OBJECTIVE Eyewitness research has generally failed to show an association between eyewitnesses' pre-identification confidence in their ability to identify the perpetrator from a lineup and their subsequent identification accuracy. However, this observed lack of an association may be an artifact of methodologies in which witnesses experienced homogenous encoding conditions, which would tend to restrict

OBJECTIVE According to the pristine conditions hypothesis, high-confidence identifications will be "remarkably accurate" when identification procedures (i.e., system variables, e.g., fair filler selection, double-blind administration, unbiased lineup instructions) are optimal, even if estimator variables (e.g., weapon presence, lighting, distance) are suboptimal (Wixted & Wells, 2017, p. 10). This

OBJECTIVE Although researchers, policymakers, and practitioners recognize the importance of the public's perceptions of police, few studies have examined developmental trends in adolescents and young adults' views of police. HYPOTHESES Hypothesis 1: Perceptions of police legitimacy would exhibit a U-shaped curve, declining in adolescence before improving in young adulthood. Hypothesis 2: At all ages

OBJECTIVE The present research examined whether concurrent expert testimony ("hot tubbing") and court-appointed testimony reduced adversarial allegiance in clinical experts' judgments compared with traditional adversarial expert testimony. HYPOTHESES We predicted Hypothesis 1: Defense experts would render more not responsible judgments and lower ratings of criminal responsibility than would prosecution

OBJECTIVE The present study integrates several distinct lines of jury decision-making research by examining how the racial identities of the defendant and an informant witness interact in a federal drug conspiracy trial scenario and by assessing whether jurors' individual racial identity and jury group racial composition influence their judgments. HYPOTHESES We predicted that jurors would be biased

OBJECTIVE Custody is a legal state that requires police to Mirandize suspects and, in some jurisdictions, to record their interrogation. The present study compared the custody perceptions of police, judges, social psychologists, and laypeople. HYPOTHESES We predicted that (a) high-custody vignettes would elicit less perceived freedom than low-custody vignettes; (b) police and judges would see these

OBJECTIVES There are currently 1,308,327 immigrants in removal proceedings, over 80% of whom are Latinx (TRAC, 2021b). This study examined the relation among putative protective markers (i.e. social support, religious support, and legal support) and the emotional and physical well-being of Latinx individuals facing removal proceedings. HYPOTHESES We hypothesized that increased social support, religious

OBJECTIVES Created to combat the school-to-prison pipeline, the Philadelphia Police School Diversion Program offers voluntary community-based services to eligible youth accused of minor school-based offeses in lieu of arrest. This study evaluated program effectiveness in accomplishing goals related to reductions in school-based arrests, serious behavioral incidents, and recidivism. HYPOTHESES We expected

OBJECTIVE Perceptions of the legitimacy of a society's legal system help explain individual responses to courts and legal actors. Normative considerations such as fair and respectful treatment as well as social identification have demonstrated the ability to enhance perceived legal legitimacy and future cooperation. Veterans treatment courts (VTCs) are a rapidly disseminating and understudied intervention

OBJECTIVES We assessed recent policy recommendations to collect eyewitnesses' confidence statements in witnesses' own words as opposed to numerically. We conducted an experiment to test whether eyewitnesses' free-report verbal confidence statements are as diagnostic of eyewitness accuracy as their numeric confidence statements and whether the diagnostic utility of eyewitnesses' verbal and numeric confidence

OBJECTIVE Two studies examined 4-7-year-old maltreated children's "I don't know" (IDK) responses to wh- questions after receiving various interview instructions. HYPOTHESES We predicted (H1) children would be less inclined to give IDK responses and more inclined to guess to color/number questions compared to other wh- questions; (H2) IDK instructions would increase children's IDK responding compared

OBJECTIVES Research on plea bargaining is increasing, yet much of this work examines how the process unfolds in adult court. Plea bargaining in juvenile court has several notable differences such as parental involvement. Including parents throughout the adjudicatory process is encouraged but ultimately left up to the attorney. Research has not explored whether attorneys include parents in plea bargain

