Social Psychology of Justice exam 3

Dusky v United States

A US supreme court case that defined the qualifications for being judged competent to stand trial. The "test must be whether [the defendant] has sufficient present ability to consult with his attorney with a reasonable degree of rational understanding- and whether he has a rational as well as factual understanding of the proceedings against him. Carried girl across state lines where two boys who were friends of his son raped her

Adjudicative competence

the types of abilities needed to participate effectively in all stages of the legal process. it consists of two components: 1.) foundational competence- a basic understanding of the trial process as well as the capacity to provide a lawyer with information relevant to the trial; and 2.) decisional competence- the capacity to make informed, independent decisions

richard bonnie

adjudicative competence

flexible standard

a standard of competency to stand trial that may be raised or lowered depending on the complexity of the trial and the abilities a defendant will need to navigate a particular legal proceeding

presumption of competency to stand trial

defendants are presumed to be competent unless proven otherwise. the defense bears the burden to prove incompetence

preponderance of the evidence standard (POE standard)

a standard of proof often used in civil cases. For example, in determining competency to stand trial, the defense must prove that it is more likely than not that the defendant is incompetent. That is, a judge or jury must be more than 50% certain that the defendant is incompetent

Godinez v Moran

separate psychological evaluations of competency to plead guilty and competency to waive an attorney are not required once a defendant has been found competent to stand trial

Indiana v Edwards

A US supreme court case that held that the dignity and fairness of the trial process required that a judge appoint an attorney for a competent but mentally ill defendant if necessary. the decision also allowed for a jurisdiction to use a higher level of competence for competency to waive an attorney than for competency to stand trial

forensic assessment instruments

psychological tests designed to answer questions specific to a particular legal standard

MMPI-2 (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory)

a widely used psychological test in evaluations of competency to stand trial. it is a general measure of psychopathology based on a participant's responses to 567 true-false questions. if offers information on the participant's psychological distress, symptoms, and possible diagnosis

competency screening test

a forensic assessment instrument used to measure individuals' competency to stand trial. participants complete 22 sentence fragments as a test of their knowledge of legal proceedings

MacSAC-CD (MacArthur Structured Assessment of the Competencies of Criminal Defendants

An 82-item test designed to measure a defendant's competency to stand trial. the defendant is presented with some version of a standard vignette and then must answer open-ended and true-false questions about the vignette. the test assesses the defendants' understanding of the legal system, reasoning skills, and appreciation of their own circumstances

malingering

the deliberate feigning or gross exaggeration of physical or psychological symptoms in order to gain a positive outcome or avoid a negative outcome

inventory of legal knowledge

an instrument designed to detect malingering in competency to stand trial evaluations. This 61-item true-false test is designed for english-speaking defendants who have some knowledge of the us criminal justice system

evaluation of competency to stand trial- revised (ECST-R)

an 18-item assessment instrument designed to measure a person's competency to stand trial; it used a semistructured interview to specifically assess a defendant's factual and rational understanding of courtroom proceedings as well as the defendant's ability to consult with counsel

bona fide doubt

any reasonable or "good faith" doubt

collateral sources of information

third parties who can offer useful information about the behavior of a person being evaluated by the court

ultimate issue testimony (or ultimate opinion testimony)

expert testimony that specifically answers the legal question at the heart of a particular case, a question that the trier of fact (a judge or jury) must decide

Jackson v. Indiana

a us supreme court case that limited the period of confinement of a defendant judged to be incompetent to the time necessary to determine if the defendant could be returned to competency in the foreseeable future

anosognosia

a condition in which people suffering from a mental illness lack awareness of their illness and often see medication as unnecessary for treatment

Sell v United States

a case that held an incompetent criminal defendant who was not a danger to himself or others could be forcibly medicated if and only if such treatment was 1.) medically appropriate; 2.) unlikely to have side effects that would undermine the trial fairness, and 3.) necessary to further a significant government interest, such as the prosecution of a serious crime

plea bargaining

a process by which a defendant agrees to plead guilty to a less serious charge in exchange for a more lenient sentence that might be imposed if the case were to go to trial

arraignment

a court proceeding in which a defendant charged with a crime appears before a judge who reads the charges against the defendant and then asks the defendant "how do you plead?" the defendant's basic choice is to plead either not guilty or guilty

