The developmental reform in juvenile justice: Its progress and vulnerability.
Over the past twenty years, the developmental reform to juvenile justice has shifted law, policy, and practice toward a research-informed perspective on adolescent development. However, as with any reform, the developmental reform has vulnerabilities that may reduce its likelihood to be sustained. In order to maintain and build upon the gains of the developmental reform to juvenile justice, we document a 2-phase, 5-year effort to identify and track threats to the reform. In Phase I, a threat assessment methodology was employed to develop a consensus among a panel of experts about threats to the developmental reform and pot...
Source: Psychology, Public Policy, and Law - October 14, 2021 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
Measuring youths’ perceptions of police: Evidence from the crossroads study.
This study (a) examined the factor structure of items assessing procedural justice and legitimacy, (b) tested whether the factors were uniquely associated with youth self-reported offending (SRO), and (c) identified whether effects on subsequent SRO operated through legitimacy. Using data derived from the 1,216 youth in the Crossroads Study, as well as supplemental models with Pathways to Desistance data, factor analyses established a factor structure, negative binomial regressions examined associations with SRO, and indirect effects analysis within a structural equation model framework identified whether associations on S...
Source: Psychology, Public Policy, and Law - October 14, 2021 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
Judicial involvement in plea-bargaining.
Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, Vol 28(3), Aug 2022, 356-373; doi:10.1037/law0000327The topic of judicial involvement in plea negotiations is a controversial issue, with potential benefits (e.g., ensuring that the process is fairer) and risks (e.g., inducing an innocent defendant to plead guilty). Currently, 20 jurisdictions explicitly prohibit judicial involvement in plea negotiations, whereas eight permit some type of involvement. We surveyed state court judges about judicial involvement in plea bargaining (colloquy and negotiations) and their perceptions on judicial participation. We expected judges in states that p...
Source: Psychology, Public Policy, and Law - October 7, 2021 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
Judicial involvement in plea-bargaining.
The topic of judicial involvement in plea negotiations is a controversial issue, with potential benefits (e.g., ensuring that the process is fairer) and risks (e.g., inducing an innocent defendant to plead guilty). Currently, 20 jurisdictions explicitly prohibit judicial involvement in plea negotiations, whereas eight permit some type of involvement. We surveyed state court judges about judicial involvement in plea bargaining (colloquy and negotiations) and their perceptions on judicial participation. We expected judges in states that prohibit judicial involvement in negotiations to have a more negative view of judicial pa...
Source: Psychology, Public Policy, and Law - October 7, 2021 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
The stigma of incarceration experience: A systematic review.
Individuals who have been incarcerated experience unparalleled health and economic disparities. Stigma, defined as a social phenomenon in which labeling, separation, and discrimination occur together in a power situation that allows them (Link & Phelan, 2001), may be a central cause of the social inequalities that formerly incarcerated persons face (Hatzenbuehler et al., 2013; Tyler & Brockmann, 2017). Researchers have yet to systematically review what is known about stigma related to criminal legal involvement as experienced by individuals with a history of incarceration. In the present study, the quantitative literature ...
Source: Psychology, Public Policy, and Law - October 7, 2021 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
More than meets the eye: Officer actions and civilian behavioral health shape appraisals of police footage.
This article examines people’s interpretations of a recorded police–civilian altercation when they receive a priori information about a civilian’s behavioral health and information about how an officer responded. In two experiments, MTurk participants (N = 771) were randomly assigned to receive a label for the civilian (schizophrenia, substance use, or no label) and information about the officer’s response (use of force, de-escalation tactics, or no further information). Participants then watched body-worn camera footage of a real police encounter, answered questions about the officer’s and civilian’s behavior,...
Source: Psychology, Public Policy, and Law - October 7, 2021 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
Psychology, Public Policy, and Law adopts further open science practices and refreshes its commitment to generalizable empirical research.
In this article, the authors state that Psychology, Public Policy, and Law (PPPL) is now raising the bar further for researchers and scholars who want to publish reports of their studies in the journal. In an attempt to mandate the transparency and practices that we formerly encouraged, the journal has officially signed on to the Transparency and Openness Promotion Guidelines. Because of PPPL’s mission and commitment to generalizable empirical research, the journal also continues to encourage direct replications with real-world relevance for policy and law. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved) (So...