OBJECTIVE Tele-forensic interviews have the potential to aid investigations when children live far from interviewers, there is a risk of disease transmission, or when expertise is not locally available. However, it is unknown whether tele-forensic interviewing is an effective alternative to face-to-face interviewing, particularly for children most prone to suggestibility and lapses of attention. HYPOTHESES

OBJECTIVE COVID-19 has impacted many facets of daily life and the legal system is no exception. Legal scholars have hypothesized that the effects of the pandemic may contribute to more coercive plea bargains (Cannon, 2020; Johnson, 2020). In this study, we explored defense attorneys' perceptions of whether and how the plea process has changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. HYPOTHESES This study was

Objective: Past research with one-person showup identification procedures suggests that providing witnesses with an explicit option to opt-out reduces innocent-suspect identifications without reducing culprit identifications (Weber & Perfect, 2012). This finding suggests that improving performance from identification procedures might be as simple as providing witnesses with the option to opt-out from

Objective: The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a rapport-based approach to interviewing that includes productive questioning skills, conversational rapport, and relational rapport-building tactics. Hypotheses: We predicted that training police investigators in a rapport-based approach would significantly increase the use of rapport-based tactics and that such tactics would directly

Objective: We examined how probability of conviction affects the maximum plea sentence mock defendants will accept. Hypothesis: Relying on Prospect Theory (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979), we hypothesized that, relative to the expected value of trial, participants would need increasingly better sentences as conviction probability increased and would settle for sentences worse than the expected value of trial

Objective: The purpose of this study was to develop new 10-year recidivism rate norms as well as to update 5-year norms for the Static-99R risk tool for routine/complete samples. We also present the extrapolated sexual recidivism rates from these new 10-year norms for follow-up periods of 11 to 20 years. Hypotheses: We hypothesized that absolute-recidivism base rates (B02; i.e., the intercept centered

Objective: We conducted a meta-analysis to examine whether numeric decision-making in law is susceptible to the effect of (possibly arbitrary) values present in the decision contexts (anchoring effect) and to investigate which factors might moderate this effect. Hypotheses: We predicted that the presence of numeric anchors would bias legal decision-makers' judgment in the direction of the anchor value

Reports the retraction of "Impact of disguise on identification decisions and confidence with simultaneous and sequential lineups" by Jamal K. Mansour, Jennifer L. Beaudry, Michelle I. Bertrand, Natalie Kalmet, Elisabeth I. Melsom and Roderick C. L. Lindsay (Law and Human Behavior, 2012[Dec], Vol 36[6], 513-526). The article reported two separate experiments and included a re-analysis of the data from

OBJECTIVE Prior research indicates disguise negatively affects lineup identifications but the mechanisms by which disguise works have not been explored and different disguises have not been compared. We investigated how two different types of disguise, four levels of varying degrees of coverage, and lineup type influence eyewitnesses' identification decisions, accuracy, and confidence. HYPOTHESES We

OBJECTIVE Although past studies suggest that the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY; Borum et al., 2006) has moderate predictive validity, its predictive validity with Asian youth in Western countries is unknown. We therefore compared the SAVRY's predictive validity in a sample of Asian Canadian versus White Canadian youth. HYPOTHESES Given that the SAVRY is normed on samples comprising

OBJECTIVE Based on guiding principles such as parens patriae, juvenile probation officers (JPOs) not only supervise youth, but in certain jurisdictions they also decide how control-oriented their conditions will be. JPOs' perceptions of parenting could be related to their decision making. This study examined: (a) whether JPOs' perceptions of the home were associated with the conditions they placed

OBJECTIVE To develop a typology of criminal defendants found incompetent to stand trial using data-driven classification techniques and validate it against forensically relevant outcomes. HYPOTHESES We hypothesized that discrete groups of defendants determined to be incompetent exist that can be identified in the structure of observed clinical, demographic, and criminological data. We also expected

