Methodological Issues in Research on Legal Decision- Making, with Special Reference to Experimental Simulations (From Psychology and Law: International Perspectives, P 413- 423, 1992, Friedrich Losel, Doris Bender et al., eds. -- See NCJ-148224)

• NCJ Number: 148256
• Author(s): V J Konecni; E B Ebbesen
• Date Published: 1992
• Length: 11 pages
• Sale Source: Walter de Gruyter & Co
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: Germany (Unified)

Annotation

Optimistic appraisals of the status of the interface between law and psychology are frequent, although others are skeptical about the value of incorporating psychological theory and empirical simulations in the domain of law.

Abstract

The legal psychology approach favored by the authors consists of a sociosystemic, descriptive-predictive, decisionmaking analysis of law and the development of causal models and a meta-theory of the legal system's operation. Experimental simulations have their drawbacks in the field of legal psychology. An example of the potentially serious consequences of asserting external validity for unvalidated simulations is the "death qualification" of jurors in capital crime cases. Jurors may tend to accept weak or inconsistent results when they support a particular policy position on capital punishment. Evidence is not yet sufficient, however, to support the claim that the death qualification voir dire increases the conviction proneness of juries. The confidence-accuracy relationship in eyewitness testimony and the role eyewitness confidence plays in the legal system are addressed, and the proper role of simulations in legal psychology is explored. 27 references