Research Byte: Suckers in Law

  

Suckers in Law 

 

 Tess Wilkinson-Ryan

  https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-062124-122620

 

 Abstract

 

The fear of being suckered is such a strong social and psychological phenomenon that political movements, and bodies of law, have been built around it. This review offers a framework for understanding how the psychology of feeling suckered affects legal decision-making. Feeling exploited or scammed is a core and widely shared aversion, and yet also a malleable construct, subject to framing effects and triggered (or untriggered) by subtle situational cues. The stakes for the sucker inference are high; people worried about being cheated predictably react by refusing to cooperate in prosocial activities, and by retaliating. The flight-or-fight response has deep implications for legal decision-making, undermining investment in cooperative enterprises, dispute settlement, and efficient social policy. Finally, the review considers the unique ambivalence toward suckers themselves—the competing feelings of sympathy and scorn—and how that ambivalence plays into underreporting of legal harms, misattributions of consent, and victim blaming. I conclude by suggesting that the ambivalence offers opportunities for productive legal interventions to reward trust.

Law Review Article: Evaluating Intellectual Disability: Clinical Assessments in Atkins Cases (Ellis et al., 2018)

This new law review article is, IMHO, the best overview article regarding the history of ID, the legal issues in Atkins cases, and good discussion of the major conceptual and measurement issues found in many Atkins cases. An excellent introduction to ID issues in Atkins cases.

EVALUATING INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY: CLINICAL ASSESSMENTS IN ATKINS CASES

James W. Ellis, Caroline Everington, Ann M. Delpha

ABSTRACT

The intersection of intellectual disability and the death penalty is now clearly established. Both under the U.S. Supreme Court's constitutional decisions and under the terms of many state statutes, individual defendants who have that disability cannot be sentenced to death or executed. It now falls to trial, appellate, and post-conviction courts to determine which individual criminal defendants are entitled to the law's protection. This Article attempts to assist judges in performing that task. After a brief discussion of the Supreme Court's decisions in Atkins v. Virginia, Hall v. Florida, and Moore v. Texas, it analyzes the component parts and terminology of the clinical definition of intellectual disability. It then offers more detailed discussion of a number of the clinical issues that arise frequently in adjudicating these cases. For each of these issues, the Article's text and the accompanying notes attempt to provide judges with a thorough survey of the relevant clinical literature, and an explanation of the terminology used by clinical professionals. Our purpose is to help those judges to become more knowledgeable consumers of the clinical reports and expert testimony presented to them in individual cases, and to help them reach decisions that are consistent with what the clinical literature reveals about the nature of intellectual disability and best professional practices in the diagnostic process.

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"Just say no" to race- or demographically-adjusted IQ norms in the Dx of ID: Post made at ICDP sister blog

Previously, I coauthored an IAP Psychometric Brief (#14) with Dr. Dale Watson on the inappropriate use of "demographically adjusted norms" (aka, the Heaton norms) to adjust IQ scores upward based on an individuals race.  I was pleased last week to see a law review article devoted to this practice--an article that also concludes that the use of "ethnic" or "race" or "demographically" adjusted norms are inconsistent with scientific and legal principles.

The excellent American University Law Review article (IQ, INTELLIGENCE TESTS, “ETHNIC ADJUSTMENTS” AND ATKINS) is by Robert Sanger (click here to view).

Law Review Article: Maroney (2011) on Adolescent Brain Science since Graham v FL

The following has been added to the ICDP Law Review Article blogroll.

Maroney, T. A. (2011). ADOLESCENT BRAIN SCIENCE AFTER GRAHAM V. FLORIDA. Notre Dame Law Review, 86(2), 765-793.


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intelligence intelligence testing Atkins cases ICDP blog psychology school psychology neuropsychology forensic psychology criminal psychology criminal justice death penalty capital punishment ABA IQ tests IQ scores adaptive behavior AAIDD mental retardation intellectual disability Graham v Florida adolescent brain science neuroscience and law

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