The Psychology Of Tort Law

"This book explores tort law through the lens of psychological science. Drawing on a wealth of psychological research and their own experiences teaching and researching tort law, the authors examine the psychological assumptions that underlie doctrinal rules. They explore how tort law influences the behavior and decision making of potential plaintiffs and defendants, examining how doctors and patients, drivers, manufacturers and purchasers of products, property owners, and others make decisions against the backdrop of tort law. They show how the judges and jurors who decide tort claims are influenced by psychological phenomena in deciding cases. And they reveal how plaintiffs, defendants, and their attorneys resolve tort disputes in the shadow of tort law."--Page 4 of cover.

This first volume of an exciting annual series presents important new developments in the psychology behind issues in the law and its applications. Psychological theory is used to explore why many current legal policies and procedures can be ineffective or counterproductive, with special emphasis on new findings on how witnesses, jurors, and suspects may be influenced, sometimes leading to injustice. Expert scholars make recommendations for improvements, suggesting both future directions for research inquiries on topics and needed policy changes. Topics included in this initial offering have rarely been considered in such an in-depth fashion or are in need of serious re-thinking: Interrogation of minority suspects: pathways to true and false confessions. A comprehensive evaluation of showups. The weapon focus effect for person identifications and descriptions. The psychology of criminal jury instructions. Structured risk assessment and legal decision making. Children’s participation in legal proceedings: stress, coping, and consequences. Sex offender policy and prevention. The psychology of tort law. Demonstrating the scope and rigor that will characterize the series, Volume 1 of Advances in Psychology and Law will interest psychology and legal experts as well as practicing psychologists, and will inspire fresh thinking as the two fields continue to interact.

Psychology's formal interaction with law began early in the twentieth century, though little in the way of substantive scholarly and professional development occurred until several decades later. The emergence of psychology and law as a modern field of scholarship was marked by the founding of the American Psychology-Law Society (AP-LS) in 1969, now approaching its 50th anniversary. The scientific foundation upon which the modern field now rests was established by a small group of psychological researchers, legal scholars, and clinicians. The Roots of Modern Psychology and Law: A Narrative History reveals how the field developed during the first decade following the founding of the American Psychology-Law Society. The contributors to this edited volume, widely considered to be among the "founders" of the field, were responsible for establishing and nurturing many of the subfields and topics in psychology and law or forensic psychology that flourished across the next fifty years. In each chapter, these leaders explain in narrative form how and why the field and the Society developed in its early years through the recounting of key professional events in their careers during the 1970s. In some cases this was their first major research study using psychology applied to legal issues. In others it was their development of seminal ideas or organizational innovations that had a later impact on the field's development. The volume chronicles how an emerging AP-LS and field of psychology and law were shaped by these psychologists, and how their own initial work was, in turn, shaped by the organization.

Winner, 2021 Lawrence S. Wrightsman Book Award, given by the American Psychology-Law Society Bridges family law and current psychological research to shape understanding of legal doctrine and policy Family law encompasses legislation related to domestic relationships—marriages, parenthood, civil unions, guardianship, and more. No other area of law touches so closely to home, or is changing at such a rapid pace—in fact, family law is so dynamic precisely because it is inextricably intertwined with psychological issues such as human behavior, attitudes, and social norms. However, although psychology and family law may seem a natural partnership, both fields have much to learn from each other. Our laws often fail to take into account our empirical knowledge of psychology, falling back instead on faulty assumptions about human behavior. This book encourages our use of psychological research and methods to inform understandings of family law. It considers issues including child custody, intimate partner violence, marriage and divorce, and child and elder maltreatment. For each topic discussed, Eve Brank presents a case, statute, or legal principle that highlights the psychological issues involved, illuminating how psychological research either supports or opposes the legal principles in question, and placing particular emphasis on the areas that are still in need of further research. The volume identifies areas where psychology practice and research already have been or could be useful in molding legal doctrine and policy, and by providing psychology researchers with new ideas for legally relevant research.

