Psychology and Law: Truthfulness, Accuracy and Credibility - Paperback

by Amina A. Memon (Author), Aldert Vrij (Author), Ray Bull (Author)

Psychology and Law shows how psychological research and theory can be used in a legal context. Written with advanced undergraduate students in mind, it focuses upon the pre-trial or investigative phase of the legal process. Obtaining and assessing witness evidence is a key part of any criminal investigation. Topics include witness accuracy and credibility, covering issues such as assessment of witness credibility, interviewing suspects and witnesses, eyewitness testimony, false beliefs and memory, the role of experts and juries.

This second edition has been revised and updated to reflect the large amount of new research in the area, making it the essential guide for all courses with a legal component.

Comment on the first edition:

"This is an excellent appraisal of the psychology of evidence...it provides thorough, substantial and up-to-date accounts of modern developments."
--Denniss Howitt, Loughborough University, UK

• Written by well known and respected authors
• Suitable as an introductory, undergraduate text

Back Jacket

How can psychology inform law and policing to help determine the accuracy of witnesses, victims and suspects?

This second edition of Psychology and Law: Truthfulness, Accuracy and Credibility is a substantially revised and exhaustive review of forensic research to do with credibility and the accuracy of evidence.

Throughout the book, Memon, Vrij and Bull use their renowned expertise to focus on the practical relevance of research in areas such as:

• criminal appearance stereotyping
• assessment of the reliability of eyewitness evidence
• non-verbal characteristics and physiological correlates of deception
• improving practice in interviewing witnesses, in particular children and vulnerable adults
• the use of and the study of juries in different countries

Aimed primarily at students and researchers in psychology, criminology and law, this book will also appeal to professionals in law and police work.

Author Biography

Dr. Amina Memon is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Aberdeen. She has a first-class degree in psychology (1982) and a Ph.D. in psychology (1985). Her main areas of expertise are social and cognitive psychology. Dr. Memon has published widely on topics such as the investigative interviewing of child witnesses, police interviews, face recognition, eyewitness identification, the performance of elderly witnesses, false memories and jury decision making. Between 1991 and 1997. Dr. Memon conducted extensive psychological research on procedures for interviewing child witnesses for the purpose of obtaining complete and accurate witness reports.

Professor Aldert Vrij is Professor of Applied Social Psychology at the University of Portsmouth. His main area of expertise is deception, mainly the nonverbal and verbal characteristics of deception, and he has published widely on these issues. For conducting this research, he has received grants from the ESRC, the Leverhulme Trust, the Dutch Organisation of Scientific Research (the Dutch equivalent of the ESRC) and the Dutch Ministry of Justice. He gives workshops on deception to police officers in several countries on a regular basis.

Professor Ray Bull is Professor of Forensic Psychology at the University of Portsmouth. His main areas of expertise are police interviewing and the relationship between physical appearance and criminality, topics on which he has published extensively. He is regularly invited to present seminars and lectures to police audiences in many countries. His most recent externally funded research project was from the Innovative Research Challenge Fund of the Home Office for work on improving children's face recognition performance.