psychology & the law

Question 1

three stages in the jury selection process

Answer 1

stage 1 : master list of eligible citizens is compiles
stage 2: certain number of people are randomly drawn from the list and summoned for duty
stage 3: pretrial interview of voir dire of potential jurors to uncover signs of bias.

Question 2

question period that tries to detct bias

Answer 2

voir dire

Question 3

if person knows the party in a trial, has formed an opinion or has vested interest in the trial are ??

Answer 3

excluded for cause.

Question 4

what are pre-emptory challenges

Answer 4

defense and prosecution can exclude jurors without reason

Question 5

TRUE or FALSE: contrary to popular opinion women are harsher as criminal trial juror than men

Answer 5

FALSE

Question 6

trial lawyers as intuitive psychologists

• rely on?
• predict?

Answer 6

• rely on implicit theories and stereotypes

- some claim lawyer can predict person’s verdict by race, gender, ethnic background, and other demographics

Question 7

problems with pre-emptory challenge

Answer 7

• take out a group = no longer representative of community
• can lead to discrimination
• research does not support folk wisdom that juror’s verdict can be predicted on basis of demographics

Question 8

scientific jury selection

- harrisberg 7

Answer 8

method of selecting juries through surveys that yield correlations between demographics and trial-relevant attitudes (correlate to come up with profile ideal for defense juror)

Question 9

when is scientific jury selection used most often?

Answer 9

in high-profile criminal trials, civil trials in which lrge sums of money are at stake
– OJ simpson trial

Question 10

determine statistical relatinoships between what? how?

Answer 10

• between general demographic factors and attitudes relevant to partiuclar case.
  use data from focus groups, mock juries, surveys
• lawyers exclude those whose profiles assoc with favourable attitudes

Question 11

does scientific jury work?

Answer 11

shown to relate to a win, but hard to make a clear casual attribution.

Question 12

is scientific jury selection ethical?

Answer 12

is the goal for lawyers to eliminate bias or slant the jury in their favour?
- critics say: jury tips justice in favour of wealthy clients. Widens SES gap that’s already present in jury system

Question 13

TRUE or FALSE: without being beaten or threatened, innocent people someitmes confess to crimes they did not commit

Answer 13

TRUE

Question 14

9 steps to interrogation - start with what?

Answer 14

physical environment that leads to social isolation, uncomfortable experience.

1. confront
2. themes that appear to justify/excuse crime
3. interrupt statements of innocence/denial
4. overcome all objections 5. keep increasingly passive suspect from tuning out
5. show sympathy, urge to tell
6. offer face-saving explanation
7. recount details
8. convert statement into full written confession

Question 15

2 approaches to police interrogations

Answer 15

pressure the suspect into submission by expressing certainty of their guilt = false evidence
– befriend the suspect. blame victim, false sense of security.

Question 16

2 risks of false confessions

2 factors increase false confessions

Answer 16

1. may confess merely to escape bad situation (innocent - confession as compliance)
2. internalization can lead innocent suspects to believe they might be guilty of a crims (vivid recounts, believed they actually did it)
   a. lack of clear memory of the event in question
   b. presentation of false evidence.

Question 17

risk of false confession study 1

Answer 17

pair of college students working with either slow or fast paced game. computer crashed, some told its broken, others told it’s because they hit a button they were told not to.

• all innocent, initially denied charge.
• when confederates in same room said they saw them hit the key (false witness), more ppl complied. more internalized when did task fast.

Question 18

risk of false confession study 2

Answer 18

confess to cheating, confederates ask participants to help solve problem. even if innocent, interrogating them makes them cooperate.
minimization > promise. both > either alone.

Question 19

3 interrogation styles

Answer 19

promise = leniency for cooperation
minimization = minimize effect for others = more effective than promise.
both = increase true and false confessions.
- all work in innocent conditions

Question 20

confessions and the jury - attributional dilemma

Answer 20

jury powerfully influenced by evidence of a confession even if it was coerced.

