Recently in Decision Making Category

There are many laws put into effect in the past that make no sense today. As federal laws are carefully constructed to have concrete language, we rarely see these obsurd laws. Since the 10th Amendment in our Bill of Rights gives power to the State in governing themselves, laws are created and suited for the community. In Florida, a parking meter must be paid if one was to tie an elephant to it. In Illinois, it is forbidden to fish from a giraffe's neck. In Iowa, ministers need to obtain a permit prior to transferring liquor over state lines. In many states, the punishment for horse theft is still hanging. For all the "dumb" laws you may find, just realize that for them to be created, someone had to have violated it.

Psychologically, if anything, these laws put a smile on faces. For cynics, it may stir their faith or confidence in the efficiency of their government.

My question is why haven't a lot of these laws simply be removed? Have people been arrested/fined for any of these "dumb laws" recently? Are these kinds of dumb laws still being created?

Have you ever wondered whether someone was lying to you or telling the truth?  I was stumbling and found an article in which goes through 5 signs in which you can detect whether someone is lying to you or not. These signs and techniques are used mainly by police and security experts. 

These five signs are:

1. Body Language Use

2. Emotional Gestures and Contraditions

3. Interactions and Reactions

4. Verbal Context and Content

5. Quick Subject Change.

These five signs are just rough outlines of what is covered on this website.  It is very fascinating and is fun to read and understand.  The psychology and law aspect of this would have to be the fact that knowing when someone is lying can help jurors determine wheter a person's testimony in court is truthful by the expressions shown on that person's face.

If you comment on this blog.  I would like to know some of your own personal experiences in detecting whether a person was lying or truthful, and if any of these signs were present.  

When it comes to Heath Care our country is pretty much split down the middle. So who is right the Democrats or the Republicans? I have been trying to follow what is going on in the news, but it is hard to find an opinion that is not bias to either side. So how does this have to do with Law and Psychology? If you listen to the new you will hear about what kind of lawsuits the Republicans are trying to come up with to challenge the bill now that it has been passed. And psychologically this battle over health care is going to be very harmful on our generation. How do we learn what to do for our country if the people who are supposed to be role models do not even know how to get along? Is there another war in our future? As for right now this is not the case. the bill has been sent back to the House for another vote by the Republicans. Below is a link to where the bill is right now. The Republicans have used to amendment process to send the bill back into vote and therefore delay the process of implementing the bill.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/HealthCare/health-care-bill-back-house-vote-republican-challenges/story?id=10197766

      In a previous post I wrote about a girl who was abducted during the super bowl and later found dead after authorities delayed releasing an Amber Alert. This idea brought about many questions regarding who is allowed to release amber alerts and what is the criteria? Interestingly enough, today while I was driving back to Cedar Falls an important announcement interrupted the song playing on the radio. This announcement came from the Iowa Police issuing an Amber Alert for 14 year old, Janakaye Marie Lee, of Council Bluffs stating she had been abducted earlier today and seems to be in danger. Interestingly enough later in the day when I was on the internet trying to find more information regarding the Amber Alert  I found it had been cancelled; however the girl is still missing. The police felt this situation was important enough to issue an amber alert, yet later retracted the alert because they felt she was not longer in danger. Yet if you read on the girl is still missing, and the person who is suspected to have taken her left a suicide note. I felt this article/situation was interesting not only does it deal with law enforcement and the procedures they go through when looking at a case (more specifically an abduction case) but it also is taking place here in Iowa. From the information given we know the amber alert was released because Lee was in danger, and we know it was retracted because Lee is not said to be in danger anymore. I would be interested to know what ideas and pieces to this puzzle made police retract the amber alert. Also, for those of you who have read my post on the super bowl killing I want to highlight that for the young girl taken in that situation an Amber Alert was not issued until 18 hours later.

Below are some links referred to in this post:

News Report of Janakaye Marie Lee's abduction (KCCI, Des Moines)

http://www.kcci.com/news/22634757/detail.html

Cancelled Amber Alert for Lee:

This website shows the cancelled alert; however, you can still see the type of information police obtained and used in creating the Amber Alert.

http://www.iowaamberalert.org/app.php?pgname=alertdetails&id=6

Iowa Amber Alert Website

http://www.iowaamberalert.org/

Super bowl Killing Link:

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/carlie_brucia/1.html

I have came across this article in which a british tv program host has been arrested for murder after he had admitted that he assisted in the death of a former lover that was diagnoses with aids.  Euthanasia is a topic that has been debated in the past. Euthanasia or "mercy killing" is when someone helps a terminally ill person commit suicide to "stop the suffering" I wrote a research paper on this topic at the community college I attended. I think that it is a interesting topic to discuss. Many people will hopefully never experience a loved one being diagnosed with a terminal illness so it is hard to be put into that position just by imaginating it. I am not sure if this should be accepted or not. A person that is terminally ill and is experiencing extreme pain and suffering and there is nothing that the medical field is able to do for that person, and that person is wanting the pain to stop. Should the euthanasia process be able to be carried out legally if it can be done in a "humane" way? I dont know.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/02/17/bbc.presenter.arrest/index.html 

We've all heard the stories of the girl who reported she was raped- when she wasn't, or those who were kidnapped, but weren't really. False reports happen everyday in the United States and now the law is cracking down.

