Recently in Projects 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

By Thursday of every week, you should have completed the activities associated with 1 project. You should blog about your experience as a comment to the blog posting of that particular project. Your blog comment can be largely experiential--tell us what it was like to do the project and what you learned. Products associated with the project and a more detailed analysis of the project will go in your portfolio (see the Portfolio blog post).

Project #14 - Your Experience

You may choose to document your own personal experience with crime or the legal system for this project.

The Movie takes place in Mexico City, it starts off with a rich man having to pay for his son's ransom, and that is what the whole movie is about, it is about money and kidnapping.  A Body Guard is hired and is being payed very low because of his alcohol problem.  He is hired to escort a daughter named Pita by a Wealthy man.  His wife took a liking to the Body Guard immediately all because he was an American.  The Body Guard had many related skills relating to being a Body Guard, however he had never protected children before.  At first the Body Guard does not want to develop a friendship with the little girl but later on he does anyway.  The Pita (the little girl/daughter of the rich guy) informs the Body Guard that there has been 24 kidnappings in the last six days, four each day.  He is some how psychologically damaged from his past, he dislikes his job so much, he tries to fit in God into his life and wonders if God would ever forgive him (because of his psychological damage I can see why he has a drinking problem). Later on both the Boday Guard and Pita take notice of a car behind them, they both write down the license plate number.  Pita is at her piano classes, the Boday Guard is waiting outside, a dog is let loose the Body Guard puts it back in the car from where it came from and all of a sudden he sees the familiar car pull up where Pita was coming out tries to kidnap her but the Body Guard pulls out his gun unfortunately cops get in the way, Boday Guard shoots and kills two, kidnappers kidnapped Pita.  Turns out the cops were not on duty and yet still had their uniform on and exactly at the scene of the crime so they were crooked cops.  A ransom was offered but no successful, later on turns out the head of the dapartment of anti-kidnapping stole half of the ransom money which was 5 million in total 10 million, but the head stole 5 million of paper not money, the other million went to the Pita's father's lawyer and the kidnappers and in a way he got some money back to help him out of debt but everything was placed on hold because the other half was fake. Of course the Body Guard discovered all of this by going back to the scene of the crimes going around asking questions to witnessess or suspects like a detective.  He builds an alliance with a newsreporter named Maria and his old partner during his lasts jobs.  The Father committed suicide and he made a deal with the kidnappers, "A life for a life."  In exchanged the main Kidnapper's brother and the BodyGuard for Pita, Pita returned safely.  Can you actually imagine going through all of that?  Of course the movie is a bit exagerated, you just wouldn't be blowing off anyone's head off out of anger.  Kidnapping happens every where in this world at any time and any place but rich people are the ultimate targets all because of the economic issues that a person faces that or because of greed.

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.

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.

By Thursday of every week, you should have completed the activities associated with 1 project. You should blog about your experience as a comment to the blog posting of that particular project. Your blog comment can be largely experiential--tell us what it was like to do the project and what you learned. Products associated with the project and a more detailed analysis of the project will go in your portfolio (see the Portfolio blog post).

Project #13 Crime Scene Workshop

This project is a little different. I'm organizing a crime scene workshop for students in 9th-12th grade on April 6th, from 10:30-11:15am. Students will come in and rotate through their choice of 2 or 3 stations where they will learn a particular technique, and then rotate through an area which will be a mock crime scene. Your mission (should you choose to accept it) will be to develop and staff one of the stations. I have equipment and materials to help you out. Up to 3 students (psylaw students) could develop and work each station.

You can choose from the following stations: forensic memory collection (interviewing and composites), forensic photography, forensic entomology, forensic science (blood, fiber, fingerprint), and the crime scene itself.

For this project, given it's specific date and time and need for advance planning, I'll need to know ahead of time if you are interested. So post as a comment here if you want to do this as one of your projects and which station you are interested in.

By Thursday of every week, you should have completed the activities associated with 1 project. You should blog about your experience as a comment to the blog posting of that particular project. Your blog comment can be largely experiential--tell us what it was like to do the project and what you learned. Products associated with the project and a more detailed analysis of the project will go in your portfolio (see the Portfolio blog post).

