Law and Psychology Commons^™

Can The Professor Come Out And Play? Scholarship, Teaching, And Theories Of Play, Bryan Adamson, Lisa Brodoff, Marilyn Berger, Anne Enquist, Paula Lustbader, John B. Mitchell

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Uncertainty Revisited: Legal Prediction And Legal Postdiction, Ehud Guttel, Alon Harel

Michigan Law Review

Legal scholarship, following rational-choice theory, has traditionally treated uncertainty as a single category. A large body of experimental studies, however, has established that individuals treat guesses concerning the future differently than guesses concerning the past. Even where objective probabilities and payoffs are identical, individuals are much more willing to predict a future event (and are more confident in the accuracy of their predictions) than they are willing to postdict a past event (and are also less confident in the accuracy of their postdiction). For example, individuals are more willing to bet on the results of a future die toss than …

Electronically Manufactured Law, Katrina Fischer Kuh

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article seeks to strengthen the case for the academy and the legal profession to pay heed to the consequences of the shift to electronic research, primarily by employing cognitive psychology to guide predictions about the impacts of the shift and, thereby, address a perceived credibility gap. This credibility gap arises from the difficulty and imprecision in postulating how changes in the research process translate into changes in researcher behavior and research outcomes. Applying principles of cognitive psychology to compare the print and electronic research processes provides an analytical basis for connecting changes in the research process with changes in …

Lawyer As Emotional Laborer, Sofia Yakren

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Prevailing norms of legal practice teach lawyers to detach their independent moral judgments from their professional performance-to advocate zealously for their clients while remaining morally unaccountable agents of those clients' causes. Although these norms have been subjected to prominent critiques by legal ethicists, this Article analyzes them instead through the lens of "emotional labor," a sociological theory positing that workers required to induce or suppress feeling in order to sustain the outward countenance mandated by organizational rules face substantial psychological risks. By subordinating their personal feelings and values to displays of zealous advocacy on behalf of others, lawyers, too, may …

Learning The Law By Avoiding It In The Process: And Learning From The Students What They Don’T Get In Law School, Charles A. Cox,Sr., Maury S. Landsman

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

"Imminent Danger" And Inconsistency: The Need For National Reform Of The "Imminent Danger" Standard For Involuntary Civil Commitment In The Wake Of The Virginia Tech Tragedy, Alison Pfeffer

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Michelle Obama: The "Darker Side" Of Presidential Spousal Involvement And Activism, Gregory S. Parks, Quinetta M. Roberson, Phd

Cornell Law Faculty Working Papers

Pundits and commentators have attempted to make sense of the role that race and gender have played in the 2008 presidential campaign. Whereas researchers are drawing on varying bodies of scholarship (legal, cognitive and social psychology, and political science) to illuminate the role that Senator Obama’s race and Senator Clinton’s gender has/had on their campaign, Michelle Obama has been left out of the discussion. As Senator Clinton once noted, elections are like hiring decisions. As such, new frontiers in employment discrimination law place Michelle Obama in context within the current presidential campaign. First, racism and sexism are both alive and …

Thinking Like A Professional, Joshua E. Perry

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Iraq As A Psychological Quagmire: The Implications Of Using Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder As A Defense For Iraq War Veterans, Erin M. Gover

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Unconscious Bias And Outsider Interest Convergence, Catherine Smith

Scholarly Articles

In 1987, Charles Lawrence articulated an inherent flaw of the discriminatory intent requirement in equal protection jurisprudence by leveraging social science research to demonstrate that "the behavior that produces racial discrimination is influenced by unconscious racial motivation." Twenty years later, the debate continues with increasing social science literature to support his position. Furthermore, other scholars and social scientists have demonstrated how unconscious bias may fuel discriminatory acts against others on the basis of gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation.

