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Psychology and Law Midterm
fun law and psychology things
65
Psychology
Undergraduate 2
03/04/2013

Additional Psychology Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term
The four choices to make in psychology and law
Definition
Equality/Discretion, Truth Seeking/Conflict Resolution, Due Process/Crime Control, Science/Law as a source of decision making
Term
Due Process Vs. Crime Control
Definition
Emphasis on protection from abuses by the police (10 criminals go free than 1 innocent suffer) Vs. Focus on the apprehention of criminals
Term
Commonsense Justice Vs. Black-Letter Law
Definition
The average citizen's moral compass, based on their belief of what is fair (discretion) Vs. Applying the law as written (no discretion)
Term
Distributive Justice Vs. Procedural Justice
Definition
Focus on the outcome of the case, do the ends justify the means? Vs. Was the process to get to the outcome fair? Consideration of the fairness of the methods to resolve a dispute
Term
Settlement Negotiations 
AND 
Plea Bargaining
Definition
90-95% of cases never go to trial
give/take, offer/demand, ends when the defendant puts a deal on the table and the plaintiff accepts it
accused pleads guilty to a lesser charge, so they don't go to trial, settled in private
Term
Amicus Curie Brief
Definition
"friend of the court" filed by a party uninvolved with the case but a strong view on the subject matter
provides the court with info on psychological science or other relevant court rulings to better inform the court in decision making
Term
Stare Decisis
Definition
"let the decision stand"
precedents and case law are very important because justices don't like to contradict themselves or other judges/cases
Term
Expert Witness
Definition

A person with specialized knowledge of a subject relevant to a court case who is introduced to inform the trier of fact 

(more likely to speak in favor of who hired the, sometimes considered irrelevant, can't make subjective either-or judgments)

Term
Policy Evaluator
Definition
hired to provide data to answer questions about the effectiveness of a policy/law, design studies to make more effective, but these studies may disadvantage certain people (ethical?), or if they create a program that doesn't work their authority is questioned 
Term
Forensic Evaluator
Definition
mental health professional who decides the competence, mental state of defendant at the time of the crime, emotional damage, and  risk assessments
Term
Trial Consultant
Definition
work as a jury selection consultant, conduct public opinion surverys, prepare witnesses, advise lawyers on presentation strategies, conduct mock trials
Term
"Law is an evolving human creation"
Definition
laws are made as humanity evolves, no driving laws before cars, no texting and driving laws before cell phones
Term
Criminal Case Vs. Civil Case
Definition
society is injured so the state tries people to find if they're guilty/not guilty and decides their punishments, guilty beyond a reasonable doubt VS. disputes between two private entities: divorce, determining monetary compensation, based on preponderence of evidence whoever has more evidence 51%/49%
Term
Layout of Federal/State Courts
Definition

Federal: district federal courts ->13 circut courts of appeal -> US Supreme Court
 

State: state trial courts -> intermediate appelate courts -> higher appeal courts -> supreme court

Term
Venire
Definition
pannel of prospective jurors drawn from a large list
Term
Voir Dire
Definition
process by which judge and/or attorneys ask potential jurors questions to reveal biases
Term
Procedural steps in a trial
Definition
1)opening statements (prosecution first)
2) witnesses testify (cross examination, recross)
3) all other evidence presented
4) closing arguments (pros first)
5) judge instructs jury
6) jury deliberates  
Term
Blakely V. Washington
Definition
trial judges normally decide punishment for crimes, but they cannot increase the sentences based on what they believe made the crime worse
Term
Violence in Schools
Definition
More likely in high school than middle/elementary
Most common is bullying
In college: date rape, hazing
Term
Interventions to Reduce School Violence
Definition

-increase communication between administrators and students
-profiling is unhelpful because it targets people and shootings are too rare
-bullying is what needs to be changed because it causes shootings
-zero tollerance policies don't work because there's no discretion 

