Forensic psych Exam #2 Study Guide

What is the success/failure rate of this defense?

Contrary to prevailing views, insanity is not a low-risk strategy that defendants can easily employ to avoid a verdict of guilty or gain a lighter sentence. Indeed, on average, when defendants are found NGRI, they end up spending a slightly longer amount of time in custody than do defendants who do not use an insanity defense and are convicted of similar crimes Strangely, jurors in cases in which insanity is contested are typically not told that the defendant will not be released because of an NGRI verdict, although failure to provide this information has important implications for verdicts: One study found that giving jurors information about what happens to a defendant found NGRI leads to more NGRI verdicts

Rape shield laws

During the 1970s, so-called rape shield laws were passed to prevent lawyers from delving into the sexual histories of alleged rape victims at trial. An unintended consequence of allowing RTS testimony is that if a prosecution expert testifies that the alleged victim of rape suffers from RTS, it can open the door to an examination of the victim's past. A defense attorney, for example, may be permitted to ask the plaintiff about her sexual history in an effort to prove that what appears to be RTS may in fact be a response to other events in her past (e.g., trauma or sexual abuse that occurred prior to the alleged rape).

How does expert testimony + the judicial nullification instruction impact sentencing in BWS cases?

Expert testimony on BWS is also intended to provide jurors with a framework for making sense of the battered woman's behavior and to suggest that she is suffering from the symptoms of BWS. By explaining how the woman perceived her desperate situation, BWS makes her failure to leave and her decision to resort to violence easier to understand. According to the available research, expert testimony on BWS does not appear to have a powerful effect on verdicts. For example, a series of experimental studies found that including expert testimony on BWS in simulated trials produced only a modest shift in verdict choice — away from murder and toward manslaughter (a lesser charge that suggests no premeditation on the part of the defendant and leads to a shorter sentence). But this shift in verdict only occurred when the expert testimony was accompanied by an opinion that the woman on trial fit the syndrome.

How could this impact a verdict? E.g.: Conviction of same or lesser crime

For example, in many jurisdictions, first-degree murder requires that the perpetrator engaged knowingly and in a premeditated manner in the killing of another human being. In such a jurisdiction, a mental health professional could testify that the defendant, due to a mental illness, lacked the capacity to form the specific intent to kill another person. This situation might occur, to for example, if the defendant believed the victim was a space alien and not a human being. Unlike the situation with an insanity defense, where the defendant typically bears the burden of proof, the prosecution must prove mens rea beyond a reasonable doubt, and the defendant found to lack this element of the crime would simply be found not guilty rather than NGRI.

High stress

High stress impairs memory and consequently reduces the rate of correct identifications - time moves slowly for a frightened eyewitness; a witness who estimates having seen a criminal for two minutes may actually have seen the criminal for only 30 seconds.

Legal outcomes

How is BWS/those who claim BWS perceived by jurors? In cases where a woman who killed her abuser is on trial, it is natural for jurors to ask the question, "Why didn't she just leave him?" At trial, prosecutors are also likely to raise this question and to challenge the truthfulness of the defendant's account. Jurors tend not to go easy on battered women who kill their abusers. Two early studies examined the outcomes of 141 actual cases in which battered women were charged with homicide. Some cases didn't make it to trial (the charges were dropped in 3% of the cases, and in 9% of the cases the woman pled guilty), but in the cases that did go to trial, 76% of the women were convicted. Sentences ranged from 4 years to life in prison, with an average sentence of about 26 years

The guilty but mentally ill (GBMI) sentencing and concerns

However, a verdict of GBMI offers no guarantee that offenders will receive effective treatment for their mental disorders, leading many scholars to question its usefulness. Moreover, GBMI offenders tend to receive longer sentences than their guilty but not mentally ill counterparts (Robinson, 2014).

Ibn-Tamas v. United States (1979)

Husband was abusing her heavily, treated with gun multiple times - She eventually shot and killed him. Either in self defense (her testimony), or by luring him to his death (his secretary's testimony) Part of the defense's case was going to be expert testimony from Dr. Walker about BWS - Ibn.Tamas was again found guilty of 2nd degree murder, but only sentenced to 2 years

To plead self-defense, what three things must be shown?

If a woman who has been repeatedly abused by her husband manages to kill him while he is violently attacking her, she can argue self-defense at trial. However, to plead self-defense, defendants generally need to show (1) that they were in danger of imminent bodily harm (severe harm in the immediate future), (2) that the force used to repel the attack was reasonable and proportional to the danger that existed (not excessive in response to the harm faced), and, in some jurisdictions, (3) that no reasonable avenue of escape existed (there was no easy way to avoid the confrontation or leave the situation). Most battered women who kill their abuser do so during a direct physical confrontation with the battery. however, a woman who is smaller and weaker than her partner may have a difficult time fighting him off during an attack. Some battered women kill when their abuser is most vulnerable, not times of an altercation.

CST standards contd

In civil cases, the preponderance of the evidence standard (POE standard) is used when determining liability. The POE standard is also used when determining CST in a criminal trial. Using this standard, the defense must prove that it is more likely not that the defendant is incompetent. Falling between the high certainty of BRD and the lesser certainty of POE is the clear and convincing evidence (CCE) standard, which is used when there is the possibility of a substantial intrusion on an individual's liberty short of imprisonment (e.g., involuntary civil commitment

Deterrence perceptive

In contrast, the deterrence perspective on punishment suggests that offenders should be punished so that they learn that committing a crime leads to punishment (i.e., specific deterrence) and so that other similarly situated individuals will vicariously learn that certain actions lead to punishment (i.e., general deterrence). However, persons suffering from severe mental illness will usually not be deterred by punishment because their reasons for committing crimes are often not rational. As a consequence, such individuals cannot evaluate the likely punishment for their criminal actions before the actions occur.

