Integrating Psychology and Law Content into Undergraduate Instruction

http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/getArticle.cfm?id=1919

Undergraduate interest in psychological applications to the law has perhaps never been greater. Recent real cases that have involved aspects of psychology and law include the Central Park jogger case, in which four teenaged boys gave videotaped confessions that now appear to have been false (see Kassin, 2002). Due in part to both fictional (Silence of the Lambs, Profiler, CSI) and nonfictional (e.g., Court TV, Dateline, 48 Hours, Forensic Files) representations in the media, undergraduates are increasingly interested in learning about how psychology may be utilized in and by the legal system and about associated educational and career opportunities (Fulero, Greene, Hans, Nietzel, Small, & Wrightsman, 1999). For example, students invariably mention wanting to learn about being a "profiler." Faculty can take advantage of student interest in the popular media's portrayal of forensic psychology to teach psychological concepts that have a place in the legal process (e.g., memory, perception, psychopathology, cognition, group processes) in a wide variety of subdisciplinary areas -- clinical, cognitive, community developmental, industrial/ organizational, physiological, and social psychology.