Project #12 - Case Analysis

Search and find a case using WestLaw or Nexus/Lexus on a topic of interest to you and related to psychology and law. For your comment, tell us what case you chose and why, and a short summary. For your portfolio, include a detailed analysis of the case, including what psychological or psy/law principles are operating in that case.

By Thursday of every week, you should have completed the activities associated with 1 project. You should blog about your experience as a comment to the blog posting of that particular project. Your blog comment can be largely experiential--tell us what it was like to do the project and what you learned. Products associated with the project and a more detailed analysis of the project will go in your portfolio (see the Portfolio blog post).

Project #11 -Choose a Person

Choose a person/role in the legal system. Construct a comprehensive review of that person's role in the legal system. Who are they? Characteristics? Circumstances? Education/training required? Anything and everything you would need to know to 'be' this person! Your comment can just briefly tell us which person you are choosing and why, and your portfolio will have all of the rest.

Some people to choose from:

Bailiff

CSI Technician

Detectives

Expert Witnesses

Forensic Technician

Inmates

Investigators

Judges

Jurors

Jury Commissioners

Juvenile Offenders

Juvenile Counseling Officers

Lieutenant

Parole Officer

Perpetrators

Police Officers

Private Defense Attorneys

Private Detectives

Probation Officer

Profilers

Prosecutors

Public Defenders

Sergeants

Suspects

Victims

Witnesses

By Thursday of every week, you should have completed the activities associated with 1 project. You should blog about your experience as a comment to the blog posting of that particular project. Your blog comment can be largely experiential--tell us what it was like to do the project and what you learned. Products associated with the project and a more detailed analysis of the project will go in your portfolio (see the Portfolio blog post).

Project #10 - Article Summary

For this project, read an academic journal article (either from a psychology or a law journal). Use PsychInfo, PsycArticles, WestLaw, or Nexus/Lexus to find articles. Make sure the article relates in some way to course material.

Your comment should briefly summarize what your article was about and what you found interesting about it. For your portfolio, you should provide the article and a formal summary and analysis of the article where you discuss the main point of the article, hypotheses (if appropriate), methods (if an experiment/study), outcomes/results, and overall conclusions.

By Thursday of every week, you should have completed the activities associated with 1 project. You should blog about your experience as a comment to the blog posting of that particular project. Your blog comment can be largely experiential--tell us what it was like to do the project and what you learned. Products associated with the project and a more detailed analysis of the project will go in your portfolio (see the Portfolio blog post).

Project #9 - Courthouse Visit

Go to a courthouse and view a court proceeding or portion of jury selection or jury trial. For your comment tell us about where you went and what you saw (briefly). For your portfolio, provide more detailed information and a written analysis.

By Thursday of every week, you should have completed the activities associated with 1 project. You should blog about your experience as a comment to the blog posting of that particular project. Your blog comment can be largely experiential--tell us what it was like to do the project and what you learned. Products associated with the project and a more detailed analysis of the project will go in your portfolio (see the Portfolio blog post).

Project #8 - Construct a Lineup

Construct a lineup using federal guidelines and conduct a mock witness evaluation (information about both is available on the blog). Comment about your experience. Include all documentation, analyses, etc, in your portfolio.

Read about lineup fairness here: http://eyewitness.utep.edu/consult04A.html

Read about evaluating lineups here: http://eyewitness.utep.edu/consult05B.html

Go here for photos: http://www.dc.state.fl.us/AppCommon/

Choose a guy (search on some characteristics, or a name).

Then find fillers to match

Copy and paste into a word document

Print.

Show to friends (at least 10), collect data

Calculate lineup bias: http://eyewitness.utep.edu/documents/bias-calc.xls

By Thursday of every week, you should have completed the activities associated with 1 project. You should blog about your experience as a comment to the blog posting of that particular project. Your blog comment can be largely experiential--tell us what it was like to do the project and what you learned. Products associated with the project and a more detailed analysis of the project will go in your portfolio (see the Portfolio blog post).

Project #7 - Wrongfull Convicted

Choose one of the people who has been wrongfully convicted (there are many posted on this blog) and learn all you can about this person. Go beyond the profile that you read at one of the innocence websites. Find news articles about their case, case law, anything and everything. Be sure to learn about what issues were at the heart of their conviction, and what issues were at the heart of their release. Your comment will give us a quick summary of who you chose, why, and what the main issues are. For your portfolio, include everything you find about this person and your analyses of the issues and your experience researching the person.