3 stage cycle of violence

In her 1979 book, The Battered Woman, Lenore Walker first proposed that women who have been victims of long-term abuse suffer from an identifiable cluster of symptoms that she called battered woman syndrome. Walker — the expert whose testimony was excluded in the Ibn-Tamas case — based her proposal on interviews of 400 battered women from Colorado. She argued that the typical violent relationship moves through a recurring three-phase cycle of abuse — (1) tension building, (2) acute battering, and (3) contrition — and that it is the repetition of this cycle that can result in the symptoms that define BWS.

Adolescents CST

In the 1990s, all 50 states began to allow for the trial of juveniles of a certain age in adult court when charged with serious crimes. These so-called transfers to adult court have become commonplace, but determining the competence of this new class of defendants is controversial. Because of their intellectual immaturity, adolescent defendants may lack sufficient understanding of the criminal justice system and/or lack the ability to interact effectively with their attorneys.

Evolution of Insanity Law contd

In the case of Rex v. Arnold, jurors were instructed to acquit the defendant (who had wounded a British lord in an assassination attempt) if they found him to be "totally deprived of his understanding and memory, and doth not know what he is doing, no more than a brute or a wild beast." This revised instruction is sometimes referred to as the wild beast test of insanity, meaning that insanity had become less a moral failing (failure to recognize good versus evil) and more a cognitive failing — that is, a mental deficiency involving "understanding and memory."

Fault in encoding memory

Information streams by us each day, and we attend to and encode only a small fraction of that information. - Even when we do make an effort to pay attention, our attention sometimes lapses, and crucial information does not get encoded or stored. - Encoding is imperfect, and what we do store in memory is a selective, inexact replica of what we actually saw or heard

Symptoms of BWS contd

Intrusive recollections of the traumatic event(s) Hyperarousal and high levels of anxiety Avoidance behavior and emotional numbing (usually expressed as depression, dissociation, minimization, repression, and denial) Disrupted interpersonal relationships due to batterer's power and control measures Body image distortion and/or physical complaints Sexual intimacy issues Hypervigilance: The battered woman learns to anticipate her partner's violent behavior by carefully attending to his verbal and nonverbal cues for signs of impending violence. abuser's subtle behaviors

Distinguish between techniques that do and do not work for refreshing eyewitness memory

It appears that when expert testimony is provided to jurors, they are able to make appropriate use of the information experts provide (Semmler et al., 2012)... memory distortions sometimes created by the process of hypnosis have made the technique much less useful than its proponents had hoped. Hypnosis can elicit false memories, amplify the effects of suggestive questioning, and bolster the confidence of eyewitnesses (Lynn et al., 2009) Based on research showing that the cognitive interview improves recall of accurate information without an increase in witness suggestibility, police forces in England and Wales now receive training in the technique (Dando et al., 2009). However, police in the United States do not routinely use cognitive interviews.

o How does confidence impact juror perceptions or use of the testimony

Jurors take into account how certain the witness seems to be. When a witness who has sworn to "tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" points to a defendant in open court and says something like, "I'm sure that's him. I'll never forget that face," jurors and judges tend to be persuaded. And that's a problem. although eyewitness confidence at trial is strongly correlated with persuasiveness, it may not be correlated with accuracy.

Is juvenile transfer to adult court a successful deterrent to future crimes?

Lionel was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. After he had served 3 years of his sentence, his conviction was overturned in 2004 because an appeals court found that his mental competency had not been adequately evaluated before trial. Before a retrial on this issue, Lionel accepted a plea bargain: He pleaded guilty and accepted a sentence of 1 year of house arrest and 10 years of probation. Lionel would eventually violate his parole several times and receive a 30-year sentence for possessing a gun while on probation. Research suggests that transferring juveniles to adult court has little effect on their likelihood of committing future crimes (Griffin et al., 2011).

Module 5: Eyewitness Identification & Testimony

Memory Processes o Encoding: gathering information and putting it in a form that can be held in memory o Storage: holding the encoded information in the brain over time o Retrieval: accessing and pulling out the stored information at a later time

Malingering: why might someone do this (applies to insanity, too!)

More generally, malingering is the deliberate feigning or gross exaggeration of physical or psychological symptoms in order to gain a positive outcome (e.g., an insurance payment or compensatory damages) or to avoid a negative outcome (e.g., a long prison sentence if brought to trial and convicted). Because malingering can be difficult to detect, some psychological tests contain questions designed to expose it, and a few specific tests have been developed to help psychologists detect malingerers (Jackson et al., 2005).

police at the elbow test

One attempt to clarify the revised definition was the policeman at the elbow test. It was suggested that the impulse had to be so overwhelming that the individual would have committed the act even if a police officer had been standing beside the individual at the time of the crime.

Who is responsible to ask for a competency evaluation if there are concerns? and when are these evaluations typically conducted?

