Psychology & the Law

Psychology 162: Sept., 2006

Course Syllabus

Basic People Information

Instructor: Ebbe B. Ebbesen

Office Hours: Tues. & Thurs. 2:05 - 3:15

Office: McGill, Rm 5115

Telephone: (858) 534-3003

Email: eebbesen@ucsd.edu

TAs: Ms. Kristin Finklea

Office Hours: Tues. & Thurs. 11 -12

Office: McGill (Psych and Linguistics), Room 4126

Email: kfinklea@psy.ucsd.edu

Outline of topics to be covered in the course

Introduction

What is the law? What is the law's purpose?

The role of psychology in the law.

Methods of reasoning about cause and effect in psychology as compared to methods of reasoning in the law.

Approaches to studying the legal system and the social behavior of participants in the legal system.

The criminal justice system (adults)

How should crime be defined?

Role of mental state of the defendant.

Role of topography of the behavior.

Role of mental state of the victim.

Is criminal action a different class of behavior?

Some theories and evidence of the causes of crime

Environmental vs. Genetic determinants of criminal behavior

If there is a genetic component, what inherited attributes of humans are mediating the effect?

If there is an environmental component, what features of environment are critical?

How might the environment and genetics act together?

What should the legal system do differently, if anything, if some, or even all, criminal actions are genetically determined?

Mental illness: Are criminals mentally ill? Does mental illness cause crime?

Rational Decision-Making

General Deterrence: Death Penalty

Specific Deterrence: Rehabilitation, punishment,revenge, incapacitation, social control

Role of victim and witnesses in crime reporting

Police behavior and crime

Probable cause, police misconduct

Exclusionary Rules

What role should the police play in our society?

How can we control the behavior of the police?

How should we select police officers and how should their performance be evaluated?

Bail Setting: Why is it done? Does it work?

District Attorney Decision Making

Filing charges

Plea Bargaining and case disposition

Guilt vs. Sanctions

Factors in plea bargaining

Eyewitness evidence (e.g., memory, emotion, the problem of testing eyewitness accuracy)

Trial Processes

Voir Dire and fairness

Group decisions

Jury decisions

Role of juror and victim characteristics

Sentencing and judicial decisions

Theories of sentencing (e.g., punishment, revenge, rehabilitation)

Effects of punishment (prison)

Parole decision-making and the guideline system

The Criminal Justice System (children)

Should children be treated differently?

Role of expert in child abuse cases

Children as eyewitnesses

Suggestibility

Memory

The Civil Justice System

Divorce and child custody

Personal injury and tort cases

General issues

This class is unusual in that it tries to combine two very different fields by adopting the point of view of one (Empirical Social Psychology) and applying that to the other (the Legal System). Basically, we will examine issues about the behavior of people (remember that psychology is the scientific study of human behavior) in the legal system. This will include such things as:

Why do people commit crimes?

Are the assumptions that the legal system makes about people (the fairness of jurors, the ability of eyewitnesses to remember things, the expertise of judges, the dangerousness of people, the competence of defendants, the effectiveness of instructions, the susceptibility of people to suggestion, and so on) valid?

How do judges decide what sentence to give to convicted felons?

Are children more susceptible to influence than adults when testifying in court? If so, what should we do about it?

What is an expert?

Are people's previously "repressed" memories of childhood abuse real?

Does extensive publicity about a case prevent the defendant from receiving a fair trial? (What is a fair trial anyway?)

Are some potential jurors more "conviction prone" than others?

When has a confession been coerced?

How should we measure whether someone is competent to stand trial?

Is the death penalty a deterrent?

Do polygraph operators make valid judgments about whether people are lying?

These are all psychological issues because they involve aspects of human behavior and thought. But, they are also legal issues because they arise in the legal system. Remember that this is a psychology class. It uses empirical information obtained by psychologists (and non-psychologists, e.g., policy analysts, sociologists, criminologists) to answer questions about how the legal system should and actually does work.

