In this chapter, we offer an overview of what social and cognitive psychological research can tell us about how people make decisions about investigating, prosecuting, and adjudicating criminal cases. In particular, we examine the factors that can undermine the reliability of the judgments made at each of these stages of the criminal process, and how these phenomena might contribute to wrongful convictions. An impressive body of research exists demonstrating how the ways in which people process and use information can produce errors in the criminal justice system. This research has also taught us a lot about how to improve the accuracy of the system.
Bibliographic Citation
Keith A. Findley, Barbara O'Brien, Psychological Perspectives: Cognition and Decision Making in Examining Wrongful Convictions: Stepping Back, Moving Forward (2014).
