Psychology of Law: 3 Critical Empirical Legal Problems

Creator(s)

Michelle Cowley-Cunningham

Organisation(s)

Dublin City University

Discipline(s)

Administration and Law, Arts and Humanities, Business, journalism and information,

Topic(s)

Open Education

License

CC BY

Media Format

PDF

Keywords

Applied PsychologyEvidence and ProcedurePsychology of Law

Submitted by

Exports

Description

This tutorial explicates three critical examples of how psychology informs legal professionals of the problems that human behaviour brings to law and its practice.

Benefit of this resource and how to make the best use of it

Starting with an introduction to what psychology is, and what it is not, the tutorial moves to discuss and critically analyse key studies in psychological research demonstrating: the fallibility of forensic profiling, the malleability of human memory relevant to false memory syndrome, and finally the vulnerability of juries to prejudicial evidence. These key studies demonstrate how forensic profiling may sometimes mislead police investigations, how false memories can be planted in the mind of witnesses, and how prejudicing evidence, such as prior convictions, can bias trials in which very little other corroboration is evident. These thought provoking findings are presented in the context of core landmark findings within the psychology of law literatures, and will provide the student and lecturer with much to appraise and work with to advance complementary literatures within law, such as a critique of the rules of evidence and procedure. Finally, a select reading list is provided to aid the student and lecturer for future reference.

Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)

This work is licensed under a CC BY license, allowing sharing and adaptation with proper attribution.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
? This citation is automatically generated and may not be perfectly formatted. Always check and adjust it according to your required citation style.
Cowley-Cunningham, M. (2023). Psychology of law: 3 critical empirical legal problems. National Resource Hub (Ireland). Retrieved from: https://hub.teachingandlearning.ie/resource/psychology-of-law-3-critical-empirical-legal-problems/

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