LAW 353 - Law & Psychology

Many issues of law involve questions that are psychological in nature, referring to human behaviors and/or mental processes. For example, how do juries reach decisions? What do we know about memory, and to what extent can it be trusted in making legal judgments about guilt or liability? When is a confession voluntary; does the law think about voluntariness in a way that makes psychological sense? When is a criminal defendant mentally competent to stand trial? When may a criminal defendant be considered insane? What types of psychological defenses (defenses grounded upon mental illness)should a defendant be able to claim? When may a person be involuntarily incarcerated when (s)he has not committed a crime? What is the proper role of expert testimony? To what extent are the innovations of modern brain science, including technologies such as structural and functional MRI, relevant to judgments about legal responsbility? And so forth. Psychology and law have adopted overlapping, but also significantly contrasting perspectives on such issues. In this course we will investigate how psychologists work within the legal system and how psychological theories, research data, techniques, and methods might contribute to our understanding of the law. This is a three credit course which will meet twice weekly. Major components of the course grade will be a final exam, a class presentation by each student, and class attendance and participation.