Term
Genetics in Criminology
Definition

-parent a criminal 4x more likely child will be

-50% heretibility for violent behaviors

Term
Psychopathy
Definition
individuals who engage in frequent, repetive criminal activity with no remorse, constantly lying and manipulating, superficial, arrogant, don't learn from experience, blame others to rationalize behavior
Term
Anti-Social Personality Disorder
Definition
pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others that begins in childhood and continues into adulthood
Term
Executive Function Theory in Psychopathy
Definition
Hare proposed psychopaths have a deficency in the left hemisphere of their brains that impairs their ability to plan and regulate behavior
Term
Stimulation Seeking Theory in Psychopathy
Definition
psychopaths are assumed to be constantly under-aroused, so by constant agressive thrill seeking they are trying to increase sensory input to put their arousal at a more tolerable level
Term
Differential Association Approach
to Criminal Behavior
Definition
criminal behavior requires socialization into a system of values that condones law breaking so the potential crime developes definitions of behavior to make crime acceptable
 1) criminal behavior is learned through interactions/communication
2) when criminal behavior is learned it includes techniques, motives, rationalizations, and attitudes
3) a person becomes a deliquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to law violation 
 
Term
Social Learning Theory of Crime
Definition
importance of reinforcements for developing new behaviors based on cognitive factors and vicarious learning 
1) Familial influences ->see agression as a type of conflict resolution, may adopt it
2) subcultural influences -> enviroments (school) that provide context to support agression (rewards for it)
3) Symbolic models -> violent TV/videogames, effects on viewer 
Term
Multiple-Component Learning Theory
of Crime
Definition
-attachment issues with parents
-getting into fights (based off vicarious learning of family)
-use violence to gain peer approval
-lack/delay of punishment 
-no role model
-impulsive behavior, immediate gains
-gainsof crime outweigh losses 
Term
Social Labeling Theory
Definition
being branded a criminal can create a self-fufilling phrophecy, accept label of "ex-con" and live up to the negative connotations by breaking more laws
Term
Admissibility of Evidence
Definition
probative value (ability to shed light on the dispute) must outweigh any potential predjucial effect (ability to unfairly bias the trier of fact) it might have
Term
Probative
Definition
-ability to shed light on the debate: BUT
must be relevant to the case, and the evidence must be trustworthy in considering admissibility (best friend testimony Vs. police report)
Term
Standard for Admissibility of
Eyewitness Testimony
Definition
Neil V. Biggers, considering the totality of the circumstances is the eyewitness sufficiently reliable to testify?
-opportunity to see person, length of seeing person, confidence in choosing
Term
Confirmation Bias in the case of
eyewitness testimony
Definition
police overrly on eyewitness identification, police stop looking and only find evidence to indite person identified, look for and interpret evidence in a way that incriminates the suspect
Term
System Variable
Definition
variables under the control of criminal justice system like the type of line-up
Term
Estimator Variables
Definition
variables outside of the control of the criminal justice system who's impact on the eyewitness can only be estimated
Term
Postdiction Variable
Definition
variable in eyewitness memory like the speed of the ID that does not directly coorelate with the reliability of the eyewitness, but insted measures a process that correlates with reliability
Term
Weapon Focus Effect
Definition
victim tends to focus on the weapon instead of other stimuli
Term
Selective Attention
Definition
people have limited capacity to process stimuli, so they unconscious focus on some and tune out others
Term
Cue-Utilization Theory
Definition
high arousal leads to narrowing of attention to the most prominent/important cues
(like a weapon)
Term
Retention Interval
Definition
the amount of time between the event and being questioned about it
(longer retention interval less that will be remembered)
Term
Post-Event Information
Definition
details about an event that an eyewitness is exposed to post-facto like talking to other people that saw the same crime
Term
Other-Race Effect
Definition
eyewitnesses are better at recognizing and identifying members of their own race
Term
Simultaneous Line-Up
Definition
see people all at once, use relative judgment (pick the one that most resembles memory, based on people in line up)
more mistaken IDs this way
Term
Sequential Line-Up
Definition
see one at a time, use absolute judgment (can't compare faces)
less mistaken IDs, and less accurate IDs too because there are fewer ID attempts overall
Term
Eyewitness Confidence
Definition
-confidence of eyewitness coorelates WEAKLY with accuracy
- jury thinks eyewitnesses are more reliable if they're confident even though they're NOT
Term
Adverse Childhood Experience Study
Definition
17,000 middle age (52/3) people with health care, asked about ACEs (incarserated, mentally, absentee, substance abuser parents), asked about current health
Major findings: ACEs much more common than thought, 52% at least 1, 25% 2+,  most common: live with substance abuser
-strong relationship between # of ACEs and liklihood of having a negative outcome later in life 
Term
Windom Study
Definition

longitudinal study, 900 abused/neglected children paired with ones that weren't a/n but same age, gender, race
-determined relationship between a/n and poor decisions laterinlife

-a/n significantly more likely to be arrested for violent crimes

-a/n significantly more likely to be disgnosed with dysthymia and antisocial personality disorders
-but these were no longer significant when researchers controlled for stressful life events that predicted mental health outcomes: a/n more stressful life events 

Term
Lifetime PTSD prevalance
Definition
Men: 3.6%
Women: 9.7%
-more likely for women if trauma results from a crime
Term
Why research on trauma provides hope
Definition
-research finds negative outcomes are not inevitable in childhood victims because further trauma and stress can be prevented
Term
Witness Competence
Definition
meets the qualifications to be a witness
-decided by the judge because it's a question of law
Term
Witness Credibility
Definition
weight placed on a competent witness's testimony 
-decided by the trier of fact
Term
Child Witnesses Overview
Definition
-once presumed to be incompetent if under 7
-now on case by case basis
-more info on development
Term
Competence of Witnesses
is Determined By:
Definition
1) ability to understand oath (truth/lie)
2) capacity to accurately perceive events
3) ability to accratly encode events (memory)
4) ability to verbalize/explain memories to answer questions
Term
Investigative Interviews With Children
Definition
1) build rapport
2) ask child to tell in their own words what happened (open-ended questions)
3) ask specific questions about the information they volunteered
Term
Effects of Children
Testifying in Court About Abuse
Definition
short-term: anxiety, vomitting
long-term: mental effects, trauma
Term
Child Witnesses and Suggestibility
Definition
-children are more suggestible than adults, but they are NOT HIGHLY suggestilbe
-younger the child the more suggestible (3-6 most because just developing verbal skills)
-suggestive/leading questions increase it
-misleading questions that require interpretation are the most suggestible
-suggestibility increases if the event was stressful 
Term
Miranda V. Arizona
Definition
confessions from in-custody interrogations are only admissible if the suspect gave it voluntarily and knew their rights against self-incrimination
Term
When are interrogation-induced false confessions most likely to happen?
Definition
during high-stakes cases like homicides becase police are under pressure and are more likely to use pshcyologically coerive tactics to wear suspects down
Term
Police Process of Interrogating
Definition
1) "softening-up" isolate suspect, build rapport, try to get people to waive miranda rights
2) start with small questions, gradually getting to crime
3) persuade person to tell their side of the story  
Term
Maximization Interrogation Technique
Definition
detective attempts to intimidate the suspect and make them feel like denial is hopeless, accuse the suspect of lying, identify inconsistencies in story, emphasizing seriousness of crime (bad cop)
Term
Minimization Interrogation Technique
Definition
cop plays nice, tries to "help" the suspect save face, give suspect moral justification for what happened, use scenerios of what could have happened to reduce feelings of guilt, express empathy, play crime off as trivial
Term
Types of False Confessions:
Definition
1) Voluntary - notoriety, fame
2) Compliant - short-term gains outweight long-term consequences
3) Internalized - person creates a false memory and actually believes they did it
Term
Fundamental Attribution Error
Definition
jurors do not give significant weight to the external situation around the crime, assume people who commit crimes have bad internal, stable forces
 -in confessions: jury takes confessions at face value and assume they're guilty because they confessed 
Term
How recording interrogations influences the viewer
Definition
-if the suspect confesses on camera, and the camera is only pointed at them, then the confession seems more voluntary, but if the police officer is in the frame it appears less voluntary (see external pressure)
Term
Illusory Causation
Definition
attribute causation to one stimulus because it's more conspicuous than others 
(on recorded confessions, if you can only see the suspect then their confession seems more voluntary because the detective isn't in the frame)
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