Prosecutors seldom object to requests for competency evaluations, and judges rarely deny such requests (Gowensmith et al., 2016). Occasionally, lawyers may request competency evaluations for purely strategic reasons to gain some advantage. Also, prosecutors may request a competency evaluation to prevent the defendant from being released on bail, and either side may seek an evaluation to gain information about the feasibility of an insanity defense (Murrie & Zelle, 2015; Pirelli & Zapf, 2020). Once the defendant is found competent, information gathered during a competency evaluation cannot be introduced at trial, except in the case of defendants who place their mental state into evidence — for example, by pleading not guilty by reason of insanity (Estelle v. Smith, 1981; Winnick, 2008).

The Dusky Standard

Relates to juvenile and adult competency to stand trial and decision-making abilities. The rule holds that defendants must be able to understand and appreciate the criminal proceedings against them and be able to assist their attorneys in their defense.

Recovery From Rape and Characteristics of RTS

Sexual assault has an enduring impact on victims. Women who have been the victims of sexual assault are at greater risk of becoming unemployed and divorced. Burgess and Holmstrom (1979) found that, although 74% of rape victims reported that they had returned to normal functioning about 5 years after the rape, the other 26% reported that they had not yet recovered. Although there is recovery, it is important to emphasize that recovery is not a process of "getting over" the sexual assault. Instead, it involves finding ways to integrate the experience of rape into one's life to minimize its negative aftereffects.

Involuntary Civil Commitment & Burden of Proof Standard

Significant problems and uncertainties arise if the defendant has still not been restored to competency, even after this extended hospital stay. Sometimes, involuntary civil commitment proceedings are initiated. However, it is difficult to commit someone to an institution using involuntary civil commitment laws. The person must either be shown to be "gravely disabled" (unable to care for himself or herself or to provide for basic needs such as food and shelter) or "imminently dangerous to self or others"

Characteristics of Batterers

Some batterers tend to be extremely jealous and fearful of abandonment. These feelings lead the batterer to be suspicious of his partner's friends and family. Fear and jealousy also motivate him to exert strict control over her contacts and to restrict her outside activities. Dutton has argued that many batterers can be classified as suffering from borderline personality disorder, a serious mental disorder characterized by unstable relationships, dramatic mood swings, manipulativeness, intense fear of abandonment, and impulsive outbursts. A man suffering from this disorder may appear superficially normal, but his jealousy and volatility will surface in intimate relationships. This type of batterer is less likely than other types to raise the suspicions of friends and co-workers. Approximately one-quarter of male batterers fall into this category (Huss & Ralston, 2008).

Sell v. United States (2003)

Supreme court ruled that criminal defendant who was not in danger to him/herself or others could be forcibly medicated if... 1) Such treatment was medically appropriate 2) Treatment unlikely to have side effects that would undermine the trial fairness 3) Treatment necessary to further a significant government interest, such as prosecution of serious crime -Charles Sell, dentist accused of mail fraud. Paranoid psychosis -thought communists contaminated gold dental fillings, public officials wanted to kill him, god told him to kill FBI agents. -found incompetent. Refused to take antipsychotic medication that had helped him in the past

hinckley case (1982)

The ALI standard was used in instructing the jury in the trial of John Hinckley Jr., the defendant in the Hinckley case (arising from Hinckley's attempted assassination of then-president Ronald Reagan in 1981), the third major case to reshape the insanity defense. In 1981, in a delusional attempt to reenact a scene from Taxi Driver and win Foster's love, Hinckley shot and wounded Reagan. Several hours before the shooting, Hinckley wrote a letter to Foster. One of these experts even introduced one of the first examples of neurolaw expert testimony — testimony intended to show a link between brain abnormalities and an individual's illegal behavior. The jury found Hinckley NGRI.

o What happens if competency cannot be restored? Are there limits to being held?

The Jackson decision, however, limited the period of confinement to the time necessary to determine if the defendant could be returned to competency in the foreseeable future. As a result of the decision, most states now limit confinement to somewhere between 4 and 18 months (Melton et al., 2018). If, after that period, the defendant is still judged to be incompetent, several more extensions can be granted. Regardless of the eventual outcome for the individual, the criminal charges against a defendant judged unable to be restored to competency may be dismissed or suspended. These charges can be reinstated in some circumstances (usually for the most serious crimes) if the individual regains competency-related abilities.

cognitive test

The M'Naghten rule was eventually imported from English law into American law. It is sometimes called a cognitive test of insanity because it emphasizes knowing and understanding whether one's actions are right or wrong

Alternative to Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI

The guilty but mentally ill (GBMI) verdict is an attempt to bypass the definitional morass of insanity. The GBMI verdict is permitted in approximately 20 states; it is usually an additional alternative verdict to the three more standard options of guilty, not guilty, and NGRI. Only Utah has adopted a GBMI verdict without also having an NGRI statute (Zapf, Roesch, & Pirelli, 2014). People who are found to be GBMI are found guilty of their crime and sentenced to prison for a period consistent with that verdict, but they are supposed to receive treatment for their mental health issues while in prison or be transferred to a secure psychiatric facility.

Perspectives on punishment

The insanity defense is built on the principle that people who commit crimes without full understanding of their actions should not be held fully responsible/morally blameworthy for their crimes. The retribution (or just deserts) perspective on punishment suggests that the punishment for a crime should be proportionate to the harm committed. "an eye for an eye," it is intended to make the harmed party feel that justice has been served by punishing the perpetrator. Yet retribution requires that individuals who commit crimes exercised free will and understood what they were doing. Offenders who do not understand what they did are not morally responsible for their actions and should not be punished.

