Psychological research and its application to the judicial process
Full-year subject * 3 hours per week
In this subject implications of research findings for the judicial process are considered in four main areas: competency of the accused, evidentiary matters, the trial process and sentencing. Research to be reviewed includes intellectual and moral development, insanity, fitness to plead, age of criminal responsibility, memory and perception, eyewitness testimony, identification, hypnosis as an aid to recall, children as witnesses, credibility, directed forgetting, non-verbal language, sequence of submissions, issues concerning similar fact evidence and joinder of offences and offenders.
Assessment
Exam: 30% * Seminar presentation: 20% * Written paper: 50%