceptions, Denieka Ellis
Juveniles Tried As Adults:The Impact Of Youth Demographic Factors On Juror Perceptions, Denieka Ellis
Student Theses
Abstract: This study explored the impact of defendant age, race and stereotypic crime on verdicts and recommended sentencing of juveniles tried as adults. Previous research shows that jurors enter trial with negative preconceptions and biases of juveniles because they are being tried within an adult venue. These negative preconceptions have led jurors to recommend harsher sentencing for juveniles rather than adults with the same defendant characteristics and criminal history. Crime type and crime severity have also been shown to impact perceptions of juvenile defendants in adult court. However, research has not yet explored the potential impact that stereotypic crime—a crime …
Felony Disenfranchisement: Factors Relating To Support For Restoration, Alexis K. Karpf
Felony Disenfranchisement: Factors Relating To Support For Restoration, Alexis K. Karpf
Student Theses
Felony Disenfranchisement, a collateral consequence, strips justice-involved individuals of their voting rights. While this policy is enacted in 48 states and the District of Columbia, a majority of community members are unaware of its existence. The current study used three hypotheses to guide its research about how education about disenfranchisement policy impacts a community member's opinion:1) Participants exposed to information about the effects of disenfranchisement will be more supportive of enfranchisement than those in the control condition; 2) Participants who receive the vignette featuring the White justice-involved individual will indicate a higher level of support for enfranchisement compared to those …
The Role Of Eyewitness Confidence And Prosecution/Defense Presentation In How Facial Composites Shape Juror Decision-Making, Rebecca E. Singh
The Role Of Eyewitness Confidence And Prosecution/Defense Presentation In How Facial Composites Shape Juror Decision-Making, Rebecca E. Singh
Student Theses
Eyewitness testimony has been found to be an unreliable form of evidence (Loftus, Miller & Burns, 1978; Oswald & Coleman, 2007; Wells & Hasel, 2007; Loftus & Greenspan, 2017; Jaross, 2018; Wade, Nash, & Lindsay, 2018; Wixted, Mickes, & Fisher, 2018). Yet, this evidence is still used in the courts today, and, in fact, is perceived by jurors as important and compelling in comparison to other case factors (e.g., character evidence, physical evidence; Topp-Manriquez, McQuiston, & Malpass, 2014; Kabzińska, 2015). Additionally, eyewitnesses are sometimes requested to help create a facial composite of the suspect and, critically, these composites are then …
911 Dispatchers: Investigating Their Knowledge Of Eyewitness Evidence Collection, Samantha A. Kosziollek
911 Dispatchers: Investigating Their Knowledge Of Eyewitness Evidence Collection, Samantha A. Kosziollek
Student Theses
911 dispatchers are often the first contact in an emergency, playing a critical role in the investigative process. Presently, a new bill is seeking to nationally reclassify these communications officers, recognizing them as vital first responders, as their initial collection of eyewitness evidence aid in the attainment of crucial information and detailed descriptions of an accident or crime. However, only one study (Kassis, 2017), to date, has examined the training of 911 dispatchers, as well as their self-reported knowledge of the potential influences their language could have on an eyewitness’ memory. While this research highlighted disparities between the perceived role …
Linguistic Features Of False Confessions And Confessions Not In Dispute: A Corpus Analysis, Lucrezia Rizzelli
Linguistic Features Of False Confessions And Confessions Not In Dispute: A Corpus Analysis, Lucrezia Rizzelli
Student Theses
Confessions are considered the gold standard of evidence, and yet many cases of false confessions causing wrongful convictions have come to the surface in the past decades. Currently, a method to identify false confessions does not exist and studies focusing on the content of the confessions have found similarities rather than points of distinction. In this study, we approached confessions from a stylistic rather than qualitative point of view, utilizing corpus analysis to outline the linguistic features of two samples of confessions: false confessions (n=37) and confessions not in dispute (n=98). Subsequently, we created a model …
The Influences Of Education, Antisocial Behavior, And Involvement In The Criminal Justice System On Adult Legal Understanding, Lily Alpers, Mark Fondacaro
The Influences Of Education, Antisocial Behavior, And Involvement In The Criminal Justice System On Adult Legal Understanding, Lily Alpers, Mark Fondacaro
Student Theses
The current study examined the legal understanding and decision-making capacities of young adults compared to older adults. Furthermore, the current study examined these two age groups on the basis of a history of criminal justice involvement, antisocial behavior, and education level, in order to determine whether these variables also affect legal understanding and decision-making. One hundred and one subjects participated in this study, grouped by age into younger adults (18-34 years old) and older adults (35 years and older). The results of the current study found that participants with the lowest levels of education performed more poorly on the measure …
Brace For Impact: The Effects Of Victim Impact Evidence And Judicial Instructions On Juror Memory Distortion And Sentencing Decisions In Capital Trials, Auset E. Alexander
Brace For Impact: The Effects Of Victim Impact Evidence And Judicial Instructions On Juror Memory Distortion And Sentencing Decisions In Capital Trials, Auset E. Alexander
Student Theses
The utilization of visual evidence in the courtroom has increased exponentially in an effort to portray additional information that cannot otherwise be established via forensic evidence and expert testimony. According to Rule 403 of the Federal Rules of Evidence (1984), visual evidence may be permitted in court if the prejudicial value does not significantly outweigh the probative value. The admissibility of visual evidence however, becomes controversial when combined with victim impact statements (VIS) during the penalty phase of capital trials.