CST Evaluations results

The issue of CST is typically raised at a pretrial hearing but can be ordered by the judge or requested by attorneys at any time during the trial as long as there is a bona fide doubt ("good faith" doubt — i.e., a reasonable doubt) about the defendant's competency. Still, the majority of psychotic defendants are found competent to stand trial (Heilbrun et al., 2019). Indeed, none of the factors mentioned above would necessarily cause a defendant to be judged incompetent. Defendants' mental difficulties must directly impair their ability to interact with an attorney or their ability to understand the proceedings

Define system variables and estimator variables

The justice system cannot control who witnesses a crime, how carefully that person observes the crime, or whether the race of the victim is different from the race of the criminal. Such factors, which are outside the control of the legal system, are called estimator variables because they are helpful in estimating the accuracy of an identification. system variables — those factors that are under the control of the justice system (Wells, 1978). For example, the legal system can control how a witness is questioned and how lineups are constructed. Modifications in the type and order of questions asked by police and processes managed by police can and should be made if such changes can improve the accuracy of identification.

Competency

The legal definition of competence refers to whether an individual has sufficient present ability to meaningfully participate in and perform necessary personal or legal functions. adjudicative competence consists of two underlying components. The first component — foundational competence — involves the capacity to assist counsel and is essential for ensuring the fairness, dignity, and accuracy of the criminal justice system. decisional competence — This component has to do with the capacity to make informed, independent decisions. It is crucial to recognize that an assessment of competence focuses on the defendant's ability, not the defendant's willingness, to perform relevant legal functions

Rape trauma recover phases

The length of the first phase varies, but eventually the rape victim moves into the second phase. Whereas the first phase is an intense reaction to the trauma of being raped, the reorganization phase involves the long process of recovery from rape. Rape victims often respond by blaming themselves for not having been able to prevent or stop the rape. They might castigate themselves for walking through a bad area of town, for leaving a window open, or for leaving a door unlocked. They might blame themselves for not being able to fight off or run away from the attacker.

hinckley case (1982) contd

The most important factor in Hinckley's acquittal may have been the combination of the burden of proof and the standard of proof used in the case. Federal law required the prosecutor to prove — beyond a reasonable doubt — that the defendant was sane. So, the burden of proof was placed on the prosecution instead of requiring the defense to prove that the defendant was insane at the time of the crime (which is the case in most jurisdictions).

M'Naghten Rule contd

The new rule — which became known as the M'Naghten rule (even though it was not applied in the original M'Naghten case) — consisted of four components: (1) a presumption that defendants are sane and responsible for their crime; (2) a requirement that, at the moment of the crime, the accused must have been laboring under "a defect of reason, from disease of the mind"; and (3) a requirement that the defendant did not "know the nature and quality of the act he was doing," or (4) "if he did know it, that he did not know what he was doing was wrong"

Cognitive Dissonance

The postidentification boost in confidence might be partly explained by the theory of cognitive dissonance (Aronson, 2007). - Dissonance theory predicts that once you commit yourself to a course of action, you will become motivated to justify it. Once you have identified someone as the criminal, that action will be dissonant (inconsistent) with the knowledge that you were uncertain about your identification. That inconsistency will be uncomfortable. It is very difficult to admit that you might have identified the wrong person, so the most expedient means of reducing dissonance will be to increase your level of certainty.

What happens to try to restore competency?

The quality of treatment at mental health facilities varies considerably, and sometimes there is little emphasis on restoring legal competency. However, studies suggest that training specifically designed to explain courtroom rules and procedures can help to restore CST . In addition to direct education on legal procedures, restoration of CST in defendants judged incompetent typically involves treatment with antipsychotic medication (Pirelli & Zapf, 2020). Antipsychotic medications can reduce the severity and frequency of hallucinations and delusions experienced by individuals suffering from severe mental illness and can sometimes even eliminate those symptoms.

Post-Identification Feedback Effect

The tendency for biased feedback after identification to distort the memory of eyewitnesses. Such feedback inflates eyewitnesses' confidence in their identification. - Sometimes feedback comes from police & other witnesses foo

BWS contd

The word syndrome has also been used to describe a particular set of psychological and emotional reactions to a specific event. Today, courts uniformly recognize the importance of expert testimony on battering and its effects, but the content of that testimony remains controversial (battering is a commonly used synonym for IPV). In fact, every jurisdiction in the United States currently allows expert testimony on BWS Syndromes such as BWS have often been used to explain the actions of people involved in legal disputes. Two of the most controversial and prominent of these "legal" syndromes are BWS and rape trauma syndrome (RTS)

History of IPV

These forms of violence and abuse have always been common, although until recent times, they were often ignored by the legal system. Until the second half of the nineteenth century, wife battering was treated much less seriously than most other forms of violence. What a man did with his wife was largely a private matter, and if he thought it necessary to "discipline" her with a "moderate" beating, the law did not interfere. There were, however, some broad limits — for example, a beating that led to disfigurement or death was usually prosecuted.

Demographic factors

These researchers found that demographic factors (young age, low income, unemployment, and minority status), along with developmental problems (childhood exposure to abuse; alcohol, drug, and criminal problems in adolescence) and relationship factors (low levels of satisfaction and high levels of conflict) were predictive of violence. These risk factors did not differ by the gender of the perpetrator or the victim.