This is also a class in analysis. Another way to say the same thing is that this class is designed to teach you how to think about human behavior in a rigorous and precise manner. We will analyze ideas about human behavior in the legal system and attempt to determine whether these ideas are supported by what is known, empirically, about behavior, or if little is known, what kind of empirical information should be collected in order to assess the validity of the ideas. That is, I hope you will learn how to analyze complex social-psychological issues using empirical data. I am not only interested in telling you what is known; I am also especially interested in motivating you to think empirically and analytically about an important social system (a system whose main purpose, some might argue, is to control your and other people's behavior). I want you to be able to determine which aspects of various social issues can be answered empirically and which cannot (i.e., which claims can be tested and which rest on belief, e.g., compare the claim that life begins at conception with the claim that the death penalty is a deterrent). I also hope that you will come to understand the relationship between particular issues and the kinds of behavioral data that might shed light on those issues.

To do well in this class you will have to learn a lot about, a) how the legal system works (that is, you will have to memorize facts and legal positions, e.g., Brown v. Board of Education, or what exclusionary rules are), b) social psychology (what is an attitude (see definition),what role does suggestion play in eyewitness testimony, does high stress interfere with or improve perception and memory), and c) possibly most important, how to extract and test the empirical implications of assumption about human social behavior in the legal system. (I would be especially pleased if at the end of this course you were able to generalize this approach to other domains besides the legal system, e.g., the education system, the welfare system, business, the medical establishment.)

I expect you to do a great deal of work out side of the class besides the one required (and one recommended) textbook in the class. In particular, you should be prepared to watch the legal system inaction (on TV, by reading the newspaper, by exploring the internet -- but not by getting yourself arrested so you can see and feel what it is like from the inside), to speak with people in the legal system, and to become informed about the day-to-day events that are taking place in the legal system and in the political system (because politics and law are intimately related). (For example, is the war on drugs a good idea? What assumptions does the war on drugs make about human behavior? Would legalizing drugs be a better solution? Is the war on drugs a reasonable procedure given its goals? If you do not like the former example, what do you think about the following? Is urban crime the result of urban renewal and the architects who design low income housing -- housing that eliminates the mom and pop stores and the feeling of neighborhood that went along with the urban environment 50 and 60 years ago? Or how about: is the "three strikes and you're out" law a good idea? Should we televise all trials? Could the real problem be that parents and teachers don't use shame enough when teaching children what is appropriate and inappropriate behavior? Maybe the problem is that there is too much violence on TV and in the movies. What about the ready availability of guns? Or maybe the real problem is RAP music and its emphasis on violence. Finally, the 9/11 attacks raise important concerns about the balance between personal freedoms, race, religion, and national security. For example, should the police be allowed to stop, search and question whomever they please if they have a any reason to believe that the person might be a security risk? What if the reason is related to that person’s looks or that person’s religious affiliation? Should we restrict access to driver’s licenses because they have become a “national ID card”?)

I also expect you to read a great deal more than the assigned readings for this class. In particular, you should become familiar with a number of journals in the field. To help you along these lines, I have provided a list of books and journals for you in the “Study Aids” web page. I have not listed these just to show you how much I know about a psychology. I have listed them in the expectation that you will use them. You should expect to skim through these journals to find topics that might interest you, topics that you might want to explore in greater depth for your paper OR(even better) just because you want to become more informed about the particular issue. (In fact, I assume that you will want to become informed about many different issues that arise in this class.) After finding a topic of interest, I will expect you to read a number of journal articles to “test”, empirically, implications and predictions based on your ideas about the topic of interest.

If you show the initiative that I expect from you, you will enjoy this class.

(Look into my eyes K. You are feeling drowsy, sleepy, deeply relaxed. You feel your ability to control your own thoughts start to diminish. You are entering a relaxed and pleasant state of open-mindedness. As you become more and more relaxed, you feel your will being taken over by mine. You try to resist. Despite your best efforts to resist, you are feeling excited. You can feel your heart racing. You feel your breathing rate increasing. You are ready to go. You can't wait to start studying for this class. The excitement is building. Yes, YES! LET'S DOI T. GIVE IT TO ME. MAKE IT MINE. SHOW ME THE BOOK! -- Sorry. I got carried away for the moment.)

