Criminal Behavior and the Justice System

Readers of this book can gain novel insight into the various theoretical perspectives of psychology and law. It is demonstrated that psychology is not simply an applied discipline in the legal area, but that it contains its own concepts and paradigms for basic research. Legal psychology proves to be an independent, interdisciplinary part of psychology. The contributions represent the experience of different nationalities and judicial systems; emphasis is placed throughout on criminal law. Topics considered include: prediction and explanation of criminal behavior; legal thought, attribution, and sentencing; eyewitness testimony; and correctional treatment with clinical and organizational aspects.

1 When Law and Psychology Meet.- A Technology for Controlling Behavior.- A Brief History.- Decision-Making Under Uncertainty.- Establishing Facts.- Models of Rationality.- Attribution of Liability.- Effects of Punishment.- Punishment in the Real World.- One Prediction and Explanation of Criminal Behavior: Introduction.- 2 Long Term Prediction of Offending and Other Life Outcomes.- The Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development.- Explanatory and Predictive Research.- Prediction of Offending.- Prediction at Age 32.- Conclusions.- 3 Prediction of Criminal Behavior: Recent Developments in Research and Policy in the United States.- Naive Reliance.- Empirical Retreat.- Pragmatic Resurgence.- 4 The Prediction of Drunken Driving Offences.- The Legal Framework and the Role of Psychologists.- Views Regarding Drunken Driving.- The Scientific Basis for Predictions.- Linking Findings of Research on Alcoholism with Those Concerning Drunken Driving.- An Interactionistic Approach to Prediction and Diagnosis.- 5 Juvenile Delinquency: Definitions, Character, and Theory.- Definition.- Character.- Theoretical Statement.- The Study.- Findings.- Conclusions.- 6 Situational Effects on the Decisions of Adolescent Offenders to Carry Out Delinquent Acts. Relations to Moral Reasoning, Moral Goals, and Personal Constructs.- Method.- Results and Discussion.- Final Comments.- 7 Crime Specialisation, Crime Displacement and Rational Choice Theory.- Displacement and Generalisation: The Empirical Evidence.- The Concept of Choice-Structuring Properties.- Implications for Crime Control.- 8 Questioning Convicted Burglars: A Contribution to Crime Prevention.- Problem.- Major Questions and Rationale.- Method.- Results and Discussion.- Two Legal Thought, Attribution, and Sentencing: Introduction.- 9 Algebraic Schemes in Legal Thought and in Everyday Morality.- The Case of Recompense.- Experimental Analysis.- Legal Schemes as Heuristics for Cognitive Science.- Analysis of Algebraic Schemes in Legal Psychology.- 10 Decision-Making and the Law: A View from the Grid.- Grid Arguments.- The Set Up.- What Legal Decision-Making Is Not.- “A View from the Grid”.- Other Issues That Could Be Grist for the Grid.- 11 Decision Processes in the Jury Room.- The Chicago Studies.- The Oxford Studies.- The Yale Studies.- The Studies at the London School of Economics.- Discussion.- 12 Perseverance in Courtroom Decisions.- Situational Effects on Judicial Judgmental Processes.- Empirical Support for Perseverance Effects.- Studies of Information Processing and Judgment in Judicial Situations Involving Equivocal Evidence.- Concluding Remarks.- 13 Attractiveness and Respectability of the Offender as Factors in the Evaluation of Criminal Cases.- Respectability and Attractiveness as Extralegal Factors.- Extralegal Factors: Additional Considerations.- Relationship Between Causal Attributions and Sentencing.- Three Eyewitness Testimony: Introduction.- 14 The Perception of Social Events and Behavior Sequences.- What Does the Person Perceive?.- Concluding Remarks.- 15 Remembering Social Events and Activities.- Overview and Introduction.- Social Cognition Research.- Scripts.- Reality Monitoring.- 16 Distortions in Eyewitness Memory from Postevent Information.- Past Work.- Detection of Discrepancies.- New Evidence for Discrepancy Detection.- Fate of Memory.- The Blending of Memories.- 17 Collaborative Testimony by Police Officers: A Psycho-legal Issue.- Background to the Studies.- Dyadic Confidence and the Role of Implicational Errors.- Remembering in Dyads and Groups: Social Direction and Control.- Groups, the Police and Conventional Recall.- Group Over-confidence Examined.- Conclusions: The Propriety of Collaborative Testimony.- 18 Behavioral Correlates of Statement Credibility: Theories, Paradigms, and Results.- Basic Concepts and Research Approaches to Witness Psychology.- Theoretical Approaches to Credibility Assessment.- Research Paradigms and Procedures.- Correlates of Credibility: Empirical Results.- Judgments of Credibility: Empirical Results.- Suggestions for Procedural Modifications in Future Research.- 19 Assessing Credibility of Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse: Polygraph Examinations and Statement Analysis.- Polygraph Techniques.- Statement Analysis.- Concluding Remarks.- 20 Verbal and Visual Processes in Person Identification.- Verbal and Visual Processes Within an Integrative Framework of Eyewitness Testimony.- Verbal and Visual Processes at the Perceptual Phase.- Verbal and Visual Processes at the Retention Phase.- Verbal and Visual Processes at the Retrieval Phase.- Conclusions.- Four Correctional Treatment: Clinical and Organizational Aspects: Introduction.- 21 Evaluation Research on Correctional Treatment in West Germany: A Meta-analysis.- Method.- Results.- Discussion.- 22 Treatment of Young Remand Prisoners: Problems and Results of a Research Project.- The Situation in Pretrial Detention.- The Present Study.- Method.- Results.- Discussion.- 23 Influencing Juvenile Offenders by Way of Alternative Sanctions in Community Settings.- The Development of Juvenile Delinquency.- Backgrounds in Juvenile Delinquency.- Reactions to Juvenile Criminality.- Viewpoints on Vandalism: The Existing Theories.- Initiating the Development of a Differentiated Theory of Vandalism.- The Need for a Differentiated Approach by Policymakers.- Untapped Possibilities for a Differentiated Approach.- Prevention: The Crowning Piece of the Differentiated Approach.- 24 Relations Between General Attitudes and Personality Traits of Prison Officers and Some Specific Attitudes Towards Prisoners.- Subjects and Methods.- Results.- Discussion of Results.- 25 Psychology in Prison: Role Assessment and Testing of an Organizational Model.- Conceptual Framing.- Method.- Results.- Discussion.- Author Index.