Professor Jane Goodman-Delahunty

This chapter provides an overview of police organizational approaches to enhancing the quality of evidence obtained from adult and child victims of sexual assault, and reviews the degree to which actual organizational strategies are aligned with the guidance on what constitutes recommended (ideal) practice. The long-standing gap between best practice interview technique - as taught in training curricula - and actual practice in the field is a dominant theme in contemporary interviewing research. Based on our understanding of current research on investigative interviewing as well as international police interviewer training practices, we provide an overview of key criteria for evidence-based practice along with a list of common limitations that inhibit adherence to best interviewing practice. The chapter is structured around four main elements that are essential for promoting good interviewing. These elements include: (a) an evidence-based interview framework, (b) opportunities for skill development, (c) quality assurance for interviewer and organizational performance, and (d) a reliable method of recording verbal evidence.

A considerable number of psychological studies on non statistical heuristics, such as the base rate fallacy, predict the susceptibility of laypersons to make biased generalizations and judgments concerning memory performance. A review of case law reveals that admissibility of expert testimony on eyewitness identification, like that of other social framework testimony, has been fraught with legal confusion, while reports of disagreement among research scientists have been exaggerated. A number of commentors have questioned what a psychologist may contribute in a case in which eyewitness testimony is the major evidence identifying the defendant as the perpetrator of the crime charged. Psychologists have made considerable progress in several distinct areas of empirical work about eyewitness identifications. The particular way in which a court may use social science findings varies, although oral testimony in court by an expert witness based on his or her professional opinion is most typical, whether in a bench or jury trial.

Although the domain of law and psychology is a burgeoning and popular field of study, there has never been a concerted effort to evaluate current training models or to develop newer, more effective ones. Forty-eight invited participants attended a national conference held at Villanova Law School to remedy this deficiency: Working groups addressed issues of education and training for the undergraduate level; for doctoral-level programs in law and social science; for forensic clinical training; for joint-degree (JD/PhD-PsyD) programs; for those in practica, internships, and postdoctoral programs; and for continuing education. This article delineates levels and models of training in each of these areas.

A Prosecutorial Reform Index developed for the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative included discretionary functions among 28 factors that provide "an empirical basis for examining the status and role of prosecutors and the environment in which they work in transitioning states throughout the globe". The chapter examines contemporary practices in Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) cases to present the complainant's evidence by reviewing prosecutorial considerations regarding uses of special measures with vulnerable complainants in three Australian jurisdictions. It also examines the extent of prosecutorial support for and use of special measures, reasons for their use or non-use and their impact on case outcomes and decisions to discontinue a case. To improve the experience of CSA complainants, whether adults or children at the time of trial, and the quality of the evidence they provide special measures for the giving of evidence by vulnerable complainants were legislatively implemented in all Australian jurisdictions.

Few justices have exerted an impact on as many aspects of the criminal justice system as Justice Wood, in a legal career spanning ve decades. The depth and breadth of his inuence are apparent in all phases of the criminal justice system in NSW: criminal investigative processes, the adjudication of individual cases, the development of sentencing programs and policy, and legislation and policy making through law reform activities. His career exemplies how expertise developed in the role of judging can lead to extrajudicial responsibilities and substantial contributions beyond courtroom adjudication.

For over a century, changes have been implemented in the way the evidence of adult and child sexual assault complainants is received during the common-law adversarial trial process. Could the fact that reforms have rarely affected the way information is gathered at the initial stages of investigation be a reason why legal systems still struggle with prosecuting sexual offences, but particularly those against children? An abundance of research demonstrates how question types influence the accuracy and detail of reported information. Few studies, however, have focused on the (downstream) impact on legal decisions. This paper begins with a brief overview of reforms to the information-gathering process across the twentieth century that indicate how fraught the issue of information gathering has been; it then reviews contemporary information-gathering strategies and proposes reforms to better align contemporary procedures with sound evidence-based practice. We argue that decision makers, including police, lawyers, clinical and forensic practitioners and judiciary need to better understand the science to bring about overdue change.

