Social Psychology Commons^™

Bridging The Justice Gap: Exploring Approaches For Improving Indigent Access To Civil Counsel, Kelsey Atkinson

Pomona Senior Theses

The United States is among one of the only democratic industrialized nations in the world that does not provide guaranteed access to civil representation in cases involving basic human need. This leaves indigent litigants who are at risk of losing their homes or their children left to seek counsel through insufficient pro-bono programs or limited scope legal self-help centers. This thesis provides a history of the struggle for the right to civil counsel, known as Civil Gideon, and explores a variety of proposed solutions to bridge the justice gap for indigent litigants. Despite considerable support for Civil Gideon among scholars …

To Conform Or Not To Conform: An Examination Of The Effects Of Mock Jury Deliberation On Individual Jurors, Ashley S. Bowser

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The jury method is a unique social setting in the Criminal Justice system that provides opportunity for social influence to occur. Questions about the formation of jurors’ individual and collective decisions have stimulated a great deal of interest and research. This study is a review of the juror decision-making process and the various sources of influence that can affect it. Mock jurors were asked to review a mock criminal trial as well as the testimony of 2 witnesses. Upon reviewing the case, a predeliberation verdict (guilty or not guilty) and the degree of certainty of that decision was made. Once …

There Are No "Innocent Victims": The Influence Of Just World Beliefs And Prior Victimization On Rape Myth Acceptance, Rebecca Lynne Vonderhaar

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Approximately 209,000 women report being raped every year. Of those 209,000 rapes, only 19,491 arrests were made (U.S. Department of Justice 2011). Furthermore, reports estimate that one out of every three women will be raped at some point in her life (Amir, 1971). The prominence of rape in the United States, as well as the disparity between documented rapes to the police and victim reports of rape, is problematic for researchers in fully understanding the breadth of the problem. Considering that rape occurs at such an overwhelmingly high rate and frequently goes unreported, it is important to understand the attitudes …

Why States Should Ban Adolescent Driving (Cont'd), Vivian E. Hamilton

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Why States Should Ban Adolescent Driving, Vivian E. Hamilton

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

The Enemy Within: Sexual Assault And Rape In The Us Armed Forces, Dahlia D'Arge

Lewis Honors College Capstone Collection

This paper follows my personal journey in learning about this problem, its legal repercussions for individual soldiers, its history within the United States, the actions which are being taken to remedy it, and its cost to the US military as a whole. By taking a more personal approach and by using my personal experience as an intern as a US Army Judge Advocate Corps office, this paper intends to educate the wider college populace about this issue and its current handling by the US Army from the perspective of an insider.

Knowledge Of Juvenile Sex Offender Registration Laws As A Predictor Of Adolescent Sexual Behavior, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Margaret C. Stevenson, Tisha Ra Wiley

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Because juveniles can now be registered as sex offenders, we conducted a pilot study to investigate awareness of these policies and sexual behavior histories in a convenience sample of 53 young adults (ages 18 to 23, 79% women). These preliminary data revealed that 42% percent of participants were unaware that youth under the age of 18 can be registered as sex offenders, and when informed that they can be, participants were unaware of the breadth of adolescent sexual behavior that warrants registration. Furthermore, those unaware of juvenile registration policies, compared to those who were aware, were marginally more likely 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 Role Of Just Desserts, Deterrence, And An Apology In Recommending Punishment For Violations Of Hiv Non-Disclosure Laws, William Alexander Woody

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

HIV non-disclosure laws, which require people with HIV to disclose their HIV serostatus to potential sexual partners, are common in the U.S. This thesis applied philosophical theories of punishment to examine why people would punish these law violators. Specifically, retribution/just deserts (i.e., an eye for an eye) and deterrence (i.e., general crime prevention) were examined as punishment motivations. Additionally, offender apology was investigated as a potential moderator of the effects of retribution on punishment. A 2 (Just Deserts) X 2 (Deterrence) X 2 (Apology) ANOVA design was used with recommendations for a prison sentence and financial fine as the dependent …

Supply Vs. Demand: Re-Entering America's Prison Population Into The Workforce, Marissa Leigh Enfield