Source: Psychology, Public Policy, and Law - September 16, 2021 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
Diversion as a pathway to improving service utilization among at-risk youth.
We examined differences in health service utilization outcomes between youth who were diverted through a community-based, precomplaint program (Safety Net; n = 41), and youth with juvenile justice involvement in neighboring cities (n = 154). Individual arrest and health care records were combined to evaluate the rate of health care service utilization before and after initial police contact. A difference-in-differences approach with propensity score weighting was used to evaluate the impact of Safety Net on health service use, including inpatient, outpatient, emergency department (ED), and primary care visits. Compared to ...
Source: Psychology, Public Policy, and Law - September 13, 2021 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
Do exonerees face housing discrimination? An email-based field experiment and content analysis.
Two studies examined housing discrimination against exonerees. In Study 1, we sent 1,203 emails inquiring about active apartment listings, each of which ostensibly came from an ex-offender, an exoneree, or a person with no criminal history. Compared to the control condition (51%), both ex-offenders (40%) and exonerees (regardless of whether they self-described as “exonerated,” “wrongly convicted,” or “innocent”; 34–41%) were less likely to receive any response. Moreover, a content analysis suggested that replies to exonerees tended to be less welcoming (e.g., more mentions of background checks, fewer invitati...
Source: Psychology, Public Policy, and Law - September 13, 2021 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
Cognition and incentives in plea decisions: Categorical differences in outcomes as the tipping point for innocent defendants.
This study examined that possibility through testing theoretically informed predictions relating to the interaction between different types of plea discount (sentence length and sentence type), guilt, and probability of conviction in predicting plea decisions, with a focus on discounts in England and Wales. Participants (N = 3,375) made plea decisions in vignettes that varied discount type offered, probability of conviction, and guilt between subjects. Participants also answered questions about considerations that were important to them when making plea decisions. Results provide support for predictions, specifically at hi...
Source: Psychology, Public Policy, and Law - September 2, 2021 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
Cognition and incentives in plea decisions: Categorical differences in outcomes as the tipping point for innocent defendants.
This study examined that possibility through testing theoretically informed predictions relating to the interaction between different types of plea discount (sentence length and sentence type), guilt, and probability of conviction in predicting plea decisions, with a focus on discounts in England and Wales. Participants (N = 3,375) made plea decisions in vignettes that varied discount type offered, probability of conviction, and guilt between subjects. Participants also answered questions about considerations that were important to them when making plea decisions. Results provide support for predictions, specifically at hi...
Source: Psychology, Public Policy, and Law - September 2, 2021 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
Evaluating the claim that high confidence implies high accuracy in eyewitness identification.
We present four criteria that can be used to evaluate the empirical support for these claims. Regarding the claim that high confidence implies high accuracy, it is necessary to consider whether (a) high-confidence suspect identifications are in fact highly accurate and (b) high-confidence suspect-identification accuracy is dependent on the assumption of a perfectly fair lineup. Results of a base-rate analysis show that lowering the threshold for the claim that high confidence implies high accuracy undermines the claim substantially. Likewise, relaxing the assumption of a perfectly fair lineup may also undermine the claim. ...
Source: Psychology, Public Policy, and Law - September 2, 2021 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
Presumed-blind lineup administrators can influence eyewitnesses’ identification decisions and confidence.
An overlooked observation in the literature on double-blind lineups is that double-blind lineup administrators sometimes engage in behaviors that could influence eyewitnesses. We tested whether such administrator behaviors influence eyewitnesses’ identification decisions and confidence when eyewitnesses are explicitly instructed that the administrator does not know which lineup member is the suspect, as is recommended as a matter of best practice. Mock-eyewitnesses were paired with a lineup administrator who was a confederate of the research team and who administered a culprit-absent lineup to the eyewitnesses. During th...
Source: Psychology, Public Policy, and Law - September 2, 2021 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
