Judges and lawyers' beliefs in repression and dissociative amnesia may imperil justice: further guidance required.

This article examines continuing misunderstanding about memory function especially for trauma, across three UK samples (N = 717). Delayed allegations of child sexual and physical abuse are prevalent in Western legal systems and often rely upon uncorroborated memory testimony to prove guilt. U.K. legal professionals and jurors typically assess the reliability of such memory recall via common sense, yet decades of scientific research show common sense beliefs often conflict with science. Recent international surveys show controversial notions of repression and accurate memory recovery remain strongly endorsed. In historical cases, these notions may lead to wrongful convictions. The current study surveyed the U.K. public, lawyers, and mental health professionals' beliefs about repression, dissociative amnesia and false memories. Study findings give unique data on judges' and barristers' beliefs. Overall, the study findings reinforce international scientists' concerns of a science - knowledge-gap. Repression was strongly endorsed by lay, legal and clinical participants (> 78%) as was dissociative amnesia (> 87%). Moreover, suboptimal professional legal education and juror guidance may increase misunderstanding. Correcting beliefs about memory function, and extending the contribution of memory science in the courtroom remains an important quest for cognitive scientists.

Lawyers rapport building practices with child witnesses.

BACKGROUND: Existing literature on rapport building in forensic interviews with children has primarily focused on police or social workers (Collins et al., 2002); overlooking the lawyer-child relationship. OBJECTIVE: The present study was a novel exploration of the rapport building process between lawyers and child witnesses during the interview stage of a criminal proceeding. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: A total of 67 Canadian lawyers (Mage = 41.69, SD = 11.19; 51 % female-identifying) with experience questioning child witnesses (i.e., under 18 years old) were surveyed on their rapport building with child witnesses. METHODS: A self-report survey was used to assess how lawyers conceptualize and engage in rapport building with child witnesses. RESULTS: Lawyers were found to perceive rapport building as an important element when working with child witnesses; however, the lawyers' self-reported rapport building techniques overlooked several important elements of rapport building identified in forensic interviewing literature. Overall, the role of the lawyer (i.e., prosecution or defence), but rarely gender, influenced their self-reported rapport building methods. Prosecution lawyers tended to report behaviors that were more aligned with creating an interpersonal connection during the rapport building phase with the child, such as creating an environment where the child feels safe and comfortable. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide insight into how lawyers conceptualize and engage in rapport building with child witnesses. Overall, the lawyers perceived rapport building as an important element with child witnesses, but only some of the techniques mentioned are considered best practices to build rapport with children.

Child welfare predictive risk models and legal decision making.

BACKGROUND: Child welfare agencies around the world have experimented with algorithmic predictive modeling as a method to assist in decision making regarding foster child risk, removal and placement. OBJECTIVE: Thus far, all of the predictive risk models have been confined to the employees of the various child welfare agencies at the early removal stages and none have been used by attorneys in legal arguments or by judges in making child welfare legal decisions. This study will show the effects of a predictive model on legal decision making within a child welfare context. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Lawyers, judges and law students with experience in child welfare or juvenile law were recruited to take an online randomized vignette survey. METHODS: The survey consisted of two vignettes describing complex foster child removal and placement legal decisions where participants were exposed to one of three randomized predictive risk model scores. They were then asked follow up questions regarding their decisions to see if the risk models changed their answers. RESULTS: Using structural equation modeling, high predictive model risk scores showed consistent ability to change legal decisions about removal and placement across both vignettes. Medium and low scores, though less consistent, also significantly influenced legal decision making. CONCLUSIONS: Child welfare legal decision making can be affected by the use of a predictive risk model, which has implications for the development and use of these models as well as legal education for attorneys and judges in the field.

Professional Values and Mental Health Tribunals: How Healthcare Professionals' and Lawyers' Views Are Shaped by Values, and How This Might Impede Reform.

