This ULWR seminar applies principles of psychology—the scientific study of how people think, feel, and behave—to normative legal doctrine and contemporary policies, practices, and procedures in the area of criminal law and sentencing. The class will draw on recent work in cognitive, social, and moral psychology to address topics including (1) culpability and mental state attributions; (2) causation judgments; and (3) punishment, including both the way people use and understand punishment and its actual effects on behavior. Throughout, this course will explore how psychological research can or should inform normative theorizing about criminal law and punishment, as well as its implications for jury instructions and jury decision-making.
The course emphasizes how insights from psychology can challenge and improve traditional legal thinking and will equip students to critically evaluate the law’s approach to regulating human behavior. Students will leave the course better equipped to bring these insights into arguments about doctrine, policy, and procedural reform.