For early-career teachers in particular, teacher attrition and retention has been the focus of international research. We aimed to provide a more holistic view of teacher attrition and retention in an Australian educational context by including the perspectives of a cross-section of current and former teachers with various lengths of teaching service. We explored the similarities and differences in considerations about past career decision points reported by the teachers in different groups. Australian teachers (N = 133) who were staying in teaching (n = 59), or undecided about staying (n = 34), and former teachers who had changed careers (n = 40) completed free-response questionnaires about their decisions to choose and to stay in (or to leave) teaching careers. Thematic analysis suggested that three overarching themes were salient across all three groups of teachers at different decision points in the career. These overarching themes were personal fulfilment, practical considerations, and lack of alternatives or barriers to change. Strategies to retain teachers should aim to foster collegial relationships, address workload, respond to needs for job security or flexibility, and provide new opportunities within teaching.

Australian police officers (N¿=¿182) who were staying in policing (n¿=¿96), or undecided about staying (n¿=¿57), and former police officers who had changed careers (n¿=¿29) completed free-response questionnaires about their decisions to choose and stay in (or leave) policing careers. Thematic analysis of responses revealed different considerations by group. Categories of the kaleidoscope career model were used to evaluate the relative importance of themes by group. Retention strategies to meet police officers' needs for authenticity, balance and challenge were suggested in light of salient themes at each major decision point.

Information sharing is the lifeblood of policing, yet information/knowledge sharing within and across organizations remains problematic. This article elaborated on previous research on organizational information culture and its impact on information use outcomes in policing by examining perceived impediments to information sharing of 134 officers in three Canadian police organizations. Inductive qualitative analysis of an open-ended question revealed seven mutually exclusive impediment themes: processes/technology, individual unwillingness, organizational unwillingness, workload/overload, location/structure, leadership, and risk management. When viewed from the knowledge management infrastructure perspective, organizational structure was the single most common impediment identified, followed closely by organizational culture. Each organization had unique constellations of information sharing impediments. Recommendations for policy and practice are discussed.

Psychological assessment for workplace discrimination injuries is often complex, as each complainant has a particular personal history and context, including different coping skills, psychopathologies and unique life circumstances. A five-stage model based on best practice guidelines can assist forensic assessment practitioners in determining compensatory damages for psychological or psychiatric injuries and in formulating defensible, evidence-based reports that meet legal standards. The model incorporates legally relevant theories of causation to guide the evaluating psychologist to discern the nature and extent of any injury, and whether discrimination was the likely proximate cause. The focus is not on diagnosis but on functional performance (cognitive, affective, interpersonal and physical) in four key contexts: activities of daily living, relationships, the workplace and hedonic pursuits. This assessment method compares functioning in the complainant's life until the "day before" the alleged discrimination event with the complainant's condition at the time of the alleged discrimination, and any symptoms or reactions experienced subsequently. The five-stage model provides a systematic method to examine compensatory damages claims and increase the comprehensiveness and accuracy of the forensic evaluation. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York.

The overrepresentation of individuals with an intellectual disability (ID) in the criminal justice system is an established phenomenon. Recently there has been an increased focus in the literature on risk assessment of offenders with an ID. A supplemental guide to the HCR-20 (Webster, Douglas, Eaves, & Hart, 1997) for offenders with ID was proposed to increase the standardization and reliability of risk assessment for ID offenders. The current project empirically evaluated the validity of these adaptive recommendations in a sample of 59 community-based ID offenders with a history of violent offending. By employing a retrospective approach, this study examined differences in the relationship between predicted risk and actual reoffending over a minimum of two years, as assessed by using the HCR-20 and HCR-20 with ID Supplement. Their predictive validity was also compared to that of the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (VRAG; Quinsey, Harris, Rice, & Cormier, 1998). Predictive validity was generally good. Although statistical significance could not be determined, use of the ID Supplement resulted in a small improvement in predictive validity relative to the HCR-20 and VRAG. Implications of the findings for practitioners and recommendations for further research are discussed. © International Association of Forensic Mental Health Services.

This study explores trust in police among a university sample of ethnic minority youth in Sydney, Australia, specifically examining the degree to which police are perceived to be biased against respondents' own particular ethnic groups. Results from this university sample replicate those found in previous community studies. By considering more specific questions regarding perceptions of police bias, this study further reveals that young minority groups consider police to be biased against their own ethnic group significantly more than do Caucasian youth. However, both minority youth and the Caucasian majority believe that police target certain ethnic groups, and generally agree on the particular groups that they perceive are targeted by police. These findings imply that perceptions of police bias are not restricted to minorities.