I called 9-1-1 once when I was little, to see if it worked. It did and I ended up getting a visit from a very nice police officer who sat me down and explained to me how calling for no reason was wrong. Followed by a capital punishment made by the judge/ jury/ executioner: my mom. Being six or seven though- i was merely curious- and the things i learned that day have stuck with me since.

But is there really a differance between a harmless 7 year old calling to see if 9-1-1 was real and a maliscious woman who just wanted to ruin the lives of others? Either way we both took precious time that could be used really saving someone in danger, we both made the choice to call, and we both got punished in the end.

https://secure.missingkids.com/en_US/documents/FalseReporting.pdf

this website shows in minor detail the punishment for all the states where false crimes are reported.

Sam is a mentally challenged man that seems to have an obsessive compulsive disorder who had barely became a father of a young baby girl and he is also a mentally challenged man.  The mom is normal but ditches the father along with the daughter.  So Sam is left alone to raise his daughter and with help from his neighbor he learns that babies need to be fed every two hours.  I am guessing that mentally challenged people have to have a set schedule and if it is changed it has to be changed gradually or else panic or a sense of anxiety will hit them.  His little girl is unbelievably smart; she and her father have a close relationship.  There comes a point where his daughter makes him realize that he is different from the other daddies and where she becomes the adult at a young age.  Sam's friends help them both a lot, "it takes a village to raise a child."  Lucy teaches him to read and finds it difficult at times to make her classmates understand the way he is.  Unfortunately he did not know that he was talking to a prostitute one night, so he got arrested and then they found out that he had a child.  A child can only learn or expand their mind so much depending on the environment that they are exposed to.  At times it will be easy for the child to rebel but discipline can still be added.  As all children they grow embarrassed of their parents so it gets harder for Lucy to deal with her father's special needs.  Because he is special, he could not control his emotions, since the social worker was there, a bit of it was exaggerated, that he poses as a danger to his daughter and other children.  The lawyer that he is trying to talk to is a bit of a snob but he tries, he can't afford her but he tries to impress his boss so he can get a promotion to pay for the lawyer.  His lawyer is a very selfish woman that will only do his case for free because of peer pressure; she is very miserable and treats the people around her like crap.  Lucy convinces her father to runaway with her so they can be together.  Finally Annie shows up even though she has something against the outside world to help testify in court for Sam's sake.  In the end Lucy's adopted family set up a schedule for Sam to spend time with Lucy, so at the same time Lucy may grow up normally.  So are there certain tests that by law a person who is considered to be mentally challege should take just to see if they are a fit parent or not, there are tons of unfit parents that abuse there children and still have them all because they are able to comprehend things the way society wants them to, or makes it seem like they do.  Another thing in real life if the father, even if he is mentally challenged, were to be tricked by his daughter to run away, I am pretty sure he would have been charged with kidnapping.

I found this game kind of interesting. At first you are asked to pick a case that you want to participate in, then it gives a short description of what is going on, then you pick if you want to be the prosecutor or the defense. The game then has a list of 20 jurors and gives some information about each one. You select which 12 of the 20 you would think would benefit your case the most. After you do this you are given a score and it also gives you the reasons why or why not each juror you selected would be beneficial to the case. I thought the game was interesting because it shows you to a certain extent what both sides go through in the juror selection process.

http://www.texaslre.org/jury_game.html 

This is an interesting article I had to read for a Criminology class regarding the discussion of the Uniform Crime Report, and what police chiefs did in order to make their cities seem safer then they were. To do this they downgraded a lot of fleonies to misdemeanors and other crimes they simply just didnt report. Since then those official have obvioulsy been releaved of their duties and one new official told his community that when he enters office the crime rate will be a lot higher but at least it will be the correct one that they can work hard at to minimize. I guess the take home point of this type of article is to bring awarness in the dependece of statistics because they can be very misleading and in some cases just made up.

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/03/us/as-crime-falls-pressure-rises-to-alter-data.html?scp=3&sq=senior police officials around the nation&st=cse

Cult: a group of people who organize around a strong authority figure.

well that's not too bad. Anything could be classified as a cult then- Religion, households, classrooms, etc. So what makes Christianity differant from "The Family"?

