Psychology and Law

Catalog description

This course provides an overview of psychological factors known to interact with the legal system to affect the reliability of the investigative process and ultimately affect the security of convictions. This course covers topics such as Eyewitness Memory, Plea Bargains, Criminal Profiling, Detecting Deception, Interrogations and Confessions, False Memories and Criminal Responsibility. Examples of legal cases are used to highlight the application of laboratory and field based research studies. This course also includes a comparative element, highlighting different approaches to the evaluation, assessment and ultimately weight that is given to criminal evidence based upon human memory.