Recently in Activities Category

  The Agricultural High School in Mississsippi canceled a prom all because they did not want a student who happens to be a lesbian to wear a tuxedo and bring her girlfriend.  McMillen (the student)  requested if she could wear a tuxedo and bring her girlfriend to the school officials because in the past couples of the same sex were not welcomed in to the prom.  McMillen approached them before a memo went out saying from the school saying that, "School policy requires that senior prom dates be of the opposite sex."  The American Civil Liberties Union gave the school district a deadline for them to remove that policy because it violated McMillen rights.  The High School refused, so they did what they thought was the next best thing.  The High School canceled prom.

   Wehn I read this, I was really in disbelief.  You just can't cancel a prom all because you don't agree with someone elses beliefs.  What is that?  What kind of mature decision is that?  Out of the choices they had to either remove the policy so not to be brought into court or cancel prom and disappoint not just one person but a whole group of people who were looking forward to their prom.  So instead of using common sense, they decided not to let go of their pride and retaliate agains the one, 18 year old student.  Now some students are blaming McMillen for the prom cancelation, when realty the school decided to cancel it when they know they could have just let this thing go instead of blowing out of proportion.

  Unfortunately the school probably didn't think on how the consequence might affect McMillen.  Students might start hazing her, harrass her, and all kinds of negative things because of what a group of school officials have done.  The sad thing is that there are still small towns and even states that still think like this that don't think about the consequences.  I say deal with it, you can not change someone elses mine by force, have we not learned anything in our history books?  You can not think for others, others have different beliefs than you do.  Well there is a link at the bottom of this so you can put in on your opinions.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_lesbian_prom_date

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 

Rene wants to become a star, she puts her trust in this one man who makes her think that he will make her a star but he doesn't so she breaks down kills the guy, tricks her husband to take the blame for the murder but he then figures out that she and the guy that she murdered were having intercourse, so he confessed that she did it, and then she confessed and ended up in prison.  In reality her husband and then her future ex-husband should have been charged with being an accomplice.  In prison she sees Catherine who was committed of a double homicide and meets big mama who is a corrupt warden in that prison.  A group of women in prison start gabbing about how the one they loved or cared about had it common except for one, she did not murder her lover but was still in imprisoned by mistake.  Rene is being used by Richard in order for her to get out of prison but since Catharine told her that Richard is always on the spot light René tries to make the spot on her.  The more fame the better, more money and better title for the lawyer and better for the victim/defendant.  This new murder comes and manages to start stealing the entire spotlight until Rene reveals to the newspaper that she is pregnant.  What happens in real life was shown in the movie, an innocent woman was executed.  What lawyers might do at times in order to win, they might lead the client, meaning that they might help them out in the court by giving them hints on what to say so it would make them look good.  During court hearings sometimes surprise witnesses do pop out and objects are used as evidence to help against or for the defendant, but if evidence is being used it has to be within a search warrant and cannot invade anyone's privacy.  After the case whether they are guilty or not some murderers or non murderers can become addicted to the fame that came with the trial.  There have been cases were people end up idolizing and at times committing the same crime that some famous murder or ex-convict just because they wanted the same attention, these people have issues when it comes to being social with the world around them, most of the time I believe that these behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people, which of course leads to social psychology.People like Rene and Catherine's character need psychological treatment.  I am pretty sure that if they were to go to one they would be diagnosed with some time of severe disorder, murdering and then lying and being obsessed with the fame is definitely an abnormal behavior.

Ok. Here's your chance to post anything and everything you can find out about this case. If you have come here and you have not yet responded to the Prelminary Crime Scene Investigation post, STOP. Do that one and then come back :)

Tip: googling north carolina v. michael peterson will get you started....from there you are on your own :) See what you can find out!

What did you find most interesting or surprising about tuesday's discussion? What did you learn that you did not know before? Which of the roles that we covered that day (police, detective, sergeant, csi techs, etc) would you be most interested in? Why?

Next, assume that you are the detective. What are your first steps in the investigation? What questions do you initially have? How will you go about answering them? 

"Forensic Psychology Expertise in the Wake of Daubert" by Jane Goodman-Delahunty

Case: Daubert vs Merrell Dow Parmaceuticles, Inc

In this case the rules of "general acceptance" of scientific evidence were over ruled. In question was whether or not an experts testimony could be trusted. Because the forensic Psychologist will have to be more exact about the scientific evidence supporting their conclusion. This will bridge the gap between psychology and Law.

This is a breif summary of what is explained and argued throughout this article. Law and Psychology are very similar fields in that they both strive to help people. There is a problem, however, when a psychology expert is called to testify. This is because their views, or opinions, are taken in account as scienctific evidence.

http://www.jstor.org.proxy.lib.uni.edu/stable/1394168?seq=1 

Here is the link to the full article.

I have actually seen this site before in my Bio psych class and thought it was really interesting at the time and still do.  To me it relates to Psych and Law in the matter that it gives you a brief example of what is happening inside a person's head when they are on drugs and how they aren't acting like they would if they weren't.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1PMK3Z/learn.genetics.utah.edu/units/addiction/drugs/mouse.cfm

The following activty is from Rusty Juban's Management of Organizations class at Southeastern Lousiana University

The Stanford Prison Experiment

The Stanford Prison Experiment of 1971 is a dramatic example of the power of peer pressure, group norms, and institutional control to change the persona of normal people into brutal barbarians and whimpering broken souls. The 24 subjects were chosen from 70 applicants as the most normal, average, and healthy; in other words, those individuals most like you and I. Five days into a scheduled two-week experiment these individuals had become completely consumed by the artificial roles created for the experiment. So brutal were the "guards" (a randomly chosen dozen of the 24) and so emotionally distraught, depressed, and distressed were the "prisoners" (the other dozen of the 24), that at the end of five days the experiment was halted.

This is one of the most famous and dramatic experiments in Psychology and it has applications to those studying the art and science of management. Of course the study results have an impact on many facets of life and have thus become the subject of segments on 60 Minutes, Phil Donahue, PBS, and is even being developed as a Hollywood movie. Students and the public are very fortunate that details and pictures from this experiment are now available on the Stanford Prison Experiment Web site.

1. Should we be frightened by what this experiment shows?
2. What are some of the symbolic actions that reinforced the "prisoners" status?
3. What was the basis of power for the guards?