Law Commons^™

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 …

A Behavioral Theory Of Legal Ethics, Andrew M. Perlman

Indiana Law Journal

Behavioral insights have informed many areas of law, including the field of professional responsibility. Those insights, however, have had only a modest effect on the foundational theories of legal ethics, even though those theories are, at their core, prescriptions about human behavior. The reality is that lawyers’ conduct cannot be understood, theorized about, or used to produce the best possible regulations without an appreciation for the limits on human rationality and objectivity. A behavioral theory of legal ethics offers a way to incorporate those realties into the foundational debates on a lawyer’s professional role so that scholars can produce more …

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 …

Interdisciplinary Psychology And Law Training In Family And Child Mediation: An Empirical Study Of The Effects On Law Student Mediators, Amy Applegate, Amy Holtzworth-Munroe, Brittany N. Rudd, Ann Freeman, Brian D'Onofrio

Articles by Maurer Faculty

There is growing interest in interdisciplinary training programs for law students. The goal of these programs is to prepare law students for the real world interdisciplinary settings they will face in their careers. However, there exists little research to provide evidence of the utility of such training. This study examined the effectiveness of an interdisciplinary psychology and law training program on law students using a multi-method approach (i.e., knowledge tests and focus group discussion). Findings suggest that interdisciplinary training of law students increased law students’ knowledge of law and psychology, was enjoyed by law students, and had a beneficial impact …

"Why Rebottle The Genie?": Capitalizing On Closure In Death Penalty Proceedings, Jody L. Madeira

Indiana Law Journal

Closure, though a term with great rhetorical force in the capital punishment context, has to date evaded systematic analysis, instead becoming embroiled in ideological controversy. For victims who have rubbed the rights lamp for years, inclusion in capital proceedings and accompanying closure opportunities are perceived as a force with the potential to grant wishes of peace and finality. Scholars, however, argue for rebottling the closure genie lest closure itself prove false or its pursuit violate a defendant's constitutional rights. In order to effectively appraise the relationship of closure to criminal jurisprudence, however, and thus to decide whether and to what …

Law And The Emotions: The Problems Of Affective Forecasting, Jeremy A. Blumenthal

Indiana Law Journal

Legal scholarship on "behavioralism" and the implications of cognitive biases for the law is flourishing. In parallel with the rise of such commentary, legal scholars have begun to discuss the role of the emotions in legal discourse. This discussion often addresses the "appropriateness" of various emotions for the substantive law, or attempts to model the place of the emotions in the law. Implicit in some of these theories, however, and explicit in others, is the assumption that emotions are "predictable," "manageable, "and (for some commentators) under conscious control. This assumption is belied by psychological research on affective forecasting that demonstrates …

A Psychologist's Perspective On Capital Juries, Steven J. Sherman

Indiana Law Journal

Symposium: Toward A Model Death Penalty Code: The Massachusetts Governor's Council Report.

The Capital Jury Project: The Role Of Responsibility And How Psychology Can Inform The Law, Steven J. Sherman

Indiana Law Journal

Symposium: The Capital Jury Project

The Limits Of A Scientific Jurisprudence: The Supreme Court And Psychology, J. Alexander Tanford

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Judicial Incentives: Some Evidence From Urban Trial Courts, Greg A. Caldeira

IUSTITIA

In the following pages, I shall outline the basics of a method for studying the motivations of trial judges - or any public officials, for that matter - that I find particularly interesting and fruitful - "incentive theory". The use of incentive theory is, in my view, a preliminary contribution to an ongoing movement to fill glaring gaps in the literature on judicial motivation and trial judging.

The Runaways, Richard David Young

IUSTITIA

At the present stage of development, the varied literature on runaway children and adolescents provides little basis for firm conclusions. The apparent heterogeneity of runaways has yet to be fully realized in conceptual or research attempts, although efforts in that direction are beginning. There appears to be little utility or meaning in assigning runaway behavior solely to categories of delinquency or psychopathology. Such efforts have done little to clarify the meaning of running away or to define the important environmental factors and personality features involved in running away. To some extent their greatest impact has been on the restriction of …

The Abused Child And His Parents, Richard David Young

IUSTITIA

Children in our society pass through a prolonged period of dependency during which they are taught the complex technological and social skills necessary for successful adult functioning. The child's experiences during this period can have profound effects on the development of his potential for meaningful interpersonal relationships, competency, and creativity. The child's dependence needs are the complement of the caretaker's nurturance. When nurturance fails or is inconsistent, societal loss merges with individual tragedy. Yet nurturance does occasionally fail. Some of those charged with the care of children abdicate their responsibilities, and do not provide the physical and/or emotional necessities for …

Group Therapy And Privileged Communication, Robert Jay Braman

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.