If you do not make this class part of your everyday activity for the quarter, the chances are that you will not like this class. It has been my experience that those students who become involved in the issues, who question me and my ideas, who read and think about the issues outside of class (i.e., read the newspaper, discuss the issues with friends and family, read articles in the journals, watch CourtTV, surf the web for material related to this class, etc.), find this class to be one of the best they have had at UCSD. On the other hand, those who see this class as just another midterm and a final to get through on the way to becoming insurance salespersons, or McDonald's managers (click here if want to know what it will be like), or used-car salespersons (click here to find out what you might be asked to do as a used car salesperson) will find this a very difficult and boring class. If your goal is to bus tables at Denny's (<- you can even apply for the job now, just click on link), then please, please don't take my class. You won't like it. You won't do the work. You will tell others that the class was no good and that I can't teach my way out of a paper bag. Although the latter might be true (after all, I have never tried teaching from the inside of a paper bag), I would rather that you not prevent others who might aspire to become something other than a busboy from taking my class. Therefore, I encourage you to take this class, but be prepared to spend time thinking and learning about psychology and the law if you decide to take it.

Use of the Socratic Method

Although I will lecture in this class, I also encourage (note that encourage is in bold because I mean it) participation in class. (I realize that this might be a new experience for you at UCSD, but you are allowed to speak in class. You are allowed to evaluate, critically, what the books, professors and teaching assistants tell you is true. You are allowed to think for yourself.) I believe that you will never learn to think rigorously and analytically about human behavior unless I ask you questions and you try to answer them. If you do not attempt to participate by answering the questions that I ask you and by asking me questions, you will exit this class with the same pulpy mass of undifferentiated thought with which you entered it. This would be a waste of your time as well as mine. Participate, but be sure that your contributions are intelligent and related to the topic at hand. This doesn't mean that you should fear making comments or asking questions; it just means that you should think about what you say before you say it. This is because we have a lot of material to cover and the issues are so interesting that it is easy to become sidetracked.

Some of you will walk away from this class feeling that I asked too many questions or that I never provide "the right" answers (you know, the ones that other professors outline on the board or tell you to memorize for the final exam) to the questions that I ask. This perception is inevitable if you approach this class in the same manner that you approach other classes that you have taken at UCSD. It is inevitable if you fail to understand that you can learn more by attempting to answer questions and by asking your own questions than you can by listening to someone tell you what they think is the right answer. Sometimes the discovery that there is no right answer -- at least, not yet -- is a much greater discovery than remembering the result of an experiment, or the 3 main points of someone's theory or the definition of a term. Sometimes it is much better to know that certain types of questions have no answers than to be able to pick the correct alternative on a multiple choice question. Most of the time it is much better to know how to figure out what the correct answer is to a problem than to memorize what someone else tells you is the correct answer.

Of course, it would be a mistake to assume from these comments that you will not have to memorize material. You will. However, you will need to think about the material in this class, not just memorize it. Some of the most interesting issues in this class require that you decide how you think the legal system should be set up. For example, should the government put more resources into helping victims of crime or should it put more resources into catching and convicting criminals (to reduce the number of victims)? Should all defendants be entitled to a jury trial no matter how trivial the crime? Should parents have the right to discipline their children with physical punishment? (If you think they should, then how far should we allow parents to go? You might want to check out a recent case of a mother accused of killing her child presented on the 48 Hours TV show. It raises some interesting issues about the role of the medical system in deciding whether a mother’s behavior was appropriate.) Should the government be allowed to remove a child from his or her parents because the child is overweight? In part, the reason I will ask you questions is to force you to think about how you produce an answer. This is also the main reason for the homework assignments. We want you to begin worrying not only about whether eyewitness memory is accurate, but how you would know whether it is? We want you to be able to think about different theories of the causes of crime in away that will allow you to know whether "tougher" sentences will make a difference.

I enjoy teaching this class and I hope that I can make you see why I find the topics that we will be covering so interesting. I want you to participate. The more you participate the better it will be for all of us. If you do the work that I am asking you to do, I believe that you will find this class to be one of the most interesting and intellectually challenging classes that you will take at UCSD.

Course Specifics

Course meets: Tues. & Thurs., 12:30 to 1:50in Solis 104.

Final Exam is scheduled for Wednesday, December 6^th from 11:30 to 2:30 inSolis 104!

