Law and Psychology Commons^™

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 …

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 …

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

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

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 …

The Neural Correlates Of Third-Party Punishment, Owen D. Jones, Joshua Buckholtz, Christopher L. Asplund, Paul E. Dux, David H. Zald, John C. Gore, Rene Marois

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This article reports the discovery, from the first full-scale law and neuroscience experiment, of the brain activity underlying punishment decisions.

We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain activity of subjects as they read hypothetical scenarios about harm-causing protagonists and then decided whether to punish and, if so, how much.

The key variables were: a) presence or absence of excusing, justifying, or otherwise mitigating factors (such as acting under duress); and b) harm severity (which ranged from a stolen CD to a rape/murder/torture combination).

Findings include:

(1) Analytic and emotional brain circuitries are jointly involved, yet quite separately …

Recognizing Our Dangerous Gifts: Applying The Social Model To Individuals With Mental Illness, Rachel Anderson-Watts

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Our society and laws allow a space for a multitude of identities and forms of expression. Many kinds of differences are legally protected in various ways, such as differences in race, religion, and gender. Sometimes protection takes the form of requiring social institutions to adapt to the unique needs of certain individuals or groups. Rights for disabled individuals, as exemplified by the Americans with Disabilities Act, rest on the principle that impairment disables because the world is structured around an incompatible model of human ability; not because of a fundamental deficit within the individual. This conception, termed the social model …

How Do Securities Laws Influence Affect, Happiness, & Trust?, Peter H. Huang

Publications

This Article advocates that securities regulators promulgate rules based upon taking into consideration their impacts upon investors' and others' affect, happiness, and trust. Examples of these impacts are consumer optimism, financial stress, anxiety over how thoroughly securities regulators deliberate over proposed rules, investor confidence in securities disclosures, market exuberance, social moods, and subjective well-being. These variables affect and are affected by traditional financial variables, such as consumer debt, expenditures, and wealth; corporate investment; initial public offerings; and securities market demand, liquidity, prices, supply, and volume. This Article proposes that securities regulators can and should evaluate rules based upon measures of …

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 …

Incidental Findings: A Common Law Approach, Stacey A. Tovino

Scholarly Works

Federal regulations governing human subjects research do not address key questions raised by incidental neuroimaging findings, including the scope of a researcher’s disclosure with respect to the possibility of incidental findings and the question whether a researcher has an affirmative legal duty to seek, detect, and report incidental findings. The scope of researcher duties may, however, be mapped with reference to common law doctrine, including fiduciary, tort, contract, and bailment theories of liability.

The Impact Of Neuroscience On Health Law, Stacey A. Tovino

Scholarly Works

Advances in neuroscience have implications for criminal law as well as civil and regulatory law, including health, disability, and benefit law. The role of the behavioral and brain sciences in health insurance claims, the mental health parity debate, and disability proceedings is examined.

Baby, Look Inside Your Mirror: The Legal Profession's Willful And Sanist Blindness To Lawyers With Mental Disabilities, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

The legal profession has notoriously ignored the reality that a significant number of its members exhibit signs of serious mental illness (and become addicted or habituated to drugs or alcohol at levels that are statistically significantly elevated from levels of the public at large). This is no longer news. What has not been explored is why so much of the bar has remained willfully ignorant of these realities, and why it refuses to confront the depths of this problem.

The roots of this puzzle are found in the social attitude of sanism, an irrational prejudice of the same quality and …

I Might Need A Good Lawyer, Could Be Your Funeral, My Trial: Global Clinical Legal Education And The Right To Counsel In Civil Commitment Cases, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

The quality of counsel assigned to represent individuals facing involuntary civil commitment to psychiatric hospitals is, in most American jurisdictions, mediocre or worse. In many other nations, it is non-existent, or so minimal as to offer only the illusion of legal safeguards. (Perhaps) remarkably, there has been virtually no mention of this latter scandal in the legal literature. Also, there has been little attention paid to this development by the clinical education movement (domestically and globally).

A variety of interrelated factors, however, may shed some light on this scandal, and may, encouragingly, lead to social change in the future:

- …

Everybody Is Making Love/Or Else Expecting Rain: Considering The Sexual Autonomy Rights Of Persons Institutionalized Because Of Mental Disability In Forensic Hospitals And In Asia, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

One of the most controversial policy questions in all of institutional mental disability law is the extent to which patients in psychiatric hospitals have a right to voluntary sexual interaction. The resolution of this matter involves the resolution of difficult and sensitive questions of law, social policy, clinical judgment, politics, religion, and family structures.

As difficult as these questions are in cases involving civil hospitals, the difficulties are exacerbated when the topic is the application of the right in forensic hospitals. Such facilities typically house individuals involved in the criminal justice system (either those who may be incompetent to stand …

Through The Wild Cathedral Evening: Barrier, Attitudes, Participatory Democracy, Professor Tenbroek, And The Rights Of Persons With Mental Disabilities, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

This article is a commentary on Michael Ashley Stein & Janet Lord, Jacobus TenBroek, Participatory Justice, and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, - Tex. J. Civ Lib. & Civ. Rts. - (2008) (in press). In it, I seek to expand their analysis of the new UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in an effort to invigorate an area of institutionalized patients rights law that is now nearly forgotten: the rights of such persons to exercise civil rights while institutionalized. I also argue that Prof. Stein and Ms. Lord's paper should lead us …