Using the example of a multiple filicide, we review challenges facing medical experts who examine unexplained multiple infant deaths in the context of a criminal trial. These include the complex and contradictory nature of evidence, the difficulty in achieving medical consensus to explain multiple sudden deaths, errors and vulnerabilities associated with clinical judgment, and pressure from legal practitioners to achieve a favorable result. In Folbigg, evidentiary rules regarding coincidence and tendency appear to have skewed expert opinion, and consequently, fact-finder reasoning. A central problem was the limitation of medicine to clearly account for each of the four deaths, let alone all four. Medical experts were required to identify similar cases in their experience or concede that multiple sudden infant deaths could be accounted for only by suspicious circumstances. Empirical research on decision-making under conditions of complexity, uncertainty, and adverse outcomes reveals the potential for judgmental errors. The propensity for error increases when experts testify in court and transform probabilistic medical judgments into statements of certainty. © 2007 Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Most jury instructions are issued after all the evidence has been presented in a trial; however, some are given during the trial. When gruesome photographs form part of the evidence in criminal culpability proceedings, the judge will usually instruct jurors to be dispassionate in examining the evidence. This study investigated whether time of presentation affects the ability of limiting instructions to cure the potentially prejudicial effects of gruesome photographic evidence by measuring the emotions, cognitions and verdicts of 108 mock jurors in a simulated murder trial. Pre-instructed participants processed evidence in the defendant's favour and rendered significantly fewer convictions than did post-instructed participants and those who received no limiting instructions. Gruesome photographs did not bias processing of other items in evidence or verdicts, although they elicited significantly greater victim compassion and crime negativity than did neutral photographs. Results suggest that jury instructions are more conducive to compliance when presented early in the evidence-processing task than when presented late.

DNA experts, researchers, and legal professionals agree that laypersons experience difficulty understanding and applying aspects of DNA expert evidence. This paper reviews empirical research on documented problems that jurors experience in response to probabilistic forensic evidence. A 2x2 between subjects study tested the sensitivity of 200 mock jurors to the probative value of DNA evidence with and without error rates, and the efficacy of a post-trial judicial caution intended to prevent jurors from assigning undue weight to the DNA evidence. When DNA evidence was included in a weak, circumstantial criminal case, although the majority of the participants voted to acquit, the conviction rate increased significantly. However, participants were insensitive to variations in the probative weight of a probabilistic DNA match in the context of error rates. Contrary to expectations, the model judicial caution on applying the DNA evidence failed to reduce the rate of convictions or perceived factual guilt. These results suggest that DNA evidence can be influential, but that jurors are not overwhelmed by its presence. Jurors may benefit more from pre-trial training and presentation of the judicial caution earlier in the trial. Additional research is needed on techniques to assist jurors in more appropriately evaluating and applying probabilistic expert evidence. © 2006 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Focusing on the impact of DNA evidence in jury trials, evidence for the existence of multiple posited forms of the "CSI effect" is reviewed. The most popular version of the effect, that it produces unrealistic expectations of the prosecution and thus results in unwarranted acquittals, remains unsupported. The converse effect, that unwarranted convictions result from the overweighting of DNA expert evidence, has received some support from archival analyses, a substantial field study, and several simulation studies. The precise factors that produce these trends are yet not well-understood. Future research should examine the source of these findings, explore ways to assist jurors in according DNA evidence appropriate probative weight, and take into account the influence of jury deliberations. © 2006 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Psychological research indicates that trust in the independent third party affects the way in which disputants rate the fairness of legal procedures. This article addresses procedural variation in restorative justice practices, in the context of psychological research on procedural and distributive fairness. In particular, we describe differences in the ways in which high and low power-distance participants determine fairness in conferencing procedures. This article outlines the way in which convenor variation in conferencing programs may affect participants' perceptions of bias in these conference procedures, and the moderating effect of power-distance on the consequences of this perceived bias. The authors argue that a sensitive analysis of the ability of restorative justice procedures to deliver effective justice requires consideration of individual difference factors in conjunction with situational factors.

