The latest in my ‘Learn Something New Every Day’ series – taken from The Great Courses’ “Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works” (Lecture 30: When forensics are on trial) In order to be admissible in court, evidence must meet criteria of relevance (pertaining to the matter at hand) and probative (has to prove something […]
Pleading Insanity
Nearly there… only a few more lectures to go in this very interesting, very long course “Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works” (Lecture 29: Forensic Psychology/Psychiatry) Only 1 in 100 cases in the US includes an insanity plea and, of those, only 1 in 10 are found to be criminally insane. Given the 1 […]
Lazy cops, psycho inmates and Jeffrey Dahmer
The latest in my ‘Learn Something New Every Day’ series – taken from The Great Courses’ “Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works” (Lecture 29: Forensic Psychology/Psychiatry) In 1991, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer chased his drugged, escaped, 14-year-old victim onto the street where he located him trying to seek help from passing police. Dahmer calmly […]
The Irony of Pseudo-Malingering
The latest in my ‘Learn Something New Every Day’ series – taken from The Great Courses’ “Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works” (Lecture 29: Forensic Psychology & Psychiatry) There are four kinds of Deception seen in forensic psychology/psychiatry MALINGERING (simulation) – when someone consciously fakes a mental illness to get treated differently under the […]
Ten interesting things about the US legal system
The latest in my ‘Learn Something New Every Day’ series – taken from The Great Courses’ “Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works” (Lecture 30: When forensics are on trial) 1. Jail and Prison are different. A jail is a local holding facility for those awaiting trail or for completion of short sentences (under a […]
How to conduct a good witness line-up…
The latest in my ‘Learn Something New Every Day’ series – taken from The Great Courses’ “Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works” (Lecture 28: Human Memory and Eye-witness Accounts) Because of the importance of witness identification in criminal convictions (and the dire, dire straits for the convicted and legal system when someone innocent is […]
There are four kinds of memory…
The latest in my ‘Learn Something New Every Day’ series – taken from The Great Courses’ “Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works” (Lecture 28: Human Memory and Eye-witness Accounts) Cognitive Memory – this is the memory that the brain bases on sequences and patterns such as names, phone numbers, languages. It’s a conscious kind […]
“Oh, you [insert nationality here] all look the same to me…”
The latest in my ‘Learn Something New Every Day’ series – taken from The Great Courses’ “Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works” (Lecture 28: Human Memory and Eye-witness Accounts) No, we’re not all racist jerks. You can blame this one on a phenomena called Cross Racial Identification Bias. Studies have shown that humans are […]
Ten things you may not have known about Memory
The latest in my ‘Learn Something New Every Day’ series – taken from The Great Courses’ “Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works” (Lecture 28: Human Memory and Eye-witness Accounts) Brains try to help, but… Our brains don’t capture an event exactly as it happens, they capture an ‘impression’ of an event, including input from […]
75% of wrongful convictions are due to faulty eyewitness accounts
The latest in my ‘Learn Something New Every Day’ series – taken from The Great Courses’ “Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works” (Lecture 28: Human Memory and Eye-witness Accounts) There are two layers of memory – Short-term memories are happening now. Immediate and immediately past. Often these memories are not fully processed by the […]