OBJECTIVES:Emerging theory suggests that prosocial identity motivation (PIM)-youth's drive to disassociate from antisocial lifestyles and forge conventional identities aligned with prosocial values-may be crucial for promoting desistance among justice-involved adolescents. Yet, standardized tools to assess this construct are lacking, as is evidence of its protective value against continued antisocial behavior. We derived a measure of PIM from the Youth Assessment and Screening Instrument and tested whether it protects detained youth from serious and violent institutional infractions-behaviors that increase recidivism risk and deepen system penetration. We also examined whether the youth's overall risk level moderates this relationship. HYPOTHESES:We hypothesized that PIM would inversely predict both infraction types, offer predictive value beyond composite strength and risk scores, and demonstrate stronger protective effects for low- and moderate-risk youth compared to higher risk counterparts. METHOD:Using data on 846 male detained youth (Mage 17) assessed by reliable staff, we integrated Youth Assessment and Screening Instrument scores with official infraction records over an average 6-month period and applied Cox proportional hazard survival analyses to examine the protective effect of PIM. RESULTS:PIM significantly protected against serious, hazard ratio (HR) = 0.52, 95% confidence interval (CI) [0.44, 0.60] and violent (HR = 0.53, 95% CI [0.45, 0.63]) infractions and provided incremental predictive utility beyond composite risk or strengths scores. Youth's risk level moderated the protective effect for serious infractions, with benefits observed for low- and moderate-risk youth but not their higher risk counterparts. CONCLUSION:Youth's PIM protects against institutional infractions-an important first step toward desistance. These findings suggest that juvenile justice systems should move beyond solely addressing criminogenic needs among incarcerated youth to recognize identity transformation as a developmentally relevant pathway to behavior change. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
OBJECTIVE:Witnesses can confidently identify a defendant in court despite having rejected the defendant in a photo lineup during the initial police investigation. Even when informed of the witness's prior inconsistent statement, jurors often disregard it and convict based on the confident courtroom identification. We investigated this phenomenon and a strategy for minimizing it. HYPOTHESES:We predicted that laypeople hold the false belief that heightened emotional arousal can temporally block face-recognition memory, leading them to vote guilty despite the witness's initial lineup rejection. We also expected that a revised version of the recently introduced reflector variable instructions would help jurors understand an initial lineup rejection and reduce wrongful convictions. METHOD:Using mock-trial transcripts, Study 1 (N = 45, Prolific) asked mock jurors how they would explain the witness's inconsistent statements. Study 2 (N = 289, Prolific) manipulated the witness's initial identification outcome (immediate high-confidence identification vs. lineup rejection) and the type of jury instruction (reflector variable vs. control) to examine whether reflector variable instructions help mock jurors better discriminate between evidence of guilt and evidence of innocence. RESULTS:In Study 1, participants tended to attribute testimonial inconsistencies to stress, suggesting that laypeople are generally unaware that memory contamination may cause these inconsistencies. In Study 2, the interaction between instruction type and initial identification outcome was significant (OR = 3.73, 95% CI [1.29, 10.78]). Under reflector variable instructions, mock jurors were more likely to render a guilty verdict following an immediate high-confidence identification than after a lineup rejection (OR = 3.89, p < .001), whereas no such difference emerged under control instructions (OR = 1.04, p = .91). CONCLUSIONS:Witnesses cannot correctly explain their inconsistent memory decisions, and jurors cannot correctly interpret them. The new instructions emphasizing the importance of the initial memory test may be a useful starting point. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
