Law and Psychology Commons^™

The Effects Of The Hypothetical Putative Confession And Negatively-Valenced Yes/No Questions On Maltreated And Non-Maltreated Children's Dislcosure Of A Minor Transgression, Stacia N. Stolzenberg, Kelly Mcwilliams, Thomas D. Lyon

University of Southern California Legal Studies Working Paper Series

This study examined the effects of the hypothetical putative confession (telling children “What if I said that [the suspect] told me everything that happened and he wants you to tell the truth?”) and negatively-valenced yes/no questions varying in their explicitness (“Did [toy] break?” vs. “Did something bad happen to the [toy]?”) on 206 4- to 9-year-old maltreated and non-maltreated children’s reports, half of whom had experienced toy breakage and had been admonished to keep the breakage a secret. The hypothetical putative confession increased the likelihood that children disclosed breakage without increasing false reports. The yes/no questions elicited ...

The Perverse Behavioral Economics Of Disclosing Standard Terms, Tess Wilkinson-Ryan

Faculty Scholarship

In consumer contracting, the ritual of documentation and provision of terms is essentially vestigial, at least as a form of deal-making communication between the parties. This paper starts with a thought experiment: what would it look like to have contracts but no standard terms? Most scholarly and political approaches to the mismatch of contract law and consumer contracting have focused on the information problem in consumer contracting—the difficulty of the required cognitive processing—and thus the proposed solutions have focused on how to make terms more salient or easier to assimilate. I argue that the focus on salience is ...

Familial Influences On Recantation In Substantiated Child Sexual Abuse Cases, Lindsay C. Malloy, Allison P. Mugno, Jillian R. Rivard, Thomas D. Lyon, J A. Quas

University of Southern California Legal Studies Working Paper Series

The underlying reasons for recantation in children’s disclosure of child sexual abuse (CSA) have been debated in recent years. In the present study, we examined the largest sample of substantiated CSA cases involving recantations to date (n = 58 cases). We specifically matched those cases to 58 non-recanters on key variables found to predict recantation in prior research (i.e., child age, alleged parent figure perpetrator, caregiver unsupportiveness). Bivariate analyses revealed that children were less likely to recant when they were (1) initially removed from home post-disclosure, and (2) initially separated from siblings post-disclosure. Multivariate analyses revealed that children were ...

Relations Between Attorney Temporal Structure And Children's Response Productivity In Cases Of Alleged Child Sexual Abuse, J. Zoe Klemfuss, Kyndra C. Cleveland, J A. Quas, Thomas D. Lyon

University of Southern California Legal Studies Working Paper Series

Purpose. Previous research has demonstrated that attorney question format relates to child witness’ response productivity. However, little work has examined the extent to which attorneys provide temporal structure in their questions, and the effects of this structure on children’s responding. The purpose of this study was to address this gap in the literature to identify methods by which attorneys increase children’s response productivity on the stand without risking objections from opposing counsel for ‘calling for narrative answers’.

Methods. In this study, we coded criminal court transcripts involving child witnesses (5–18 years) for narrative structure in attorney questions ...

53. Relations Between Attorney Temporal Structure And Children's Response Productivity In Cases Of Alleged Child Sexual Abuse. Legal And Criminological Psychology, J. Zoe Klemfuss, Kyndra C. Cleveland, Thomas D. Lyon, Jodi A. Quas

Thomas D. Lyon

People With Secrets: Contesting, Constructing, And Resisting Women’S Claims About Sexualized Victimization, Rose Corrigan, Corey S. Shdaimah

Catholic University Law Review

What do sexual assault victims and women charged with prostitution have in common? Both are processed through a criminal justice system where legal actors assess their claims of victimization and either provide or deny resources and recognition in response to those claims. Ideal victim theory posits that not all victims’ claims are treated equally due to static factors such as personal characteristics or case facts. Professor Corrigan and Professor Shdaimah present the Arena of Intelligibility, an original analytical tool developed from their empirical data, to more effectively explain case outcomes for women affected by sexual crimes.

The Arena explains criminal ...