Characteristics of those with the syndrome

Walker initially identified a set of traits she thought were shared by most battered women. These traits include traditional sex-role attitudes (submissive wives), a poor self-image, and a tendency to accept responsibility for the abuse. Because the battered woman is likely to believe that she brought the abuse on herself, she often feels shame and attempts to conceal the abuse from others. Consequently, over time, she is likely to become socially isolated and increasingly dependent on her abuser. She will see few alternatives to staying with him and will become less able to extricate herself from the relationship

The Insanity Defense Reform Act (IDRA) of 1984 contd

When a defendant bears the burden of proof for a defense at trial, such as insanity, it is referred to as an affirmative defense. was dropped from the definition of insanity, and experts were barred from giving ultimate issue testimony about sanity. That is, although experts were still permitted to testify about a defendant's mental state, they were not permitted to state their opinion explicitly about whether a defendant was sane at the time of the crime.

Which gender's cases likely end up in court? Who is most likely to report abuse and end up seriously injured or killed?

about 21% of adult women versus about 15% of men will experience a significant physical assault by an intimate partner at some point in their lifetime. -men are also more likely to seriously injure or kill their female partners (one in two homicides against women are perpetrated by a male intimate partner, while only one in six homicides against men are perpetrated by a female intimate partner) - & male-against-female violence that is most likely to lead to contact with the legal system. - Female victims of spousal violence are more likely to report the incident to the police than are male victims (23% vs. 7%), and the spousal homicide rate for female victims, especially young women, "has consistently been about three to four times higher than that for males" (Taylor-Butts & Porter, 2011, p. 33)

intimate partner violence

about one-third of women and one-third of men in the United States are the targets of sexual violence, stalking, and/or physical violence perpetrated by a dating partner, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a current spouse, a former spouse, or an ongoing sexual partner.

competency to stand trial

competency to stand trial (CST), which is the ability to participate adequately in criminal proceedings and to aid in one's own defense; Consequently, it is that they have a reasonable idea of what is occurring at every stage in the criminal justice process, from arrest to sentencing.

Ibn-Tamas trial; why is it important?

expert testimony was offered on battered woman syndrome (BWS).

Research to improve eyewitness testimony: Cognitive interview

involves a subtle step-by-step procedure designed to relax the witness and to mentally reinstate the context surrounding the crime. The goal is to improve the witness's retrieval of accurate information while avoiding the increased suggestibility of hypnosis 1st phase: interviewer attempts to reduce the witness's anxiety, this develops rapport concentration. 2nd phase: eyes closed, witness attempts to reinstate the context of the crime by picturing the setting of the crime and the surrounding sights, sounds, and feelings 3rd phase: probing the images and actions the witness reports, in order to make sure all relevant information is brought out. The witness is asked to recall events in different orders 4th phase: witness takes different perspectives on the crime, by mentally viewing the event from the perspective of the criminal and from that of the victim 5th phase: background info is collected, and the interviewer emphasizes that the witness should call if new information is remembered

voir dire

is intended to expose potentially biased jurors so that attorneys can dismiss them.

CST standards

is some disagreement about whether CST should be a flexible standard — that is, whether a defendant facing very serious charges in a case with complex facts may need to be more competent than someone facing less serious charges and a simpler legal proceeding. presumption of competency to stand trial- That is, defendants are presumed to be competent unless proven incompetent, and the defense bears the burden of proving that the defendant is incompetent (Pirelli & Zapf, 2020) beyond a reasonable doubt (BRD), which governs decisions about guilt in criminal cases. Because criminal trials involve the greatest deprivation of liberty (imprisonment), a high level of certainty is required

Is insanity the same as mental illness?

label "insanity" does not correspond to any established psychiatric diagnosis, and many mental health professionals are deeply conflicted about being asked to determine whether or not a defendant was legally insane at the time a criminal act was committed. Even people who clearly suffer from severe mental illness may not qualify as insane using the legal definition

Clinical Evaluations

o Challenges in determining insanity for evaluators -It is often asserted that experts typically cannot agree on whether a particular defendant qualifies as insane. From 2007 to 2008, the researchers examined 483 insanity evaluation reports of 165 criminal defendants. In Hawaii, 3 independent evaluators must complete a report for each referred defendant. The 3 evaluators unanimously agreed in only 55% of the cases. They agreed most often when the defendant had been diagnosed with a psychotic disorder and had been psychiatrically hospitalized shortly before the crime. The forensic evaluators disagreed most frequently when the defendant had been under the influence of drugs or alcohol while committing the crime.

Factors that impact or are seen in eyewitness memories

o Cross Racial Identifications/Cross-Race Effect Cross-race accuracy is worse than within-race accuracy. That is, it is harder for people to recognize the faces of people outside their group than it is for people to recognize the faces of people within their group. This tendency is usually referred to as the cross-race effect (sometimes called own-race bias).

Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI)

o How often is this defense used? Debate about the insanity defense often occurs in the overheated atmosphere created by sensational trials like those of M'Naghten and Hinckley. Following such trials, politicians have denounced the insanity defense in colorful terms. It has been called "a rich man's defense" that "pampers criminals" and a means of providing a "safe harbor for criminals who bamboozle a jury." Further, it has been claimed that trials involving the insanity defense are often "protracted testimonial extravaganzas pitting high-priced prosecution experts against equally high-priced defense experts"

Eyewitness confidence

o What trends in confidence are seen over time? (decrease, increase, etc.) - The critical level of confidence is the level expressed when the witness initially identifies the culprit, not the level expressed at trial. - an eyewitness's initial expression of high confidence in an identification is a strong indicator of accuracy. - Another reason why confidence is sometimes a misleading indicator of accuracy is that confidence is likely to increase over time (Smalarz & Wells, 2015).

