There are many laws put into effect in the past that make no sense today. As federal laws are carefully constructed to have concrete language, we rarely see these obsurd laws. Since the 10th Amendment in our Bill of Rights gives power to the State in governing themselves, laws are created and suited for the community. In Florida, a parking meter must be paid if one was to tie an elephant to it. In Illinois, it is forbidden to fish from a giraffe's neck. In Iowa, ministers need to obtain a permit prior to transferring liquor over state lines. In many states, the punishment for horse theft is still hanging. For all the "dumb" laws you may find, just realize that for them to be created, someone had to have violated it.
Psychologically, if anything, these laws put a smile on faces. For cynics, it may stir their faith or confidence in the efficiency of their government.
My question is why haven't a lot of these laws simply be removed? Have people been arrested/fined for any of these "dumb laws" recently? Are these kinds of dumb laws still being created?
This topic is strangely hard to research. There are many individuals in the United States as well as others that believe the Disney Corporation is one of the most evil corporations in the world. Why? That is the hard part to research. Whether we talk about their media branch (Disney Channel, Disney Records, or Walt Disney Studios), their theme parks, or their toy lines, Disney has the best lawyers to represent the "good" of the company. There are many rumors which are difficult to prove or disprove. Here's some for you to judge. The main focus will be the theme parks in this discussion, as that is the primary interaction between the people and the corporation. At this link, incidents are listed based on the attraction. As Disney owns a known 40 square mile tract of land and more land in their reserves within Florida, they have their own internal security force, prison, EMT's, fire fighters, utilities, and so fourth. When an incident occurs in Disneyland, the first responders (IE, their security) categorize each incident into 4 distinct categories: 1) Guest Negligence via non-compliance, 2) Guest's negligence of their own health, 3) Act of God (Nobody's Fault), 4) Negligence on the park's behalf.
Here's the questions that aren't easy to find. How many lawsuits are filed against Disney's Theme Park branch per year? How many of those are losses in Disney's books? Should Disney's first responders be pay-rolled by Disney itself or government funded employees mandated by the state?
Granted, millions travel through Disney Theme Parks every year and come back with good experiences (other than long lines and overpriced goods). However, how safe are we to know that even the emergency staff will side with Disney if something was to happen? This brings me more fear than the tower of terror does.
When Nintendo introduced its new Wii console it was offering users a new way to emit gaming behaviors. It was literally changing the way people experienced playing a video game. This brought with it numerous benefits including remarkable sales figures for the Nintendo company. In no time at all there were wii consoles at bars and restaurants, wii bowling leagues, parents and grandparents were buying wii's, and not as presents, to use for themselves.
Many of us may enjoy the occasional alcohol/energy drink
combination, but what do we really know about the possible consequences of
drinking these concoctions? New research has found that even though these
mixed drinks may taste good, they have negative side effects.
The study found that individuals who drink alcohol/energy drink combinations
are three times more likely to leave bars intoxicated and are four-five times
more likely to drive drunk. Energy drinks, which contain caffeine, lessen
the effects of alcohol leading individuals to "drink more or make
uninformed judgments about whether they are safe to drive."
From introductory psychology, we learned that alcohol impairs judgment. Everybody knows that driving while intoxicated is not ideal, but when under the influence of alcohol, individuals often feel on top of the world and that they can do anything, including drive. Now that we add caffeine (energy drinks) to the mix, instances of drunk driving may become more frequent.
It is often times hard to teach an old dog new tricks, so if you are one of those individuals who enjoy alcohol/energy drink combinations, consider this research the next time you drink and perhaps limit yourself. The last thing any of us would want is to get an OWI or perhaps be charged with vehicular manslaughter!
When it comes to Heath Care our country is pretty much split down the middle. So who is right the Democrats or the Republicans? I have been trying to follow what is going on in the news, but it is hard to find an opinion that is not bias to either side. So how does this have to do with Law and Psychology? If you listen to the new you will hear about what kind of lawsuits the Republicans are trying to come up with to challenge the bill now that it has been passed. And psychologically this battle over health care is going to be very harmful on our generation. How do we learn what to do for our country if the people who are supposed to be role models do not even know how to get along? Is there another war in our future? As for right now this is not the case. the bill has been sent back to the House for another vote by the Republicans. Below is a link to where the bill is right now. The Republicans have used to amendment process to send the bill back into vote and therefore delay the process of implementing the bill.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/05/business/05psychic.html?emc=eta1
Here is a New York Times article about a "highly reputable" psychic trained by Nepalese monks in the art of time travel, precognition, and remote viewing. Claiming to be able to predict the stock market Sean David Morgan and his wife took in millions of dollars from investors, funneling the money through a number of religious and spiritual businesses owned by Morgan.
Where's the psychology? First, why do people continue to buy into these things? Even in the face of no evidence for anything the least bit psychic a vast majority of people still believe that these abilities are possible and that some people already do possess these skills. Credulity? Faith? Ignorance?