Note the day and time of the final now! If you have a conflict with other classes, you may wish to rearrange your class schedule. I will ignore requests to change the day or time of your final in this class if your request is justified by the fact that you have arranged your schedule in such a way that the final in this class occurs on the same day that you have finals in other classes. In other words, we are forming a contract. By enrolling in this class, you agree not to ask me to change the day of or the time of your final to suit your schedule. Fix your schedule now! By the way, check the schedule of classes just to be sure about these dates, times, and places. The final exam is cumulative, although it will emphasize the post-midterm material.

A midterm is scheduled for Thurs., October. 26^th. Put this on your calendarnow!

You will also be given the opportunity to hand in various brief "homework" assignments during the quarter. We will hand these assignments out as the course progresses. They will be made available as web pages for this class. They will consist of questions about the reading material that you will be expected to answer in an intelligent and thoughtful manner. Each will be graded Pass/Fail. How much effort you put into these assignments will affect how well you do on the exams and on the paper. The more effort you put into these assignments, the better your grade on the exams will be. These assignments are designed to help you think about the material in this class in an analytical manner. If you take them seriously, you will do better in this class than if you do not take them seriously.

Office Hours

Dr. Ebbesen's Office is Room 5115 in McGill Hall. His office hours are scheduled for:

Tues. and Thurs. after class from2:05 to 3:00 and by appointment.

You can reach Dr. Ebbesen by phone at (858)534-3003.You can leave messages on his answering machine if Dr. Ebbesen is not in his office. Notes may be left in his mailbox on the fifth floor of McGill Hall, as well. He also has an e-mail address: eebbesen@ucsd.edu. You are encouraged to use e-mail to ask questions about the readings, lectures, or make comments about current events. Dr. Ebbesen will make an effort to answer e-mail in a timely manner.

Ms. Kristin Finklea is the graduate student TA for this class. Her office is in McGill Hall, Rm. 4126. Her office hours will be held on Tues. & Thurs. from 11 am to 12 pm. You can leave a message at 534-3000 (the main department phone). Notes may be left in her mailbox on the fifth floor of McGill, as well. You can also send her email at kfinklea@psy.ucsd.edu. Ms. Finklea not only cares a great deal about students; she is an excellent TA whose has received extensive training psychology and the law. Her primary area of expertise is psychology and the law. She is currently doing a considerable amount of research on various topics in this area. As a result, she knows a great deal about the issues raised in this class. I know that she wants you do well in this class and will do whatever she can to help you in your studies.

Reading Assignments

We require one major textbook, a small paperback, and several additional readings that deal with issues not covered in the book for this class:

The main text (available in the bookstore): Greene, Nietzel, Heilburn, and Fortune (2006) Psychology and the Legal System, 6^th edition (Thomson/Wadsworth). [Note that this is the latest edition of this textbook. If you purchase an earlier edition, it will be your responsibility to determine how the earlier and the latest edition differ.]
We are also requiring another little book by Stanovich (2006), How to think straight about Psychology, 8^th edition (Allyn and Bacon). You can buy this from Allyn or any other online dealer. [Note that the 8^th is the latest edition of this textbook, however, earlier editions would be cheaper but some information that might appear on an exam might not be in the earlier edition.] We are asking you to buy the book despite the fact that you already have to spend so much on the main textbook. However, we highly recommend this little paperback to you and will include homework assignments and comments in the web material that refer to the book. If you can’t afford both books, then see if you and another student can share the Stanovich book. We will not be asking you to memorize details from this book. Instead, we focus on the big ideas in the book (most of which deal with methodology in psychology).
Additional readings will be made available as links on the course website. As you get into the class, you will see that I have already and will be writing (revising) comments and notes on your reading assignments that I will post on the web site. I will also be making recommendations for reading material that will be available on the web, e.g., articles produced by "Think Tanks," parts of the US constitution, selections from Supreme Court decisions, papers published on the web by psychologists, articles from magazines and newspapers, and so on.
Another book is highly recommended. It is fun, easy, and quick to read. It provides an insiders' view of what the legal system is like. The legal system is a working social system. You can learn a little about how people interact within the system by reading this book: Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow (1989), Warner. This is a novel. You won't have to memorize anything from it. Read it for fun. It is available in the bookstore in the textbook section and also as an eBook. By the way, the book was made into a movie with Harrison Ford playing the lead. Although the book does a better job showing how the inside of a prosecutor's office works, seeing the movie is better than doing nothing. You can rent it from Blockbuster video.

