Week 2 - Intro Flashcards
Mohan
established formal criteria for determining when expert testimony should be admitted into court
Sophonow
problems with eyewitness evidence collected by the police
Lavallée
established guidelines for when and how expert testimony should be used in cases involving battered women syndrome
Levogiannis
children are allowed to testify in court behind screens that prevent them from seeing the accused
Hubbert
impartiality of jurors
Oickle
established that police interrogation techniques, which consist of various forms of psychological coercion, are acceptable and that confessions extracted through their use can be admissible in court
(1) Bowlby’s Theory of Maternal Deprivation
Any disruption of the mother-child relationship during early childhood may have harmful and potentially irreversible long term effects, especially on the child’s ability to establish meaningful prosocial relationships
(1) Hirschi’s Social Control Theory
When a bond that individual has to society is weak/broken, they are more likely to engage in criminal behaviour
- Attachment: don’t want to jeopardize these relationships
- Commitment: risk losing the investments
- Involvement: time and energy
- Belief: you should respect the rules of society
(2) Learning theories
Try to explain how criminal behaviour is developed and maintained
- Classical conditioning
- Operant conditioning
- Vicarious learning
(3) Personality profile
Existence of a criminal personality
difference in the nervous system
that will lead to difference in personality and behaviour
(1) The role of the Superego
Main source of criminal behaviour relates to inadequate formation of the superego during childhood
- Harsh superego (neurotic criminal)
- Weak superego
- Deviant superego
(3) Eysenk’s Biosocial Theory of Crime
First testable theory of criminal behaviour proposed by a psychologist
Interaction between biological, social and individual factors – Biosocial theory of crime
There are three dimensions to personality (extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism); the first two being the most influential in the development of criminal behaviour
(3) Kernberg’s Theory of Borderline Personality Organization
Criminal personality is organized along a continuum
- Psychotic: absence of reality testing and the use of primitive defences
- Borderline: capacity for reality testing and use of primitive defences
- Neurotic: capacity for reality testing and use of higher-level defences
Knowledge (Hess)
research – legal precedent, logical thinking, and case law
Methodology (Hess)
nomothetic – idiographic
Epistemology (Hess)
uncovering hidden truths/objective – persuasion/subjective
Criteria (Hess)
replication/conservative - single-case/more lenient
Nature of the law (Hess)
descriptive/how people behave – prescriptive/how people should behave
Principles (Hess)
alternative explanations – only one correct explanation
Latitude (Hess)
limited by the court – fewer restrictions
General acceptance test
Expert testimony accepted in court if the basis of the testimony is generally accepted within the relevant scientific community
The Daubert criteria (U.S.)
- The research has been peer reviewed
- The research is testable (i.e., falsifiable through experimentation)
- The research has a recognized rate of error
- The research adheres to professional standards
The Mohan criteria (Canada)
- The evidence must be relevant
- The evidence must be necessary for assisting the trier of fact
- The evidence must not violate any other rule of exclusion
- The testimony must be presented by a qualified expert
Expert witnesses must be knowledgeable about the following:
- The functions of expert witnesses - Information (educator) and opinion
- The differences between their field of expertise (e.g. psychology) and the law
- The criteria for accepting expert testimony