Scripps Senior Theses

Because rejoining the workforce may prevent against ex-offender recidivism, securing gainful employment is one of the best indicators of successful societal reintegration for released prisoners. However, the stigma attached to a criminal history, combined with ex-prisoners’ lack of human capital, may threaten their ability to obtain a job. The present study examines hiring managers’ attitudes towards previously imprisoned offenders applying for positions in their workplace. Using a combination of brief, fictional applicant biographies and surveys, this mixed-groups factorial study explores how hiring managers (N= 28) consider gender, type of offense, and race when an ex-offender is assessed during the application …

Predators And Propensity: The Proper Approach For Determining The Admissibility Of Prior Bad Acts Evidence In Child Sexual Abuse Prosecutions, Basyle Tchividjian

Faculty Publications and Presentations

PREDATORS AND PROPENSITY: THE PROPER APPROACH FOR DETERMINING THE ADMISSIBILITY OF PRIOR BAD ACTS EVIDENCE IN CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE PROSECUTIONS

Basyle J. Tchividjian†

Abstract

The admissibility of prior bad act evidence in child sexual abuse prosecutions oftentimes makes the difference between a guilty and not guilty verdict. Recently, jurisdictions have growingly embraced the admission of such evidence for the purpose of establishing the defendant’s propensity to sexually victimize children. Due to the potentially high prejudicial effect of admitting propensity evidence, it is more critical than ever that courts carefully apply the decisive evidentiary gatekeeper, the probative value balancing test …

Understanding Jurors’ Judgments In Cases Involving Juvenile Defendants: Effects Of Confession Evidence And Intellectual Disability, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Bette L. Bottoms

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Juveniles are at heightened risk for falsely confessing to crimes, particularly if they are intellectually disabled. We conducted a mock trial experiment to investigate the effects of a juvenile defendant’s confession and status as intellectually disabled on jurors’ decision making. As expected, jurors discounted a juvenile’s coerced confession: Jurors’ judgments were similar for a juvenile who was perceived to have confessed under coercion and a juvenile who did not confess. In general, these effects were explained by the fact that, compared to a juvenile who was perceived as having confessed voluntarily, a juvenile who was perceived as having confessed under …

Lessons From Social Psychology For Complex Operations, Rosa Brooks

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This short essay looks at several social forces that powerfully affect human behavior, often trumping individual “character,” personality, knowledge, and even deeply held moral beliefs. Specifically, this essay looks briefly at issues of obedience, conformity, and group polarization, discussing the ways in which they can affect and distort individual behavior. Ultimately, this essay suggests, understanding these dynamics can have important implications for how we think about counterinsurgency and stability operations.

Stereotype Threat In Criminal Interrogations: Why Innocent Black Suspects Are At Risk For Confessing Falsely, Cynthia J. Najdowski

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Little theoretical attention has been paid to evidence that Blacks are overrepresented in samples of false confessors compared to Whites. One possible explanation is that innocent Black suspects experience stereotype threat in interrogations and that this threat causes Black suspects to experience more arousal, self-regulatory efforts, and cognitive load compared to White suspects. These psychological mechanisms could lead innocent Black suspects to display more nonverbal behaviors associated with deception and, ironically, increase the likelihood that police investigators perceive them as guilty. In response, investigators might engage in more coercive tactics and exert more pressure to confess on Black suspects than …

Procedural Justice Post-9/11: The Effects Of Procedurally Unfair Treatment Of Detainees On Perceptions Of Global Legitimacy, David Welsh

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “The Global War on Terror has been ideologically framed as a struggle between the principles of freedom and democracy on the one hand and tyranny and extremism on the other. Although this war has arguably led to a short-term disruption of terrorist threats such as al-Qaeda, it has also damaged America’s image both at home and abroad. Throughout the world, there is a growing consensus that America has “a lack of credibility as a fair and just world leader.” The perceived legitimacy of the United States in the War on Terror is critical because terrorism is not a conventional …

Moral Character, Motive, And The Psychology Of Blame, Janice Nadler, Mary-Hunter Morris Mcdonnell

Faculty Working Papers

Blameworthiness, in the criminal law context, is conceived as the carefully calculated end product of discrete judgments about a transgressor's intentionality, causal proximity to harm, and the harm's foreseeability. Research in social psychology, on the other hand, suggests that blaming is often intuitive and automatic, driven by a natural impulsive desire to express and defend social values and expectations. The motivational processes that underlie psychological blame suggest that judgments of legal blame are influenced by factors the law does not always explicitly recognize or encourage. In this Article we focus on two highly related motivational processes – the desire to …

