Psychology in Court

1
Psychology in Court

• Chapter 14

2
A Brief History

• Cattell (1895)
• Questions about everyday observations and the
  nature of testimony
• Binet (1900)
• Suggestibility in children
• Stern (1910)
• The eyewitness reality experiment

3
Psychologists in Court

• Von Schrenck-Notzing (1896)
• First forensic psychologist in literal form
• German expert witness in serial sexual murder
  case
• Extensive pre-trial press coverage
• Retroactive memory falsification
• What was seen versus what was heard

4
Forensic Psychology in North America

• Munsterberg (1908)
• On the Witness Stand
• Psychology and the legal system
• Resistance from legal scholars
• Pushed psychology into legal arena
• Father of forensic psychology

5
Forensic Psychology in North America

• Legal cases in U.S. address admissibility of
  expert testimony
• Influence of Jenkins v. United States (1962)
• Dealt with whether psychologists should be
  allowed to provide expert testimony on issues of
  mental illness
• U.S. Supreme Court decided that some
  psychologists are qualified to provide such
  testimony

6
U.S. Decisions Regulate Scientific Expertise

• Frye v. United States
• Standard of general acceptance of scientific
  principle or discovery
• Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals
• Set out new rules to consider in evaluating novel
  scientific evidence
• Emphasis on the validity of the science behind
  the testimony
• Experts should back up what they say by citing
  and explaining relevant findings
• Big problems for psychology and psychiatry

7
Admissibility of Expert Testimony

• Daubert Criteria
• Be provided by a qualified person
• Be relevant
• Be reliable
• Peer reviewed
• Testable
• Recognized rate of error
• Meet professional standards

8
Seeking to Introduce novel expert evidence

• Father accused of sexually assaulting his two
  children
• Defense attempted to introduce a psychiatrist
  who would give the opinion that the accused did
  not possess deviant personality traits
• Based his opinion on a PPG
• Judge excluded evidence (no standard profile
  established necessity relevance criteria not
  met)

9
WHY????????????

• Court found technique generally recognized by
  scientific community as a therapeutic tool but
  first time as a forensic tool (novel purpose)
• Closeness of opinion to issue if evidence
  accepted, it would exclude accused from group of
  potential offenders
• Relevant necessary tests not reliable nor
  applicable (lt50 dectected)
• Cost benefit evidence offered as many problems
  as it did solutions

10
ANOTHER EXAMPLE

• Quantitative analysis of QEEG
• Novel scientific technique not established as
  reliable
• Not meeting threshold test of reliability

11
WHAT HAPPENED?

• Expert had international reputation
• Published articles
• Opinion previously accepted by another Alberta
  trial judge in 1998
• BUT expert didnt know if anyone else in Canada
  used QEEGs
• No scientific standard existed different
  computer programs techniques
• Rejected evidence on reliability factor

12
Scientific and Specialized Witnesses

• Expert witness unbiased, not an advocate
• Two primary functions
• Provide an opinion
• Educator to judge and jury
• What qualifies a person as an expert witness?
• Training
• Experience
• Testimony must be deemed RELIABLE and helpful

13
Topics for Psychologists as Expert Witness

• Sentencing and rehabilitation
• Eyewitness identification
• Child custody
• Social issues (spouse abuse)
• Psychological evaluations

14
Roles of the Psychologist

• Clinical Role
• Assessment of offenders
• Unbiased reports
• Prediction and reduction of future dangerousness
• Interventions designed to rehabilitate criminal
  offenders
• Working with police and victims

15
Roles of the Psychologist

• Experimental Role
• Most often based in social, personality,
  cognitive or developmental areas
• Jury decision making
• Eyewitness identification
• Impact of expert witness
• Role of children in the courtroom

16
Roles of the Psychologist

• Advisory Role
• Advising lawyers about psychological evidence of
  other experts
• destructive role

17
Roles of the Psychologist

• Actuarial Role
• Applying statistical probabilities to behaviours
  and events

18
Psychology and Criminal Law

• Pre-trial
• Fitness NCRMD (mostly a psychiatrists domain)
• Trial
• Actus reus (the guilty act)
• Mens rea (intent to commit the act)
• Pre-sentence
• Mitigation
• Treatment
• Risk assessment