Law and Psychology
My overarching interest is the intersection between law and psychology. Much of this issue involves thinking about what the appropriate role of psychology and other social sciences is within law. How can psychology improve legal decision-making? How can social science help judges, or parole boards, reach decisions? What are the limits to the appropriate use of social science within legal contexts? To this end, I (a) have published on the concept of “psychological injury” within tort law; (b) have performed “psycholegal content analyses” within mental health and criminal law in terms of what the legal expectations are with respect to constructs of “risk” and “violence,” and (c) am part of a project that is evaluating the use of measures of psychopathy and risk assessment by courts.
