Minds On Trial

Minds on Trial: Great Cases in Law and Psychology gives you an inside view of 20 of the highest profile legal cases of the last 50 years. The authors skillfully convey the psychological and legal drama of each case, while providing important and fresh professional insights. Mental health and legal professionals, as well as others with an interest in psychology and the law will have a hard time putting this scholarly, yet readable book down.

In recent years, the public has become increasingly fascinated with the criminal mind. Television series centered on courtroom trials, criminal investigations, and forensic psychology are more popular than ever. More and more people are interested in the American system of justice and the individuals who experience it firsthand. Minds on Trial: Great Cases in Law and Psychology gives you an inside view of 20 of the highest profile legal cases of the last 50 years. Drs. Ewing and McCann take you "behind the scenes" of each of these cases, some involving celebrities like Woody Allen, Mike Tyson, and Patty Hearst, and explain the impact they had on the fields of psychology and the law. Many of the cases in this book, whether involving a celebrity client or an ordinary person in an extraordinary circumstance, were determined in part by the expert testimony of a psychologist or other mental health professional. Psychology has always played a vital role in so many aspects of the American legal system, and these fascinating trials offer insight into many intriguing psychological issues. In addition to expert testimony, some of the issues discussed in this entertaining and educational book include the insanity defense, brainwashing, criminal profiling, capital punishment, child custody, juvenile delinquency, and false confessions. In Minds on Trial, the authors skillfully convey the psychological and legal drama of each case, while providing important and fresh professional insights. Mental health and legal professionals, as well as others with an interest in psychology and the law will have a hard time putting this scholarly, yet readable book down.

Each murder trial brings its own tangle of evidence, legal parameters, medical factors, social circumstances, and personalities. The tangle gets trickier when we must keep in mind that: "A person shall not be criminally responsible for an act or omission if they suffer from a mental disorder such that they were not able to appreciate the nature and quality of their act or to know that it was wrong." Forensic Psychiatrist Stanley Semrau takes us through some of the more terrible and fascinating tales from his career and from historical sources, including several cases that came to national attention: Clifford Olson and Terry Driver (The Abbotsford Killer) and the Daniel McNaughten case that marked the beginning of the insanity defense in Britain in 1843. These chilling and thought-provoking stories delve deep into the psychiatric aspects of homicide law and into the psychology of the muderous mind. Semrau's examination of these thrilling cases also offers a critique of the existing laws in Canada as he argues for profound changes.

This book addresses the philosophical questions that arise when neuroscientific research and technology are applied in the legal system. The empirical, practical, ethical, and conceptual issues that Pardo and Patterson seek to redress will deeply influence how we negotiate and implement the fruits of neuroscience in law and policy in the future.

Is there a biological basis for evil? From neurological imaging to behavioral studies, Dean Haycock's account of the groundbreaking research reveals what scientists are learning about the psychopaths living among us. How many times have you seen a murder on the news or on a TV show like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and said to yourself, "How could someone do something like that?" Today, neuroscientists are imaging, mapping, testing and dissecting the source of the worst behavior imaginable in the brains of the people who lack a conscience: psychopaths. Neuroscientist Dean Haycock examines the behavior of real life psychopaths and discusses how their actions can be explained in scientific terms, from research that literally looks inside their brains to understanding out psychopaths, without empathy but very goal-oriented, think and act the way they do. Some don’t commit crimes at all, but rather make use of their skills in the boardroom. But what does this mean for lawyers, judges, psychiatrists, victims and readers--for anyone who has ever wondered how some people can be so bad. Could your nine-year-old be a psychopath? What about your co-worker? The ability to recognize psychopaths using the scientific method has vast implications for society, and yet is still loaded with consequences.

This book presents a new look at the relationship between people and society, produces a semiotic theory of cultural psychology and provides a dynamic treatment of culture in human lives.

A groundbreaking exposé about the alarming use of rap lyrics as criminal evidence to convict and incarcerate young men of color Should Johnny Cash have been charged with murder after he sang, "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die"? Few would seriously subscribe to this notion of justice. Yet in 2001, a rapper named Mac whose music had gained national recognition was convicted of manslaughter after the prosecutor quoted liberally from his album Shell Shocked. Mac was sentenced to thirty years in prison, where he remains. And his case is just one of many nationwide. Over the last three decades, as rap became increasingly popular, prosecutors saw an opportunity: they could present the sometimes violent, crime-laden lyrics of amateur rappers as confessions to crimes, threats of violence, evidence of gang affiliation, or revelations of criminal motive—and judges and juries would go along with it. Detectives have reopened cold cases on account of rap lyrics and videos alone, and prosecutors have secured convictions by presenting such lyrics and videos of rappers as autobiography. Now, an alarming number of aspiring rappers are imprisoned. No other form of creative expression is treated this way in the courts. Rap on Trial places this disturbing practice in the context of hip hop history and exposes what's at stake. It's a gripping, timely exploration at the crossroads of contemporary hip hop and mass incarceration.

Increasingly in America s courtrooms lawyers, litigants, and expert witnesses attempt to recreate what it s like to be inside the litigant s mind. But is it really possible to claim this perception as evidence? Is seeing really believing? Can anyone really know what it s like to have another person s perceptual experiences, when only that person has direct access to them? And why should courts ever admit visual or auditory evidence that purports to convey what another person s consciousness is like? How might these simulations affect the ways that judges and jurors do justice? Experiencing Other Minds thoughtful explores this evidentiary and cognitive terrain. Whether a simulation actually provides reliable knowledge about the other person s inner experience, depends on the strength of our grounds for believing in it. And that depends largely on how the simulation was made. Primarily a descriptive and analytic work, Experiencing Other Minds conducts a legal anthropological inquiry into a novel and distinctive evidentiary practice, situating each example of digitally simulated subjective perception in its case context and drawing on cognitive psychology, media studies, science and technology studies, and other disciplines to understand how each simulation produces specific epistemological and rhetorical effects. By paying closer attention to the different kinds of simulation and the different knowledge claims they offer, we can develop best practices for responsibly incorporating such evidence in the courtroom, and thereby improve the quality of justice as well. "