Previous research has indicated that jurors are often unable to perceive emotional testimony and subsequently make objective sentencing decisions that …
Bait Questions As Source Of Misinformation In Police Interviews: Does Race Or Age Of The Suspect Increase Jurors' Memory Errors?, Matilde Ascheri
Bait Questions As Source Of Misinformation In Police Interviews: Does Race Or Age Of The Suspect Increase Jurors' Memory Errors?, Matilde Ascheri
Student Theses
Bait questions—hypothetical questions about evidence, often used by detectives during interrogations—can activate the misinformation effect and alter jurors’ perceptions of the evidence of a case. Here, we were interested in investigating whether mock jurors’ implicit biases could amplify the magnitude of the misinformation effect. We accomplished this by manipulating the age and race of the suspect being interrogated. As an extension of Luke et al. (2017), we had participants read a police report describing evidence found at a crime scene, then read a transcript of a police interrogation where the detective used bait questions to introduce new evidence not presented …
Prior Mental Health Treatment And Mental Health Court Program Outcomes, Lauren Rubenstein
Prior Mental Health Treatment And Mental Health Court Program Outcomes, Lauren Rubenstein
Student Theses
In response to the high volume of mentally ill individuals involved in the criminal justice system, mental health courts have emerged as an alternative to incarceration for these individuals. Based on the literature, it is hypothesized that participants with a history of prior mental health treatment will have better outcomes in MHC programs, including more compliant behavior and more successful completion of the program than participants with no history of prior mental health treatment. The findings of this research can be used in order to help MHC programs better accommodate all participants regardless of their treatment history.
Details In Testimony: How Hedge Words Influence People’S Perceptions Of Victim Testimony Credibility, Justine B. Rayborn
Details In Testimony: How Hedge Words Influence People’S Perceptions Of Victim Testimony Credibility, Justine B. Rayborn
Student Theses
The purpose of this study was to examine whether hedge words and the age of a memory can influence the way participants (mock jurors) perceive an alleged sexual assault victim’s credibility. Prior research has demonstrated many issues that can affect the accuracy of memory for childhood events such as childhood amnesia, fragmented and distorted memories, false memories and source monitoring errors and the way in which jurors’ decisions can be swayed based on verbal cues to confidence. Here, we further investigated whether jurors' decisions are sensitive to the age of the memory—an event that happened in the recent or distant …
The Effect Of Phenotypic Bias On Lineup Construction Fairness, Sydney Y. Wood
The Effect Of Phenotypic Bias On Lineup Construction Fairness, Sydney Y. Wood
Student Theses
There is converging evidence that people make inferences about others’ culpability and deservingness of punishment based on whether they express more of the African phenotype (e.g., darker skin, wider nose, thicker lips; Blair, Judd, & Chapleau, 2004; Eberhardt Goff, Purdie & Davies, 2004; Kahn & Davies, 2011). What is less clear is whether facial features that are phenotypically related to particular racial groups play a role in the mistaken identification of innocent Black suspects. Eyewitness descriptions lack detail with regard to racial phenotypes (Fahsing, Ask & Granhag, 2004; Nicholson & Kovera, 2013). Without descriptions containing phenotypic features to use when …
Tattoos And Criminal Behavior: An Examination Of The Relationship Between Body Art And Crime, Daniel D. Dajani
Tattoos And Criminal Behavior: An Examination Of The Relationship Between Body Art And Crime, Daniel D. Dajani
Student Theses
This thesis investigates the relationship between having tattoos and crime. A review of past research concerning tattoos, crime and other forms of deviancy demonstrates that a relationship exists to some extent. This thesis gathers new data concerning tattoos and crime and adds to the knowledge base by examining the alterations in the correlation and what may be causing said alterations. This thesis utilized the survey method and participants were recruited via a mix of in-person and online strategies. We aimed to garner participation from a varied group of respondents that would ensure data relevant to the study would be produced …