OBJECTIVES Firearms experts traditionally have testified that a weapon leaves "unique" toolmarks, so bullets or cartridge casings can be visually examined and conclusively matched to a particular firearm. Recently, due to scientific critiques, Department of Justice policy, and judges' rulings, firearms experts have tempered their conclusions. In two experiments, we tested whether this ostensibly more

OBJECTIVES Firearms experts traditionally have testified that a weapon leaves "unique" toolmarks, so bullets or cartridge casings can be visually examined and conclusively matched to a particular firearm. Recently, due to scientific critiques, Department of Justice policy, and judges' rulings, firearms experts have tempered their conclusions. In two experiments, we tested whether this ostensibly more

OBJECTIVE Drawing on recent work in policing and organizational psychology, we examined factors related to openness to organizational change and to adopting evidence-based interview techniques among law enforcement investigators. HYPOTHESES We hypothesized that a procedurally fair organizational climate would predict outcomes tied to organizational change, mediated by organizational identification

OBJECTIVE Drawing on recent work in policing and organizational psychology, we examined factors related to openness to organizational change and to adopting evidence-based interview techniques among law enforcement investigators. HYPOTHESES We hypothesized that a procedurally fair organizational climate would predict outcomes tied to organizational change, mediated by organizational identification

OBJECTIVE A large body of cross-sectional research has identified a positive relationship between perceptions of police procedural justice and legitimacy. Following Tyler's theoretical framework, studies have often interpreted the observed relationship as evidence of an unequivocal causal connection from procedural justice to legitimacy. Here we reexamined the validity of this conclusion by considering

OBJECTIVE We examined efforts by a Mississippi court to base pretrial release decisions on risk assessment rather than primarily on bond. HYPOTHESES (a) Pretrial detention will be shorter than that associated with prevailing bond practices in the same counties. (b) Rearrest rates will be lower than a similar pretrial population in a nearby southern state. (c) False positive rates for predicting rearrests

OBJECTIVE In this study, we analyzed the relationship between state firearm laws and the incidence and severity (i.e., number of victims) of mass public shootings in the United States during the period 1976-2018. HYPOTHESES We hypothesized that states requiring permits to purchase firearms would have a lower incidence of mass public shootings than states not requiring permits. We also hypothesized

OBJECTIVE In this study, we analyzed the relationship between state firearm laws and the incidence and severity (i.e., number of victims) of mass public shootings in the United States during the period 1976-2018. HYPOTHESES We hypothesized that states requiring permits to purchase firearms would have a lower incidence of mass public shootings than states not requiring permits. We also hypothesized

Reports an error in "The distance threshold of reliable eyewitness identification" by Thomas J. Nyman, James Michael Lampinen, Jan Antfolk, Julia Korkman and Pekka Santtila (Law and Human Behavior, 2019[Dec], Vol 43[6], 527-541). In the article (http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000342), the authors incorrectly referred to "simple main" effects as "main effects" in four places on pp. 532-533. The authors

OBJECTIVES The present study examined how changes in a set of motivational/self-regulatory factors were associated with subsequent change in future-oriented cognition and behavior. HYPOTHESES We hypothesized that within-individual changes in aspirations, expectations, emotion regulation, resistance to peer influence, and impulse control would be positively associated with later change in future-oriented

OBJECTIVE Three studies examined the influence of a witness's identification speed on the identification decision of another witness. HYPOTHESES Based on research documenting cowitness effects we expected cowitness speed to affect identification decisions from target-absent photospreads. Without prior research testing the effects of cowitness speed, we did not have a specific prediction regarding how

OBJECTIVE Effective practices for eliciting and analyzing children's eyewitness reports rely on accurate conclusions about age differences in how children retain information and respond to memory probes. Binning, which is the practice of categorizing continuous variables into discrete groups, can lower studies' power to detect age differences and, in some situations, produce significant but spurious