OBJECTIVE:Prenuptial marriage contracts can make the divorce process easier for separating couples and their children, yet few people enter them. To better understand public perceptions of these contracts, this research sought to identify predictors of attitudes and intentions toward prenuptial agreements and determine whether these outcomes can be manipulated. HYPOTHESES:Study 1 had no directional hypotheses. Study 2 replicated and extended Study 1. Consistent with Study 1 results, we hypothesized that beliefs about contracts (e.g., they are unromantic) would be stronger predictors of positive attitudes and intentions than other variables (e.g., age, education). We also predicted that participants who learned about prenuptial agreements would report more positive attitudes and intentions toward them than those who did not learn about them. METHOD:In Study 1, romantically attached participants (60.26% women, 65.89% White, Mage = 30.36) from an online sample reported on themselves, their relationships, and their attitudes, intentions, and beliefs regarding prenuptial agreements. Using an online sample, Study 2 (50.47% women, 68.14% White, Mage = 43.92) collected similar information. We also conducted an experiment in which we randomly assigned participants to read a news article about prenuptial agreements or an unrelated topic. RESULTS:In Studies 1 and 2, demographic (age, education), individual (religiosity, attachment style), and relationship (satisfaction, length) characteristics were generally weak predictors of prenuptial agreement attitudes and intentions. In contrast, beliefs about the contracts accounted for considerably more variance, suggesting that attitudes and intentions toward these agreements are more strongly associated with perceptions of how they work, rather than with personal or relationship traits. Study 2 also demonstrated that a simple informational intervention was sufficient to shift views on prenuptial agreements. CONCLUSIONS:Findings have implications for policymakers seeking to increase the use of prenuptial contracting to reduce the negative consequences of divorce and divorce litigation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
OBJECTIVE:Determine if repeated or slow-motion viewing of body-worn camera videos of police use-of-force incidents influences viewers' assessments. HYPOTHESES:Participants are more likely to agree that officers' beliefs about danger in a situation were reasonable after repeated viewings and when a viewing is in slow motion. METHOD:In two preregistered experiments (N = 304 and 299), participants, recruited using the online survey recruitment platform Prolific, viewed body-worn camera video footage of four actual police use-of-force incidents in which the suspect was either armed or unarmed. Each incident was viewed three times. The first and third viewings were at regular speed. The second viewing of each incident was either in slow motion or at regular speed. After each viewing, participants rated their agreement with the statement that the officer had reason to believe there was an immediate danger to themselves or others when they shot the suspect. RESULTS:After multiple viewings, participants were more likely to agree that an officer's beliefs about danger in a situation were reasonable when the suspect was armed but not when they were unarmed (ηp² = .67 and .71). Viewing these videos in slow motion amplified the increase in agreement that there was danger in the situation when the video showed an armed suspect, but this effect was inconsistent. CONCLUSIONS:Viewing body-worn camera footage multiple times changed viewers' agreement that the officer's beliefs about danger were reasonable. These findings have implications for how unbiased assessments of police use-of-force incidents should be conducted, with a focus on whether these assessments adhere to the U.S. standard set out in Graham v. Connor. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
OBJECTIVE:Psychopathic symptoms have long been studied in samples of justice-involved youth. Collectively, findings suggest early-life adversities (ELAs) like abuse and maltreatment are linked with increases in symptomology. Yet these studies infrequently consider the wider definitions of ELA utilized by many researchers across fields of developmental and Health Psychology, which also include experiences of general household dysfunction. HYPOTHESES:Greater ELA exposure will be associated with increases in psychopathic symptomology, both at study outset and across time. Additionally, ELA will be more strongly linked to behavioral symptoms than emotional or social symptoms. METHOD:The present study utilized publicly available data from a large, longitudinal sample of justice-involved males (the Pathways to Desistance study; Mage = 16.09 years at baseline, 42.4% African American, 34.0% Hispanic American, 18.9% non-Hispanic White, 2.2% Native American, and 2.5% other race/ethnicity) to generate a new (to the data set) measure of ELA modeled after the popular Adverse Childhood Experience questionnaire that included nine unique categories of adversity. This scale was used to predict (a) overall psychopathic symptoms and subscales at baseline (using an interview-based measure) and (b) trajectories of change in symptoms across the study period (using a self-report measure, covering 7 years of development). RESULTS:Results indicate that general ELA is associated with psychopathic symptoms at baseline and was not associated with rates of change across time (though patterns vary by subdimension). Analyses comparing types of adversity (abuse and neglect vs. household dysfunction) suggest this effect is imparted by abuse and neglect and not broader environmental dysfunction. These results were consistent after accounting for co-occurring anxiety, which is sometimes used to explore primary and secondary variants of psychopathy. CONCLUSIONS:These results add to existing literature linking serious adversity to psychopathic symptoms and extend findings by considering type of adversity for the first time longitudinally in a sample of justice-involved youth. Findings are situated within developmental theories of psychopathy in relation to ELA, and practical implications of the findings for practitioners and policy makers are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