Cults have always interested me. Not because of the leaders, but because of the followers. How can someone be brainwashed so completely that they forget about everything they once held dear. Granted, if you look at the time span of most cults, the 60's and 70's were largely the history base of these happenings. Now i'm not saying drugs was the only thing to do with it but.... you understand, it had a large part to play. As did having a leader who was a great speaker and very persuassive.

But what explains how 40 individuals can enter a death pact together- and all but one keep it? Or how a group of people can live thinking they are in a space ship- when really they're in an underground house?

Cult Psychology- its an interesting thing. You should look it up!

Cult Psychology: http://www.skeptictank.org/hs/cultdyn.htm

Manson Family Cult: http://www.religioustolerance.org/dc_charl.htm

Top 10 Cults: http://listverse.com/2007/09/15/top-10-cults/

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2N0o2F/www.youtube.com/watch%253Fv%253DKZeiSKnhOBc

            There are a large number of sites describing the so called "Monkey Experiment" where 5 or so monkeys are put in a room with a banana suspended at the top.  A ladder is introduced, and whenever a monkey approaches the ladder the rest are shot with cold water.  Naturally the monkeys quickly learn to associate this behavior with the negative stimulus of the water so it is said they beat on the other monkey that tries to go near the ladder.  One by one all the monkeys are replaced until the new monkeys all beat up monkey's who approach the ladder but none of them knows why.  Although I found these stories interesting I was unsure of their scientific merit since only one site made any reference to an actual research article (i.e. "possibly from a U.K. study).   In particular the link above makes an incredibly shallow analysis of how this "experiment" relates to politics at the very end, it's actually funny to me...

Recently in my economics classes we have been talking at length about the economic theory of "Prisoner's Dilemma." Prisoner's Dilemma uses a combination of psychology and economic theory to asses a situation in which two people (commonly prisoners) can be made better off by working together rather than working individually, but because of psychological decisions, both prisoners chose a strategy that better suits them, thereby, making both prisoners worse off than they would be if they decided to work together. To illustrate this idea here is the following example.

"Two suspects are arrested by the police. The police have insufficient evidence for a conviction, and, having separated both prisoners, visit each of them to offer the same deal. If one testifies (defects from the other) for the prosecution against the other and the other remains silent (cooperates with the other), the betrayer goes free and the silent accomplice receives the full 10 year sentence. If both remain silent, both prisoners are sentenced to only 6 months in jail for a minor charge. If each betrays the other, each receives a 5-year sentence. Each prisoner must choose to betray the other or remain silent. Each one is assured that the other would not know about the betrayal before the end of the investigation."  

From this analysis, one might think that both prisoners will choose to remain silent in order to receive only the minor charge and both prisoners are better off. But, assuming that both prisoners are somewhat rational, psychology and economics tells us that both prisoners will choose the strategy at which (on an individual level) each prisoner will be better off. Therefore, the prisoners will both choose to betray the other and both will serve a harsher sentence because of this.

This theory is not only applicable in a prisoner-type scenario. Watch the video I have attached below and see how quickly personal greed takes control of our decision making process. Not only is greed a factor here, but also there is the factor of fear of betrayal. Both prisoners can safely assume that the other is being made a similar deal and does not know which strategy the other will choose. In order to not be completely "screwed" by the other person, the prisoner must choose to betray the other in order to protect one's self. This is a perfect example of how behavioral psychology and economic theory coincide. Watch the video below and pause it at 2:46 and try to guess the outcome. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3Uos2fzIJ0

In the discussion of discretion, a case came to mind from about six months ago that involved a police officer shooting a perpetrator of a domestic dispute gone bad and included the two police officers having to try and restrain the man but failing to do so.  The fact that the officer shot the man in the chest multiple times caused many to question his discretion of the situation. 

http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/59182472.html 

This is the a follow up article that expalins a bit more.

http://www.globegazette.com/articles/2009/09/16/news/latest/doc4ab13a23c5668718303507.txt#vmix_media_id=9763234

Discretion is the power to make decisions that affect others. We talked about in class how discretionary decisions occur at all points of the criminal justice timeline and greatly impact your progress through (or out) of the system. We also mentioned briefly how discretionary decisions can be impacted by biases that can positively or negatively impact the individual whom the decision affects. Please post a comment describing an instance where you exerted discretion over another person, and an instance where discretion was used for or against you. These may be legal situations, but do not have to be. Be clear about what the discretionary decisions were, who had the power, the outcome of the situation, and what if any biases were operating.

Here is a link also to the criminal justice timeline we discussed in class.

http://www.fsu.edu/~crimdo/cj-flowchart.html