Law Commons^™

Loss Aversion And The Law, Eyal Zamir

Vanderbilt Law Review

According to the rational choice theory of human behavior-the predominant theory in economics and an influential theory in other disciplines, including law-people strive to enhance their own well- being. Among the available options, they rationally choose the one that would maximize their expected utility, determined in absolute terms.

Offender Profiling And Expert Testimony: Scientifically Valid Or Glorified Results?, James A. George

Vanderbilt Law Review

A hallmark of Sherlock Holmes is his ability to solve complex crimes with well-staged performances. His flair for the shrewd and dramatic apprehension of a suspect in an inscrutable case often left his loyal companion Watson in awe, the local police investigators mystified, and the perpetrator thwarted. Holmes's admirers speculated that he must have had a special gift, maybe even psychic powers, which allowed him to solve any case. In reality, as Holmes always explained to his slow-witted companions, it was his insightful, rational, and logical approach to solving the mystery that inexorably led him to the solution.

Depictions of …

Fundamental Retribution Error: Criminal Justice And The Social Psychology Of Blame, Donald A. Dripps

Vanderbilt Law Review

At least since the M'Naghten case of the 1840s,' Anglo- American criminal law has concerned itself closely, famously, and contentiously with the psychology of the accused. Another significant body of scholarship addresses the psychology of juries, and other valuable research has approached some of the rules of criminal evidence from the perspective of social and cognitive psychology. There has, however, yet to be a general investigation of what social cognition research might teach us about the criminal law's pervasive concern with blameworthiness.

This Article undertakes that investigation. It brings research on the psychology of social cognition to bear on the …

Behavioral Theories Of Judgment And Decision Making In Legal Scholarship: A Literature Review, Donald C. Langevoort

Vanderbilt Law Review

Nearly all interesting legal issues require accurate predictions about human behavior to be resolved satisfactorily. Judges, policy- makers, and academics invoke mental models of individual and social behavior whenever they estimate the desirability of alternative rules, policies, or procedures. Contemporary legal scholarship has come to recognize that if these predictions are naive and intuitive, without any strong empirical grounding, they are susceptible to error and ideological bias. Something more rigorous is thus expected when normative claims are advanced, and the place of the social sciences has expanded in legal discourse to satisfy this expectation.'

Three branches of the social sciences-economics, …

The Legal Implications Of Psychology: Human Behavior, Behavioral Economics, And The Law Symposium: The Legal Implications Of Psychology Human Behavior, Behavioral Economics, And The Law, Stephen D. Hurd

Vanderbilt Law Review

Nearly all interesting legal issues require accurate predictions about human behavior to be resolved satisfactorily. Judges, policy- makers, and academics invoke mental models of individual and social behavior whenever they estimate the desirability of alternative rules, policies, or procedures. Contemporary legal scholarship has come to recognize that if these predictions are naive and intuitive, without any strong empirical grounding, they are susceptible to error and ideological bias. Something more rigorous is thus expected when normative claims are advanced, and the place of the social sciences has expanded in legal discourse to satisfy this expectation.'

Three branches of the social sciences-economics, …

The Constitutional Dilemma Of A Person Predisposed To Criminal Behavior, John A. Chandler, Stanley F. Rose

Vanderbilt Law Review

The basic premise of American criminal jurisprudence is that individuals are capable of controlling their behavior.' The threat of incarceration is intended to be a deterrent to antisocial conduct. State and federal penal systems are called "correctional institutions"--implying that a person is incarcerated in order to modify unacceptable behavior. Criminal laws are drafted with goals of discouraging antisocial conduct,punishing and reforming the guilty, and protecting society against dangerous individuals. The first two purposes are served only if a person can respond to negative reinforcement by conducting himself in socially acceptable ways. Individuals incapable of controlling antisocial behavior are not accounted …

Civil Liability For Causing Suicide: A Synthesis Of Law And Psychiatry, Victor E. Schwartz

Vanderbilt Law Review

If suicide is a deliberate, intentional act by an individual, how can one person be "civilly liable for causing the suicide of another"? The paradox suggested by this question has caused many courts to shy away from imposing civil liability for causing suicide.' In certain situations,however, a growing number of courts are permitting recovery. Since suicide is on the increase both in numerical terms and in rank as a cause of death in the United States it can be expected that even more tort claims will be brought by parties attempting to fix civil responsibility on someone other than their …

Subnormal Mentality As A Defense In The Criminal Law, John E.V. Pieski

Vanderbilt Law Review

Although little is left of the theory which ascribed to mental deficiency causative force in criminal conduct, the entire episode taught at least two valuable lessons to modem criminologists. First, it served as a warning against superficial research and hasty conclusions, thus inducing subsequent scholars to take a more scientific approach to similar problems. Second, it aided in alerting others that, although not all or even most criminals are mentally deficient, there are an appreciable number of criminals who possess a subnormal mentality, and who must be reckoned within the criminal law. Notwithstanding that the legal profession has utilized the …