OBJECTIVE When wrongfully convicted individuals are released from prison, at first glance, it is a triumph; however, anecdotal evidence from exonerees suggests that obtaining housing postrelease is often challenging. We empirically examined whether race (Study 1) or type of criminal offense (Study 2) influenced landlords' willingness to rent to exonerees compared to releasees (i.e., rightfully convicted

OBJECTIVE We examined the prevalence of criminal defendants facing only misdemeanor charges and referred for forensic mental health evaluations of legal sanity (criminal responsibility) in a state-wide sample of sanity reports. We sought to describe this population of defendants, particularly as compared to defendants facing felony charges and referred for evaluation of legal sanity. HYPOTHESES We

OBJECTIVES Many corporations in the United States have enacted nondiscrimination policies for their LGBT employees, despite that the LGBT community has not been a legally protected class concerning employment discrimination at the national level. We examined whether progressive corporate LGBT-related policies may be an extension of policies and practices designed to foster diversity and create equality

OBJECTIVE Child neglect is often initially identified via adults who come into contact with children and report their suspicions to the authorities. Little is known about what behaviors laypersons view as constituting neglect and hence worth reporting. We examined laypersons' perceptions of neglect and poverty, particularly how these factors independently and jointly shaped laypersons' decisions about

Objective: Minimization is a legal interrogation tactic in which an interrogator attempts to decrease a suspect's resistance to confessing by, for example, downplaying the seriousness of the crime. These studies examined the extent to which minimization pragmatically implies that a suspect will receive a more lenient sentence in exchange for a confession. Hypotheses: Generally, we predicted that participants

OBJECTIVE Research suggests distinct criminal risk factors, not mental illness, are more strongly associated with most criminal behaviors. This notion has been supported among inpatient persons with mental illness (PMI) when examining antisocial cognitions; however, other key criminogenic risk factors (the Big Four and Central Eight risk factors) have not been examined among psychiatric inpatient PMI

OBJECTIVE Interested adults, such as parents and attorneys, may pose as safeguards against juveniles' vulnerabilities during custodial interrogations; yet, the trial-level ramifications of their presence are unknown. The current research examined mock jurors' perceptions and case decisions after they read about disputed juvenile confession evidence elicited in the presence of an interested adult. HYPOTHESES

OBJECTIVE To examine whether litigants' initial attraction to legal procedures (e.g., mediation, hearings, jury trials) predicted their postexperience evaluations of the procedures and whether attendance moderated this relationship. HYPOTHESIS Litigants' initial attraction to the legal procedure that later resolved their case would better predict postexperience satisfaction and fairness for litigants

Objective: Feedback from lineup administrators about identification accuracy significantly impacts witness confidence. In the current studies, we investigated the effect of post-identification feedback given 1-week after an initial, pristine lineup. We tested 2 kinds of feedback: typical feedback (i.e., about identification accuracy) and misinformation feedback. Misinformation feedback came in the

OBJECTIVE We conducted 2 experiments using machine learning to better understand which lineup looking behaviors postdict suspect guilt., Hypotheses: We hypothesized that (a) lineups with guilty suspects would be subject to shorter viewing duration of all images and fewer image looks overall than lineups with innocent suspects, and (b) confidence and accuracy would be positively correlated. The question

OBJECTIVE This study presents a prospective evaluation of the contribution of criminogenic factors, psychiatric symptomatology, and neighborhood-level factors to risk for self-reported gun violence by adolescents with criminal justice involvement. HYPOTHESIS We hypothesized that elevated psychiatric symptom clusters would be associated with increased risk for gun violence after accounting for criminogenic

OBJECTIVE The present study examined how mothers' personal characteristics, experience with, and attitudes toward the juvenile justice system are associated with their knowledge of the juvenile justice system over time. HYPOTHESES We hypothesized that additional exposure to the system (via sons' rearrests) would be associated with greater legal knowledge. We predicted that White women, women with higher