Most countries that provide for compulsory treatment for mental illness have a system by which this treatment is subject to independent legal oversight. Many countries use a special type of legal body for this purpose, called a mental health tribunal. Mental health tribunals have been subject to criticism from the points of view of both legal professionals and mental healthcare practitioners. Similar themes have manifested in these criticisms and have been consistent across several decades; legal professionals tend to focus on the tribunals being biased toward the medical opinion, and acting as a 'rubber stamp', whereas healthcare practitioners tend to focus on the adversarial nature of the trial, and the adverse effect that this can have on clients. However, empirical studies of the tribunals have not separated and directly compared these perspectives. This study aimed to explore this dynamic between lawyers' views and healthcare practitioners' views of mental health tribunals. We used thematic analysis to re-analyse data from two previous research studies, one which looked at lawyers' views of the tribunals, and one which looked at healthcare practitioners' views. Our results are divided into three themes: views of the problems with tribunals, professional roles in relationship to the tribunals and professional values demonstrated through these views and roles. We then consider if the 'clash of values' represented by these findings, and found in the literature, may pose an impediment to tribunal reform. Identifying and exploring this barrier is an important step to moving beyond critique to reform.

Forensic Professionals' Stress Inventory (FPSI): Development and psychometric properties.

Professionals in the justice system are particularly susceptible to occupational stress and burnout due to factors intrinsic to their profession. The Forensic Professional's Stress Inventory (FPSI) was designed to assess stress and psychological distress specifically in justice system professionals. A preliminary 41-item scale was administered to a sample of 690 forensic professionals (i.e., judges, lawyers, and attorneys). Exploratory factor analysis, exploratory structural equation modeling, and confirmatory factor analysis were conducted to find the most interpretable and parsimonious factor solution for FPSI. The 25-item bifactor model (with four first-order factors) demonstrated the most adequate fit to the data. Overall, FPSI revealed adequate psychometric properties and would be a useful instrument for assessing psychological strain and stress in forensic professionals.

"I think they do not know how to lie:" The perceptions of legal support staff about person with intellectual disabilities/autism in Turkish legal system.

BACKGROUND: Increased social integration of individuals with intellectual disabilities or autism could may raise their likelihood of interacting with justice system and legal staff. AIMS: The present article aimed to determine the perceptions of the legal support staff about the individuals with intellectual disabilities or autism. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In the study, conducted with the phenomenological method, the views of 15 legal support staff were obtained. The study reported what participants perceived and examined whether participants had an accurate understanding of the experiences/support needs of people with intellectual disabilities/autism. The data were analysed with content analysis. RESULTS: Three themes were determined: (1) Experience of interview with an individual with intellectual disabilities/autism, (2) attitudes of judges, lawyers and other staff, and (3) abuse/trauma. DISCUSSION: Findings are consistent with literature. Individuals with intellectual disabilities/autism have problems in expressing themselves, also staff do not know them, do not know their features. Studies show that staff often do not know what to do in these interviews. CONCLUSION: Based on the participant perspectives, it was determined that individuals with intellectual disabilities/autism experienced self-expression problems, interviewees did not understand children/individuals with intellectual disabilities or autism and could exhibit negative attitudes, the children could be abused and traumatised during judicial processes, they were more prone to abuse when compared to their peers, they could be involved in certain events more frequently and could be pushed to crime.

Diversity and Inclusion in the American Legal Profession: Discrimination and Bias Reported by Lawyers with Disabilities and Lawyers Who Identify as LGBTQ.

PURPOSE: This article is part of an ongoing body of investigation examining the experiences of lawyers with diverse and multiple minority identities, with particular focus on lawyers with disabilities; lawyers who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer ("LGBTQ+" as an overarching term); and lawyers with minority identities associated with race and ethnicity, gender, and age. The focus of this article is on discrimination and bias in their workplaces as reported by the lawyers experiencing it. METHODS: We employ survey data from the first phase of this investigation, gathered from the survey responses of 3590 lawyers located across all states in the United States and working in most types and sizes of legal venues. The data were collected between 2018 and 2019, before the 2020 pandemic. We estimate differences across three categories of discrimination reported-subtle-only discrimination, overt-only discrimination, and both subtle and overt discrimination. We estimate the nature and magnitude of associations among individual and organizational variables, and we use multinomial logistic regression to illustrate relative risks of reports of discrimination for intersecting identities. RESULTS: As compared to non-disabled lawyers, lawyers with disabilities show a higher likelihood of reporting both subtle and overt discrimination versus no discrimination. Similarly, lawyers who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer ("LGBQ") show a higher likelihood of reporting both subtle and overtdiscrimination, and subtle-only discrimination, as compared to lawyers who identify as straight/heterosexual. Women lawyers and lawyers of color are more likely to report all three types of discrimination. In general, younger lawyers are more likely to report subtle-only discrimination when compared to older lawyers. Lawyers working at a private firm are less likely to report all types of discrimination, while working for a larger organization is associated with a higher relative risk of reporting subtle-only discrimination versus no discrimination. CONCLUSIONS: The current study represents a next, incremental step for better understanding non-monochromatic and intersectional aspects of individual identity in the legal profession. The findings illustrate that primary individual and multiple minority identities, as identified by disability, sexual orientation, gender, race/ethnicity, and age, are associated with reports of discrimination and bias in the legal workplace.

