ch2 f.i

Purpose of laws

Laws are designed to specify precisely what conduct is illegal, resolve conflicts, protect society, and provide order and consistency within society.

Purpose of laws as human creations

Laws are created to meet society's need for order and consistency and to address changing social needs.

Black-letter law

Laws that specify precisely what conduct is illegal.

Legality vs. morality

The distinction between what the law considers legal or illegal and what people consider morally right or wrong.

Law and morality

Laws do not always correspond to people's personal sense of what is right, wrong, moral, or just.

Purpose of criminal laws

Criminal laws establish what conduct is prohibited and determine how violations should be punished.

Relationship between psychology and the law

Psychology examines human behavior and mental processes, while the law establishes rules and procedures for resolving disputes and determining legal responsibility; psychology can help explain how people behave within the legal system.

Psychology and legal decision-making

Psychology helps explain how characteristics, intentions, perceptions, biases, and environments can influence people involved in the legal system.

Attribution theory

A psychological theory concerning how people explain the causes of other people's behavior, including whether behavior is caused by internal or external factors.

Internal attribution

Explaining the cause of an event or behavior as something internal to the person.

External attribution

Explaining the cause of an event or behavior as something existing in the environment.

Stability of attribution

Whether the perceived cause of behavior is viewed as enduring or temporary.

Globalness of attribution

Whether a perceived cause is specific to a limited situation or applies across situations.

Attribution and culpability

People who make internal, stable, and global attributions about misconduct tend to view the offender as more culpable and deserving of punishment.

Attribution bias

When judging another person's negative behavior, people tend to attribute the behavior to stable internal factors, while they are more likely to blame the external environment when explaining their own negative outcomes.

A judge's responsibilities

Judges are responsible for making legal decisions, applying legal rules and precedents, determining which competing conception of truth is most acceptable when facts conflict, and making decisions within the discretion allowed by law.

Judges and the adversarial system

In the U.S. adversarial system, attorneys generally assemble the evidence and witnesses for each side, while judges rarely call witnesses or introduce evidence.

Judge's role in the adversarial system

The judge acts as a legal decision-maker and fact finder when applicable, while the opposing attorneys generally present the evidence and witnesses.

Judicial discretion

The ability of judges to make choices within the range of decisions allowed by law.

Judicial judgment

Judges' decisions can be influenced by personality, attitudes, past experiences, assumptions, biases, and legal rules.

Legal formalism

The view that judges apply legal rules in a careful, rational, and mechanical manner with little influence from political or social factors.

Legal realism

The view that judges' decisions are influenced by psychological, social, and political factors.

Evidence about judicial decision-making

Trial judges can reflect on their own experiences, assumptions, and biases, especially when decisions involve some degree of discretion.

Motivated reasoning

A decision-making process that is typically outside a person's awareness and can influence how information is interpreted.

Intuitive decision-making

A spontaneous decision process that often occurs without careful thought or effort.

Deliberative decision-making

A decision process involving mental effort, concentration, motivation, and the application of learned rules.

Judges and intuitive decisions

Although judges attempt to rely on facts, evidence, and legal rules, they can have intuitive reactions that may be overridden by deliberate thought if they expend the necessary effort.

Gideon v. Wainwright

The 1963 Supreme Court case in which the Court unanimously ruled that Clarence Gideon had the right to be represented by an attorney even though he could not afford one.

Gideon v. Wainwright significance

The decision established the constitutional right to legal representation for defendants who cannot afford an attorney in the circumstances covered by the ruling.

Public defender

A government-employed attorney who represents defendants who cannot afford to hire a private lawyer.

Gideon's retrial

After being sentenced, Clarence Gideon received a new trial with the help of a free court-appointed attorney and was acquitted.

Adversarial system

The U.S. legal system in which attorneys representing opposing sides assemble evidence, exhibits, and witnesses to convince the judge or jury that their side's position is truthful.

Purpose of the adversarial system

To allow opposing parties to present evidence and arguments to a fact finder who determines which side's position is supported.

Adversarial system criticism

The competitive atmosphere can potentially distort the truth.

Adversarial system benefit

Research indicates that adversarial systems can lead to less biased decisions that are more likely to be viewed as fair by the parties involved.

Inquisitorial system

A legal approach in which the judge has greater control over proceedings, including witnesses and evidence, and witnesses testify for the court rather than separately for opposing parties.

Daubert

A 1993 Supreme Court case, Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., that established a two-prong test used to help determine whether expert testimony should be admitted.

Daubert two-prong test

The trial judge determines whether expert testimony is relevant and, if relevant, whether it is based on reliable and valid science.

Criteria to be an expert witness

An expert witness must possess specialized knowledge about a subject that the average person does not have, and the testimony must satisfy legal requirements for admissibility, including relevance and scientific reliability and validity under the Daubert standard.

Expert witness

A person who possesses specialized knowledge about a subject that the average person does not have.

Expert witness ethical responsibility

Even though an expert witness is usually hired and paid by one side, the expert must report all conclusions, regardless of whether they favor the side paying them.

Expert testimony

Specialized information presented to the court by someone with knowledge beyond that of the average person.

Forensic evaluator

A psychologist who evaluates individuals involved in civil or criminal cases, reports findings to a judge, and may testify about those findings.

Forensic evaluation examples

Psychologists may evaluate competence to stand trial or assess the risk of future criminal behavior.

Competencies

Chapter 2 specifically mentions competence to stand trial as an example of a forensic psychological evaluation.

Competence to stand trial

A legal issue that may be evaluated by a forensic psychologist to determine whether an individual is competent to participate in criminal proceedings.

Psychologist's roles in the legal system

Psychologists can serve as basic scientists, applied scientists, policy evaluators, forensic evaluators, and consultants.

Basic scientist

A psychologist who studies a phenomenon to understand it and contribute to scientific knowledge without necessarily applying the findings.

Applied scientist

A psychologist who applies knowledge to solve real-life problems, including serving as an expert witness.

Policy evaluator

A psychologist who uses methodological skills to evaluate how well an intervention or policy has worked.