The Psychology And Law Of Criminal Justice Processes

Psychological science now reveals much about the law's response to crime. This is the first text to bridge both fields as it presents psychological research and theory relevant to each phase of criminal justice processes. The materials are divided into three parts that follow a comprehensive introduction. The introduction analyses the major legal themes and values that guide criminal justice processes and points to the many psychological issues they raise. Part I examines how the legal system investigates and apprehends criminal suspects. Topics range from the identification, searching and seizing to the questioning of suspects. Part II focuses on how the legal system establishes guilt. To do so, it centres on the process of bargaining and pleading cases, assembling juries, providing expert witnesses, and considering defendants' mental states. Part III focuses on the disposition of cases. Namely, that part highlights the process of sentencing defendants, predicting criminal tendencies, treating and controlling offenders, and determining eligibility for such extreme punishments as the death penalty. The format seeks to give readers a feeling for the entire criminal justice process and for the role psychological science has and can play in it.

Criminal justice is unavoidably human. Detectives, witnesses, suspects, and victims shape investigations; prosecutors, defense attorneys, jurors, and judges affect the outcome of adjudication. Simon shows how flawed investigations produce erroneous evidence and why well-meaning juries send innocent people to prison and set the guilty free.

This book provides a focused and comprehensive overview of criminal psychology in different socio-economic and psycho-sociological contexts. It informs readers on the role of psychology in the various aspects of the criminal justice process, starting from the investigation of a crime to the rehabilitation or reintegration of the offender. Current research in criminology and psychology has been discussed to understand the minds of various offenders, how to interact with them during investigation and conviction effectively and how to bring about positive changes in various stages of the criminal justice process—investigation, prosecution, incarceration, rehabilitation—to increase the efficacy of the correctional system and improve public confidence in the justice system. It thoroughly addresses the bigger issues of holistically reducing the increase in crime rates and susceptibility in society. Each chapter builds on leading scholarship in this field from Western scholars and supplements these theories with research findings from a South Asian perspective, particularly in the Indian criminal justice system. This book successfully encapsulates the foundations of criminal psychology literature while incorporating interdisciplinary avenues of study into criminal behaviour and legal psychology, bringing into the provincial discourse lacunas of the justice system and avenues for alternative correctional and rehabilitative programs.

The latest entry in this noteworthy series continues its focus on psychological issues relating to legal and judicial matters, with sound recommendations for situational and system-wide improvement. Salient concerns are described both in areas where their existence is frequently acknowledged (juror impartiality, the juvenile justice system) and where they are rarely considered (Miranda warnings, forensic mental health experts). Authors describe differences between professional and lay concepts of justice principles--and the resulting disconnect between community sentiment and the law. Throughout these chapters, psychological nuances and their legal implications are made clear as they relate to lawyers, jurors, suspects, and victims. Included among the topics: · From the headlines to the jury room: an examination of the impact of pretrial publicity on jurors and juries. · Victim impact statements in capital sentencing: 25 years post-Payne. · Psychology and the Fourth Amendment. · Examining the presenting characteristics, short-term effects, and long-term outcomes associated with system-involved youths. · Indigenous youth crime: an international perspective. · An empirical analysis of law-psychology journals: who’s publishing and on what? As with the others in the series, this third volume of Advances in Psychology and Law will interest researchers in legal psychology and related disciplines (e.g., criminal justice) as well as practicing attorneys, trial consultants, and clinical psychologists.

Few things should go together better than psychology and law - and few things are getting together less successfully. Edited by four psychologists and a lawyer, and drawing on contributions from Europe, the USA and Australia, Applying Psychology to Criminal Justice argues that psychology should be applied more widely within the criminal justice system. Contributors develop the case for successfully applying psychology to justice by providing a rich range of applicable examples for development now and in the future. Readers are encouraged to challenge the limited ambition and imagination of psychology and law by examining how insights in areas such as offender cognition and decision-making under pressure might inform future investigation and analysis.

Criminal justice is unavoidably human. Detectives, witnesses, suspects, and victims shape investigations; prosecutors, defense attorneys, jurors, and judges affect the outcome of adjudication. Simon shows how flawed investigations produce erroneous evidence and why well-meaning juries send innocent people to prison and set the guilty free.