Law and Psychology Commons^™

Breaking The Cycle: An Exploratory Study Of Alternative Solutions For Mentally Ill Adults In The Criminal Justice System, Lindsey Whitley

Masters Theses

Mental illness is a prevalent issue and many times individuals diagnosed with a mental illness are repeat offenders within the criminal justice system; therefore, it is important to understand the problems at hand and find ways to handle the problems, or best yet take preventative measures to stop the problems from ever occurring. The literature review and interviews show that the criminal justice system seems to be handling mental illness in the best way possible with the current resources that are available to them. However, the literature review and interviews also show that an increase in resources and training on ...

Today's Porn: Not A Constitutional Right; Not A Human Right, Patrick Trueman

Dignity: A Journal on Sexual Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Inextricably Bound: Strip Clubs, Prostitution, And Sex Trafficking, Dan O'Bryant

Dignity: A Journal on Sexual Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Why We Must Oppose The Full Decriminalization Of Prostitution, Taina Bien-Aime

Dignity: A Journal on Sexual Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Cleaning Up The Standards Of The Mental Hygiene Law: State V. Dennis K. And Civil Commitment, Maria Benvenuto

Boston College Journal of Law & Social Justice

On July 5, 2016, in State v. Dennis K., the Court of Appeals of New York upheld the civil commitment of two individuals in accordance with article 10 of the Mental Hygiene Law. The majority relied on the testimony of expert witnesses and the individuals’ past criminal records to classify them as possessing a “mental abnormality” that predisposes them to commit sexual offenses, a necessary element of a civil commitment finding. The court ultimately found the evidence presented sufficient to make this classification and indefinitely restrict the freedom of such individuals. In contrast, the dissent emphasized the lack of certainty ...

Introduction: Forging The Path Forward: Critical Conversations From Title Ix: History, Legacy, And Controversy, Valorie K. Vojdik

Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender, & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

The Transformative Potential Of Attorney Bilingualism, Jayesh M. Rathod

Jayesh Rathod

In contemporary U.S. law practice, attorney bilingualism is increasingly valued, primarily because it allows lawyers to work more efficiently and to pursue a broader range of professional opportunities. This purely functionalist conceptualization of attorney bilingualism, however, ignores the surprising ways in which multilingualism can enhance a lawyer's professional work and can strengthen and reshape relationships among actors in the U.S. legal milieu. Drawing upon research from psychology, linguistics, and other disciplines, this Article advances a theory of the transformative potential of attorney bilingualism. Looking first to the development of lawyers themselves, the Article posits that attorneys who ...

The Irrational Actor In The Ceo Suite: Implications For Corporate Governance, Renee M. Jones

Renee Jones

This Article challenges corporate governance theorists’ standard assumptions regarding the rationality of business leaders. It reviews scholarly research that documents the presence of irrational actors among senior corporate managers and considers the impact these executives might have on corporations and society. The Article focuses analysis on psychological literature that explores why risk-related decision-making often goes wrong.

Research shows that many individuals have a dysfunctional approach to risk that leads them to engage in self-destructive conduct. A non-trivial number of individuals with problematic personality traits work at high levels of major corporations where they have the capacity to cause significant harm ...

Radio Dispatch Cognitive Abilities And Working Memory, David A. Buitron

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Public safety radio dispatchers incontrovertibly have to manage multiple tasks at any given time, from relaying lifesaving information to field units, to simultaneously overseeing several monitors and keeping up with the radio transmissions in a timely manner. Interestingly, however, the underlying cognitive abilities necessitated for performing such tasks have not been thoroughly investigated. To begin understanding the cognitive faculties that underlie dispatching tasks, we gauged cognitive ability measures relevant to dispatcher duties and introduced Working Memory Capacity (WMC) as underlying the differentiation on performance. The four general dispatcher cognitive factors identified by Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) literature, were ...

The Irrational Actor In The Ceo Suite: Implications For Corporate Governance, Renee M. Jones

Boston College Law School Faculty Papers

This Article challenges corporate governance theorists’ standard assumptions regarding the rationality of business leaders. It reviews scholarly research that documents the presence of irrational actors among senior corporate managers and considers the impact these executives might have on corporations and society. The Article focuses analysis on psychological literature that explores why risk-related decision-making often goes wrong.

Research shows that many individuals have a dysfunctional approach to risk that leads them to engage in self-destructive conduct. A non-trivial number of individuals with problematic personality traits work at high levels of major corporations where they have the capacity to cause significant harm ...