Readingsdue for the Midterm (to be held on Thurs., Oct. 26^th) exam:

Week Due	From Greene’s book:	From Stanovich’s book
Week 1	Chapters: 1, 2 (Introduction to some key issues)	Chapters 1 and 2
Week 2	Chapters: 3 (Crime and criminals)	Chapter 3
Week 3	Chapters: 13, 14 (Psychology of victims and children)	Chapter 4
Week 4	Chapters: 8, 9 (Mental state, competence)	Chapter 5 and 11
Midterm Week	Chapters: 4 (Getting into the System: Police)	Chapter 6

Readings(in addition to all the above!!!) due for the Final Exam (to be held on Wed., Dec. 6^th)

Week Due	From Greene’s book:	From Stanovich’s book
Week 6	Chapters: 5, 6 (Developing the case)	Chapter 7
Week 7	Chapters: 7 (Between arrest and trial	Chapter 8
Week 8	Chapters: 10, 11, and 12 (Trial processes)	Chapter 9
Week 9	Chapters: 15 (Establishing guilt and punishment)	Chapter 10
Final Week	Finish your paper!	Chapter 12

You should be reading at least two (2) of the chapters per week from the Greene book in the order listed and we highly recommend that you also read at least one chapter per week from the Stanovich book as well as any other reading assignments that we provide from the web or by way of articles on reserve. (However, there is nothing preventing you from reading ahead. In fact, reading ahead is a good idea!) Remember that you should be spending a minimum of 10 hours per week (including time in class) on this course.

Paper Requirement (Read carefully)

In addition to the above assignments, we have supplied you with a list of recommended texts and journals. You should be reading from these with an eye towards finding an issue of interest for your final paper requirement. We will make a list of acceptable paper topics on the web site. The list of topics is not all-inclusive. You should feel free to write on topics not listed however, you will have to check with Dr. Ebbesen before you choose one. This is for your protection. You will need to pick a topic that can be treated adequately in five (5) pages. This is not easy to do. We will require that you hand in several early versions of this paper: The first will be a statement of your main thesis. This will be a brief statement of the issue you hope to examine or hypothesis that you hope to test. The second will be a brief outline of the paper with key arguments in support of your thesis (including a ninitial bibliography). The third will extend the outline by providing counterarguments to your own evidence (as well as additions to your bibliography). Thefourth will be the final paper. The initial idea is due no later than October 24^th. The first outline is due November 2^nd. The second outline is due November16^th. The final paper is due no later than November 30^th, but could be earlier. These are the absolute latest dates that you can hand in these requirements. You are encouraged to hand them in sooner!

Note that the paper is due on the last day of class. You have an entire quarter to write your paper. Plan now. Do not put off for later what youcan do today!

Remember the story of the grasshopper and the ant? How about the early bird and the worm? How about the rabbit and the hare? What about Lord of the Rings? (Lord of the Rings? Just checking to see if you were paying attention. I really meant Shrek 2. Nah...Just kidding again.)

To motivate you: I will NOT accept any papers after this date no matter how good an excuse you can think up!!!! You have plenty of time to plan ahead.

Some helpful suggestions:

Backup your disk drives.

Make more than one copy of your notes.

Put your outlines in a fireproof box.

Give a copy of your work to someone else.

Don't let your dog near your printer.

Don’t let your friends “borrow” your computer, your books, your library card, your car, your pens, your “stash” or anything else that you might need to write your paper.

Start now because you know that the odds of getting sick at the worst possible time are much higher than the odds of getting sick during a lull.

Don't plan to write your paper on a weekend break. You will not be able to do it. You will either be too full, too tired, too sad(couples break up on weekends), or too busy doing things that you know you shouldn’t be doing but couldn’t help yourself.

Don't drink and drive. You can't write very well while recovering from an automobile accident.