If The Shoe Fits They Might Acquit: The Value Of Forensic Science Testimony, Jonathan Koehler

Faculty Working Papers

The probative value of forensic science evidence (such as a shoeprint) varies widely depending on how the evidence and hypothesis of interest is characterized. This paper uses a likelihood ratio (LR) approach to identify the probative value of forensic science evidence. It argues that the "evidence" component should be characterized as a "reported match," and that the hypothesis component should be characterized as "the matching person or object is the source of the crime scene sample." This characterization of the LR forces examiners to incorporate risks from sample mix-ups and examiner error into their match statistics. But how will legal …

Jurors’ Perceptions Of Juvenile Offenders Tried In Adult Criminal Court, Margaret C. Stevenson, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Bette L. Bottoms, Katlyn M. Sorenson, Sylvia P. Perry

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Gender Inequality In The Law: Deficiencies Of Battered Woman Syndrome And A New Solution To Closing The Gender Gap In Self-Defense Law, Meredith C. Doyle

CMC Senior Theses

Dr. Lenore Walker developed battered woman syndrome to address the issue of domestic violence and to give battered women a defense in situations in which they kill their abusive partners when they are not overtly threatening them. Self-defense law is based on male on male combat. Women are less able to protect themselves in an attack by a man, and so they may preemptively attack their sleeping partners to avoid a situation in which they cannot adequately protect themselves. Battered woman syndrome explains why these battered women act in a way that is irrational to a non-battered person. Walker's theory …

Foreword: Advances In The Behavioral Analysis Of Law: Markets, Institutions, And Contracts, Avishalom Tor

Journal Articles

Avishalom Tor, Special Editor

The collection of articles in this Special Issue is based on an international conference on Advances in the Behavioral Analysis of Law: Markets, Institutions, and Contracts that took place on December 8, 2009 at the University of Haifa Faculty of Law in Israel. The conference addressed cutting-edge legal issues at the intersection of law, economics, and psychology from a diverse set of viewpoints, bringing together scholars engaged in both theoretical and experimental behavioral analyses of law.

Why The Supreme Court Cares About Elites, Not The American People, Lawrence Baum, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

Supreme Court Justices care more about the views of academics, journalists, and other elites than they do about public opinion. This is true of nearly all Justices and is especially true of swing Justices, who often cast the critical votes in the Court’s most visible decisions. In this Article, we will explain why we think this is so and, in so doing, challenge both the dominant political science models of judicial behavior and the significant work of Barry Friedman, Jeffrey Rosen, and others who link Supreme Court decision making to public opinion.

Jurors And Social Loafing: Factors That Reduce Participation During Jury Deliberations, Cynthia J. Najdowski

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

The American jury system rests on the fundamental assumption that jurors will engage in a thorough analysis of facts and robust debate to ensure that verdicts are reliable. Research demonstrates, however, that this expectation is rarely met. All jurors do not participate equally in deliberations. This may be explained in part by social loafing, or the withdrawal of effort that may occur when an individual works in a group relative to when the individual works alone. Despite evidence that jurors do not participate equally during jury deliberations, an analysis of factors contributing to participation, or the lack thereof, has not …

Public Attitudes Toward Applying Sex Offender Registration Laws To Juvenile Offenders, Jessica M. Salerno, Margaret C. Stevenson, Tisha R. A. Wiley, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Bette L. Bottoms, Rachel A. Schmillen

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

In this chapter, we provide a summary of current registration laws for juvenile sex offenders across the United States and discuss the assumptions that drive these laws. We consider whether these assumptions have been supported or refuted by the research produced on the topic thus far. Then, turning to new data from our own laboratory, we discuss public perceptions of registration laws. This is an important issue because expansion of registry laws to juveniles might be driven by strong public support—or politicians' and policy makers' perceptions that there is public support—for expansion of the registry. As we discuss, research does …

Killing, Letting Die, And The Case For Mildly Punishing Bad Samaritanism, Ken M. Levy

Journal Articles

For over a century now, American scholars (among others) have been debating the merits of “bad-samaritan” laws – laws punishing people for failing to attempt “easy rescues.” Unfortunately, the opponents of bad-samaritan laws have mostly prevailed. In the United States, the “no-duty-to-rescue” rule dominates. Only four states even have bad-samaritan laws, and these laws impose only the most minimal punishment – either sub-$500 fines or short-term imprisonment.