OBJECTIVE:Racial and ethnic disparities in criminal court outcomes in the United States are a persistent problem, one that is often attributed to the considerable discretion court actors have in determining whether, and to what extent, to punish criminal defendants. To reduce unwarranted disparities and overzealous sanctioning in U.S. courts, many have called for increasing the diversity of the court workforce. This article empirically examines the effects of workgroup diversity on court outcomes. HYPOTHESES:We hypothesize that more racially and ethnically diverse courtroom workgroups will (a) be less punitive overall and (b) produce smaller racial and ethnic disparities in case outcomes. METHOD:Using a sample of felony cases processed in Florida's Circuit Courts in 2017 (N = 10,202), we estimated a direct and interactive multinomial logistic regression model of pretrial and sentencing outcomes (case declination, diversion, transfer, withhold adjudication, probation, jail, and prison) with clustered standard errors to account for the nested nature of the data. RESULTS:We found that, although the majority of routine court actors in our sample were White, there was variation in case outcomes by workgroup diversity with more racially and ethnically diverse workgroups being, on average, less punitive than more homogenously White workgroups. However, the relationship between workgroup diversity and the severity of pretrial and sentencing outcomes operated differently for Black and Hispanic defendants. While Hispanic defendants tended to fare worse-in probation and jail decisions-in workgroups with a larger proportion of Hispanic court actors, Black defendants were more likely to be spared prison time in workgroups with a larger proportion of Black court actors. CONCLUSIONS:Our findings highlight the importance of disentangling race from ethnicity in understanding the impact of workgroup diversity on criminal case outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
OBJECTIVE:The perceptions of justice literature suggests the public expect child protection (CP) to punish those who maltreat children. However, CP implements restorative, rather than retributive interventions. We investigated the tension between a public expectation of retribution and the nonretributive principles of CP. HYPOTHESES:We expected both restorative and retributive factors would affect perceptions of justice; however, hindsight bias would attenuate these effects. We expected anger would mediate the relationship between the retributive factor and perceptions of justice, and that the retributive factor would have a stronger impact when mothers, rather than fathers, harmed children. METHOD:Across two studies, we experimentally tested community members' perceptions of procedural and distributive justice about a CP case scenario. Participants read a news story about a case of child abuse leading to child removal, followed by reunification of the family. We manipulated a retributive factor, a restorative factor, and hindsight bias in a 2 (Punishment Sufficiency: High, Low) × 2 (Restorative Potential: High, Low) × 2 (Outcome Knowledge: Known, Unknown) between-groups experimental design. We varied gender of the harming parent across studies. RESULTS:People viewed CP's processes and outcomes as fairer when the restorative factor was present but also when the retributive factor was present. However, hindsight bias attenuated these effects. Effects of the retributive factor were stronger when a mother harmed her child, and anger did not mediate the relationship between the retributive factor and perceptions of justice. CONCLUSION:Perceptions of justice were driven by both restorative and retributive factors, and moderated by hindsight and gender biases. This indicates people's perceptions of CP are not entirely aligned with CP's restorative principles; retribution and biases are also impacting their evaluations. As a service that is for the public, but also relies on public engagement, misalignment creates problematic tensions impacting service delivery. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
