How Can Psychology Help Decrease the Wrongful Conviction Rate?

Leslie Rosen, reviewer of Conviction of the Innocent: Lessons From Psychological Research edited by Brian L. Cutler, asks an important question with her review title: "Psychological research has much to say: So why don't the courts, police departments, and legislatures listen?"

It is a question to be taken seriously given that, in the past 22 years, 281 prisoners with a 13-year average length of prison stay have been exonerated through DNA evidence (The Innocence Project). Cutler's book addresses the many facets of this problem, including those who are most likely to be wrongfully convicted (youths and those with cognitive impairments due to mental illness and intellectual disabilities), the significant impact of bias throughout the process of evidence selection, evaluation and presentation, and the psychological phenomena of confirmation bias and belief preservation leading a detective/officer to focus on only one suspect and interpret evidence in a way that best implicates that person.

What additional research is needed to inform recommendations for improving the legal process and decreasing the conviction rate of innocent people? What recommendations could be offered now, given the current body of knowledge? Has progress been made, or are the courts, police departments, and legislatures just not listening?

Read the Review

Psychological Research Has Much to Say: So Why Don't the Courts, Police Departments, and Legislatures Listen?
      By Leslie B. Rosen
      PsycCRITIQUES, 2012 Vol 57(3)

Comments

[Jim Korn]

I don't think Psychology (science and profession) has much at all to contribute. It is almost entirely a political and legal issue. What does Dr. Thompson, the author of the posting think about this?

[Nicole Thomson]

I think psychology has much to contribute to legal and political issues, including wrongful conviction. Certainly, few would claim that law, politics, culture, or any other level of analysis should be slighted in favor of psychology, but as this book points out there are psychological phenomena (e.g., confirmation bias, belief preservation) that offer explanations for how the decision-making process can lead to an undesired outcome. Psychological science can be used to inform the legal profession of factors at the societal-, group- and individual- levels that influence the decision to convict someone wrongfully. The question isn’t whether psychology has anything to contribute, but how to effectively disseminate psychological findings to real-world situations and to evaluate the degree to which making people aware of such information makes a difference.