Week 2 - Intro

Question 1

Mohan

Answer 1

established formal criteria for determining when expert testimony should be admitted into court

Question 2

Sophonow

Answer 2

problems with eyewitness evidence collected by the police

Question 3

Lavallée

Answer 3

established guidelines for when and how expert testimony should be used in cases involving battered women syndrome

Question 4

Levogiannis

Answer 4

children are allowed to testify in court behind screens that prevent them from seeing the accused

Question 5

Hubbert

Answer 5

impartiality of jurors

Question 6

Oickle

Answer 6

established that police interrogation techniques, which consist of various forms of psychological coercion, are acceptable and that confessions extracted through their use can be admissible in court

Question 7

(1) Bowlby’s Theory of Maternal Deprivation

Answer 7

Any disruption of the mother-child relationship during early childhood may have harmful and potentially irreversible long term effects, especially on the child’s ability to establish meaningful prosocial relationships

Question 8

(1) Hirschi’s Social Control Theory

Answer 8

When a bond that individual has to society is weak/broken, they are more likely to engage in criminal behaviour

• Attachment: don’t want to jeopardize these relationships
• Commitment: risk losing the investments
• Involvement: time and energy
• Belief: you should respect the rules of society

Question 9

(2) Learning theories

Answer 9

Try to explain how criminal behaviour is developed and maintained

• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning
• Vicarious learning

Question 10

(3) Personality profile

Answer 10

Existence of a criminal personality

difference in the nervous system
that will lead to difference in personality and behaviour

Question 11

(1) The role of the Superego

Answer 11

Main source of criminal behaviour relates to inadequate formation of the superego during childhood

• Harsh superego (neurotic criminal)
• Weak superego
• Deviant superego

Question 12

(3) Eysenk’s Biosocial Theory of Crime

Answer 12

First testable theory of criminal behaviour proposed by a psychologist

Interaction between biological, social and individual factors – Biosocial theory of crime

There are three dimensions to personality (extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism); the first two being the most influential in the development of criminal behaviour

Question 13

(3) Kernberg’s Theory of Borderline Personality Organization

Answer 13

Criminal personality is organized along a continuum

• Psychotic: absence of reality testing and the use of primitive defences
• Borderline: capacity for reality testing and use of primitive defences
• Neurotic: capacity for reality testing and use of higher-level defences

Question 14

Knowledge (Hess)

Answer 14

research – legal precedent, logical thinking, and case law

Question 15

Methodology (Hess)

Answer 15

nomothetic – idiographic

Question 16

Epistemology (Hess)

Answer 16

uncovering hidden truths/objective – persuasion/subjective

Question 17

Criteria (Hess)

Answer 17

replication/conservative - single-case/more lenient

Question 18

Nature of the law (Hess)

Answer 18

descriptive/how people behave – prescriptive/how people should behave

Question 19

Principles (Hess)

Answer 19

alternative explanations – only one correct explanation

Question 20

Latitude (Hess)

Answer 20

limited by the court – fewer restrictions

Question 21

General acceptance test

Answer 21

Expert testimony accepted in court if the basis of the testimony is generally accepted within the relevant scientific community

Question 22

The Daubert criteria (U.S.)

Answer 22

• The research has been peer reviewed
• The research is testable (i.e., falsifiable through experimentation)
• The research has a recognized rate of error
• The research adheres to professional standards

Question 23

The Mohan criteria (Canada)

Answer 23

• The evidence must be relevant
• The evidence must be necessary for assisting the trier of fact
• The evidence must not violate any other rule of exclusion
• The testimony must be presented by a qualified expert

Question 24

Expert witnesses must be knowledgeable about the following:

Answer 24

• The functions of expert witnesses - Information (educator) and opinion
• The differences between their field of expertise (e.g. psychology) and the law
• The criteria for accepting expert testimony