OBJECTIVE This paper examines contamination in interrogations: the process by which an interrogator divulges privileged information to a suspect. HYPOTHESES In Experiment 1, we predicted that mock investigators would communicate critical crime details when they interview mock suspects about a crime-and that innocent and guilty suspects alike would later produce confessions that contained these details

OBJECTIVE The police face great scrutiny after highly publicized instances of lethal force. Dash-camera footage ostensibly provides "objective" evidence of whether the force was excessive. We tested whether participants interpreted the same "objective" video of an officer exerting force differently based on the officer's gender and race. HYPOTHESIS We predicted that when (a) a male (vs. female) officer

OBJECTIVE We surveyed a national sample of child forensic interviewers to learn the types of information they wanted to have before interviewing children, their attitudes and beliefs about forensic interviews, the characteristics of their interviews, and their professional experiences. HYPOTHESES We predicted (1) interviewers would want many different types of information before interviewing children

OBJECTIVE The Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS; Widows & Smith, 2005) is a 75-item self-report measure intended to screen for potentially feigned symptoms of mental illness and/or cognitive impairment. We investigated the classification accuracy of 2 new detection scales (Rare Symptoms [RS] and Symptom Combinations [SC]) developed by Rogers, Robinson, and Gillard (2014) that

OBJECTIVE Childhood parental incarceration has been linked to increased rates of delinquency and arrest during adolescence and young adulthood; however, previous research has focused on White and/or Black samples rather than Latinx youth. We examined relationships between childhood parental incarceration and later delinquency and arrest among Puerto Rican youth living in Puerto Rico (majority context)

OBJECTIVE The Executive Committee of the American Psychology-Law Society (Division 41 of the American Psychological Association) appointed a subcommittee to update the influential 1998 scientific review paper on guidelines for eyewitness identification procedures. METHOD This was a collaborative effort by six senior eyewitness researchers, who all participated in the writing process. Feedback from

The lead article in this issue of Law and Human Behavior is "Policy and Procedure Recommendations for the Collection and Preservation of Eyewitness Identification Evidence" by Gary Wells and colleagues (2020). This special article is an official Scientific Review Paper (SRP) of the American Psychology-Law Society (AP-LS), Division 41 of the American Psychological Association (APA). This SRP is the

OBJECTIVE Use of risk assessment instruments in the criminal justice system is controversial. Advocates emphasize that risk assessments are more transparent, consistent, and accurate in predicting re-offending than judicial intuition. Skeptics worry that risk assessments will increase socioeconomic disparities in incarceration. Ultimately, judges make decisions-not risk assessments. This study tests

OBJECTIVE The Miranda v. Arizona (1966) decision was intended to protect individuals' rights in custodial situations. The purpose of this paper was to evaluate Miranda abilities of individuals with intellectual disability and evaluate the utility of intelligence in predicting these abilities. Additionally, we aimed to provide an updated resource for forensic examiners regarding the performance of individuals

OBJECTIVE This study examined whether race/ethnicity and gender predicted sentencing to anger management therapy as a probation condition. HYPOTHESES We predicted judges would be more likely to assign African Americans and Hispanics, and males to anger management than Caucasians and women, respectively. We hypothesized demographic variables would predict assignment to anger management beyond legal

OBJECTIVE This study empirically evaluated risk judgments made using the Risk for Sexual Violence Protocol (RSVP; Hart et al., 2003), a widely used set of structured professional guidelines for assessing and managing sexual violence risk. HYPOTHESIS Based on evaluations of other structured professional judgment guidelines, we hypothesized that judgments made using the RSVP would demonstrate good interrater

OBJECTIVE We investigated the effects of administrator knowledge of suspect identity in a lineup (blind vs. nonblind), witness identification (suspect vs. filler), and witness confidence (high vs. low) on whether administrators recorded the identification as an affirmative response; whether administrators recorded qualitative notes regarding the lineup task; and the content of those qualitative notes