NCJ Number
101784
Editor(s)
M F Kaplan
Date Published
1986
Length
248 pages
Annotation
Ten papers explore systematic efforts to apply social science, particularly social psychology, to judicial and legislative policy, trial preparation, and trial procedures.
Abstract
Papers on the application of social science research to judicial and legislative policy focus on the use of such research by legislative bodies in setting legal policy by the Federal courts and the U.S. Supreme Court. These studies include case studies that illustrate the importance of researchers' working with the courts as 'knowledge brokers' to provide substantive and methodological expertise at all stages of the policy evaluation process. Papers on the application of social science research to trial preparation describe formal means of educating trial principals in the implications of psychology for effective trial conduct, efforts to inject research findings on eyewitness identification capabilities into evidence collection and presentation, and voir dire uses and abuses. Papers on the application of social science research to trial procedures address psychological consultation in trial preparation and procedures, the use of social science data as evidence, the problem with jury instructions, and a social science conceptual analysis of the construction and implementation of sentencing guidelines. For individual papers, see NCJ 101785-87. Chapter references and subject index.