OBJECTIVE:Sometimes people fail to sympathize-and may even relish-when people in the criminal justice system experience harms such as police brutality or inadequate care while in custody. These are harms that occur incidentally to one's involvement with the criminal justice system, as they are not prescribed by laws associated with arrest or conviction. The current research explores what causes people to justify such legally illegitimate harms. HYPOTHESES:We expected that when people make essentialized character-based attributions about people who commit crimes (e.g., labeling them as fundamentally and enduringly "bad"), this can lead them to view incidental harms as deserved punishment. METHOD AND RESULTS:In Study 1 (N = 49), we provide initial qualitative evidence for this idea: participants who expressed indifference toward the suffering of incarcerated individuals tended to rationalize such suffering as punishment for perceived immoral character. In Study 2 (N = 258), the perception that people who commit crimes have an underlying and unchanging "criminal" character was positively related to tolerance for incidental suffering. In Study 3 (N = 537), describing a person's crime as stemming from an unchangeable immoral character increased participants' tolerance for incidental harms through heightened perceptions of the person's ongoing dangerousness. However, the unchangeable immoral character also appeared to reduce tolerance for harms through a competing, unexplained pathway. CONCLUSIONS:Taken together, the findings underscore the complex ways in which character-based explanations for crime influence whether justice-involved individuals are seen as deserving of moral concern. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
OBJECTIVE:Because approximately 50% of psychiatric patients present with current or past criminal legal involvement, we aimed to compare factors associated with criminal legal involvement across three inpatient psychiatric groups: patients with mental illness with legal involvement, patients with mental illness without legal involvement, and patients found not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI). HYPOTHESES:We hypothesized that participants in the three groups would not differ in psychiatric symptomatology but that participants with mental illness and legal histories would report higher criminal risk scores than the NGRI and mental illness only groups. METHOD:Participants consisted of 74 people with mental illness and prior legal involvement, 68 people with mental illness only from a private hospital's psychiatric unit, and 207 forensic state hospital patients acquitted NGRI. We used multivariate analysis of variance, discriminant function analyses, and analysis of variance to test group differences. RESULTS:Criminal risk factors, criminal attitudes, and social support accurately classified 64.9%-75.2% of participants into their respective groups. Additionally, people with mental illness and past legal involvement scored higher than both mental illness-only and NGRI groups on the total criminal risk score, criminal friend scores, and total perceived social support. The NGRI group produced the lowest psychiatric symptom severity scores. CONCLUSIONS:People with mental illness involved in the legal system demonstrate the highest indicators of criminal risk, further showing that both psychiatric needs and criminal risk should be the target of treatment for this population. We also found that patients adjudicated NGRI showed the lowest psychiatric symptom severity, which may be due to sustained treatment in a stable therapeutic milieu. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
OBJECTIVE:This study aimed to assess the degree to and manner in which research published in four forensic psychology journals in the years 2016-2020 addressed sociocultural identities. HYPOTHESES:This was an exploratory content analysis with no a priori hypotheses. METHOD:All empirical articles (n = 859) published in Behavioral Sciences and the Law, Criminal Justice and Behavior, Law and Human Behavior, and Psychology, Public Policy, and Law in the years 2016-2020 (inclusive) were coded. Information on seven sociocultural identities was recorded, including whether the identity was mentioned, participant identities were reported, and participants with different identities were compared, among other information. Additional details were recorded for a randomly selected subset of articles (n = 401). RESULTS:Sociocultural identities were infrequently mentioned in titles and abstracts of these articles; for example, gender was mentioned in 31.5% abstracts, and race was mentioned in 13.2%. Almost all corresponding and first authors (97.4%) worked in a United Nations regional group that includes primarily high-income, democratic nations, many of which have predominantly White populations. Gender (95%), race and/or ethnicity (74%), and socioeconomic status (43%) were the identities most frequently reported in the articles; others were very rarely reported (e.g., sexual orientation, 2%). Few studies addressed