Appropriately, most of the unconscious bias research focuses on how such biases operate within the majority to oppress a minority group. They …

The Denial Of Emergency Protection: Factors Associated With Court Decision Making, Carol E. Jordan, Adam J. Pritchard, Pamela Wilcox, Danielle Duckett-Pritchard

Office for Policy Studies on Violence Against Women Publications

Despite the importance of civil orders of protection as a legal resource for victims of intimate partner violence, research is limited in this area, and most studies focus on the process following a court’s initial issuance of an emergency order. The purpose of this study is to address a major gap in the literature by examining cases where victims of intimate partner violence are denied access to temporary orders of protection. The study sample included a review of 2,205 petitions that had been denied by a Kentucky court during the 2003 fiscal year. The study offers important insights into the …

Candor, Zeal, And The Substitution Of Judgment: Ethics And The Mentally Ill Criminal Defendant, John D. King

Scholarly Articles

This Article explores the tension between autonomy and paternalism that characterizes the attorney-client relationship when a criminal defense attorney represents a mentally impaired client. Specifically, the Article analyzes the ethical frameworks that constrain the discretion of the attorney in this situation and proposes a new paradigm for ethical decisionmaking when an attorney represents a marginally competent client.

The criminal defense attorney is both a zealous advocate for her client and an officer of the legal system. In representing a marginally competent client, the initial ethical dilemma facing the attorney is whether she has an obligation to alert the court to …

The Clear Initiative And Mental States: 1½ Problems Solved, 41 J. Marshall L. Rev. 701 (2008), Timothy P. O'Neill

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

"I'D Grab At Anything. And I'D Forget." Domestic Violence Victim Testimony After Davis V. Washington, 41 J. Marshall L. Rev. 937 (2008), Nancee Alexa Barth

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

What To Do With Omar Khadr? Putting A Child Soldier On Trial: Questions Of International Law, Juvenile Justice, And Moral Culpability, 41 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1281 (2008), Christopher L. Dore

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Electroconvulsive Therapy Baby Boomers May Be In For The Shock Of Their Lives, Helia Garrido Hull

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Responsibility Status Of The Psychopath: On Moral Reasoning And Rational Self-Governance, Paul J. Litton

Faculty Publications

This article does not aim to describe the opposing views and argue for one over the other. Rather, I propose to deflate the debate as far as possible, attempting to reduce the area of disagreement. Meaningful disagreement exists only if there are, or could be, agents who have an undiminished capacity for practical reasoning or rational self-governance, yet truly are incapable of moral reasoning. However, I suggest that the capacity for rational self-governance entails the capacity to comprehend and act on moral considerations; thus, to the extent that an individual truly is incapable of grasping moral reasons, we should expect …

Playing With Fire: The Science Of Confronting Adverse Material In Legal Advocacy, Kathryn M. Stanchi

Scholarly Works

The Article seeks to use the science to determine what treatment of adverse information is most beneficial to the client's position. A careful study of the science reveals that, overall, it is advantageous for the advocate to volunteer negative information and rebut it early, and that a direct and in-depth confrontation of negative information is generally more effective than an indirect and cursory treatment.

A close look at the finer points of the data, however, reveals that the question of disclosure is a complicated one. Therefore, legal advocates should learn about the research findings and the theories underlying the research …

Neuroimaging Research Into Disorders Of Consciousness: Moral Imperative Or Ethical And Legal Failure?, Stacey A. Tovino

Scholarly Works

This article explores the ethical and legal implications of enrolling individuals with disorders of consciousness (DOC) in neuroimaging research studies. Many scientists have strongly emphasized the need for additional neuroimaging research into DOC, characterizing the conduct of such studies as morally imperative. On the other hand, institutional review boards charged with approving research protocols, scientific journals deciding whether to publish study results, and federal agencies that disburse grant money have limited the conduct, publication, and funding of consciousness investigations based on ethical and legal concerns. Following a detailed examination of the risks and benefits of neuroimaging research involving individuals with …

Good Lawyers Should Be Good Psychologists: Insights For Interviewing And Counseling Clients, Jean R. Sternlight, Jennifer Robbennolt

Scholarly Works

To work effectively with clients, witnesses, judges, mediators, arbitrators, experts, jurors, and other lawyers, attorneys must have a good understanding of how people think and make decisions, and must possess good people skills. Yet, law schools have tended to teach very little, directly, about human behavior, and current critiques of legal education do not focus on the importance of psychological insights to attorneys. In particular, lawyers and legal education have not taken full advantage of the great strides that have been made in the field of scientific psychology in recent decades. Similarly, psychologists are not doing as much as they …