Judges assume that gruesome evidence can influence juror verdicts. Legal safeguards such as exclusionary evidentiary doctrines are in place to protect defendants against the misuse of visual gruesome evidence by jurors. However, little is known about the impact of gruesome evidence on juror decision-making. The current study investigated the hypothesis that convictions are more likely in cases in which gruesome evidence is admitted. When inculpatory evidence was held constant, 34.4% of mock jurors presented with gruesome evidence convicted the defendant, whereas only 13.9% of the mock jurors who reviewed no gruesome evidence did so. When inculpatory evidence was legally insufficient for conviction and gruesome evidence was presented, mock jurors rated the likelihood of the guilt of the defendant significantly higher compared with ratings from mock jurors to whom no gruesome facts were presented. The presence of gruesome facts also significantly enhanced the inculpatory value of one item in evidence. © 2004 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

The development of the objective reasonableness standard in Title VII sexual harassment cases is reviewed. The author examines major policies or goals that underlie subjective and objective aspects of the test to determine whether harassing conduct is sufficiently abusive and hostile to violate the law: (a) elimination of gender-biased norms, (b) eradication of harassment, and (c) uniformity. Four formulations of objective reasonableness are distinguished: the reasonable person, victim, woman, and employee. Problems demonstrated by courts in applying objective reasonableness standards are specified, many of which are attributed to inadequate definitional content. Empirical support for flexibility in the standard leads to recommendations favoring a reasonable victim standard that takes into account variations in the identity and circumstances of the victim including pertinent gender differences. Potential expert testimony to address these concerns is discussed.

The empirical evidence summarized in the APA amicus brief in Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins was initially presented at trial, subject to quality control measures contained in the Federal Rules of Evidence and an opportunity for cross-examination. This evidence was incorporated into the adjudicative facts determined by the trial judge. These unique circumstances rendered the APA brief more akin to a guild brief than to a typical APA science translation or Brandeis brief. As such, the brief was effective. However, the debate about the brief highlights shortcomings in the existing system for evaluating social science facts presented for the first time by a friend of the court. Recommendations are made to take into account the consensus of experts in the field and adverse findings when presenting empirical evidence for the first time in an appeal brief. © 1993 Plenum Publishing Corporation.

Criminal law is concerned with defining when people commit prohibited acts accompanied by culpable mental states (criminal intent, knowledge, recklessness, or negligence). An experiment focused on how laypeople, asked to serve as "jurors," interpret and apply legal instructions on the definitions of culpable mental states. The results pinpoint differences between legal mental state definitions that jurors are expected to apply in deciding criminal cases and laypersons' understanding of those mental states. Laypeople do not comprehend mental state distinctions that are differentiated in legal doctrine. The results are discussed in terms of attribution theory, and practical suggestions are made that may be useful to attorneys. © 1992.

The 1991 Civil Rights Act and recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions have modified standards applicable to psychometric or statistical proof of discrimination in employment cases. Changes in the legal standards have increased the role for psychological experts to prove or rebut allegations of disparate impact of hiring or promotional criteria, whether those criteria caused the observed disparities in the workforce, and whether the legitimate needs of the employer were substantially served by the employer's selection criteria. Three different methods or approaches to meet the legal standards are discussed: (a) reliance on traditional psychometric validity analyses; (b) regression analysis or the "policy-capturing" method; and (c) the survey data approach. These techniques are illustrated by reference to three cases in which experts successfully presented this evidence. While the application of the 1991 Civil Rights Act remains somewhat unclear, these approaches may prove useful in future employment discrimination cases. © 1992 Plenum Publishing Corporation.

How do jurors accomplish the task of awarding damages in a civil lawsuit? to what extent are they influenced by expert testimony? These questions were addressed in a mock juror simulation in which jurors from El Paso County (Colorado) read one of three versions of a trial manuscript involving an age discrimination claim in which liability was already determined. They awarded damages and answered follow-up questions. In one version, there was no expert testimony; in a second version, they received plaintiff expert testimony on lost future wages and other economic matters; and in the third version, they received both plaintiff and defense expert testimony. Monetary awards were significantly higher when expert(s) testified. Moreover, jurors were strongly influenced by the expert testimony: Nearly half of them selected a damage award that exactly matched the amounts suggested. Finally, jurors infrequently considered exponential calculations in assessing damages. © 1990 Plenum Publishing Corporation.

The use of social framework testimony by social psychologists in employment discrimination cases is expanding. After reviewing the legal background of this type of testimony, we describe its content and discuss an important Title VII case of sex discrimination where the testimony played a critical role. We also distinguish social framework testimony from other types of expert testimony by psychologists. Copyright © 1989 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd