Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of case studies
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- 1 Psycholegal research: an introduction
- 2 Eyewitnesses: key issues and event characteristics
- 3 Eyewitnesses: the perpetrator and interviewing
- 4 Children as witnesses
- 5 The jury
- 6 Sentencing as a human process
- 7 The psychologists as expert witnesses
- 8 Persuasion in the courtroom
- 9 Detecting deception
- 10 Witness recognition procedures
- 11 Psychology and the police
- 12 Conclusions
- Notes
- References
- Author index
- Subject Index
1 - Psycholegal research: an introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of case studies
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- 1 Psycholegal research: an introduction
- 2 Eyewitnesses: key issues and event characteristics
- 3 Eyewitnesses: the perpetrator and interviewing
- 4 Children as witnesses
- 5 The jury
- 6 Sentencing as a human process
- 7 The psychologists as expert witnesses
- 8 Persuasion in the courtroom
- 9 Detecting deception
- 10 Witness recognition procedures
- 11 Psychology and the police
- 12 Conclusions
- Notes
- References
- Author index
- Subject Index
Summary
‘Although the roots of law and psychology were planted at the turn of the century, the “tree” has been slow to grow and only has begun to bear fruit recently.’ (Ogloff and Finkelman, 1999:17)
‘In the recent past psychologists’ claims to knowledge and fact finding ability were altogether too forceful, and lawyers’ reluctance to use psychological evidence, insights and sophisticated techniques altogether too irrational.’ (Clifford and Bull, 1978:19)
‘However relevant they may be to each other, the offspring of the relationship between psychology and law is still an infant and doubts are still cast upon its legitimacy.’ (Carson and Bull, 1995a:3)
‘The issues are not the relevance of psychology and law to each other but the extent to which the law and legal system should and are prepared, to embrace psychology and the extent to which psychologists should, and are prepared, to adapt their work to the needs and requirements of the legal system.’ (Carson and Bull, 1995a:4)
Introduction: Development of the Psycholegal Field
The plethora of applications of psychology to law can be differentiated in terms of what has been defined as: (a) ‘psychology in law’; (b) ‘psychology and law’; and (c) ‘psychology of law’. According to Blackburn (1996:6), psychology in law refers to specific applications of psychology within law: such as the reliability of eyewitness testimony, mental state of the defendant, and a parent's suitability for child custody in a divorce case. Psychology and law is used by Blackburn (1996) to denote, for example, psycholegal research into offenders (see Howells and Blackburn, 1995), lawyers, magistrates, judges and jurors.
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- Information
- Psychology and LawA Critical Introduction, pp. 1 - 20Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002