Law and Psychology Commons^™

Therapists' Liability To The Falsely Accused For Inducing Illusory Memories Of Childhood Sexual Abuse - Current Remedies And A Proposed Statute, Joel Jay Finer

Journal of Law and Health

While sexual abuse of children has always been a real and horrific phenomenon (a fact unrecognized until relatively recently), the issue this Article will explore is whether, and under what circumstances, a person wrongly accused has, or should have, one or more causes of action against a therapist for culpably inducing the pseudomemory. To refine and make more rational legal actions by persons falsely accused of childhood sexual molestation (arguably justified under existing legal doctrine), this Article will propose specific legislation authorizing a lawsuit under codified circumstances and conditions.

Joining A Cult: Religious Choice Or Psychological Aberration, Dena S. Davis

Journal of Law and Health

In this article, I will analyze the different theories about "cult" membership and conversion, specifically focusing upon whether or not conversions to cults ought to be respected by the law in the same way that the law respects conversion to be respected by the law in the same way that the law respects conversion to and membership in, mainstream religions. In section II, I attempt (unsuccessfully) to define a "cult". In section III, I discuss the civil liberties issues surrounding "cults" and the public furor they have engendered. In section IV, I discuss the different and competing theories about why …

No Direction Home: The Law And Criminal Defendants With Mental Disabilities, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Executioner’S Face Is Always Well-Hidden: The Role Of Counsel And The Courts In Determining Who Dies, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

O.J. Simpson Verdict Raises Questions About Jury System, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This opinion column examines whether conformity pressures, confirmation bias, and belief perseverance could have influenced jury deliberations and the verdict in The State of California v. O. J. Simpson.

The Duty To Control In Negligent Release Cases: King V. Durham County Mental Health Developmental Disabilities And Substance Abuse Authority, Timothy J. Turner

North Carolina Central Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of The Americans With Disabilities Act On State Bar Examiner's Inquiries Into The Psychological History Of Bar Applicants, Carol J. Banta

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that the use of any questions based upon an applicant's psychological history in the state bar application process violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. Part I demonstrates that Title II of the ADA applies to state boards of bar examiners, and that the ADA definition of a person with a disability includes a person who has sought or received psychological counseling. Part II applies the ADA and accompanying regulations to the psychological history inquiries currently used by state bar examiners and argues that such inquiries violate the ADA because they inquire specifically about disabled status. Part III …

A Claim For Third Party Standing In Malpractice Cases Involving Repressed Memory Syndrome, Sheila F. Rock

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Attitude–Behavior Correspondence? Why Susan Smith Was Spared, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This opinion column employs the Susan Smith child domestic homicide (maternal filicide) case to explore attitude–behavior correspondence. The article describes Richard LaPiere’s (1934) landmark study “Attitudes vs. actions” published in the journal Social Forces and Leonard Bickman's (1972) study “Environmental attitudes and actions” published in the Journal of Social Psychology.

On Humiliation, Jeremy Waldron

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Humiliation, and Other Essays on Honor, Social Discomfort, and Violence by William Ian Miller

Bitter Battles: The Use Of Psychological Evaluations In Child Custody Disputes In West Virginia, Alison Richey Mcburney

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Dangerous Decisions: An Essay On The Mathematics Of Clinical Violence Prediction And Involuntary Hospitalization, Douglas Mossman Md

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This Article has two major purposes. First, it provides a mathematical
description of an ideal procedure for making clinical decisions about patients'
future violence, a description that provides a context for evaluating clinicians'
"dangerousness decisions." For purposes of illustration, the Article uses a specific clinical situation-deciding whether to hospitaize involuntarily a patient
based on his risk of harming another. The Article argues that the decision
involves balancing potential risks to third parties (often the patient's family
members) with the "massive deprivation of liberty and other potential
harms to the patient that could result from confinement. The mathematical
description of the …