Evaluating CST

refers to a defendant's ability to understand and perform a number of discrete court-related functions. These functions include, but are not limited to, defendants' ability to... (1) understand their current legal situation; (2) understand the charges against them; (3) understand the pleas available; (4) understand the possible penalties if they are convicted; (5) understand the roles of the judge, defense counsel, and prosecutor; (6) trust and communicate with defense counsel; (7) help locate witnesses; (8) aid in developing a strategy for cross-examining witnesses; (9) act appropriately during the trial; and (10) make appropriate decisions about trial strategy

The role that eyewitness testimony (and misidentification) may play in wrongful convictions

research on people who have been convicted of crimes but are later proven innocent has revealed that mistaken eyewitness identification leads to more wrongful convictions than any other type of evidence. - In fact, mistaken identifications played a role in 71% of cases where wrongly convicted persons were released from prison because DNA testing later proved their innocence

incompetent to Stand Trial (IST)/Restoring Competency

restoration of competency to stand trial — that is, acquisition or reacquisition of the abilities needed to assist one's attorney, understand the legal proceedings, and so on.

How are juveniles tried as adults and why?

statutory exclusions — statutory transfer policies that automatically require adolescent defendants who commit certain serious crimes (e.g., murder or manslaughter) and are of a certain age (16 or 17 years old in some jurisdictions and even as low as 13 or 14 years old in others) to be tried in adult court. Additionally, several states have increased the power of prosecutors to ask for transfers from juvenile court.

difference in admissibility between CST and insanity

that is, CST refers to the psychological state of the defendant at the time of trial. The defendant's psychological state at the time of the crime is not relevant to a determination of CST (although it is relevant to a determination of insanity, which will be discussed in Chapter 10). Dusky's case was returned (or "remanded") to the trial court for a determination of whether he met the Court's new standard.

Memory traces

the biochemical representations of experiences in the brain — appear to deteriorate with time

Insanity

the concept of insanity refers to the criminal's state of mind at the time the crime was committed. Insanity requires that, due to a mental illness, a defendant lacks moral responsibility and culpability for the crime and therefore should not be punished.

Unconscious Transference

the person wrongly identified is someone seen near the scene of the crime or someone seen as part of the identification process. This situation is called unconscious transference. - A face that is familiar from some other context is transferred in memory to the scene of a crime

Eyewitness testimony: How compelling is testimony to jurors?How often testimony is relied on in court?

the testimony of an eyewitness makes the difference between conviction and acquittal. Such testimony is crucial to the criminal justice system because it is often the most compelling evidence presented in court. - One study examined 347 cases in which the only evidence was eyewitness testimony. In 74% of these cases, the defendant was convicted. In 49% of the cases in which the defendant was convicted, there was only one eyewitness

The Insanity Defense Reform Act (IDRA) of 1984

turned back the clock on the insanity defense. The ALI standard was abandoned in many jurisdictions — specifically, in the federal system — in response to changes in the law made in the aftermath of the Hinckley case. The IDRA required, in federal courts, that there be a presumption of sanity and that defendants prove "by clear and convincing evidence" that they were insane at the time of the crime.

List the Mansion Criteria

two key cases — Neil v. Biggers (1972) and Manson v. Braithwaite (1977) • the courts have emphasized five factors that should be taken into account when evaluating the accuracy of an eyewitness's identification: (1) the witness's opportunity to view the perpetrator, (2) the witness's level of attention, (3) the accuracy of the witness's previous description of the offender, (4) the witness's degree of certainty, and (5) the amount of time between witnessing the crime and making the identification.

Andrea Yates

woman who killed her 5 young children by drowning in the bathtub after suffering from postpartum depression & psychosis; used the M'Naghten rule to enter commitment by not guilty by reason of insanity

Lionel Tate

•12 years old •Convicted of first-degree murder •Killed 6-year-old Tiffany Eunick in 1999 •Sentenced to life without parole •2004--conviction was overturned on grounds that his mental competency to be tried as an adult had never been tested

Battered Woman Syndrome (BWS)

"Intimate partner violence" is a general term used to describe situations like that which occurred in the Ibn-Tamas relationship. However, battered woman syndrome (BWS) is the term more frequently used when cases enter the legal system. BWS, as its name implies, is a syndrome, a term used by medical and psychiatric professionals to describe a cluster of related symptoms that lead to a significant dysfunction in the performance of normal activities.

What percentage of defendants are found incompetent to stand trial?

- According to a meta-analysis, approximately 28% of defendants who are referred for a competency evaluation are found incompetent (Pirelli et al., 2011), with over 80% of defendants initially judged incompetent being eventually restored to competency and over 75% being restored and facing trial within six months (Pirelli

Typical Characteristics of NGRI defendants

- Based on over 19,000 cases, those found NGRI are more likely to be female, older, and unemployed, to have a history of hospitalizations for severe mental illness and no history of criminal offenses, and to have previously been found to be incompetent to stand trial. The psychiatric illnesses most commonly associated with successful insanity pleas were psychosis, mood disorders, and intellectual disability (Gardner et al., 2018). Research has also found that defendants with a diagnosis of a personality disorder, those who were being tried for drug-related charges, and those who were intoxicated at the time of offense were less likely to be successful in their insanity defense (Warren et al., 2004)

Eyewitness confidences: why?