cultural strengths and/or explicitly recognized the impact of systems-level biases. Few studies explicitly addressed within-group differences for any sociocultural identity group. There was minimal evidence of improvement in the inclusion of sociocultural identities over time. CONCLUSIONS:The articles in this content analysis were largely completed prior to the publication of updated guidance regarding addressing the sociocultural identities of participants in publications. The results indicate that despite progress since previous content analyses were published, there was considerable room for improvement as of 2020. Greater attention to sociocultural factors will facilitate our understanding of the generalizability of our research and of the experiences of people with nondominant identities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
OBJECTIVE:Competency to stand trial evaluations represent the most common psycho-legal assessment in the United States. Notwithstanding, evaluators may face additional complexity when they suspect malingering or overreporting of psychopathology. Despite the importance of routine screening for overreporting, there remains a lack of consensus regarding the most appropriate screening tool for this context. This systematic review and meta-analysis sought to evaluate the utility of three commonly used screening tools-Miller Forensic Assessment of Symptoms Test (M-FAST), Evaluation of Competency to Stand Trial-Revised Atypical Presentation (ATP) Scales, and Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS)-in differentiating defendants who overreport psychopathology from those who do not ("comparators") in competency to stand trial evaluations. HYPOTHESES:We hypothesized that all three tools would significantly discriminate between overreporters and comparators, with the ATP Scales demonstrating the largest effect size, and each tool would demonstrate high sensitivity but moderate specificity at their recommended cutoffs. METHOD:We examined 14 research reports with 20 effect sizes, comprising a total of 1,929 participants (Mage = 31.22, SD = 3.98). RESULTS:Findings showed that the pooled effect sizes for the M-FAST (k = 13, g = 2.75, 95% CI [2.18, 3.32]), ATP Scales (k = 5, g = 1.96, 95% CI [1.37, 2.54]), and SIMS (k = 2, g = 2.99, 95% CI [2.50, 3.48]) were all very large, far exceeding standards for interpreting effect sizes in malingering research. Owing to a paucity of data, further analysis of the SIMS was not feasible. Moreover, the M-FAST and ATP Scales demonstrated psychometric utility as screening tools, with sensitivity rates of .87 and .91, respectively. CONCLUSIONS:Both the M-FAST and ATP Scales appear to be effective screening tools for identifying examinees who do not require further symptom validity testing. However, considering the elevated false positive rate, positive results necessitate follow-up assessment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
OBJECTIVE:The Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) is widely used in forensic and clinical contexts, yet its reliability in high-stakes legal settings remains uncertain. In Sweden, it is routinely applied in court-ordered assessments for life-sentenced prisoners seeking commutation, making score consistency crucial. Sturup et al. (2014) found lower interrater reliability in this context compared with controlled research studies. This study examines whether reliability has increased since their publication and evaluates the incremental contribution of these assessments to structured professional judgment risk classifications. HYPOTHESES:Due to increased training and experience, we expected improved reliability compared with that of Sturup et al.'s study. METHOD:We estimated interrater reliability of PCL-R total and facet scores using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) for 76 life-sentenced prisoners (75 males, one female) who had participated in 217 risk assessments by the Swedish National Board of Forensic Medicine (2013-2023). Associations between PCL-R, Historical-Clinical-Risk Management-20, and structured professional judgment risk classifications were tested with ordinal mixed-effects models. RESULTS:The results mirror those of Sturup et al., indicating no substantial improvement in interrater reliability over the last decade. Specifically, the PCL-R total score had an ICC = .73, and the facet-level ICCs were .88 (antisocial), .65 (interpersonal), .59 (affective), and .59 (lifestyle). Only 27% of score differences between assessments fell within one standard error of measurement, indicating more variability than expected based on the manual. Moreover, Historical-Clinical-Risk Management-20 scores were better predictors of the risk classification than the PCL-R scores, indicating limited incremental value of the latter. CONCLUSIONS:Reliability of the PCL-R in Swedish forensic assessments has not improved over the past decade and remains moderate. Moreover, structured violence risk factors may weigh more heavily in final judgments than psychopathy ratings. While this reliance may limit the impact of variability in PCL-R scoring, caution is warranted when using psychopathy assessments in high-stakes legal decisions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