COVID-19 exacerbates existing system factors that disadvantage defendants: Findings from a national survey of defense attorneys.

OBJECTIVE: COVID-19 has impacted many facets of daily life and the legal system is no exception. Legal scholars have hypothesized that the effects of the pandemic may contribute to more coercive plea bargains (Cannon, 2020; Johnson, 2020). In this study, we explored defense attorneys' perceptions of whether and how the plea process has changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. HYPOTHESES: This study was exploratory, and we made no a priori hypotheses. METHOD: We surveyed 93 practicing United States defense attorneys about their perceptions of whether and how the pandemic has affected court procedures, plea-bargaining and prosecutorial behavior, and defendant decision-making. We conducted semistructured follow-up interviews with 13 defense attorneys to help contextualize the survey responses. RESULTS: The majority of defense attorneys (81%, n = 76) reported that the plea process had changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that they experienced difficulty contacting and communicating with their clients, especially those who were detained. Two thirds of defense attorneys (n = 42) who said the plea process had changed thought that prosecutors were offering more lenient deals. One third of defense attorneys with detained clients (n = 23) reported having had clients plead guilty due to COVID-19 related conditions who might not have under normal circumstances. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of defense attorneys reported that the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted their ability to access and advise clients, and they believed that leverage in plea negotiations had shifted further to individual prosecutors. At the same time, the attorneys reported that prosecutors were offering more lenient deals, painting a complex picture of the plea negotiation process during the pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Negotiating with parents: Attorney practices in the juvenile plea bargain process.

OBJECTIVES: Research on plea bargaining is increasing, yet much of this work examines how the process unfolds in adult court. Plea bargaining in juvenile court has several notable differences such as parental involvement. Including parents throughout the adjudicatory process is encouraged but ultimately left up to the attorney. Research has not explored whether attorneys include parents in plea bargain discussions with their clients. The present study examined parental involvement in the juvenile plea bargain process. HYPOTHESES: We did not have any formal a priori hypotheses for this exploratory study. METHOD: The first author conducted qualitative interviews with eighteen defense attorneys from the juvenile division of a public defender's office on the East Coast where we discussed their most recent case that resulted in a plea bargain. RESULTS: Parents were included in plea negotiations and hearings. Attorneys described seeking parental input because parents may be impacted by the terms of the plea and because the court often seeks parental approval. During hearings, parents offered input regarding their child's ability to plea, the disposition plan, and whether they support their child's decision to plead guilty. CONCLUSIONS: Pleas might impact parents, so it may be impractical to overlook their interests. However, parent and child interests may conflict, and parents often lack understanding of their children's rights and pleading generally. Therefore, attorneys must not only advocate for their clients, but also educate and manage parents' interests both inside and outside the courtroom. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Stress, drink, leave: An examination of gender-specific risk factors for mental health problems and attrition among licensed attorneys.

