Abstract coming soon

On June 23rd, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Vega v. Tekoh that a person cannot sue a police officer under federal civil rights laws for violating their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination by failing to provide a Miranda warning. This study assesses college students’ understanding of their Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights, for which Miranda warnings place a safeguard for. Furthermore, this study assesses whether a suspect’s age and an observer’s ability to imagine themselves in a custodial scenario affects participants’ perceptions of custody. Students at a midwestern state university participated in a between-subjects 3 (age: 18, 22, 45) x 2 (perspective-taking: given, not given) factorial design experiment. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups which were given different perspective taking instructions before reading a vignette of a police interview: “to imagine as if it were you in this situation” or to “just read as is.” Participants then were randomly assigned a vignette which manipulated the age of the suspect; an 18-year-old high school senior, a 22-year-old college student, or a 45-year-old administrative assistant. Once the assigned vignettes were read, participants of all groups were then asked to answer questions over the vignettes to gain an understanding of their perceptions of police custody and their opinions of certain laws. After answering the vignette questions, participants ended the experiment by answering demographic questions. We predict an interaction between age and perspective-taking instructions such that the instructions may mitigate the effects of age on perceptions of custody.

Since the legal system’s shift towards punitive justice in the 1970s-1980s, both incarceration rates and recidivism rates have remained troublingly high. We examine recidivism by reviewing the historical context and effects of the legal system’s shift towards punitive justice and analyzing the statistics behind mass incarceration and recidivism. Modern research and empirical trends point towards punitive practices as a leading cause of recidivism. Additionally, we explore options for reducing recidivism rates, including an analysis of rehabilitative techniques and a discussion of mental illness in the legal system. 

JOLs are often effective when they are used in a cue-stimulus format (Kimball & Metcalfe, 2003). Furthermore, JOLs can sometimes increase future memory performance (Dougherty et al., 2006; Mitchum et al., 2016). However, relatively little research addresses metamemory for faces, and the research that has been done finds mixed results depending on emotional expression of the faces (Sommer et.al, 1995, Witherby et al., 2021).

The exact process for how a person makes a JOL on learned faces is unclear. It is also unclear if JOLs improve the overall ability to retrieve and recognize faces. Facial recognition and identification are important factors in criminal investigations, missing persons cases, and the study of human memory.

We conducted a 2 (presentation order: face [cue-stimulus] first, name-only [cue-only] first) x 2 (JOL at time 1: present, not) x 2 (JOL at time 2: present, not) within-participants experiment to test the effects of making a JOL on facial recognition performance. In this study, cues were names and stimuli were faces. We recruited 109 participants to learn face-name pairs and make JOLs about their ability to recognize those pairs later. There was a statistically significant 3-way interaction of presentation order, JOL1, and JOL2, χ2 (1) = 11.21, p < .001. When participants made a JOL at time 1, it was most effective in the cue-only conditions. Conversely, when participants made a JOL at time 2, it was most effective in the cue-stimulus condition.

Recent political and social movements, including calls for defunding police departments, have placed increasing attention on civilians’ attitudes toward police and policing. We surveyed 268 community members about their policing attitudes using the Police Legitimacy Scale and original items. Conservatism positively predicted trust in the police (r = 0.48), as did age (r = .35). Interestingly, our sample is largely White and midwestern, so effects of race/ethnicity are impossible to detect. We discuss the implications of identifying individual difference predictors of police trust.

In 2009, James Kahler murdered his family. Despite a diagnosis of depression which affected his moral reasoning, he was unable to invoke an insanity defense per state law. We predicted that participants who read a crime summary along with a diagnosis of depression will find a defendant less culpable than a those given only the description of the crime. Furthermore, we expect attitudes toward the death penalty to moderate this relationship. If so, then some defendants may be receiving harsher punishments than others depending on jurisdiction (e.g., whether the state has a statutory insanity defense or not).

Social media provides users endless opportunities for consumption of pseudoscientific information. Belief in pseudoscience is a social-psychological phenomenon, as pseudoscience believers often form groups in which their beliefs become central to their social identities (van-Prooijen & Douglas, 2018). Believers often feel ostracized by the scientific community (Matute, Yarritu, & Vadillo, 2011) and may thus be drawn to like-minded individuals via social media. We predicted that participants who spend more time on social media platforms will hold more pseudoscientific beliefs and report less trust in the government. Social media users (n = 118) were recruited via Facebook and surveyed about their social media usage and political beliefs. Participants then completed the Pseudoscientific Belief Scale (Fasce & Pico, 2019). Time spent on social media did not significantly predict pseudoscientific beliefs, F(1, 116) = 1.48, p = .227, R2 =.01, b = –0.62. However, time spent on social media did significantly predict participants’ trust in government, χ2 (df = 1) = 5.23, p = .022, b = 0.23, OR = 1.26 (95% CI = 1.02, 1.54). As social media use increases by 1 scale point, participants’ likelihood of responding that “there are more things that government should be doing” (as opposed to “the less government the better”) increases by 26%. Although pseudoscientific beliefs did not vary as a function of social media use, government organizations might leverage social media as an effective channel for communication to make scientific information public and accessible.

Racial and gender disparities as well as tattoo stigmas have been shown to influence jury decisions. However, the relationship of all three variables on jury decision making has not previously been explored. In the present study, participants read a mock crime, viewed an image of a defendant whose race (Black/White), gender (male/female), and displayed tattoo (none/negative connotation/positive connotation) were manipulated. Preliminary data suggests that all three variables appear to impact a juror’s perception of the defendant’s dangerousness. Recommendations for how attorneys and their tattooed clients approach the trial process will be discussed.

Pseudoscientific beliefs are prevalent in the US (Newport & Strausberg, 2001). In the midst of the coronavirus crisis, research on pseudoscientific beliefs is critical, as the distinction between fact and fiction is potentially lifesaving. The present study used an online survey to assess participants’ social media usage and beliefs to observe a correlation between time spent on social media and government distrust and belief in pseudoscience. The more time participants reported spending on social media, the more pseudoscientific beliefs they endorsed and the more they reported trusting the government. Implications for theory and interventions are discussed.

It is unclear how jurors process information about defendants’ childhood trauma. I predicted that presenting the defendant’s Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) score would affect the participants’ verdicts. Seventy-six participants read a case summary which either included or did not include an ACEs score for a male or female defendant, and then rendered their verdict. Conviction was most likely when ACEs score was not present. Further, participants do not report considering ACEs score during decision-making, suggesting the influence in unconscious. These results suggest that there may be a leniency bias when ACEs score is present to juries. 

The incarceration rate in the United States is on the rise; so is the prevalence of tattoos. Participants read a mock crime and were shown an image of a defendant who was either (African American/Caucasian, Male/Female) and had either of the following tattoo conditions (None, Negative, Positive). Based on these materials participants were asked to determine a verdict (guilty/not guilty). Preliminary data implies that certain tattoos can affect perceived defendant guilt. Preliminary data also suggests that we have a three-way interaction occurring between race, gender, and tattoo when it comes to the defendant's perceived dangerousness.

In 2009, James Kahler murdered his family. Despite a diagnosis of depression which affected his moral reasoning, he was unable to invoke an insanity defense per state law. We predicted that participants who read a crime summary along with a diagnosis of depression will find a defendant less culpable than a those given only the description of the crime. Furthermore, we expect attitudes toward the death penalty to moderate this relationship. If so, then some defendants may be receiving harsher punishments than others depending on jurisdiction (e.g., whether the state has a statutory insanity defense or not).