Case Studies in Legal Psychology

In some criminal cases, it is a difficult challenge to find out what happened. Fact finders will rely on different approaches ranging from intuitive heuristics to scientific insights. With 11 real cases, this book illustrates how professional judges evaluate criminal evidence. Moreover, the legal psychological approach to the same evidence is discussed, as the author served as a psychological expert witness in these cases. Targeted pieces of evidence and related topics include:

• Eyewitness identification

• Eyewitness testimony

• Confession evidence

• Deception

• Memory flaws

• Legal decision making

It is a must-read for practitioners and graduate students in criminal law, forensic psychology, and legal psychology.

Addresses major issues in legal psychological expertise, including the format of psychological opinion Provides the reader with thorough and up-to-date knowledge of the psychology of criminal evidence Easy and accessible to read because it has real criminal cases as starting point

Autorentext

Eric Rassin, PhD LLM (1969) is lawyer and psychologist. He currently works at Erasmus University Rotterdam as legal psychologist. He serves as a forensic expert witness regularly. Rassin wrote books on thought suppression (2005) and legal psychology (2020), and dozens or scientific articles. His main research interests are biases, legal decision making, likelihood ratios, negative evidence, and credibility assessment.

Inhalt
Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. The Armed Robbery and a Disputed Identification in a Mugshot Series.- Chapter 3. The Armed Robbery and a Disputed Identification in a Line Up.- Chapter 4. Popeye and an Obscure Mix of Identification Procedures.- Chapter 5. Delayed Allegation of Sexual Assault, Repression and Psychotherapy.- Chapter 6. Dissociation as a State of Reduced Consciousness.- Chapter 7. The Tantra Therapist and the Threat of Collaborative Storytelling.- Chapter 8. Magic Mumfry and the Snowball Effect.- Chapter 9. A Shocked and Caring Community.- Chapter 10. The Amnestic Murderer.- Chapter 11. The Breda Six.- Chapter 12. Mister Big and a Disputed Confession.- Chapter 13. Conclusion.