Rates of mental illness and heavy alcohol use are exceedingly high in the legal profession, while attrition among women has also been a longstanding problem. Work overcommitment, work-family conflict, permissiveness toward alcohol in the workplace, and the likelihood of promotion are all implicated but have yet to be systematically investigated. Data were collected from 2,863 lawyers randomly sampled from the California Lawyers Association and D.C. Bar to address this knowledge gap. Findings indicated that the prevalence and severity of depression, anxiety, stress, and risky/hazardous drinking were significantly higher among women. Further, one-quarter of all women contemplated leaving the profession due to mental health concerns, compared to 17% of men. Logistic models were conducted to identify workplace factors predictive of stress, risky drinking, and contemplating leaving the profession. Overcommitment and permissiveness toward alcohol at work were associated with the highest likelihood of stress and risky drinking (relative to all other predictors) for both men and women. However, women and men differed with respect to predictors of leaving the profession due to stress or mental health. For women, work-family conflict was associated with the highest likelihood of leaving, while overcommitment was the number one predictor of leaving for men. Mental health and gender disparities are significant problems in the legal profession, clearly requiring considerable and sustained attention.

Informing reform: The views of legal professionals on the unique aspects of Scottish Law.

The unique Scottish legal system stands apart from the better-known Anglo-American legal system, with variations relating to jury size (15 vs. 12), the number of verdicts available (3 vs. 2) and majority size (simple majority vs. unanimous). At present, only a handful of investigations have explored the effects of the Scottish 'not proven' verdict on jurors, and only a single study has explored the combined impact of the unique elements of the Scottish legal system on juror and jury decision making. The current study is the first to investigate the views of Scottish legal professionals on the three-verdict system, 15-person jury and simple majority verdict system. The aim of the study is to inform public and political debate, involve legal stakeholders in policy changes and decision making and compare legal professionals' views with findings from previously conducted juror studies. Seventy-eight legal professionals took part in an online survey which asked for ratings and open responses on their attitudes to the Scottish (a) three-verdict system, (b) 15-person jury and (c) simple majority system. The results highlighted strong positive attitudes towards the 'not proven' verdict (particularly in a binary-verdict system of proven and not proven), 15-person juries and both the simple and qualified majority verdict systems. There was minimal support for reform towards an Anglo-American system. Instead, the reforms preferred by the legal professionals would be to require a qualified majority of 12/15 jurors, and to use a binary-verdict system of proven and not proven.

Valid or voodoo? A qualitative study of attorney perceptions of risk assessment in sentencing and plea bargaining.

Prior research largely has explored judicial perceptions of risk assessment in sentencing. Little is known about how other court actors, specifically, prosecutors and defense attorneys, perceive risk assessments in the sentencing process. Here, we report a qualitative study on the use of risk assessment by prosecutors and defense attorneys in Virginia. A prior survey (n = 70) pointed to a statistically significant difference in how prosecutors and defense attorneys view the role of recidivism risk in sentencing. On the basis of the results of this quantitative study, we collected follow-up qualitative data via interview (n = 30) to explain this unexpected difference. Analysis confirmed the survey findings that prosecutors and defense attorneys differ in their perceptions of risk assessment in sentencing. Results suggest that court actor perceptions vary as a function of professional role in the service of the identified client (the community or the defendant) and their interests. Although perceptions diverged on utility risk assessment in sentencing, both prosecutors and defense attorneys were outspoken in their skepticism of the Nonviolent Risk Assessment instrument that is used to predict recidivism risk in Virginia. This latter finding identifies obstacles that may emerge as jurisdictions adopt a risk-based approach to sentencing. We conclude with recommendations for addressing these barriers that may provide useful guidance on the implementation process.

Judging in the genomic era: judges' genetic knowledge, confidence and need for training.

Genetic information is increasingly used in many contexts, including health, insurance, policing and sentencing-with numerous potential benefits and risks. Protecting from the related risks requires updates to laws and procedures by justice systems. These updates depend to a large extent on what the key stakeholders-the judiciary-know and think about the use of genetic information. This study used a battery of 25 genetic knowledge items to collect data from 73 supreme court judges from the same country (Romania) on their knowledge of genetic information. Their responses were compared with those of two other groups: lawyers (but not judges; N = 94) and non-lawyers (N = 116) from the same country. The data were collected at approximately the same time from the three groups. The judges' results were also compared to the results obtained from a general population data collection (N = 5310). The results showed that: (1) judges had overall better knowledge of genetics than the other groups, but their knowledge was uneven across different genetic concepts; (2) judges were overall more confident in their knowledge than the other two groups, but their confidence was quite low; and (3) the correlation between knowledge and confidence was moderate for judges, weak for lawyers and not significant for non-lawyers. Finally, 100% of the judges agreed that information on gene-environment processes should be included in judges' training. Increasing genetic expertise of the justice stakeholders is an important step towards achieving adequate legal protection against genetic data misuse.

