forensic psychology

daubert standard

rules judges use to decide if science is allowed in court

daubert guideline 1

can the science be tested?

daubert standard 2

has other scientists checked it (peer review)?

daubert guideline 3

how often is the science wrong (error rate)?

daubert guideline 4

do most experts agree with it?

psychologist culture

cares about truth, uses careful language, talks in probabilities

lawyer culture

cares about winning, wants yes/no answers, speaks confidently

why psychologists and lawyers clash

one is careful and slow, and the other is fast and aggressive

how psychologists and lawyers can work better together

psychologists explain clearly; lawyers respect uncertainty

sigmund freud

early psychologist who said memory and the mind are not perfect

Hugo Munsterberg

first person to connect psychology to law and courts

why Munsterberg was important

showed eyewitness memory and confessions CAN be wrong

Jenkins v United States (1962)

psychologists can testify as expert witnesses

brown v board of education

psychology used to show segregation harms children

brandeis brief

legal arument that uses science and social facts, not just law

amicus curiae

a “friend of the court” who gives extra information

difference between brandeis brief and amicus curiae

brandeis = type of info; amicus = who gives it

Miranda Warning

police must tell suspects they have the right to stay silent and get a lawyer

why miranda warnings don’t work well

people don’t understand them or think talking will help

false confession

when someone admits to a crime they did not do

why false confessions happen

fear, stress, pressure, exhuastion, wanting it to stop

one way to reduce false confessions

record the full interrogation

another way to reduce false confessions

limit long questioning and police lying

Reid Technique

aggressive interrogation style used in the U.S.

Problem with Reid Technique

high risk of false confessions

PEACE technique

calm, fair interrogation method used in the UK

why PEACE is better

less pressure and fewer false confessions

Nonverbal cues to lying

stuttering, sweating, avoid eyecontact, extreme blink count, body language, latency

why body language is unreliable for lie detection

nervousness doesn’t always mean lying

paul ekman

psychologist who studied facial expressions

facial action coding system (FACS)

system that studies tiny facial muscle movements

microexpressions

very fast facial expressions that show real emotion

polygraph

machine that measure body reactions, not lies

what polygraphs measure

heart rate, breathing, sweating

control question test (CQT)

compares stress from control vs crime questions

guilty knowledge test (GKT)

checks if suspect knows secret crime details

most accurte polygraph technique

guilty knowledge test (GKT)

1976 Chowchilla bus kidnapping

case where hypnosis was used on witnesses

why hypnosis is bad for eyewitness memory

can create false memories and overconfidence

why people waive miranda rights

they think talking will help or that they don’t need a lawyer

big forensic psychology idea

memory and confessions are not always reliable