exam one Flashcards
Adversarial System
Adversarial SystemA system of justice in which opposing parties present competing versions of the evidence in an effort to win a favorable judgment. In the United States, a trial is an adversarial proceeding because lawyers (adversaries) compete to win a verdict in their favor. The American legal system assumes that truth will emerge through a contest between adversaries who present opposing interpretations of the evidence to a neutral fact finder (a jury or judge).
Amicus Curiae Brief
“Friend of the court” brief. A written document submitted to the court by parties with no direct involvement, but a strong interest in the case. The American Psychological Association has submitted such briefs to summarize relevant research and to clarify the overall meaning of a set of findings.
Brandeis Brief
A legal, argumentative document submitted by Louis Brandeis to the 1908 U.S. Supreme Court in Muller v. Oregon. The brief incorporated medical, scientific, and government reports that favored a particular party in the litigation. This document set a precedent for the courts to consider research in their decisions
Brief
Written documents submitted by parties to a judge or panel of judges. Typically, a brief offers interpretations of relevant law and summarizes facts and arguments for a party to the dispute
Code of Professional Responsibility
Code of Professional Responsibility
A set of ethical rules, developed by the American Bar Association (ABA), governing the conduct of lawyers. It requires lawyers to “represent their clients zealously within the bounds of the law.” It focuses on the legal efficacy of an argument as opposed to its veracity.
Culture
A set of shared basic assumptions about the relative importance of competing goals, how disputes should be resolved, and what procedures to follow in striving for goals.
Empirical Legal Studies
An early twenty-first century movement in law schools in which law is studied through data collection and research analyst
Experts
People who have acquired specialized knowledge through significant education or relevant experience. Expert witnesses are usually allowed to provide an opinion in court pertaining to their specialized field.
Gatekeeping Role of Judges
As determined in the U.S. Supreme Court case Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (1993), judges must assess the scientific validity of potential testimony before allowing it to be heard at trial
Precedent
A past judicial decision that guides judges in making future decisions about similar legal issues.
Suborning Perjury
The criminal act of persuading or purposefully allowing another person to lie about a material issue while under oath
Trier of Fact
The person(s) given responsibility for evaluating that evidence presented at trial and rendering a verdict. In a jury trial, the jury acts as the fact finder while the judge determines which evidence is admissible and the relevant law to be applied
Why was Muller v. Oregon an important case?
First psychological study admitted into the court room
When did the maturation of the relationship between psychology and the law take place?
1960
According to Miller, “Giving Psychology away” means.
using psychology to solve social problems
Psychology is described as ______ while law is ________
descriptive and prescriptive
What is the primary goal of psychological science?
describe human behavior
What is the goal of the legal system?
achieve approximate justice
According to the text, the goal of psychology is to ______. While the goal of the legal system is to _____
Emphazie group characteristics
Emphazies individual case
What is uncertainty avoidance?
how comfortable you are in unstructured situations
Describe the basis of adversarial system in law
truth will come out as a result of conflict between opposing sides
What is peer review?
studying the effectiveness of programs
When considering scientific testimony, gate keeping in the legal sense, includes:
determines whether science should be admitted as evidence
Define amicus-curiae
friend of the court;
APA written amicus briefs
What are current techniques used in forensic settings to detect liars?
how they work
are they valid or reliable
what does research show
-polygraph
-verbal cues
- written statement
-physiological
roles of expert witnesses
hired guns
advocate
educator
pathways for influence the legal system
- amicus brief
- expert testimony
others - cross disciplinary training
- dissemination of research findings
- influencing public policy
subspecialties in psych and law
- clinical/forensic psychology
- academics - researchers - expert witness
- developmental psychologists
- cognitive
- social
- community psychologists: evaluating programs ex. juvenile delinquency
how can liars’ behavior be predicted
(theories and explanations)
- emotional explanation of lying
- lying more cognitive demanding
- attempted control explanation to lying
What are meta analysis and what do they tell us ?
- most humans no better than chance @ detecting deception without tools
- verbal higher chance up to 80% you will not predict
methods of detection
- nonverbal
- analysis of verbal indicators
- psychological
safeguards/ effective ?
what is forensic science
collection, analysis and interpretation , of psychical evidence
what is forensic identification
the process of linking a piece of trace evidence to a suspect. usually involves:
fragments of physical evidence left at or transported from crime scene
what is trace evidence
Physical evidence left at or transported from the scene of a crime (e.g., fibers from clothes, tire prints from a car, sole prints from a shoe, fingerprints, hair, skin cells, blood, saliva, or semen)
what are the basic principles of scientific measurement (reliability and validity?)
- measurement reliability :
> test and retest
>interrater - measurement validity:
is it measuring what it is suppose to
which trace evidence has weak sciatic foundation ?