Ethics of life-sustaining treatment in locked-in syndrome: A Chinese survey.

BACKGROUND: Locked-in syndrome (LIS) characterizes individuals who have experienced pontine lesions, who have limited motor output but with preserved cognitive abilities. Despite their severe physical impairment, individuals with LIS self-profess a higher quality of life than generally expected. Such third-person expectations about LIS are shaped by personal and cultural factors in western countries. OBJECTIVE: We sought to investigate whether such opinions are further influenced by the cultural background in East Asia. We surveyed attitudes about the ethics of life-sustaining treatment in LIS in a cohort of medical and non-medical Chinese participants. RESULTS: The final study sample included 1545 respondents: medical professionals (n=597, 39%), neurologists (n=303, 20%), legal professionals (n=276, 18%) and other professionals (n=369, 24%), including 180 family members of individuals with LIS. Most of the participants (70%), especially neurologists, thought that life-sustaining treatment could not be stopped in individuals with LIS. It might be unnecessary to withdraw life-sustaining treatment, because the condition involved is not terminal and irreversible, and physical treatment can be beneficial for the patient. A significant proportion (59%) of respondents would like to be kept alive if they were in that condition; however, older people thought the opposite. Families experience the stress of caring for individuals with LIS. The mean (SD) quality of life score for relatives was 0.73 (2.889) (on a -5, +5 scale), which was significantly lower than that of non-relatives, 1.75 (1.969) (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Differences in opinions about end of life in LIS are affected by personal characteristics. The current survey did not identify a dissociation between personal preferences and general opinions, potentially because of a social uniformity in China where individualism is less pronounced. Future open-ended surveys could identify specific needs of caregivers so that strategic interventions to reduce ethical debasement are designed.

Self-Care in an Interprofessional Setting Providing Services to Detained Immigrants with Serious Mental Health Conditions.

The authors are social workers and lawyers in an interprofessional setting providing legal and social services to detained immigrants in deportation proceedings who have serious mental health conditions. Drawing on direct experience working in the setting, as well as survey responses and feedback from other involved providers, the authors (a) identify barriers to self-care for social workers and lawyers that prevent them from effectively addressing the effects of secondary trauma; (b) propose a relationship-centered framework that, as an alternative to individualized practices of self-care, serves as a way to overcome those barriers; and (c) apply that framework to a case example from their interprofessional setting. The authors advocate for a relationship-centered, recovery-based approach to self-care to manage trauma exposure responses for social workers and lawyers in their specific interprofessional setting and for those working together in similar settings.

Withholding and Withdrawal of Treatments: Differences in Perceptions between Intensivists, Oncologists, and Prosecutors in Brazil.

Background: Legal concerns have been implicated in the occurrence of variability in decisions of limitations of medical treatment (LOMT) before death. Objective: We aimed to assess differences in perceptions between physicians and prosecutors toward LOMT. Measurements: We sent a survey to intensivists, oncologists, and prosecutors from Brazil, from February 2018 to May 2018. Respondents rated the degree of agreement with withholding or withdrawal of therapies in four different vignettes portraying a patient with terminal lung cancer. We measured the difference in agreement between respondents. Results: There were 748 respondents, with 522 (69.8%) intensivists, 106 (14.2%) oncologists, and 120 (16%) prosecutors. Most respondents agreed with withhold of chemotherapy (95.2%), withhold of mechanical ventilation (MV) (90.2%), and withdrawal of MV (78.4%), but most (75%) disagreed with withdrawal of MV without surrogate's consent. Prosecutors were less likely than intensivists and oncologists to agree with withhold of chemotherapy (95.7% vs. 99.2% vs. 100%, respectively, p < 0.001) and withhold of MV (82.4% vs. 98.3% vs. 97.9%, respectively, p < 0.001), whereas intensivists were more likely to agree with withdrawal of MV than oncologists (87.1% vs. 76.1%, p = 0.002). Moreover, prosecutors were more likely to agree with withholding of active cancer treatment than with withholding of MV [difference (95% confidence interval, CI) = 13.2% (5.2 to 21.6), p = 0.001], whereas physicians were more likely to agree with withholding than with withdrawal of MV [difference (95% CI) = 10.9% (7.8 to 14), p < 0.001]. Conclusions: This study found differences and agreements in perceptions toward LOMT between prosecutors, intensivists, and oncologists, which may inform the discourse aimed at improving end-of-life decisions.