Jury selection and service act of 1968

legislation mandating that federal and state courts assemble juries that constitute a "fair cross-section of the community"

jury pool

the citizens in a particular geographical area who are identified as being eligible to serve on a jury; they must speak english, be over 18, mentally competent, and never convicted of a felony

venire

the group of prospective jurors who show up in court and who could be selected to serve on a jury for a particular case

voir dire

the final stage of the jury selection process during which attorneys and the judge ask potential jurors a series of questions to determine who will be chosen to serve on the jury

challenge for cause

a challenge to dismiss a potential juror during voir dire because of bias or prejudice that makes the juror unable to render an impartial verdict

peremptory challenge

a challenge to dismiss potential jurors without giving a reason and without approval from the judge; each attorney has a small number of these

cognizable group

a group of potential jurors that share a characteristic that distinguishes them from other potential jurors. jurors of the same gender or race etc

shadow jury

in high-stakes trials, a group of people who are selected to match the demographics of the actual jury and may sit in the courtroom during trial. this surrogate jury provides feedback to the attorneys about their reactions to the evidence

multiple regression

a statistical technique that combines a large group of variables to predict an outcome variable. for example, multiple regression might be used to try to predict the verdicts of juries by using the characteristics of jurors as predictor variables

locus of control

how people tend to explain what happens to them by locating the cause of behavior either internally or externally

revised legal attitudes questionnaire (RLAQ)

a scale developed to assess attitudes that might be related to verdicts in criminal trials. using a likert scale, it measures responses to 30 statements about the legal process

juror bias scale (JBS)

a scale developed to measure jurors' beliefs about how likely it is that someone who is on trial for a crime actually committed that crime and how certain a juror needs to be before convicting a defendant. also measures general cynicism about the legal system and has been shown to predict how a juror will eventually vote

pretrial juror attitude questionnaire (PJAQ)

a scale that builds on the items in the juror bias scale and uses a likert format; consists of 29 items divided into six subscales

punitive damages

in a civil case, damages (monetary fines) awarded to the plaintiff for the purpose of punishing the defendant for irresponsible or malicious conduct and to discourage others from behaving similarly

civil trial bias scale

a scale consisting of 16 items designed to measure attitudes about the appropriate role of government in regulating businesses, appropriate standards for workplace and product safety, and whether or not most civil suits are justified

similarity-leniency hypothesis

a hypothesis predicting that jurors who are similar to the defendant will empathize and identify with the defendant and thus be less likely to convict

pretrial publicity

the coverage of a high-profile case in the media before the trial even begins

change of venue

moving a trial to a community that has not been exposed to pretrial publicity and its potentially biasing effects

deterrence

offenders should be punished so that they learn that committing a crime leads to punishment and so that other similarly situated individuals will learn as well

mens rea (guilty mind)

an awareness of the wrongfulness of one's criminal conduct

actus reus (guilty act)

physical act of committing a crime

wild beast test

used formerly to determine whether a person is insane, it defines insanity as a mental deficiency in "understanding and memory"

M'Naghten rule

a common insanity standard in the US consisting of 4 components: 1.) a presumption that defendants are sane and responsible for their crime. 2.) a requirement that, at the moment of the crime, the accused must have been laboring under a defect of reason. 3.) a requirement that the defendant did not know the nature and quality of the act he was doing. 4.) if he did know it, he did not know it was wrong

volitional capacity

defendant's ability to control their behavior at the time of the offense

policeman at the elbow test

a test of the irresistible impulse insanity defense, requiring that the defendant's impulse had to be so overwhelming that they would have committed the act even if a police officer had been standing beside the defendant at the time of the crime

Durham standard (or product test)

an insanity standard under which the defendant is not held criminally liable if the crime was the product of a mental illness

ALI standard (of model penal code insanity standard)

a definition of insanity proposed by the american law institute: "a person is not responsible for criminal conduct if at the time of such conduct, as a result of mental disease or defect, he lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law

Hinckley case

the 1983 trial of john hinckley jr for the assassination of ronald reagan. the court used the ali standard for determining whether the defendant should be found not guilty by reason of insanity. many scholars believed that he was found NGRI because the burden of proof for showing insanity rested on the prosecution instead of the defense. public outcry led to the 1984 insanity defense reform act (IDRA)

neurolaw

a legal approach intending to show a link between brain abnormalities and an individual's illegal behavior

Insanity defense reform act (IDRA)

requires that there be a presumption of sanity and that in federal courts defendants prove "by clear and convincing evidence" that they were insane at the time of the crime

affirmative defense

a defense in which the defendant bears the burden of proof in a trial, such as a legal finding of insanity in most jurisdictions

guilty but mentally ill (GBMI)

an alternative verdict in which defendants are found guilty and sentenced to prison, but with the requirement that they receive treatment for their mental health problems

mens rea defense

a defense that concedes the defendant committed a supposedly illegal act but argues that the defendant lacked the capacity to possess the mental state required for the crime

mental state at the time of offense screening evaluation (MSE)

a test that attempts to assess whether a defendant's crimes were influenced by a significant mental disorder

rogers criminal responsibility assessment scales (R-CRAS)

a forensic assessment instrument that attempts to translate the legal standards of insanity into components such as the ability to control one's thoughts and the ability to control one's behavior