This Article argues that this situation needs to be remedied. Every state should criminalize bad samaritanism. For, first, criminalization is required by the supreme value that we place on protecting human life, a …

A Comparison Of Two Theoretical Models Of Procedural Justice In The Context Of Child Protection Proceedings, Twila Wingrove

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In this study, the researcher tested two theoretical models of justice in the context of child protection proceedings. Participants read a case file describing a hypothetical child neglect case. The file included the court petition, the caseworker’s court report, a summary of the protective custody hearing, and the judge’s final order. Within the case file, the researcher manipulated four variables: procedural treatment, interpersonal treatment, severity of child neglect, and assigned role (judge or parent). Results of confirmatory factor analyses suggested that a four-factor model of justice judgments best fit the data. Consistent with the organizational justice approach (Colquitt, 2001) the …

Jurors’ Perceptions Of Juvenile Defendants: The Influence Of Intellectual Disability, Abuse History, And Confession Evidence, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Bette L. Bottoms, Maria C. Vargas

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Understanding jurors’ perceptions of juvenile defendants has become increasingly important as more and more juvenile cases are being tried in adult criminal court rather than family or juvenile court. Intellectual disability and child maltreatment are overrepresented among juvenile delinquents, and juveniles (particularly disabled juveniles) are at heightened risk for falsely confessing to crimes. In two mock trial experiments, we examined the effects of disability, abuse history, and confession evidence on jurors’ perceptions of a juvenile defendant across several different crime scenarios. Abused juveniles were treated more leniently than nonabused juveniles only when the juvenile’s crime was motivated by self-defense against …

Public Perceptions Of Registry Laws For Juvenile Sex Offenders, Carrie E. Reynolds, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Jessica M. Salerno, Margaret C. Stevenson, Tish R.A. Wiley, Bette L. Bottoms

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Understanding jurors’ perceptions of juvenile defendants has become increasingly important as more and more juvenile cases are being tried in adult criminal court rather than family or juvenile court. Intellectual disability and child maltreatment are overrepresented among juvenile delinquents, and juveniles (particularly disabled juveniles) are at heightened risk for falsely confessing to crimes. In two mock trial experiments, we examined the effects of disability, abuse history, and confession evidence on jurors’ perceptions of a juvenile defendant across several different crime scenarios. Abused juveniles were treated more leniently than nonabused juveniles only when the juvenile’s crime was motivated by self-defense against …

Understanding Adults’ Perceptions Of Juvenile Offenders, Margaret C. Stevenson, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Bette L. Bottoms, Tamara M. Haegerich

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

In adult criminal court, cases involving juveniles can be decided by jurors rather than by family or juvenile court judges. It is, therefore, important to understand adults' perceptions of juvenile defendants and the factors that influence jurors' decisions in criminal cases involving juveniles. This research has value for research psychologists interested in legal decision making and for professionals within the legal system who seek to understand how jurors react to juveniles accused of crimes and how they reach their verdicts in cases involving juveniles. In this chapter, we consider three broad categories of factors that affect perceptions of juveniles: (1) …

Race Stereotypic Crimes And Juror Decision Making: Hispanic, Black, And White Defendants, Joseph Francis Boetcher

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A race stereotypic crime is a crime that most people tend to associate with a certain race. This is a type of racial bias that affects juror decision making by undermining the presumption of innocence and lowering the prosecution's burden of proof. Two studies investigated race stereotypic crimes. Study 1 used a new scale to identify race stereotypic crimes for black, Hispanic, and white males. Study 2 used a mock juror paradigm with a realistic stimulus and sensitive measures to focus on the influence of this type of bias on mock juror decision making. Study 1: Participants were 143 undergraduate …

Knowing When To Trust Others: An Erp Study Of Decision-Making After Receiving Information From Unknown People, Cheryl Boudreau, Mathew D. Mccubbins, Seana Coulson

Faculty Scholarship

To address the neurocognitive mechanisms that underlie choices made after receiving information from an anonymous individual, reaction times (Experiment 1) and event-related brain potentials (Experiment 2) were recorded as participants played 3 variants of the Coin Toss game. In this game, participants guess the outcomes of unseen coin tosses after a person in another room (dubbed “the reporter”) observes the coin toss outcomes and then sends reports (which may or may not be truthful) to participants about whether the coins landed on heads or tails. Participants knew that the reporter's interests either were aligned with their own (Common Interests), opposed …