CLE Seminars

Alcohol Blackouts: What Every Attorney Should Know

Alcohol is often a central dynamic in claims of sexual assault. Dr. Simpson has taught this topic for the Air Force JAG school’s “Advanced Sexual Assault Litigation Course”, the State Bar of Arizona, and multiple Air Force legal offices stateside and around the world.

  • An overview of alcohol blackouts and sexual assault allegations
  • Fragmentary vs. En Bloc blackouts
  • Blackout vs. Passed Out
  • Alcohol’s effect on the nervous system
  • It not about “how much,” its about “how quickly”
  • Potentiation with over-the-counter and prescribed medications
  • How memory works
  • Can you tell when someone is in blackout?
  • Strategies for the prosecution
  • Strategies for the defense
  • Description of relevant research

Assessing and Treating Compulsive Internet Use

From a national lecture series Dr. Simpson provided to legal, psychology and probation professionals.

  • Cybersex compulsions
  • Role-playing games
  • Social networking compulsions
  • Online gambling
  • Etiology of Internet compulsions
  • Assessment tools
  • Counseling strategies

Autism Spectrum Disorder and Online Sex Offense

COUNTERING Counterintuitive Testimony (Adult, handout)

Often prosecution utilizes a counterintuitive “expert” to explain away problematic behaviors on the part of the complaining witness. Dr. Simpson offers a CLE training and 85-page handout on how to effectively challenge their expert.

  • Seven specific strategies for cross
  • A cure for a non-problem
  • Accounting for true, unfounded, or false sexual assault claims
  • Symptoms are not falsifiable
  • Motivations for intentional false reporting
  • Failure to account for confounding variables
  • Confirmation bias
  • The devil is in the details.
  • Critique of:
  • Freeze-Flight-Fight and Tonic Immobility
  • Acting normal following the alleged assault
  • Delayed disclosure
  • Continued relationship with the accused
  • Inconsistent, piecemeal, changing or incomplete memories
  • Recantation

COUNTERING Counterintuitive Testimony (Child, handout)

Handout for a three-hour CLE provided to the State Bar of Arizona

Daubert Standard and Psychological Evaluations: What Every Attorney Should Know

This is a training that Dr. Simpson has provided for the State Bar of Arizona and the Pima County Public Defender’s Office. This handout explores:

  • The “What, Who, and How” of forensic evaluations
  • The Daubert standard
  • Rule 702
  • The Malleus Maleficarium and Spectral Evidence

Forensic Evaluations in Homicides and Crimes of Violence: What Every Attorney Should Know

A training for the State Bar of Arizona. This handout addresses:

  • Mens Rea in Arizona
  • Burden of Proof
  • Exceptions to Mental Disease or Defect
  • Assessment for present competency (Rule 11s)
  • Restoration to Competency
  • Evaluating future risk for violence
  • An in-depth review of psychological assessment tools

Memory in the Courtroom: What Every Attorney Should Know

Eye witness testimony is central to almost every aspect of a criminal proceedings. Yet this central dynamic is rarely taught for attorneys. Dr. Simpson has provided this training for the State Bar of Arizona (ten times), for the Pima County Public Defender’s Office, and multiple legal offices for the Air Force and Marine JAGS. This 199-page seminar handout is packed with research regarding:

  • Principles of memory
  • Memory “failures”
  • Suggestibility
  • Eyewitness memory
  • Cognitive interview techniques
  • Child eyewitness memory
  • The NICHD Standard
  • Alcoholic blackout
  • Childhood amnesic barrier
  • Confirmation bias
  • Context effect
  • Cross-race effects
  • Cryptomnesia
  • Egocentric bias
  • Fading affect bias
  • Self-generation effect
  • Hindsight bias
  • Illusion-of-Truth effect
  • Imagination Inflation
  • Leveling and Sharpening
  • Misattribution of Memory
  • Misinformation effect
  • Mood-congruent memory
  • Schema / Script memory
  • Gist memory
  • Telescoping effect
  • Weapon focus

ONLINE OFFENSE: What Every Attorney Should Know.

This is a particularly timely CLE that Dr. Simpson has taught for the State Bar of Arizona, the Iowa Corrections Officers Association, the Pima County Public Defender’s Office, the Arizona chapter of ATSA, and multiple Air Force legal offices. The 133-page seminar handout is packed with essential information which explores the latest research findings regarding:

  • Pedophilia vs. Hebephilia attractions
  • An overview of child pornography laws and culture
  • Assault / contact sex offenses
  • Important distinctions between noncontact Online Offenders vs. traditional Contact Offenders
  • Why online offenders do the things they do
  • Risk assessment tools specific to Online Offenders
  • Characteristics that increase future risk for Online Offenders
  • Importance of polygraph
  • Juvenile sex offenders
  • Intellectually Delayed and online offences
  • Autistic Spectrum Disorder and online offences
  • The ethology of Internet compulsions

Psychosexual Evaluations: What Every Attorney Should Know

This is a CLE that Dr. Simpson has taught for the State Bar of Arizona (four times) and the Pima County Public Defender’s Office. The 131-page seminar handout explores the latest research regarding:

  • Types of psychosexual evaluations
  • Paraphilias in the DSM-5
  • Viewing time measures of sexual interest
  • Risk actuarials
  • Polygraphs
  • Penile Plethysmograph (PPG)
  • Contact child sex offenders
  • Noncontact online offenders
  • Soliciting / luring
  • Adolescent offenders
  • Female sex offenders
  • Intellectual Disabilities
  • Autistic Spectrum Disorder
  • The “why” of sex offense, including the Coolidge Effect and Flow Phenomenon

Role of the Forensic Psychologist: What Every Attorney Should Know

This is a CLE that Dr. Simpson has presented for the State Bar of Arizona, Pima County Public Defender’s Office, and for Air Force legal offices. The handout contains:

  • The “What, Who, and How” of forensic psychology
  • Expert testimony
  • Daubert standard
  • Trial consultation
  • Types of forensic evaluations
  • An in-depth review of psychological assessment tools

Surprising Findings in Science: What Every Defense Attorney Should Know

  • False/Unfounded sexual assault allegations
  • Alcohol and Memory
  • Female initiated domestic violence against men
  • False/Unfounded child abuse allegations
  • Child sexual abuse “symptoms”
  • Child memory and suggestibility
  • Pedophilia vs Hebephilia
  • Age estimation from photography
  • Child pornography offenders and low rates of re-offense
  • Butner study redux
  • False confessions
  • Hyponpompic delusions
  • Sexomnia