OBJECTIVE:In many public settings, legal notices communicate fines for minor violations, often using different phrasings such as "up to," "maximum," "or below," or "range." This research examines whether these wording differences influence perceived severity and deterrence intentions. HYPOTHESES:We hypothesized that up-to and maximum frames would elicit higher perceived severity than or-below and range frames, with the range frame yielding the lowest severity perceptions. We further anticipated that these effects would be mitigated for more serious offenses. METHOD:Three preregistered between-subjects experiments (Study 1: N = 401; Study 2: N = 400; Study 3: N = 400; all U.K. adults) presented participants with public notice scenarios. Participants read a notice about a minor offense (littering) in Studies 1 and 2 and a more serious offense (vandalism) in Study 3. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four framing conditions and reported perceived severity, penalty estimates, and deterrence intentions. RESULTS:For the minor offense (Studies 1 and 2), up-to and maximum frames resulted in the highest perceived severity, followed by the or-below frame, with the range frame yielding the lowest. The range frame also resulted in significantly lower penalty estimates and weaker deterrence intentions. However, when the same framing manipulation was applied to a more serious offense (Study 3), these effects disappeared: framing did not significantly influence perceived severity, penalty expectations, or deterrence intentions. CONCLUSIONS:Fine-framing matters primarily when the offense is minor and the consequences are relatively ambiguous. As offenses become more serious, perceptions appear to be anchored by the inherent gravity of the violation, reducing sensitivity to wording differences. This research identifies a boundary condition for linguistic framing effects in legal communication and suggests that strategically chosen fine frames may serve as an effective, low-cost tool to promote compliance in everyday public behavior contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
I reflect on my tenure as Editor-in-Chief of Law and Human Behavior, including my attempts to improve the scientific impact of the work published in the journal and to increase the representation of traditionally minoritized groups among those who reviewed for it. I also describe the introduction of the nascent open science movement to the field and the journal, with the journal being the first journal published by the American Psychological Association to offer open science badges. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
OBJECTIVE:This study examines the robustness of a conceptual model, testing the influences of work pressure and other factors on job-related mental health outcomes in Dutch judges, providing insights for the judiciary, and bringing together organizational psychology and judicial well-being research. HYPOTHESES:We predicted (a) that the conceptual model fits the data well and is robust and (b) that an increase in the job demands, work pressure, and work-home interference would be associated with more burnout; an increase in the job resources, autonomy, and social support would be associated with more work engagement and job satisfaction; higher neuroticism would be related to more burnout and to more workaholism; and higher extraversion would be related to more work engagement. METHOD:Dutch judges (N = 257; 165 females [64%]; mean age: 51 years old, range = 34-67 years old, SD = 7.90) completed questionnaires. RESULTS:(a) After modifications, the conceptual model was robust. (b) An increase in job demands (work pressure and work-home interference) was associated with more burnout (β = .20 and .23). Autonomy was not significantly associated with work engagement and job satisfaction (β = <.01 and .07). An increase in the job resource social support was positively associated with heightened work engagement and job satisfaction (β = .22 and .27). Higher neuroticism related to more burnout and workaholism (β = .17 and .19), whereas higher extraversion was related to more work engagement (β = .20 and .12). All results mentioned here reflect small to medium effect sizes. CONCLUSIONS:Both job characteristics and personality factors influence burnout, work engagement, and job satisfaction. Implications for judges include vigilance regarding high work pressure and recognizing influences on mental health. Courts can play an important role in implementing strategies to reduce work pressure and in facilitating adequate job resources to improve judges' mental well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