Neurorhetoric, Race, And The Law: Toxic Neural Pathways And Healing Alternatives, Lucy Jewel

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Incarceration And Societal Reintegration On Mental Health, Veronica Wicks

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine ex-offender’s beliefs on the impact of incarceration and societal reintegration on mental health. The study is a qualitative design using interviews that were audio recorded and transcribed for analysis. The study sought to address the relationship between perceptions of mental health and experiences of incarceration and reintegration among formerly incarcerated individuals. The following themes emerged from participant responses: incarceration challenges, mental health stigma, and rehabilitation service accessibility. The findings of this study may contribute to social work practice by providing awareness to the factors impacting ex-offenders’ mental health and interventions needed ...

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 ...

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 choosing fillers (i.e., lineup members who are not the suspect) in lineups or photo arrays, it is possible that lineup constructors will choose fillers that do not match the phenotype expression of a suspect, increasing the risk that the suspect will stand out from among the other members of the lineup and that the lineup will be unfair. It is also possible that the racial stereotype associated with the crime under investigation may influence the phenotype expression of fillers chosen by lineup constructors (Kleider, Cavarak & Knuycky, 2012; Knuycky, Kleider & Cavarak, 2014; Osborne & Davies, 2012). This study employed four phases to test whether phenotypic bias affects lineup fairness. Phase 1 and 2 developed the stimulus materials. Phase 3 had participants construct lineups in a 2 (Construction method: match-to-suspect or match-to-description) x 3 (Crime type: stereotypically Black, stereotypically White or blind) x 2 (Suspect level of African phenotype expression: high or ...

Ask Versus Tell: Potential Confusion When Child Witnesses Are Questioned About Conversastions, Stacia N. Stolzenberg, Kelly Mcwilliams, Thomas D. Lyon

University of Southern California Legal Studies Working Paper Series

Children’s potential confusion between “ask” and “tell” can lead to misunderstandings when child witnesses are asked to report prior conversations. The verbs distinguish both between interrogating and informing and between requesting and commanding. Children’s understanding was examined using both field (i.e., Study 1) and laboratory (i.e., Studies 2-4) methods. Study 1 examined 100 5- to 12-year-olds’ trial testimony in child sexual abuse cases, and found that potentially ambiguous use of ask and tell was common, typically found in yes/no questions that elicited unelaborated answers, and virtually never clarified by attorneys or child witnesses. Studies 2-4 ...

59. Ask Versus Tell: Potential Confusion When Child Witnesses Are Questioned About Conversations, Stacia N. Stolzenberg, Kelly Mcwilliams, Thomas D. Lyon

Thomas D. Lyon

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 ...

Challenging The Credibility Of Alleged Victims Of Child Sexual Abuse In Scottish Courts, Zsofia Szojka, Samantha J. Andrews, Michael E. Lamb, Stacia N. Stolzenberg, Thomas D. Lyon

University of Southern California Legal Studies Working Paper Series

This study examined the effects of credibility-challenging questions (n = 2,729) on 62 5- to 17-year-olds’ testimony in child sexual abuse cases in Scotland by categorizing the type, source, and content of the credibility-challenging questions defence lawyers asked and assessing how children responded. Credibility-challenging questions comprised 14.9% of all questions asked during cross-examination. Of defence lawyers’ credibility-challenging questions, 77.8% focused generally on children’s honesty, whereas the remainder referred to specific inconsistencies in the children’s testimony. Children resisted credibility challenges 54% of the time, significantly more often than they provided compliant responses (26.8%). The tendency to ...

Pragmatic Failure And Referential Ambiguity When Attorneys Ask Child Witnesses "Do You Know/Remember" Questions, Angela D. Evans, Stacia N. Stolzenberg, Thomas D. Lyon

University of Southern California Legal Studies Working Paper Series

“Do you know” and “Do you remember” (DYK/R) questions explicitly ask whether one knows or remembers some information while implicitly asking for that information. This study examined how 104 4- to 9-year-old children testifying in child sexual abuse cases responded to DYK/R wh- and yes/no questions. When asked DYK/R questions containing an implicit wh- question requesting information, children often provided unelaborated “Yes” responses. Attorneys’ follow-up questions suggested that children usually misunderstood the pragmatics of the questions. When DYK/R questions contained an implicit yes/no question, unelaborated “Yes” or “No” responses could be responding to the ...

Buying Happiness: Property, Acquisition, And Subjective Well-Being, David Fagundes

William & Mary Law Review

Acquiring property is a central part of the modern American vision of the good life. The assumption that accruing more land or chattels will make us better off is so central to the contemporary preoccupation with acquisition that it typically goes without saying. Yet an increasing body of evidence from psychologists and economists who study hedonics—the science of happiness—yields the surprising conclusion that getting and having property does not actually increase our subjective well-being. In fact, it might even decrease it. While scholars have integrated the insights of hedonics into other areas of law, no scholarship has yet ...