By Thursday of every week, you should have completed the activities associated with 1 project. You should blog about your experience as a comment to the blog posting of that particular project. Your blog comment can be largely experiential--tell us what it was like to do the project and what you learned. Products associated with the project and a more detailed analysis of the project will go in your portfolio (see the Portfolio blog post).

Project #6 - Amicus Brief Analysis

Choose an Amicus Brief related in some way to psychology. Read the brief, find newspaper accounts about the case (if available), find case law, and other sources related to the topic (these might be journal articles on the psychological issue in general, websites, or blogs), and write an analysis of the legal and psychological issues. Remember, your comment here, is about what your topic is and your experience researching it. What goes in your portfolio are all the above products and your analysis.

By Thursday of every week, you should have completed the activities associated with 1 project. You should blog about your experience as a comment to the blog posting of that particular project. Your blog comment can be largely experiential--tell us what it was like to do the project and what you learned. Products associated with the project and a more detailed analysis of the project will go in your portfolio (see the Portfolio blog post).

Project #5 - Interview a Professional

Choose a relevant profession or role in the legal system, law enforcement, or Psychology/Law related profession. Find a person who is willing to talk to you about their job. This person can be local, from your hometown or anywhere that your internet connection takes you. Please do not just rely on email; it is preferable that you speak to them over the phone or in person. This should be a conversation, not a Q&A. Then, construct a Day in the Life essay. If you have never seen one of these before, google it, and you'll find many. Your comment will be about how you found the person, who they are and your experiencing talking with them. You will put your essay (which will also include that information) in your portfolio.

By Thursday of every week, you should have completed the activities associated with 1 project. You should blog about your experience as a comment to the blog posting of that particular project. Your blog comment can be largely experiential--tell us what it was like to do the project and what you learned. Products associated with the project and a more detailed analysis of the project will go in your portfolio (see the Portfolio blog post).

Project #4 OnLine Autopsy

There is an online autopsy post available on the blog with a couple of options, and probably others elsewhere on the internet. Do one of these autopsies.

By Thursday of every week, you should have completed the activities associated with 1 project. You should blog about your experience as a comment to the blog posting of that particular project. Your blog comment can be largely experiential--tell us what it was like to do the project and what you learned. Products associated with the project and a more detailed analysis of the project will go in your portfolio (see the Portfolio blog post).

Project #3 LegalVote

This website provides case details and asks you to act as jurors and render a verdict. It was designed to allow attorneys to test their theories prior to trial to see how potential jurors might react. It appears to be defunct, but there is one case still there: 

http://www.legalvote.com/worth/worth11139.phtml 

By Thursday of every week, you should have completed the activities associated with 1 project. You should blog about your experience as a comment to the blog posting of that particular project. Your blog comment can be largely experiential--tell us what it was like to do the project and what you learned. Products associated with the project and a more detailed analysis of the project will go in your portfolio (see the Portfolio blog post).

Watch one of these movies: http://www.psychologicalscience.com/psylaw/teaching-resources/movies/. Your comment can be just your general impressions and opinion of the movie. For your portfolio you should link relevant course material to the movie. Incorporate information, concepts, and explanation from readings and lecture and relate them tot he movie. In partuclar, explain how psychology and law specifically relates to the story, viewpoints, setting, and/or characters' behavior. Beware that not all legal or psychological content in a movie is accurate content! Be a critical and informed consumer of the information.

By Thursday of every week, you should have completed the activities associated with 1 project. You should blog about your experience as a comment to the blog posting of that particular project. Your blog comment can be largely experiential--tell us what it was like to do the project and what you learned. Products associated with the project and a more detailed analysis of the project will go in your portfolio (see the Portfolio blog post).

Project #1 - Create a Composite

Check out Faces software from me. This is the software used by law enforcement to make composite drawings of suspects. Install the software onto your computer. Review the guidelines for interviewing witnesses (Eyewitness Guide-available on the blog). Ask a friend to act as a witness. Ask them to formulate in their mind a picture of someone they know (it would be good if they had a photograph they could later show you). Interview this 'witness' and make a composite drawing of their 'suspect.'