Objective: Courts have dramatically increased their use of virtual jury trials, but empirical research has yet to examine differences between in-person and virtual jury deliberations. Hypotheses: We tested competing hypotheses that in-person juries would be better (or worse) than virtual juries in terms of attention and engagement, deliberation, and diversity. Method: Community members (N = 317; 61% women; 86.1% White; mean age = 48.68 years) watched a videotaped trial involving an automobile accident and then deliberated either in person or virtually in 54 mock juries (Nin person = 24; Nvirtual = 30). Results: In-person and virtual juries did not differ significantly across most outcomes. However, regarding attention and engagement, virtual juries reported expending greater cognitive effort (d = 0.59) than in-person juries. Regarding deliberation, in-person juries interrupted each other significantly more often than virtual juries (d = 1.93), and they discussed more topics than virtual juries (d = 0.59-1.02). Regarding diversity, virtual jurors were younger (d = 0.55), wealthier (d = 0.66), and more educated (phi = .14) than in-person jurors, although both samples were recruited in the same manner. Conclusions: Despite concerns that virtual formats substantially reduce jurors' attention/engagement and change the nature of their deliberations, virtual jurors thoroughly processed relevant evidence and reportedly expended more effort in doing so. Although virtual formats may require more technologically savvy jurors (expected to correlate with a juror's age, wealth, and education), this study provides little evidence that virtual jury participation fundamentally alters core aspects of jury deliberation.
OBJECTIVE:Lineup construction relies on matching fillers to the suspect's appearance or to the eyewitness's description of the perpetrator (match to description, MTD). Recent work shows that low (vs. high)-similarity fillers beyond MTD improve discriminability. We tested lineups constructed with differing suspect-filler (SF) similarity levels beyond MTD (low, moderate, high) against MTD only, varying exposure duration, culprit race, and innocent suspect-culprit resemblance (guilty-innocent [GI] similarity). HYPOTHESES:We expected the highest discriminability for low-SF similarity lineups, moderate next, MTD-only lower, and high lowest-alongside higher discriminability for long (cf. short) exposures, same-race (cf. cross-race) culprits, and low GI similarity (cf. high). We expected high-SF similarity to better protect high GI similarity innocents and low F-similarity to aid culprit identifications regardless of GI similarity. We also anticipated stronger benefits of low-SF similarity lineups for cross-race culprits and shorter exposures. METHOD:All lineups, except MTD only, were constructed using an artificial intelligence-driven, objective, and reproducible measure and varied by SF similarity. Participants (N = 2,644) recruited via Prolific watched four short or long videos (half with White, half with African American culprits), completed a distractor task, and made lineup identifications (culprit-present or culprit-absent) with confidence ratings. RESULTS:Both low- and high-SF similarity lineups produced higher discriminability than MTD-only lineups. While low-SF similarity lineups enhanced guilty suspect detection, high-SF similarity lineups better protected innocent suspects. Furthermore, low-SF similarity lineups yielded the best identification accuracy, and high-SF similarity lineups yielded the best diagnosticity ratio. No interactions emerged. CONCLUSIONS:Using match-to-suspect beyond MTD-especially at the highest or lowest SF similarity-improves lineup performance regardless of factors outside the justice system's control. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
OBJECTIVE:Persons with behavioral disorders, including those with dual disorders (DDs; i.e., co-occurring mental and substance use disorders [SUDs]), are overrepresented in the criminal justice system. Mental health courts (MHCs) offer an alternative to incarceration and aim to reduce recidivism. However, research indicates that participants with a SUD often complete MHCs at lower rates than those without, highlighting the need to identify effective services that support completion and improve outcomes for this group. This study examines how MHCs support participants with DDs. HYPOTHESES:We hypothesized that MHCs will use SUD-specific intervention objectives (e.g., SUD services and treatment objectives) to guide participants with DDs through the MHC process, positively influencing MHC completion. METHOD:Using a sample of 877 participants (261 with a SUD) from 10 MHCs in Quebec, Canada, we conducted bivariate analyses comparing psycho-socio-criminological profiles and MHC interventions for participants with and without a SUD. Decision-tree analysis assessed 16 individual characteristics and events (e.g., factors