Learn to say, "NO." "No, TJ is for dumb high school students." "No, the acoustics are better on my stereo than at the Rock concert and besides I can burn 25 CDs for the price of one ticket." "No, the ocean isn't going anywhere. I can go surfing anytime." "No, I have to read these journal articles before I can go to the party. Besides, all we ever do at parties is talk about people behind their backs." "No, I don’t want to watch half-naked survivors do stupid stunts. They’re all a bunch of total losers." "No, I can get my eyebrow pierced during summer break. ""No, I can see it when it comes out on DVD and besides my younger brother knows how to use DivX."

Tell your significant other that if he or she plans on leaving you, he or she should wait until after you finish writing your paper before telling you.

If you are sure that your significant other will not leave you, then explain to him or her today that you will need to set aside this week for all of your cuddling, kissing, and other romantic activities that you might have hoped to do during the rest of quarter. Explain that while you really would like to spend some time during the rest of quarter engaging in such activities, your professor is a real jerk who assigns way too much work. As a result, the two of you will just have to abstain for a while. If your significant other begins showing signs of depression, remind him or her how terrific the Christmas break will be. You'll be feeling great because of the good grade that you just received in this class. Surely those feelings will transfer (remember Zillman's theory of excitation transfer?) to your feelings for your significant other. After being deprived for that long, just imagine the great time both of you will have! You might even order the chocolate and strawberries now. Whipped cream is good too.

If you don't have a significant other now and you meet the person of your dreams before you finish writing your paper for this class, think about your future. Don't be stupid. What's more important? Forget the paper and go after the person!

Other suggested readings include the newspaper, magazines, legal journals, etc. You should remain informed about issues related to the legal system, from current cases to Supreme Courtdecisions. You should start working on this paper as soon as possible. You may think that a five-page paper is easy to write because it is only five pages. Wrong! The restriction on length makes it much harder to write. You must do a great deal of organization and thinking before you sit down to write the paper. However, I can tell you now that if you put the necessary effort into this paper, you will leave UCSD a better person for it. If you have concerns about the paper, you may read more about this requirement here.

A warning: I know that this doesn’t apply to most of you, but in case you may have been thinking that you might be able to “buy” a paper online for this class, you should know that I have a number of tools to detect this kind of activity. If I have evidence that your paper was not your work, I will zero (0) credit for the paper. This means, in all likelihood that you will fail the class. The main reason not to buy your paper s that the types of papers that you can buy will receive very poor grades. As you will see when you read about the paper the requirements, I have something very specific in mind. Unless you pay really big bucks, the paper won’t match my requirements. The main reason not to cheat in this way is because you will be cheating yourself, not me. You will have failed to use an opportunity to improve your skills.

Review of Requirements

The overall (letter) grade in this class is a weighted average of: the following:

1. The number of homework assignments that you complete satisfactorily.

2. Your midterm score (the number of points that you receive on the exam).

3. Your final exam score (the number of points that you receive on the exam).

4. Your final 5 page paper score.

5. Some highly subjective and vague sense that I might remember you saying something intelligent in class. (To be honest, it is not clear how this will translate into a grade, but we all know about the “halo effect”– not the game but the psychological principle!).

Your midterm will be held Oct. 26^th. Both the midterm and the final will consist of a mixture of multiple-choice, (maybe some true/false),short answer, and one or two medium-length essays. The homework will be worth up to a maximum of about 10%, the midterm 35%, the final 45%, and the paper 20%of your final grade in the class (I know this adds up to more than 100% but the homework points will be added on after the grades are determined from the other three sources of evidence – the more homework assignments that you complete satisfactorily, the more extra points you will receive). We will use the plus and minus grading option for the final letter grades in the class. A weighted combination of your numerical scores on the midterm, final, and paper (plus your homework) will determine your final grade. For this reason you will not receive letter grades on the midterm. Instead, you will be presented with your numerical score, the distribution of scores in the class, and your standardized score (how many standard deviation units you are above or below the mean of the class). You will be able to get a rough idea about how well you are doing in the class by comparing you score with the total possible score you could have received and with the performance of other students in the class. For example, people whose grade on the midterm is two or more standard deviations above the mean should reasonably consider their grade an A. More information about the paper will be presented later in the class but you should be thinking about this as soon as possible. You can also find more information about the paper on this website.

It is possible that the department will ask me to allow students in this class to obtain some extra credit by participating in experiments. If this happens, we will announce in class how it will work.