FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY
GLOSSARY
ACQUITTAL: Used in criminal cases to designate a finding, after trial, that a defendant is not guilty of the crime charged.
ACCUSATORIAL: (of a trial or legal procedure) involving accusation by a prosecutor and a verdict reached by an impartial judge or jury.
ADVERSARY SYSTEM: A procedural system found in the United States and some other countries, in which each party has an opportunity to present opposing views in front of a tribunal that is not itself responsible for conducting an investigation into the facts.
ADVERSE WITNESS: A witness for the opposing party.
ALIBI: A statement by somebody that says you were in a different place at the time of a crime and so cannot be guilty of the crime.
ALLEGATION: A positive assertion especially of misconduct or a statement by a party to a legal action of what the party undertakes to prove.
CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE: Evidence of facts that the court can draw conclusions from.
CLEAR AND CONVINCING PROOF: A measure of persuasion greater than a mere preponderance of evidence but less than beyond a reasonable doubt; defined as proof that produces a firm belief or conviction as to the proposition sought to be established
COERCIVE INTERROGATION: involves the application of force, physical or mental in order to extract information necessary to save others.
COGNITIVE DISREGARD: People pay more attention to in-group members in order to conserve their resources.
CORROBORATING EVIDENCE: evidence that strengthens or confirms already existing evidence. In courts, it is used to support the testimony of a witness.
CONFESSION: an act of admitting that you have done something bad or wrong.
CONFIDENCE- ACCURACY RELATIONSHIP: The assumption is that as one's confidence increases so does their level of accuracy.
CONTACT PERSPECTIVE: Positive attitudes towards other racial groups should positively correlate with the ability to recognise members of that group.
CONVICT: Saying officially in a court of law that somebody is guilty of a crime.
CROSS RACE EFFECT: the tendency to more easily recognize faces that belong to one's own racial group.
A CUSTODIAL INTERROGATION: (or, generally, custodial situation) is a situation in which the suspect's freedom of movement is restrained, even if they are not under arrest.
DEFENDANT: The accused in a criminal case; the alleged tortfeasor (wrongdoer) in a TORT case.
DEPOSITION: A proceeding in which a witness is questioned or “deposed,” out of court, usually by an opposing party. The deposition is transcribed for use both in preparation for trial and at the trial itself, where it may be entered in evidence in the witness’s absence or used to impeach the witness if he or she testifies.
DNA PROFILING: A forensic technique in criminal investigations, comparing criminal suspects' profiles to DNA evidence so as to assess the likelihood of their involvement in the crime.
DNA EXONERATION: Exoneration based on DNA analysis.
EXONERATION: The act of proving that somebody was not guilty of a crime.
EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY: It refers to an account given by people of an event they have witnessed.
FALSE CONFESSION: A false confession is an admission of guilt for a crime which the individual did not commit.
FALSE MEMORY: A phenomenon where someone recalls something that did not happen or recalls it differently from the way it actually happened.
FOIL IDENTIFICATION: Incorrect identification of a known innocent person as a perpetrator by an eyewitness.
FALSE REJECTION: Rejection of a lineup by an eyewitness due to failure in recognizing the perpetrator.
FOIL: People present in a lineup who are known to be innocent to the authorities.
GUARDIAN: A person lawfully invested with the power to and charged with the duty of making personal and/or financial decisions for a person who, due to some deficiency, is considered incapable of doing so.
GUILTY BUT MENTALLY ILL: A verdict in criminal cases that first enjoyed widespread popularity in the early 1980s, providing the jury with a compromise between a guilty verdict and a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.
INCARCERATION: Confined in prison.
INCULPATORY : implying or imputing guilt; tending to incriminate or inculpate.
INFORMED CONSENT: Consent to a treatment that is based on adequate knowledge about the risks and benefits of the treatment, is not coerced, and is given while the individual is competent to do so.
INSANITY: A lack of responsibility for one’s acts due to mental disease or illness.
INTERROGATION: The process of questioning by evidence or information related to a crime is obtained, commonly employed by law enforcement officers, military personnel, intelligence agencies, organized crime syndicates, and terrorist organizations.
