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Psychology and the Law

Terms in this set (42)

encoding
what people notice and perceive
storage
what people store in memory
retrieval
what people are able to recall
brief
eyewitnesses tend to overestimate the length of time in a _______ incident

eyewitness encoding error
lengthy
eyewitnesses tend to underestimate the length of time involved in a ______ incident

eyewitness encoding error
retention interval
eyewitness' memory fades as ______ increases

the length of time between encoding and retrieval
post-event information
alters memories of an event for eyewitnesses
unconscious transference
the generation of memory that is related to an incident, but, is not relevant to the issue being considered

eyewitness retrieval error
Robert Buckhout
1974
studied the effects of suggestion and bias in identification from photographs

eyewitness retrieval error
system variable
factors under control of the criminal justice system
post-diction variable
does not directly effect the reliability of an identification, but it is a measurement of some process that correlates with reliability
estimator variable
factors beyond the control of the justice system whose impact needs to be estimated:
cross-race effect
age/gender of eyewitness
speed of identification
hypnosis
used by law enforcement to:
generate leads
refresh the memories of eyewitnesses
hyperamnesia
remembering more during one's hypnotized state than during their conscious state
State v. Hurd
hypnosis conducted by one who is trained to do so
hypnotist independent of council or advisors
information known prior to hypnosis needs to be recorded and kept separate
the entire session should be recorded
only the hypnotist and subject are present during the session
all of the pre-hypnosis memories must be presented alongside the hypnotically retrieved memories
cognitive interview
re-create the scene mentally and report everything they remember
State v. Michaels
New Jersey Supreme Court: in this case, the interrogations revealed a lack of impartiality on the part of detectives; elicited information that the kids had not previously mentioned
OVERTURNED because of suggestive interview questions
suggestive questioning
introducing new information into the interview that the child did not previously provide
interviewer bias
preconceived notions on the part of the interviewer cause them to frame questions differently; elicit answers consistent with prior beliefs
social influence
highly supportive interviewers can elicit more true responses, unless biased reinforcement comes into play
criminal profiling
began with behavioral science unit
narrows down field of crime suspects
sketch the most likely type of suspect
step 1
collection of information

6 steps in criminal profiling
step 2
decision process model
produces meaningful questions and dimensions of the crime
analyzes type of killer (murderer, rapist, terrorist, etc)

6 steps in criminal profiling
step 3
crime assessment
reconstruct the behavior and motives of the killer
organized: intelligent, careful planning
disorganized: impulsive, less socially competent

6 steps in criminal profiling
step 4
criminal profile
initial description is composed
race, sex, age, marital status, etc

6 steps in criminal profiling
step 5
investigation
written report is given to the police

6 steps in criminal profiling
step 6
apprehension

6 steps in criminal profiling
Pinizzotto and Finkel
compared accuracy of profilers with police, students and psychologists
profilers performed better in rape cases, but not with any other case
Frye v. United States
polygraph
appealed his murder conviction on the grounds that the results of his lie detector test could not be admitted into court
lost appeal b/c there was not enough scientific agreement
relevant/irrelevant procedure
for lie detection
ask crime relevant (stressful) questions along with irrelevant (non-stressful) questions
assumption: liars will show strong reaction to the crime related questions
control question test
john reid
gathers biographical information and convinces subject that the machine is infallible
asks crime relevant and emotional irrelevant questions- guilty will show stronger reaction to relevant questions
concealed knowledge test
Lykken
goal is to detect guilty knowledge, not necessarily lies
only information the police and the perpetrator would know
PSE
measures variance in stress in speech
Brown v. Mississippi
supreme court overturned the conviction of three black men for murder of a white man
the men were whipped, hung and starved into confessing
Jackson v. Denno
perpetrator shot by police in shoot out- put on pain killers and interrogated into confessing he shot first

defendants are entitled to a pretrial hearing in order to determine whether or not the confession with coerced
involuntary=not presented
voluntary
form of false confession where defendant has a desire for publicity, self-punitiveness, covers up for another crime
coerced-compliant
confesses under pressure but doesn't truly believe in their own guilt
coerced-internalized
confesses under pressure and truly believes in guilt despite actual innocence
1. vulnerable suspect
2. lying about evidence
entrapment
legal defense stating:
1. yes I committed the crime but my behavior was induced by law enforcement
2. I was not predisposed to commit the crime
passive sting
perpetrator approaches law enforcement

ie- officer dresses and prostitute and stands on street corner, defendant approached them
active sting
law enforcement approaches defendant
Jacobson v. United States
man ordered naked child photos before it was illegal, when it became illegal law enforcement pretended to be a child porn company and sent order forms to the man several times until he finally ordered them
RULED AS ENTRAPMENT 5 TO 4
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