beyond the MHC team's control during program participation) as well as 19 intervention objectives (e.g., types of services, treatment objectives, and conditions set by multidisciplinary teams) to identify which factors effectively support participants with a SUD in graduating from MHCs. RESULTS:Bivariate analyses show that MHC teams utilize SUD-specific objectives, conditions, and services to address the many clinical and criminogenic needs of participants with DDs. Decision-tree analysis revealed that participants with DDs benefited the most from medical and psychosocial services to complete the MHC. CONCLUSIONS:The fact that medical and psychosocial services help participants with DDs successfully complete MHCs suggests that prioritizing access to these services during the program is essential for improving completion rates. These findings highlight the importance of tailoring MHC interventions to the complex needs of this group, such as medical care, housing, and workforce integration programs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
OBJECTIVE:The strategic use of evidence (SUE) is a technique that aims to improve the ability to differentiate between liars and truth-tellers. However, while theoretical training provides guidance on interview techniques, it lacks opportunities for practical application. HYPOTHESES:We created two large language model driven artificial intelligence (AI) suspects with whom participants could simulate interviews and hypothesized that these simulations would enhance the transfer of training to later interactions with human mock suspects. METHOD:The study included 156 Chinese laypersons (78 interviewers and 78 human mock suspects). The two AI suspects followed response rules representing simplified and prototypical examples of liars' and truth-tellers' behaviors under the SUE model. Interviewers were randomly allocated to one of three types of training: (a) instruction and AI exercise, (b) instruction, and (c) control. After the training, the participants interacted with either a lying or truthful human mock suspect. RESULTS:Receiving interventions made interviewers use evidence-framing matrix (an important tactic within the SUE framework) more frequently, thereby eliciting more inconsistencies between the lying human mock suspects' statements and the evidence (i.e., evidence-statement inconsistencies) as well as more inconsistencies within their own statements (i.e., within-statement inconsistencies). Both instruction and instruction and AI exercise groups used evidence-statement (in)consistencies more to make their judgments about whether human mock suspects were lying or truthful compared to those in the control group. In addition, the instruction and AI exercise group was better at accurately judging whether the human mock suspects were lying or truthful compared to the control group. CONCLUSIONS:Overall, this study provided preliminary evidence that simulated SUE with AI suspects transferred to interactions with human mock suspects in a controllable experimental setting, but that the advantage over instruction-only was not particularly robust. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
OBJECTIVE:School threat assessment is a widely used strategy for preventing violence. However, there have been few studies of student attacks following a threat assessment. Additionally, most existing studies have been conducted within a single state, limiting the generalizability of findings. Thus, the primary purpose of this study was to identify student- and school-level correlates of attack rates in a multistate sample of schools. HYPOTHESES:We hypothesized that most threat assessment cases will not lead to attacks, but that attacks will be more likely in more serious threat cases. We hypothesized that attacks will be lower in schools using safety staff (including school resource officers and security guards) and anonymous reporting systems. METHOD:Based on 2,349 case records from 166 schools in five U.S. states, this study examined the frequency of student attacks following a threat assessment using the Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines. The study also examined the relationships between threat classification and school safety measures with student attack outcomes (injury or no injury). RESULTS:There were 234 (10%) cases involving an attack, and seven (0.3%) resulted in serious injury to the target. The odds of an attack were approximately 20 times greater for serious threats compared to nonserious threats. The presence of school safety measures did not significantly correlate with student attacks or injury. CONCLUSIONS:School threat assessment teams can manage student threats of violence with few subsequent attacks but should anticipate that threat classification is strongly associated with the likelihood of an attack and therefore warrants increased intervention and preventive actions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
