Psychology and Law: The State of the Discipline

As law is instituted by society to serve society, there can be no question that psychology plays an important and inevitable role in the legal process, clarifying or complicating legal issues. In this text the contributors review all the key areas of the use of psychological expertise in civil, criminal, and family law. A selection of academic scholars and legal professionals discusses the contributions that psychology brings to the legal arena. Topics examined in this insightful text include: juries and the current empirical literature; witnesses and the validity of reports; preventing mistaken convictions in eyewitness identification trials; forensic assessment and treatment; predicting violence in mentally and personality disordered individuals; employment and discrimination; new best interests standards for children in courts; education and training in psychology and law; and ethical and legal contours of forensic psychology.