- bullet striation match
- blood splatter analyses
- tool match
- teeth match
which trace evidence has strong scientific foundation ?
- dna evidence and identification
> reliable and valid method
> most objective
> solid scientific foundation
what is the CQT?
what is the assumption
- compares responses to deception-relevent question with response too control questions
- ex. on may 17 did you stab frank?
- idea of the questions is to embarrass suspect to lie (effect of increasing their level of physiological arousal)
- 2 assumptions
assumption that
> innocent suspect will show higher levels of arousal for control questions compared to relevant questions
> guilty high levels arousal to relevant questions compared to control questions
problems with CQT? and GKT
- low base rates of deception
- some people emotional nonreactive
- use of deception (which is not allowed in many jurisdictions)
- lack of standardization: (different questions every time)
- countermeasures: bite their tongue
- difficult to test accuracy
1. lab studies: lack of severe consequences
2. field studies: difficult to know the truth
GKT ? what are the assumptions?
- test aims to determine whether the suspect has knowledge about a particular crime that they do not want to reveal
- can only use this type when you have evidence and when it hasn’t ben shown in media
ex. lays down knives and ask if they have ever seen the knife
> guilty should show heightened physiological response when shown the correct knife used in the crime
research show validity on polygraph tests? CQT and GKT
nonverbal - 55% truth
nonverbal - 55% lie
control question - 72% truth and 87% lie
guilty knowledge - 96% truth and 59% lie
other physiological approaches compared to polygraph
FMRI: functional magnetic resonance imaging
- machine used to image how brain activation changes over time in response to different stimuli
> changes in blood oxygenation in brain
>increase in oxygen, increase brain activity
nonverbal cues
what is the procedure ?
body language
>emotional side shows:
increase body movement, gaze, voice pitch, speech hesitations
>more cog demanding: gaze aversion, speech errors and fewer hand/arm movements
>want to control behaviors:
decrease in body movements, speech errors and gaze aversion (more eye contact)
non verbal
what is the problem?
very good liars @time
50/50 shot
nonverbal
can it be applied to real world ?
can be applied limitations
therefore others such as verbal and physiological should be applied
analysis of verbal
criterion based content analysis
- true accounts can be discriminate form false accounts based on criterion features
- just requires written statement
- CBCA
> general characteristics
> specific contents
> motivational related content
CBCA
criterions
1) logical structure
- does statement make sense
2) unstructured
- statement given disorganized matter
3) quality of details
- added multiple details for no reason
6) reproductions of conversations
- ex. ask abut parents then ask about parents again
8) unusual details
- witness describes that the man had a stutter
15)admitting lack of memory
- ex. idk and I’m not sure
are confessions always reliable ?
- not always reliable
- Drizen and Leo analyzed 125 proven false confessions
1) investigate biases seem to trigger and intensify the coerce nature of interrogations
2) modern tech can lead innocent people to falsely confess
3) some individual particularly susceptible to these techniques
4) juries fail to sufficiently weight situations factors and discount evidence of coercion
juries fail to sufficiently weight
- jurors do not treat confessions like other pieces of evidence which may be true or false
- confessions most powerful piece of evidence against defendent
> influenced by it
what are modern interrigaiton techniques
- investigator bias
- reid technique (isolate, confrontation and exculpatory scenarios)
> isolate: indicate loss of control and social isolation
> conf: fabricate evidence
> scenarios: min/max seriousness of crime - ecological validity: vulnerability
> tats make the admit because of pressure
what is the difference between interview and interrogation. why is this important?
- the interview is an informal procedure whereas the interrogation is formally questioning a person with information about a suspected crime
- interview (obtain info)
-interrogation (test info already obtained) - It’s important because interviews are often conducted with witnesses and victims, while interrogations are usually conducted with suspects.
what are the safe guards in the context of interview/interrogation?
Safeguards in the interrogation process include
> presence legal counsel, recording interrogations, ensuring the suspect’s Miranda rights are understood, and providing breaks and opportunities to consult with an attorney.
> Research supports the effectiveness of these safeguards in reducing the risk of false confessions.
are there people more vulnerable to also confessions?
> 32% juveniles
19% “mentally retarded”
10%mentally ill
what is legal psych?
application of scientific and professional aspects of psychology to questions and issues relating to law ad legal system
psych legal issues
- reliability of eye witness
- reliability of confession evidence
Hugo Munsterburg
- student of Wilhelm Wundt
- responsible for eyewitness test
and confession evidence
muller v Oregon
- supreme upheld a law limiting women’s workday to 10 hours
- Using social science evidence, Louis Brandeis argued before the Court that women who worked long hours on the job suffered both physical and psychological problems.
brown v board of education
- first time that psychological research was cited in a Supreme Court decision
- social science data were seen as paramount in the Court’s decision to end school segregation.