Deep Inner Lives, Individualism And People Of Honour, William I. Miller

Articles

With the exception of St Augustine and perhaps Abelard, often praised as modern before their time, it is not unusual to find it maintained that the individual was not available in any serious conceptual, psychological or even sociological way before the seventeenth century. Our thick and deep self, according to this view, is thus a rather recent phenomenon. Some more expansive souls find the individual already emerging a century earlier, during the Reformation. Within the last three decades, medievalists, chagrined at being contemned by classicists on one flank and an alliance of Renaissance scholars, early modernists, modernists and post-modernists on …

Upward Contempt, William I. Miller

Articles

Contempt and shame go hand in hand. Actions that should shame us, styles of self-presentation that should humiliate us if we are socially competent enough to have such a purchase on ourselves, are those actions and styles that generate and justify the contempt of others for us. Or, changing the causal order: one's contempt of us will generate shame or humiliation in us if we concur with the judgment of our contemptibility, that is, if the contempt is justified, or indignation and even vengeful fury if it is unjustified. Contempt is thus a mechanism of ranking people or of contesting …

Are Twelve Heads Better Than One?, Phoebe C. Ellsworth

Articles

The jury's competence, unlike that of the judge, rests partly on its ability to reflect the perspectives, experiences, and values of the ordinary people in the community - not just the most common or typical community perspective, but the whole range of viewpoints.

True Protection For Persons With Severe Mental Disabilities, Such As Schizophrenia, Involved As Subjects In Research - A Look And Consideration Of The Protection Of Human Subjects , Anne J. Ryan

Journal of Law and Health

This article begins with an in-depth discussion of the UCLA incident followed by the history of protecting human research subjects and a review of the current law intended to protect research participants. Next, it explains the nature of schizophrenia and discusses the topic of schizophrenia and the informed consent process, explaining why persons with schizophrenia warrant more protection than is currently given, especially in the areas of monitoring and informed consent. This article also examines proposed ideas, from various sources, for better protection of the mentally disabled as research subjects. This article concludes with this writer's proposal as to how …

Deception, Self-Deception, And Mythology: The Law Of Salmon In The Pacific Northwest, William H. Rodgers, Jr.

Articles

This paper will present a Puritan Model of the Law of Lies, which is a prominent (but by no means only) model observable in U.S. law. We will then turn to the underpinnings in evolutionary theory of deception and self-deception. We will next apply these concepts to the worlds of salmon law and policymaking, which are marked conspicuously by evidences of deceit. Some conclusions will be offered on how deceit and self-deception are addressed in the law. We will conclude with some distinctions between the laws of deception and self-deception.

For the most part, our deceptions are governed by the …

Rashomon And The Criminal Law: Mental Disability And The Federal Sentencing Guidelines, Michael L. Perlin, Keri K. Gould

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Psychological Barriers To Litigation Settlement: An Experimental Approach, Russell Korobkin, Chris Guthrie

Michigan Law Review

In this article, we seek to substantiate "psychological barriers," as illustrated by the constructs described above, as a third explanation for the failure of legal disputants to settle out of court. Although we are not the first to hypothesize that psychological processes can, in theory, affect legal dispute negotiations, we attempt to give more definition to the otherwise vague contours of the psychological barriers hypothesis by bringing empirical data to bear on the question. To achieve this end, we conducted a series of nine laboratory experiments - involving nearly 450 subjects - designed to isolate the effects of the three …

Recovered Memory Of Childhood Sexual Abuse, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This article examines the psychological basis for repression and recovery of traumatic memories, presents the results of research on potential sources of error in delayed or recovered memories, and offers possible reasons (primarily related to clinical practice and collective behavior) for false accusations of sexual abuse.

Guidelines For Handling Domestic Violence Cases In Community Mental Health Centers, Carol E. Jordan, Robert Walker

Office for Policy Studies on Violence Against Women Publications

Community mental health centers are becoming increasingly involved in the delivery of services to victims and perpetrators of domestic violence. To help centers plan a domestic violence program and address the risk of liability in treating clients who may be dangerous, the authors suggest principles to guide clinical decisions, standards for service delivery, and standards for staff development.