Shari Seidman Diamond Scholars interested in psychology and law are fond of c1aiming origins for psycholegal research that date back four score and three years ago to Hugo von Munsterberg's On the Witness Stand, published in 1908. These early roots can mislead the casual observer about the history of psychology and law. Vigorous and sustained research in the field is a recent phenomenon. It is only 15 years since the first review of psy chology and law appeared in the Annual Review of Psychology (Tapp, 1976). The following year saw the first issue of Law and Human Behavior, the official publication of the American Psychology-Law Society and now the journal of the American Psychological Associ ation's Division of Psychology and Law. Few psychology departments offered even a single course in psychology and law before 1973, while by 1982 1/4 of psychology graduate programs had at least one course, and a number had begun to offer forensic minors and/or joint J. D. / Ph. D. programs (Freeman & Roesch, see Chapter 28). Yet this short period of less than 20 years has seen a dramatic level of activity. Its strengths and weaknesses, excitements and disappointments, are aII captured in the collection of chapters published in this first Handbook of Psychology and Law. In describing what we have learned ab out psychology and law, the works included here also reveal the questions we have yet to answer and thus offer a blueprint for activities in the next 20 years.

Leading scholar Tom R. Tyler provides a timely and engaging introduction to the field of law and psychology. This Advanced Introduction outlines the main areas of research, their relevance to law and the way that psychological findings have shaped – or failed to shape – the corresponding areas of law. Key features include focus on the relevance of psychological theories to topics in law, emphasis on the institutional realities within which law functions and discussion of the problems of bringing research findings into the legal system.

The essays in this volume are the result of a project on Values in Tort Law directed by the Westminster Institute for Ethics and Human Values. We are indebted to the Board of Westminster Col lege for its financial support. The project involved two meetings of a mixed group of lawyers and philosophers to discuss drafts of papers and general issues in tort law. Beyond the principal researchers, whose papers appear here, we are grateful to John Bargo, Dick Bronaugh, Craig Brown, Earl Cherniak, Bruce Feldthusen, Barry Hoffmaster and Steve Sharzer for their helpful discussion, and to Nancy Margolis for copy editing. All of these papers except one have appeared before in the journal Law and Philosophy (Vol. 1 No.3, December 1982 and Vol. 2 No.1, Apri11983). Chapman's paper which was previously published in The University of Western Ontario Law Review (Vol. 20 No.1, 1982) appears here with permission. Westminster Institute for Ethics and Human Values, M.D.B. Westminster College, London, Canada B.C. vii INTRODUCTION The law of torts is society's primary mechanism for resolving disputes arising from personal injury and property damage.

At last, here is an empirical volume that addresses head-on the thorny issue of tort reform in the US. Ongoing policy debates regarding tort reform have led both legal analysts and empirical researchers to reevaluate the civil jury’s role in meting out civil justice. Some reform advocates have called for removing certain types of more complex cases from the jury’s purview; yet much of the policy debate has proceeded in the absence of data on what the effects of such reforms would be. In addressing these issues, this crucial work takes an empirical approach, relying on archival and experimental data. It stands at the vanguard of the debate and provides information relevant to both state and national civil justice systems.

There are three pairs of concepts which dominate the contemporary discussion concerning tort law: moral responsibility and social utility; corrective and distributive justice; and strict liability and fault. This text analyzes these concepts and examines their use in the liability context.

This scholarly text introduces readers to psychological knowledge and theories and then shows their application in a wide variety of court cases and decisions, such as the Tarasoff decision, the Miranda ruling, etc. Providing in-depth information, the authors follow an individual from the time of arrest through the Criminal Justice System until he/she is discharged back into the community and includes discussion of psychology applied to police work, the courts, jury dynamics, rules of evidence, competency, etc. The authors also cover psychological tools, such as hypnosis, voice prints, and lie detectors.