Complexity Analysis: A Preliminary Step Toward A General Systems Theory Of International Law, James L. Hildebrand

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Effectiveness Of Self-Regulatory Gambling Advertising Rules On The Protection Of Minors And Vulnerable Persons (Uk Based Study), Margaret Carran Dr

International Conference on Gambling and Risk Taking

The liberalisation of the gambling advertising facilitated in the UK by the Gambling Act 2005 led to a natural but phenomenal overall expansion of gambling advertising. While any claims that such gambling marketing may lead to harm continue to be strongly contested, it is at least implicitly accepted that some vulnerable persons, including minors, may require specific protection as mandated by the statutory licensing objective. In the UK this is aimed to be achieved by ensuring that gambling advertisements are ‘socially responsible’ and by the timing/placement restrictions. Compliance is monitored by the ASA that also publishes standards-setting Codes and ...

"Where Were Your Clothes?" Eliciting Descriptions Of Clothing Placement From Children Alleging Sexual Abuse In Criminal Trials And Forensic Interviews, Stacia N. Stolzenberg, Thomas D. Lyon

University of Southern California Legal Studies Working Paper Series

Purpose: The present study examined how children alleging sexual abuse are asked about clothing placement during abusive episodes, both in criminal trials and forensic interviews. The placement of clothing is of great importance, because it facilitates distinguishing abusive touch from non-abusive touch, as well as the severity of abuse when the touching is in fact sexual. If clothing has not been removed, then sexual abuse appears less likely and certain types of sexual contact are physically impossible (or at least highly improbable). Methods: We examined how trial attorneys (n = 142) and forensic interviewers in investigative interviews (n = 155) questioned 5- ...

Mental Hygiene Hearings In New York, Gerald Lebovits

Gerald Lebovits

Mental Hygiene Hearings In New York, Gerald Lebovits

Gerald Lebovits

The Online/Offline Cognitive Divide: Implications For Law, Brian Christopher Jones

Brian Christopher Jones

Coming Home: Challenges Related To Reentry And Recidivism For Previously Incarcerated New Mothers, Sarah Ross Perry

College of William & Mary Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis explores the intersection of motherhood, recidivism, and the reentry process for recently incarcerated new mothers. Women were recruited from the Healthy Beginnings Project, a program that works with pregnant, incarcerated women from correctional institutions in the Williamsburg area to provide perinatal education and support. Completed intake and postpartum surveys (n=103) were analyzed for quantitative data on the incremental ability of maternal, psychological, and contextual stressors to predict new mothers' likelihood to recidivate. 34.3% (n=34) of the new mothers recidivated when the child was one to twelve months old. None of the summed stressor variables were ...

52 Malloy Child Maltreatment Family Influences In Press.Pdf, Lindsay C. Malloy, Allison P. Mugno, Jillian R. Rivard, Jodi A. Quas, Thomas D. Lyon

Thomas D. Lyon

52. Familial Influences On Recantation In Substantiated Child Sexual Abuse Cases., Lindsay C. Malloy, Allison P. Mugno, Jillian R. Rivard, Jodi A. Quas, Thomas D. Lyon

Thomas D. Lyon

Attorney Questions Predict Jury-Eligible Adult Assessments Of Attorneys, Child Witnesses, And Defendant Guilt, Allison P. Mugno, J. Zoe Klemfuss, Thomas D. Lyon

University of Southern California Legal Studies Working Paper Series

Children are often the primary source of evidence in maltreatment cases, particularly cases of child sexual abuse, and may be asked to testify in court. Although best-practice protocols for interviewing children suggest that interviewers ask open-ended questions to elicit detailed responses from children, during in-court testimony, attorneys tend to rely on closed-ended questions that elicit simple (often “yes” or “no”) responses (e.g., Andrews, Lamb, & Lyon, 2015; Klemfuss, Quas, & Lyon, 2014). How then are jurors making decisions about children’s credibility and ultimately the case outcome? The present study examined the effect of two attorney-specific factors (e.g., temporal structure and questioning ...

In Her Words: Recognizing And Preventing Abusive Litigation Against Domestic Violence Survivors, David Ward

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Don’T Risk It; Wait Until She’S Sober, Patrick John White

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Let’S Invest In People, Not Prisons: How Washington State Should Address Its Ex-Offender Unemployment Rate, Sara Taboada

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

His Feminist Facade: The Neoliberal Co-Option Of The Feminist Movement, Anjilee Dodge, Myani Gilbert

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.