In Doubt: The Psychology of the Criminal Justice Process by Dan Simon

Author:

Dan Simon (University of Southern California)

Chair:

Jon B. Gould (American University)

Readers:

Neil Vidmar (Duke University), Valerie P. Hans (Cornell University), Andrew Eric Taslitz (Washington College of Law, American University)

Time: Saturday, June 1, 2:30pm-4:30pm
Place: Boston Sheraton Hotel, Room 11

Abstract:

In Doubt provides a comprehensive synthesis of a vast body of psychological experimental research, and applies it to the American criminal justice process. The manuscript seeks to explain how the process can arrive at mistaken verdicts, as it occasionally does. It examines the major players in the process—witnesses, victims, detectives, lawyers, judges and jurors—and argues that their performance is replete with opportunities for human error. While many errors occur spontaneously, due to limitations of human cognition, other errors are actually induced by the suboptimal procedures of the legal process. Thus, in difficult cases, the investigative process is bound to produce an unknown mix of accurate and mistaken evidence, and the adjudicative process is ill equipped to distinguish between the two. The book offers an array of feasible ways to improve the accuracy of criminal investigations and trials.