Lecture 1

Forensic Psychology

• Forensic Psychology is the application of psychological knowledge and theories to all aspects of the criminal and civil justice systems, including the processes and the people.

Topics Studied in Forensic Psychology

• The Process: • Criminal investigation (profiling, lie detection, identification parades, eyewitness testimony, repressed/recovered memories, interrogations, and confession evidence) • Pre-trial (competency to stand trial, pre-trial publicity, and jury selection) • Trial (insanity plea, expert evidence/judge warnings, jury deliberation, and sentencing) • Post-trial (the prison experience, treatment of offenders, and risk assessment)
• The People: • Victims of Crime • Offenders of Crime • Police • Jurors • Judges • Witnesses

History of Forensic Psychology

• Earliest research investigated eyewitness memory (James Cattell, 1895)
• Alfred Binet (1900) showed children objects and asked about them, finding that highly misleading questions resulted in poor accuracy
• Aussage period of eyewitness research (1900-WWI) conducted "reality experiments" with staged events
• Psychologists began to appear as witnesses in court around this time

Functions of an Expert Witness

• Two primary functions: aid in understanding a particular issue relevant to the case and provide an opinion
• Expert witnesses may be clinical psychologists or academic psychologists

Challenges of Providing Expert Testimony

• The Legal System's Criticisms of Psychology: • Lack of ecological validity of psychological research • Psychologists may become advocates and lose objectivity • Psychology can intrude upon the legitimate activities of the legal system • It's all common sense

Admissibility Criteria

• Experts must satisfy the judge that they have special knowledge above and beyond that of the average juror and that this expertise will assist the jurors
• England & Wales: experts not commonly used, and psychological knowledge seen as common sense
• Australia: constrained by the Turner ruling, but with more relaxation in recent times, especially regarding eyewitness testimony

Expert Evidence: Fingerprints

• Fingerprint evidence is analyzed by humans, with the first study to objectively investigate fingerprint identification accuracy published in 2011
• Tested qualified practicing fingerprint experts and novices, assessing accuracy for matched, similar, and not similar pairs of prints
• Experts were very accurate but not perfect, tending to err on the side of caution

Expert Evidence: Facial Mapping

• Techniques are not standardized and not consistently applied by practitioners
• Measurements, noting characteristics, or other techniques are used

Expert Evidence: Hair Analysis

• The Justice Department and FBI have formally acknowledged that nearly every examiner in an elite FBI forensic unit gave flawed testimony in almost all trials
• Confirms long-suspected problems with subjective, pattern-based forensic techniques (e.g., hair, bite-marks)

This lecture series covers various crimes including sexual assault, murder, child abuse, and domestic violence, with a focus on support services available for those affected.