Question 21

fundamental attribution error revisited

Answer 21

jurors are supposed to reject all confessions made in response to coercion. but FAE says that people tend to overattribute to person rather than situation.
- jurors still view as guilty even though confession is invalid

Question 22

FAE and jury study

Answer 22

control - 19% voted guilty
in low-pressure coercion: 62% voted guilty.
in high pressure coercion: 50% voted guilty = confessed out of fear, pain - didn’t actually influence to confess truth, but conviction rate increased.

Question 23

attributional dilemma: how confession evidence is presented

Answer 23

accuracy for determining whether confession is true or false is low.
- inmate taped confessing to offense they did commit and one they did not commit.
= no one really that good at detecting deception
– variations in camera perspectives significantly influence the perception that confession is coerced.
== confessor ange (less coercive, underestimate pressure), both angle (most coercive)

Question 24

TRUE or FALSE: eyewitnesses find it relatively difficult to recognize members of a race other than their own

Answer 24

TRUE

Question 25

eye witness testimony 3 conclusions

Answer 25

1. are imperfect
2. certain personal situational factors systematically influence eyewitness performance
3. judges, juries, lawyers not well informed about these factors

Question 26

3 stage process of memory

Answer 26

• • acquisition
• storage
• retrieval

Question 27

stage process of memory - acquisition

Answer 27

witness's perceptions at the time of the event question. 
factors influencing acquisition
-- one's emotional state
-- weapon-focus effect
-- cross-race identification bias:

Question 28

emotional state and acquisition of memory

Answer 28

high arousal narrows field of attention, impair witness’s memory for less central details.

Question 29

witnesses are less able to indentify the culprit in the presence of a weapon

Answer 29

weapon-focus effect.

– aroused by sight of arousing stimulus. attention drawn from face/perpetrator

Question 30

people fin it difficult to recognize members of a race other than their own

Answer 30

cross-race identification bias

Question 31

stage process of memory - storage

Answer 31

refers to getting the information into memory to avoid forgetting.

• memory for faces and events tends to decline over time.
• memory can be influences: reconstructive memory.
• • based on loaded questions, misinformation effect

Question 32

based on experience and post-event info can be incorporated into own memory and change the purity

Answer 32

reconstructive memory

Question 33

storage - study

Answer 33

biasing eye witness reports with loaded questions.
- verb change.
- later asked to recall: 32% f ppl who had “smash” said there was glass on the ground from car crash.
2 sources:
- actual event
- post event.

Question 34

tendency for false post-event information to become integrated into people’s memory of an event

Answer 34

misinformation effect

- eyewitness compromised when told person they ID-ed was the suspect.

Question 35

interrogating children

Answer 35

• kids came up will silly stories. when prompted, said what they thought adult wanted them to say.
• upon repeating question, changed their answers multiple times.

Question 36

memory storage: retrieval

Answer 36

• refers to pulling the information out of storage when needed.
• more time retrieving and storing when questioned, view line ups, talk to investigator = increased error

Question 37

factors affecting identification performance

Answer 37

• line-up construction
• line-up instructions to witness
• format of line up
• familiarity-induced biases

Question 38

• ID performance: line up construction

Answer 38

if 4-8 innocent in a line, the person who stands out most (feature, outfit) more likely to be picked

Question 39

ID performance: line up instructions

Answer 39

receive instruction that person IS in line up or MAYBE is in lineup.
- saying IS = more likely to choose when uncertain, increased mistaken ID

Question 40

ID performance: format of lineup

Answer 40

live ppl = more compelled to make a choice.
best is photos presented one at a time
sequential better than simultaneous

Question 41

ID performance: familiarity-induced biases

Answer 41

able to remember face but not circumstances in which saw face. ID innocent face that were present in situation. like to choose innocent = perpatrator

Question 42

TRUE or FALSE: the more confident an eyewitness is about ID the more accurate it is likely to be

Answer 42

FALSE

Question 43

courtroom testimony of eyewitness

Answer 43

persuasive, not easy to devalue.

• why overestimate accuracy? couldnt distinguish btw correct and incorrect eyewitness.
• • lack knowledge about human memory
• • base judgements largely on witness’s confidence

Question 44

biasing effects of post-ID feedback

Answer 44

when questioned about event, more confident =/= more correct.
when told person ID-ed perpetrator - memory altered. more likely to testify