Psychology and Law

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This course focuses on applications of psychology to the legal system. It will provide students with insights and knowledge about typical themes from the PsychLaw domain. Such themes range from how reliable eyewitness testimonies in court are to whether criminals have a brain dysfunction making them permanently dangerous to society, to the role of experts in court. The role of psychologists within these themes is to ask questions that have a direct relevance to the legal arena and to conduct research to address these questions. Drawing from areas of social, cognitive, developmental, clinical and neuropsychology this course will deal with questions such as: Why do people commit crimes? Are children more susceptible to suggestion than adults? What is an expert witness? How reliable are different kinds of evidence (eyewitness testimonies, confessions etc.)? Are all criminals competent to stand trial? etc. A number of controversies will also be discussed including the practice of police interrogations, the insanity defense, and the role of psychologists in court and the use of polygraph as a lie-detector test.