- First, the witness usually gives a verbal description of the suspect; it is likely that this description matches thousands of people - victim choses photo, a vague description has now become a specific face. The witness has time to study face & memorize features. Police officers may encourage that she chose correctly (post identification feedback) - she may now simply pick the person who most resembles the photograph in the lineup. Finally, the witness may identify the defendant in court. At each stage, the witness gets more specific. Details are filled in, and sketchy memories become more complete. And at each step, the witness becomes more personally invested in the correctness of the identification.

Right to Refuse Treatment and CST

- Limited research on program type that produce best results for defendants with varied problems - Restoration of CST: Typically involves antipsychotic medication treatment that have physical side effects - Lack of illness awareness may encourage medication refusal In Washington v. Harper, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that: An inmate's right to refuse such medication did not outweigh the state's need to administer it if there was a showing that the inmate posed a security risk.

Dusky v. United States (1960)

- Milton Dusky (33) mentally ill. Charged with kidnapping and transporting from Missouri to KS 15 yr old Alison McQuery across state lines. - Alison thought was getting ride to friends house. Two boys who were friends with his son came with as well. Two boys raped her. -Had schizophrenia. found at CST evaluation -He was found competent, guilty, and sentenced to 45 yrs in prison. -appealed his case to supreme court, who found him incompetent

The M'Naghten Case, 1843

-Daniel M'Naghten (paranoid delusions of govt ppl trying to kill him) -set out to kill prime minister of England (Robert Peel) because thought was part of conspiracy. -Mistakenly shot and killed secretary -9 medical experts testified he was insane -Found him not guilty by reason of insanity. -spent rest of life in Broadmoor insane asylum -Consequence: M'Naghten rule

research to improve eyewitness testimony

1. Prelineup Interviews (as soon as practicable interviews) 2. evidence-based grounds - to suspect that an individual is guilty of the specific crime being investigated before that person is included in a lineup. 3. Double-Blind Lineups (neither the administrator nor the witness should know who the suspect is in the lineup) - should exercise the same care in gathering eyewitness evidence because the potential consequences of a mistake — accusing and convicting an innocent person — are also very serious. Using a double-blind lineup helps to avoid this mistakethis error

research to improve eyewitness testimony pt 2

4. Appropriate Lineup Fillers - actual suspect does not stand out from the fillers (the non suspects in the lineup) 5. Prelineup Instructions to Eyewitnesses or bias-reducing instructions - removes the presumption that the witness is obliged to choose someone; telling witnesses that they do not know who is the suspect, discourages witnesses from looking for clues. It forces witnesses to rely solely on their own memory 6.Obtaining an Immediate Postlineup Confidence Statement - Given the possibility of drastic changes in confidence between the time of the lineup and the time of the trial, obtain a clear statement about how confident the witness is immediately after the witness identifies the culprit and before any feedback is given to the witness. High rating is correlated with accuracy

research to improve eyewitness testimony pt 3

7. Video recording - would serve as a lasting, objective, record of what transpired. Attorneys, judges, and juries could see and hear for themselves what instructions were given to witnesses, whether members of the lineup resembled one another, what feedback was given to the witness immediately after the identification, how confident the witness appeared to be during the lineup, what sorts of comments were made by police or by other witnesses, and how long the entire process took. 8. Avoiding Repeated Identification Procedures With the Same Witness and Suspect 9. Avoiding the Use of Showups (presenting a single suspect to an eyewitness and asking them if that person committed the crime.)

ALI standard (or Model Penal Code insanity standard)

A definition of insanity proposed by the American Law Institute (ALI): "A person is not responsible for criminal conduct if at the time of such conduct, as a result of mental disease or defect, he lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law."

M'Naghten Rule

A rule for determining insanity, which asks whether the defendant knew what he or she was doing or whether the defendant knew that what he or she was doing was wrong. M'Naghten was insane, and the jury found him not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI) — meaning that, because of his insanity, he should not be held criminally responsible; the jurors were also told that he would be sent to a psychiatric hospital instead of prison. He spent the rest of his life in Bethlem and Broadmoor insane asylums

Mens Rea Defense/Diminished Capacity Defense

A substantial number of states allow a defendant to enter a mens rea defense, meaning that the defendant lacks the capacity to possess the mental state (the mens rea) required for certain crimes. Unlike insanity, a mens rea defense is typically available only for crimes requiring that the defendant possess a specific mental state.

Symptoms of BWS

According to Walker, women caught in such relationships experience learned helplessness and become submissive. That is, over time, women who endure long-term abuse become resigned to their suffering and fail to resist or leave their abuser, even when they may be able to do so. Battered women learn that resistance is futile and use "survival techniques" instead of "escape skills."

Gold Standard CST?

Additionally, most states do not have a formal process for selecting and certifying their CST evaluators (Gowensmith et al., 2015). There is no gold standard for determining CST, no test or combination of tests that reveals with certainty whether a defendant is competent or incompetent. forensic assessment instruments (FAIs) Psychological tests designed to answer questions specific to a particular legal standard.

Why is adolescent CST controversial? What are the concerns?

Adolescent brains lack fully developed frontal lobes, and there is continued development of neuronal connections, or white matter, through the early 20s. The frontal lobe and these connections are believed to be responsible for impulse control, strategic behavior, and the ability to appreciate the risk associated with certain behaviors. All these functions may have direct bearing on the quality of adolescents' decision making during trial.

