Psychology and the Law

Catalog description

Implicit psychological assumptions about human behavior and how it should be controlled form the basis for the legal system, particularly our criminal justice system, from its code to its enforcement. This course examines those assumptions in light of current psycho-legal theory and research. It covers the treatment of traditional psychiatric populations by the justice system in contrast to that received by non-psychiatric populations; clinical issues such as the insanity defense, predicting dangerousness, the validity of psychiatric examinations and lie detectors; and jury selection, eyewitness testimony, decision-making, sentencing, and parole.