Tag
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:
This legislative research report compares the Reid interrogation method with criticisms and alternative approaches, including PEACE and the Kinesic Interview. It outlines Reid’s factual analysis, behavior-analysis interview, and accusatory interrogation stages, then describes PEACE as a less confrontational framework used in England, while presenting disputes about the evidence behind deception cues and false-confession risks.
This resource compiles explanations of false confessions, interrogation practices, and proposed safeguards, drawing on psychological research and legal commentary. It distinguishes voluntary, compliant, and internalized false confessions; describes pressure tactics such as minimization and false evidence; and includes recommendations in cited materials for recording custodial interrogations and barring fabricated evidence.
The Evaluation of Competency to Stand Trial–Revised (ECST-R) is a semistructured interview addressing abilities relevant to the Dusky standard and screening for feigned incompetency. The review describes measures of factual and rational courtroom understanding and ability to consult with counsel, along with age and cognitive-use considerations and research on its reliability and validity.
The Competence Assessment for Standing Trial for Defendants with Mental Retardation (CAST-MR) was designed to examine trial-related abilities in people with intellectual disability. Its 50 questions address legal concepts, ability to assist counsel, and the defendant’s own case; the source notes that its written sections require about a fourth-grade reading level and that published research is limited.
Research on jurors’ emotions examines how feelings can shape attention, information processing, memory, judgments, and decisions during trials. The chapter reviews theories and psycholegal studies, considers trial events that prompt emotional responses and factors that may moderate their effects, and identifies gaps for further research.
The collection reviews research on children’s testimony and the factors that shape its reliability. The studies address children’s eyewitness accounts, memory, suggestibility, interviewing, and credibility, including factors associated with false allegations and jurors’ responses to education about child sexual abuse misconceptions in trial settings.
Research on delayed disclosure describes disclosure as potentially unfolding over time rather than occurring in a single, immediate account. The resource reviews studies of children’s disclosure patterns, including findings on prior disclosure, age, interview context, tentative statements, denial, recantation, and later reaffirmation.
Competence to plead guilty involves whether a defendant understands the charge, possible penalties, and rights given up by a plea, and whether the decision is knowing, intelligent, and voluntary. The chapter considers how psychological evaluations may examine reasoning and susceptibility to pressure while leaving the ultimate legal determination to the judge.
False allegations of child abuse are considered through a compilation of studies and clinical literature. The material reviews reported frequency estimates and exonerations, then presents a clinical typology covering allegations in custody disputes, psychological disturbance, conscious manipulation, and suggestive or other iatrogenic influences.
