Law and Behavioral Science

Catalog description

Examines actual and potential uses of social scientific research findings and theories in the law and the methods for evaluating the quality and application of social scientific evidence. The uses of social scientific evidence to determine facts, to make law, to provide contextual background for legal decisions, to plan litigation and to assess the functioning of the legal system are examined in a variety of substantive areas. Topical coverage includes: establishing community standards in obscenity cases, the death penalty, research ethics, explaining and predicting behavior, jury decision making, eyewitness reliability and pretrial publicity.