In Doubt: The Psychology of the Criminal Justice Process

Having taught forensic evidence in law school, and been a lawyer and a judge, I recommend a very important book to anyone interested in the current state of criminal justice. Things are going wrong--we know this because we now have hundreds of wrongful convictions to prove it. We are beginning to understand how this can come to be, and Dan Simon's book, among a select few others, is an important read for anyone who wants to understand the problems, how they come to be, and how they might be fixed.Since the early 1990's, when DNA typing began to be used in the criminal justice system, unsound criminal convictions and DNA-supported exonerations have shown that there is something wrong in the way we investigate and try criminal cases. To date, DNA has exonerated about 320 innocent persons, some decades after being convicted. Closer looks at non-DNA cases seem to account for over a thousand other exonerations of the wrongly convicted. Analysis of these wrongful convictions shows disturbing patterns. Eyewitness testimony--frequently from the victim of the crime--is shown to be faulty in about 80% of the exonerations. Faulty or misleading forensic science (read:CSI) is present in 61%. DNA has even exonerated persons who have confessed or pled guilty in court (5% or a little more), showing that even confessions are not terribly reliable predictors of guilt.Dan Simon is one of the latest writers who takes a look at this problem. Behavioral science has identified pervasive sources of bias in police practice, prosecutorial decision-making, and judging in criminal cases. Eyewitnesses who are unsure are asked to identify perpetrators under circumstances that skew their decisions and reinforce incorrect guesses as to the identity of perpetrators. Forensic scientists, rather than testing blind examples against samples from the crime, are sometimes aware of the contexts in which the examples are gathered, and their relevance to the case, biasing them in favor of declaring a relevant "match". Prosecutors and judges reconcile conflicting evidence in the direction of their strongest suspicions, excluding obviously conflicting evidence from their thinking ("tunnel vision"). All contribute to demonstrate beyond a doubt that intentional or unintentional, there are problems with the way we investigate crimes and seek to punish people we believe to be offenders.Simon identifies the problems with faulty evidence clearly. He also talks about what we know about bias from current behavioral studies that contributes to the resistance of police, prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges to look at some obvious and obviously simple solutions. LIke David Harris (whose book Failed Evidence is a slightly more approachable treatment of the subject), Simon also suggests solutions and ways to implement them.If the law is as much about protecting the innocent as convicting the guilty, anyone interested in how our criminal justice system works could do well to read Simon's (and Harris') book(s) to begin thinking about what we really expect of our institutions, and how to begin to effect change. An important and thoughtful book.

This book had some great points but was written so densely that it was very difficult for my daughter and I to get through. Was assigned for an AP Government class and was definitely a college level text. Was expensive as well -- even though I got a good price through Amazon. It is a shame the author didn't make the book more common language and understandable as it really could have some important impact on our legal system!!

Great book, on point

Good

Excellent, thought provoking book that goes beyond discussion of what's broken in the criminal justice system to offering valuable solutions.

Simon's book does a great job of sorting through the mountain of contemporary empirical research in cognitive psychology to demonstrate the ways that errors in people's perceptions, inferences or judgments can lead the criminal justice system can wrong at nearly every stage--investigation through trial--and through the decisions of nearly every actor--police, prosecutors, witnesses, juries. He's able to make the psychological evidence and insights clear to non-scholars. At the same time, he makes clear to non-lawyers the legal system's many rules and practices that permit, disregard or even amplify well-known, persistent risks of errors in human perception and inference that lead to wrongful convictions. Yet he shows as well how the law could do a lot more to reduce minimize those risks and errors. The book is a great contribution to the study of wrongful convictions, and to the study of law and psychology more generally.

Great read. Very interesting facts and insights into the criminal justice process. I actually used it as a textbook for a class taught by the author, great experience!