Criminal Justice Professionals' Attitudes Toward Mental Illness and Substance Use.

Despite the high prevalence of behavioral health disorders in justice settings and prior research on the importance of attitudes in successful treatment outcomes for behavioral health populations, few studies have examined criminal justice professionals' attitudes toward mental illness and substance use. We conducted a state-wide survey of 610 criminal justice professionals using items adapted from the Drug and Drug Problems Perceptions Questionnaire (Albery et al. 2003) to examine attitudes toward mental illness and substance use as a function of criminal justice position and personal contact. For attitudes toward both mental illness and substance use, defense attorneys and community corrections officers reported more positive attitudes relative to jail correctional staff and prosecutors. For attitudes toward substance use, personal contact moderated the effect of position on attitudes. Findings underscore the importance of targeted training and other contact-based interventions to improve criminal justice professionals' attitudes toward behavioral health populations.

Patients' Perspectives on Approaches to Facilitate Completion of Advance Directives.

BACKGROUND: Little is understood about the different ways patients complete advance directives (ADs), which is most commonly through lawyers and increasingly using websites. OBJECTIVE: To understand patients' perspectives on different approaches to facilitating AD completion, the value of legal regulation of ADs, and the use of a web-based platform to create an AD. DESIGN: Semi-structured interviews with patients. SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: We purposively sampled 25 patients at least 70 years of age or with a chronic disease from 2 internal medicine clinics. MEASUREMENTS: Interviews focused on experiences and perspectives creating ADs, including facilitation by lawyers, health-care professionals, and websites. Feedback on a website prototype was also obtained. Responses were analyzed with modified grounded theory until thematic saturation was achieved. RESULTS: Although a majority of participants with ADs had used lawyers, participants were ambivalent about the benefits of lawyer facilitation. Most valued both the medical perspective of a health-care professional and a lawyer's attention to legal requirements for AD validity. Participants had positive impressions of the web platform, but some were concerned about privacy with online storage. Trust emerged as an overarching theme, and participants valued legal regulation of ADs to ensure document authenticity and delivery of preference-concordant care. CONCLUSION: Efforts to improve documentation of care planning need to address the disparate methods by which participants complete ADs. Creating options that combine the perceived benefits of a legal approach with greater health professional involvement could appeal to participants. Privacy concerns may limit web use by some patients.

The sensitive prosecutor: Emotional experiences of prosecutors in managing criminal proceedings.

For over three decades, therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) has produced rich scholarship highlighting the inseparable connection between law and personal wellbeing. Only recently, however, have TJ scholars begun to explore the influence that the law has on those practicing it. The current research aims to contribute to this developing area of study. It explores the "emotional map" of public prosecutors in relation to defendants and crime victims, their awareness to these emotions and the impact that these emotions have on their professional decisions. The research involves in-depth interviews with 14 public prosecutors handling criminal cases in Israeli courts. The qualitative, phenomenological analysis of the documented interviews revealed three exposure levels in which interviewees discussed the emotional aspects of their work. The tension between resisting emotions and accepting them was lurking upon each one of the subjects. Their descriptions of specific raw emotions emerged at the deepest level of exposure, and at that level, anger was the most prominent emotion. Our findings raise some skepticism regarding the prosecutor image as a completely rational and provide the insight that prosecutors' emotional world is boiling underneath the surface. Moreover, the exposure of the continuous tension between acceptance and rejection of emotions provides an explanation for the prosecutors' difficulty in acknowledging their emotions in full. This tension negatively impacts the prosecutors' personal and professional lives in ways that resemble psychological symptoms of secondary trauma. The findings may contribute to the development of a "knowledge base" of emotional experiences of prosecutors that could enable the creation of models for regulating and managing emotions of legal agents, for the benefit of litigants, legal agents, and the legal process more broadly.