Rape trauma syndrome

Along with BWS, another potentially flawed syndrome — rape trauma syndrome — was also developed and eventually introduced into the legal system, but with a slightly different legal purpose. RTS was intended to explain the behavior of individuals who had suffered sexual assaults and often acted in seemingly illogical ways. Much like battering, sexual assault occurs at an alarming rate in our society. The NISVS estimates that 1 in 5 women (roughly 25.5 million women) have experienced an attempted or completed rape and that 1 in 14 men (roughly 7.9 million men) have faced similar circumstances (Smith et al., 2018).

Mansion criteria Major weakness

Although these so-called Manson criteria seem logical, most are difficult to apply to actual crimes, and one — degree of certainty expressed at trial — can be highly misleading. - it is difficult to evaluate a witness's opportunity to view the perpetrator and a witness's level of attention. -There is also the issue of time — how long was the witness able to look at the culprit? -If self-reports have been corrupted by the use of suggestive questioning and identification procedures, they will be misleading indicators of eyewitness accuracy -Ironically, in many cases, the same biased procedures that led to a mistaken identification will also lead to inflated estimates of attention, view, and certainty

Recovery From Rape and Characteristics of RTS contd

Among the symptoms most strongly associated with rape are fear, anxiety, depression, self-blame, disturbed social relationships, and sexual dysfunction. These reactions tend to be especially intense during the 3 or 4 months following the sexual assault (Frazier, 2003). Although these same reactions may be associated with other types of trauma, the symptoms are likely to take a particular form in sexual assault victims. For example, in sexual assault victims, fear and anxiety are likely to be most strongly felt in situations or settings similar to the one in which the rape occurred.

Research to improve eyewitness testimony: Expert Testimony

An additional safeguard against mistaken identification is to have an expert on eyewitness identification testify in court. Such testimony is particularly helpful when eyewitness identification procedures significantly deviate from the nine recommendations summarized above.

Characteristics of Batterers contd

Another type of batterer — the generally violent antisocial batterer — is less selectively violent. Instead, this type is generally predisposed to violent behavior toward the people around him. He tends to be antisocial, prone to impulsive behavior, and dependent on alcohol or other drugs. This type of batterer shows the highest recidivism rate (Huss & Ralston, 2008). Such batterers often engage in denial. A third type of batterer is the relationship/family-only batterer. This type is the most common (estimated to be about 50% of batterers) and is characterized by limited marital violence, almost no violence outside the family, lack of a personality disorder, and relatively low rates of alcohol/drug abuse and depression (Holtzworth-Munroe et al., 2000).

High stress Weapons Focus Effect

Another well-established finding related to stress has been termed the weapon focus effect. - If eyewitnesses see the perpetrator holding a gun or a knife, their ability to recognize the assailant is impaired. - In such situations, witnesses understandably tend to focus their attention on the weapon, partly because it is unexpected in most settings and also because the weapon poses great danger

What definition of insanity do jurors often rely on?

As discussed above, most revisions in the definitions of insanity have been intended to reduce the number of NGRI verdicts. In attempting to craft a definition of insanity, legal scholars and legislators have agonized over whether it is better to use the word know or understand or appreciate. They have argued long and vigorously about whether insanity should be defined as an irresistible impulse or as the inability to distinguish between right and wrong, and even whether wrong should refer to legal or moral wrong.

Evolution of Insanity Law

As early as the Roman Empire, the law dictated that people found to be non compos mentis — without mastery of mind — should not be held blameworthy for their crimes. The modern form of "mastery of mind" is mens rea, the "guilty mind" that must accompany wrongful behavior. To be found guilty, it is not enough to commit a criminal act (the actus reus, the "guilty act") From the 14-16 centuries in England, a religiously inspired "good from evil" test was used. To be found guilty, the defendant had to understand the difference between good and evil; In 1724, however, a significant shift took place.

BWS & PTSD

BWS has been used to explain the behaviors of women like Mrs. Ibn-Tamas who have been physically abused by their husbands or partners and subsequently injure or kill their abusers. Similarly, RTS has been used to explain the behaviors of women in response to the trauma of sexual assault. Individuals who suffer from these two syndromes may meet the criteria for a broader form of mental disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) - PTSD: A severe disorder following a traumatic event. It is diagnosed in people who have "experienced, witnessed, or were confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others." one of the notable changes in the DSM-5 is the explicit inclusion of sexual violence as constituting a traumatic event

Rape trauma syndrome recovery phases

Burgess and Holmstrom described recovery from rape as a two-stage process, moving from an acute crisis phase to a longer-term reorganization phase. They believed the acute crisis phase typically lasted a few weeks and included one or more severe physical symptoms (e.g., sleeplessness, loss of appetite, trembling, numbness, and pain) as well as severe emotional disturbance manifested in symptoms such as extreme fear, shame, persistent nightmares, depression, and even suicide attempts. In the days and weeks following the rape, the victim's intellectual functioning is also likely to be impaired (Burgess & Holmstrom, 1979). The victim may seem dazed, confused, out of touch with her immediate environment, and "in shock."

irresistible impulse

But many critics noted in the decades following the establishment of the M'Naghten rule, cognition is only part of "insanity" and maybe not even the most important part. Some states added the term irresistible impulse to their definitions of insanity, based upon the defendant's lack of volitional capacity — that is, the defendant's inability to control their behavior. Some states even used this formulation exclusively as their insanity test. A mental disorder could produce an uncontrollable impulse to commit the offense, even if the defendant remained able to understand the nature of the offense and its wrongfulness.