Conceptual Hurdles To The Application Of Atkins V. Virginia, Lois A. Weithorn

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

An Opt-Out Home Mortgage System, Michael S. Barr, Sendhil Mullainathan, Eldar Shafir

Other Publications

The current housing and financial crisis has led to significant congressional and executive action to manage the crisis and stem the harms from it, but the fundamental problems that caused the crisis remain largely unaddressed. The central features of the industrial organization of the mortgage market with its misaligned incentives, and the core psychological and behavioral phenomena that drive household financial decisionmaking remain. While the causes of the mortgage meltdown are myriad and the solutions likely to be multifaceted, a central problem that led to the crisis was that brokers and lenders offered loans that looked much less expensive and …

Behaviorally Informed Financial Services Regulation, Michael S. Barr, Sendhil Mullainathan, Eldar Shafir

Other Publications

Financial services decisions can have enourmous consequences for household well-being. Households need a range of financial services - to conduct basic transactions, such as receiving their income, storing it, and paying bills; to save for emergency needs and long-term goals; to access credit; and to insure against life's key risks. But the financial services system is exceedingly complicated and often not well-designed to optimize house-hold behavior. In response to the complexity of out financial system, there has been a long running debate about the appropriate role and form of regulation. Regulation is largely stuck in two competing models - disclosure, …

Likelihood Of Using Drug Courts: Predictions Using Procedural Justice And The Theory Of Planned Behavior, Evelyn M. Maeder, Richard L. Weiner

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The current research compares two theoretical models borrowed from social psychology (theory of planned behavior and procedural justice) to predict intentions to make use of a drug court. Medicaid-eligible substance users answered a number of questions regarding their intentions to use a drug court in the future, including items from planned behavior and procedural justice scales. When procedural justice was considered alone, only trustworthiness predicted intention to use drug courts. When planned behavior was considered alone, only deliberative attitudes predicted the intention. After combining the two models, deliberative attitudes from the theory of planned behavior were the only significant predictor …

Self-Defense And The Mistaken Racist, Stephen P. Garvey

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

How should the law respond when one person (D) kills another person (V), who is black, because D believes that V is about to kill him, but D would not have so believed if V had been white? Should D be exonerated on grounds of self-defense? Some commentators argue that D's claim of self-defense should be rejected. He should be convicted and punished.

I argue, however, that denying D's claim of self-defense would be at odds with the principle that criminal liability and punishment should only be imposed on an actor if he chooses to cause or risk causing a …

Reason Giving In Court Practice: Decision- Makers At The Crossroads, Mathilde Cohen

Faculty Articles and Papers

This Article examines the thesis according to which the practice of giving reasons for decisions is a central element of liberal democracies. In this view, public institutions' practice, and sometimes duty, of reason-giving is required so that each individual may view the state as reasonable and therefore, according to deliberative democratic theory, legitimate. Does the giving of reasons in actual court practice achieve these goals? Drawing on empirical research carried out in a French administrative court, this Article argues that, in practice, reason-giving often falls either short of democracy or beyond democracy. Reasons fall short of democracy in the first …

Sex Offender As Scapegoat: The Monstrous Other Within, John Douard

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Smoke-Free State Psychiatric Facility Grounds: Is Legislation Necessary And Appropriate To Remove Tobacco From These Treatment Settings?, Maureen Hackett M.D.

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Podcasts, Powerpoint, And Pedagogy: Using Technology To Teach The Part-Time Student, Joyce D. Saltalamachia

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tolling For The Luckless, The Abandoned And Forsaked: Community Safety, Therapeutic Jurisprudence And International Human Rights Law As Applied To Prisoners And Detainees, Michael L. Perlin, Astrid Birgden

Articles & Chapters

There has been an explosion of interest in therapeutic jurisprudence as both a filter and lens for viewing theextent to which the legal system serves therapeutic or anti therapeutic consequences. However, little attention has been paid to the impact of therapeutic jurisprudence on questions of international human rights law and the role of forensic psychologists. Human rights are based on legal, social, and moral rules. The paper will propose that human rights principles can add to the normative base of therapeutic jurisprudence, and in turn, therapeutic jurisprudence can assist forensic psychologists to actively address human rights. As duty bearers, forensic …