Trust In Courtroom Participants: A Question Of Bias In Prospective Jurors, Robin Leslie Adrian

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

Multidisciplinary Representation Of Children: Conflicts Over Disclosures Of Client Communications, 27 J. Marshall L. Rev. 617 (1994), Gerard F. Glynn

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cognitive Dissonance: Have Insanity Defense And Civil Commitment Reforms Made A Difference, John Q. La Fond, Mary L. Durham

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Aiding And Altruism: A Mythopsycholegal Analysis, Thomas C. Galligan Jr.

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article asserts that traditional tort law should be modified to provide for a duty to act in situations in which a reasonable person would act altruistically. Part I examines traditional and more recent tort doctrine governing the duty to aid. Part II discusses compassion from philosophical, literary, and mythological points of view and explores how these viewpoints inform compassion's possible relationship to a legal duty to help. Part III considers the connections between psychological theories and studies of action, altruism, and empathy. In addition to Batson's work, I reexamine the classic studies of Latan6 and Darley and the application …

Recovered Memories Of Alleged Sexual Abuse: An Analysis Of The Theory Of Repressed Memories Under The Washington Rules Of Evidence, Colette Mulrenan Smith

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment explores whether testimony regarding repressed memories is admissible under Washington rules of evidence. This Comment concludes that the process of repression and accurate recall of memories has not been proven to be a sufficiently reliable and trustworthy phenomenon to justify admission of evidence that abuse occurred.

Hardening Of The Attitudes: Americans' Views On The Death Penalty, Phoebe C. Ellsworth, Samuel R. Gross

Articles

American support for the death penalty has steadily increased since 1966, when opponents outnumbered supporters, and now in the mid-1990s is at a near record high. Research over the last 20 years has tended to confirm the hypothesis that most people’s death penalty attitudes (pro or con) are based on emotion rather than information or rational argument. People feel strongly about the death penalty, know little about it, and feel no need to know more. Factual information (e.g., about deterrence and discrimination) is generally irrelevant to people’s attitudes, and they are aware that this is so. Support for the death …

'I Can Take A Hint': Social Ineptitude, Embarrassment, And The King Of Comedy, William I. Miller

Articles

The phrase "I can take a hint," when said seriously, contains its own denial. It reveals that the speaker has not been very adept at recognizing the hints already given, nor very graceful about not making a scene once he has recognized them. Its very utterance has the effect of punishing the hint-giver by making her hint fail as a hint. The truly successful hint works by gaining its end with no extra awkwardness added to the social encounter. The good hint should be barely perceived by the person toward whom it is directed. We could even say that it …

Stress And Health In 1st-Year Law Students: Women Fare Worse, Daniel N. Mcintosh, Julie Keywell, Alan Reifman, Phoebe C. Ellsworth

Articles

The social and psychological consequences of being a female law student may include greater stress and worse health than that experienced by male students. First-year law students at a major state university were surveyed about their physical and psychological health prior to, in the middle of, and at the end of the school year. They were also asked about specific sources of strain (e.g., grades, time pressure) at mid-year. Relative to men, women reported greater strain due to sexism, lack of free time, and lack of time to spend with one’s spouse/partner. Women also displayed more depression and physical symptoms …

In Slime And Darkness: The Metaphor Of Filth In Criminal Justice, Martha Grace Duncan

Faculty Articles

An article such as this one, which seeks to examine the labyrinthine chains of meanings that we associate with illegal behavior, cries out for an interdisciplinary approach. Specifically, it demands a source that can reveal our unconscious as well as our conscious associations. Such a source is classical literature -- works of fiction that, by virtue of being read and loved through centuries and across continents, have proven their capacity to strike a responsive chord in their readers. Therefore, in Part II of this Article, I employ the classics, supplemented by occasional examples from contemporary fiction, history, and theology, to …