Professor: Robert Mauro
4 credits
In this class, we will explore a variety of issues that lie at the intersection of psychology and law. For each issue, we will discuss what has been done, what is being done, what can be done, and what should be done.
We will discuss issues of identity (e.g., eyewitness identification, interrogation, lie detection, and profiling), state of mind (competency, insanity, and other legal defenses based on the defendant’s state of mind), social policy (e.g., capital punishment, discrimination, voting rights), and the use of psychological and social science methods in legal contexts. In each of these areas, we will focus on understanding the practical problems that have been addressed by the law and how social science knowledge and methodology can be used to illuminate the issues that arise. Although, we will focus on how these issues are handled (and mishandled) in the United States, we will take an international perspective and explore how other legal systems are structured and how they have confronted some of these issues.