INSTRUCTION: An explanation of the law by the judge to the jury, designed to guide the jury in its deliberations.
JUVENILE: In most states, a person under the age of 18.
LEADING QUESTION: A question that suggests its answer; technically prohibited on direct examination.
LINEUP: A process by which a suspect in custody is placed among a group of other persons whose general appearance resembles the suspect for identification by the witness.
MENTAL DISEASE OR DEFECT: The threshold mental condition for the INSANITY defense, and in some states for the DIMINISHED CAPACITY defense.
MENTAL STATE (CONDITION) AT THE TIME OF THE OFFENSE: Those aspects of a criminal defendant’s functioning that are relevant to INSANITY.
MURDER: The unlawful killing of a human being with “malice” or purpose.
OBJECTION: A formal exception to a statement made by a witness, lawyer, or judge, or a procedure followed by a lawyer or judge, designed to have the statement of a witness or lawyer stricken from the record or the procedure aborted. If the objection is “overruled,” as opposed to “sustained,” it may be “preserved” by the objecting party in order to create a record for appellate review.
OPINION TESTIMONY: Testimony as to what the witness infers with respect to facts in dispute, as distinguished from personal knowledge of the facts themselves. Generally, only expert witnesses may offer opinions.
OPTIMALITY ENCODING HYPOTHESIS: Optimality hypothesis states that if an individual witnessed a crime in optimal conditions say day instead of night then they are more confident in their testimony.
PAROLE: Conditional release of a convict before the expiration of his or her sentence; failure to abide by conditions of parole will result in the convict serving the remainder of the sentence.
PARTIES: Those persons or entities involved in the litigation, as defined by the pleadings in civil cases and the INFORMATION or INDICTMENT in criminal cases.
PERPETRATOR: A person who has committed a crime.
PLAINTIFF: In civil cases, the person who initiates the litigation by filing a complaint.
PLEA BARGAINING: The process by which a criminal defendant seeks a reduced charge or a recommended sentence from the prosecutor in exchange for a plea of guilty.
POLICE MISCONDUCT: refers to inappropriate conduct and illegal actions taken by police officers in connection with their official duties.
POLICE POWER: The authority of the state to act to protect the public welfare; punishing criminal offenders is the primary exercise of this authority.
PRELIMINARY HEARING: Any of a number of different pretrial hearings in the criminal process concerning issues such as probable cause to detain, bail, and whether a Prima facie case against the defendant exists.
PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE: A presumption that a person charged with an offense is innocent, which can be rebutted through adequate proof of guilt. Somewhat different from the normal PRESUMPTION, since no predicate fact need be proven in order to benefit from the “presumption.”
PROBABLE CAUSE: A reasonable ground for belief in the truthfulness of a proposition. Most commonly used in criminal law to refer to the degree of certainty required for issuing an arrest or search warrant, or for detaining an arrested person.
PROBATE: The process of certifying the validity of a will and distributing its bequests.
PROBATION: The suspension of a sentence at the time of sentencing on the condition that the offender abides by conditions set by the court. If these conditions are violated, the offender may be required to serve the remainder of the sentence.
PROBATIVE: Having the quality or function of proving or demonstrating something; affording proof or evidence.
PROSECUTOR: An official of the state responsible for charging persons with crime and representing the state against those so charged at pretrial and trial proceedings.
RECALL: Retrieving information without any cues.
RECOGNITION: Identifying someone familiar in a lineup.
REID TECHNIQUE: interrogation is an accusatory process, in which the investigator tells the suspect that the results of the investigation clearly indicate that they did commit the crime in question. The Reid technique user's goal is to make the suspect gradually more comfortable with telling the truth.
SINGLE SUSPECT MODEL: Use of foils in a lineup where the actual suspect is also present.
TESTIMONIAL CAPACITY: The capacity to testify, usually defined as the ability to observe and remember events and to understand the oath requiring that testimony be truthful.
TESTIMONY: Evidence given by a witness under oath, as distinguished from written or other tangible evidence.
UNIMPEACHABLE: not able to be doubted, questioned, or criticized; entirely trustworthy.
WITNESS: A person who saw a crime or was a victim of a crime.