Law Commons^™

Mental Illness Labeling In Justice-Involved People, Elena Therese Vaudreuil

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

While it cannot be denied that there is a strong correlational relationship between justice-involvement and mental illness, research has demonstrated that severe mental illness is rarely the direct cause of criminal activity. However, stigmatizing attitudes towards people with mental illness are often rooted in incorrect generalizations regarding the link between mental illness and unpredictable, dangerous behavior, which can be magnified by labels (e.g., "schizophrenic" or "criminal"). This reduction of a person to a label results in a number of negative outcomes, ranging from the prejudice and inequitable treatment one may experience from groups such as justice workers, police, and employers …

Cross-Validation Of The El Paso Risk Assessment Of Juveniles At Intake Scale (El Paso Raji), Dilata Ranadive

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

No published risk assessment instrument is designed for the specific purpose of identifying high risk first-time juvenile offenders at their first contact with the juvenile justice system. The El Paso Risk Assessment of Juveniles at Intake (El Paso RAJI) was developed by Valenzuela (2011) for this purpose. The current study had three aims: i) to assess the validity of the RAJI as a predictor of recidivism among first-time juvenile offenders, ii) to compare the predictive power of RAJI items with the predictive power of similar items from another risk assessment instrument, the Pre-Positive Achievement Change Tool (PrePACT), and iii) to …

Motivations For A Source To Resist An Interrogation: Consequences To The Self Versus Consequences To An Other, Julia Labianca

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The current research investigated the effect of situational and dispositional factors on a source's decision to confess guilty knowledge of another's actions to an interrogator. The extant literature suggests that potential consequences to the self are a major motivator for decisions to confess or resist an interrogation. Previous research also suggests that the potential consequences to the other person may also influence a source's motivations to confess guilty knowledge. Additionally, personality measures related to interdependence versus personal independence (collectivism and individualism) and individual loyalty may also influence a source's motivations to cooperate with or resist an interrogation. However, few experiments …

The Development Of The Rapport Scales For Investigative Interviews And Interrogations, Misty Christina Duke

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to develop the Rapport Scales for Investigative Interviews and Interrogations (RS3i), a measure of rapport for use in the context of investigative interviews and interrogations. Eighty "source" participants were interviewed by 80 "interview" participants. Each source rated the interview using the Prototype RS3i-Source Version. Observer participants each viewed and rated two interviews. Exploratory analyses were done on 374 observer ratings of 20 interviews to explore the factor structure of the items and develop the final scales. The final version of the RS3i contained 32 items comprising 8 rapport scales and one Commitment to Communication …

The Effect Of Co-Witness Information And Individual Differences In Cognitive Abilities On The Suggestibility Of Pre-School Children, Rachell Leanne Jones

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Despite nearly 25 years of research, psychologists are still learning new ways in which various demographic, psychological, social, and cognitive factors contribute to child suggestibility. Numerous facets of each area have been studied independently, but as a field, it is becoming apparent that suggestibility is also affected by complex interactions between these various components (Scullin, Kanaya, & Ceci, 2002). The current study investigated several forensic interviewing techniques and psychosocial and cognitive factors that were hypothesized to influence child suggestibility. One hundred children were randomly assigned to five interview conditions after viewing a live event. The supposed statements of a co-witness …

The Effects Of Defendant And Juror Language Use On Sentencing Recommendations, Victoria Christine Estrada

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Spanish-language testimony is an extra-legal variable not widely studied in the legal psychology field. More emphasis has been placed on the translation of the testimony as well as accent attitudes. The current study extended research conducted by Stephan and Stephan (1986) to investigate the impact of Spanish-speaking defendants and mock-juror's language use and proficiency on sentencing recommendations. Two hundred and seventy-seven participants from the University of Texas at El Paso read a case vignette of a first-degree aggravated assault and asked were asked to provide sentence recommendations for the defendant. The defendant's testimony was presented in English or Spanish with …

The Effect Of The Reciprocity Norm And Guided Imagery On The Development Of Implanted Memories In Children, Misty Christina Duke

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Previous research has shown that the use of guided imagery can create source monitoring errors in adults and induce false memories for events that never occurred. Research has also shown that some forms of social influence can induce suggestibility in children. The current study examined whether guided imagery and a social influence technique involving the norm of reciprocity could induce the formation of false memories in children. One hundred sixteen first- and second-grade children were interviewed twice and asked to freely recall three true events as well as one false event that they were told was true. Interviewers used guided …

Group Decision Making In The Jury Context: A Combined Theoretical Approach, Larissa Angelique Schmersal

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Much of the extant research on jury decision making has been conducted at the juror level, examining the individual decisions of mock jurors. Although studying mock juror decisions provides initial insight into jury decision making, studying the deliberation process should be a priority for future research. Few theoretical models have been developed to examine the decision process of the jury. The social combination and the social communication approaches provide some insight into this process; however, analysis of these methods is scarce due, in part, to their limited applicability.

The current study examined the jury deliberation using a combined theoretical approach. …