Synopses & Reviews
This engrossing text examines the legal system through the use of psychological concepts, methods, and research results. It seeks to clarify the basic dilemmas that persist in the legal system and looks at the ethical, moral, legal, and psychological "gray areas" of the law, including coverage of such topics as: competence to stand trial, pretrial publicity and resulting changes in venue, criminal profiling, civil case law and civil procedures, the rights of children, capital punishment, the psychology of criminal trials, the insanity defense, expert forensic testimony, and analysis of eyewitness identification and line-up procedures. This thoroughly updated edition balances discussion of the legal system with psychological theory, concepts, and research.
Synopsis
The author team for WRIGHTSMAN'S PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LEGAL SYSTEM, Sixth Edition combines complementary expertise, active research, writing careers, and real world experience (as consultants working within the legal system) to produce a comprehensive text that is unparalleled in scholarship and writing style. The authorship, research base and comprehensive coverage make this text popular with instructors and students. This text demonstrates the importance of psychology to understanding the legal system and the impact on individuals' everyday lives through the use of real cases and questions formed to create discussions of these cases.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 519-558) and indexes.
About the Author
Lawrence S. Wrightsman is professor of Psychology at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. Wrightsman is an author or editor of ten other books relevant to the legal system, including PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LEGAL SYSTEM, FIFTH EDITION, THE AMERICAN JURY ON TRIAL, and JUDICIAL DECISION MAKING: IS PSYCHOLOGY RELEVANT? He was invited to contribute the entry on the law and psychology for the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PSYCHOLOGY, sponsored by the American Psychological Association and published by Oxford University Press. His research topics include jury selection procedures, reactions to police interrogations, and the impact of judicial instructions. He has also served as a trial consultant and testified as an expert witness. Wrightsman is a former president of both the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues and the Society of Personality and Social Psychology. In 1998 he was the recipient of a Distinguished Career Award from the American Psychology-Law Society.Michael T. Nietzel earned his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1973 and is currently President of Missouri State University.William H. Fortune received his J.D. from the University of Kentucky in 1964 and is currently an Alumni Professor of Law at the University of Kentucky at Lexington.Edie Greene earned her Ph.D. in cognitive psychology and law from the University of Washington in 1983, served as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Washington from 1983-1986, and is currently a professor of psychology at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.
Table of Contents
1. Psychology and the Law: Impossible Choices. 2. Psychologists and the Legal System. 3. Legality, Morality, and Justice. 4. The Legal System and its Players. 5. Theories of Crime. 6. The Police and the Criminal Justice System. 7. Crime Investigation: Witnesses. 8. Identification and Evaluation of Criminal Suspects. 9. The Rights of Victims and the Rights of the Accused. 10. Between Arrest and Trial. 11. Forensic Assessment in Criminal Cases: Competence and Insanity. 12. Forensic Assessment in Civil Cases. 13. The Trial Process. 14. Jury Trials I: Jury Representativeness and Selection. 15. Jury Trials II: Concerns and Reforms. 16. Psychology of Victims. 17. Punishment and Sentencing.