Second, isn't it amazing that even Morgan himself refuses to admit he's wrong? I believe that he truly does believe that he can predict the future, and his inability to predict this lawsuit and the impending fines, jail-time, etc. are not viewed as counter-evidence, or failures in his mind. Instead he explains these away as being malicious attacks on his person, such that he could not have predicted them, etc. etc. This is a common tactic used by psychics, when they are right it's proof, when they are wrong (and this is frequent) it's because of other people or some flaw in the universe and not seen as a counterexample or possible evidence against their viewpoint.
Thirdly, what if he really is seeing into the future and he made a mistake in interpretation? It does seem like purposefully manipulating people is a far worse crime than trying to help, and simply making a mistake. Which is going on here? And how do we know that? Given the large number of people who believe in this type of thing why ought we assume he's a fraud? Is he any different than any other investor who makes a mistake?
Does this article call into question all psychics and their claims, or merely the claims of this one man? Do claims regarding the success of one psychic demonstrate the existence of psychic phenomena in general, or are they merely a statistical oddity to be explained in light of other evidence?
On November 1st, 2007 Meredith Kercher was found dead on the bedroom floor partly naked with stab wounds on her neck, many bruises, and signs of being sexually assaulted. At the time, Meredith was a foreign exchange student in Perugia, Italy along with Amanda Knox, an American foreign exchange student. Five days after interrogation, Amanda Knox and her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were arrested and later convicted with murder, sexual violence, as well as other charges (Knox was sentenced to 26 years while Sollecito was sentenced for 25 years). DNA and fingerprint evidence at the scene both inside and around Meredith's body pointed to another man, Rudy Hermann Guede. Guede was later arrested, tried, and was also convicted of murder an sexual assault. Guede was initially sentenced to 30 years in prison but appealed his sentence which was then reduced to 16 years.
I had never heard of this case before but I happened to turn on Oprah today and caught the tail end of the story. I got the sense that it was a pretty well known case and I found this to be true when I was searching online and I did end up finding a lot of information about it. Here is the link to the Wikipedia article which I think does a great job summarizing the case and is a good place to start if you haven't heard of the case before: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MurderofMeredith_Kercher
There seems to be quite a bit of controversy going on about the differences in the criminal justice system and culture of Italy compared to that of the United States when dealing with this case. I haven't looked into this issue very extensively, but what I have gathered is that many people feel that if Amanda was tried in the United States rather than Italy, she would have never been convicted.
Regardless of this controversy, it became apparent to me while watching the rest of the Oprah show and reading and watching the videos online (http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Amanda-Knoxs-Family-Speak-Out/7), being wrongfully convicted has substantial consequences not only for the person wrongfully convicted, but for their family as well.
First of all, being wrongfully convicted puts a huge financial burden on the person who is desperately fighting for their freedom. The book I am reading for this class (Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter) also touches on the tremendous debts one can be in when fighting their conviction. Thousands upon thousands of dollars were spent, not only by Carter himself, but by his supporters. Amanda's case seems to be no different. When searching through sites online, I came across her official site where you could donate money to contribute to her defense fund which will hopefully someday free her.
Being wrongfully convicted also takes a emotional toll on the person who has been wrongfully convicted as well as their family. On Oprah's website, you can watch a short video of an interview of Amanda's three sisters. The oldest of the three talks about her new responsibility of being the older sister since Amanda is away and how she struggles at being a good example for her younger sisters. Amanda's youngest sister talk about how she feels like she doesn't have a family because she describes a family as everyone being there, which is not the case. Her younger sister struggles with her emotions and her need to stay strong for Amanda and her parents. My book focuses a lot on Carter's emotional struggles to keep his identity while in prison and the shame he feels, which inevitable causes him to distance himself from his former wife and children. Carter's family was torn apart by his wrongful conviction, but Amanda's has come together. Her parents divorced when she was three, but since her conviction, they have combined forces in attempt to free their daughter. Every Saturday her family gets together for the weekly phone call from Amanda.
Being wrongfully convicted has tremendous repercussions for the individuals and their families. Stories like these really make me understand the importance that psychology plays in the law. I'm not sure how heavily eyewitnesses played in Amanda's conviction, but eyewitness evidence was the only thing used to convict Carter of his sentence of triple-murder. In order to keep the innocent out of prison, it is evident that a better understanding and acceptance of faulty eyewitness testimonies is necessary, but I'm afraid that no matter how hard we try, there will always be people who are wrongfully convicted. Even if our criminal justice system improves on keeping the innocent out of jail from now on, there are currently many innocent people in prison, most of which are more than likely desperately trying to free themselves.
I found a website that talks about how to prevent juveniles from becoming delinquents. This website has many different things to click on to tell you about what the consequences are for doing each crime and how to prevent someone, especailly juveniles, from doing these crimes.
http://www.lawyershop.com/practice-areas/criminal-law/juvenile-law/prevention/
One of the things I found really interesting was the education classes that kids can take to become aware of their surroundings. These classes can teach children about the effects of drugs, alcohol and crime. They also teach children that their actions have consequences, because that is usually the last thing on a child's mind when it comes to doing something they shouldn't. There are also a lot of things that kids can do after school that keeps them off the streets and out of trouble, like going to a karate class or playing sports with friends. One of the places that is there for boys and girls to go to is the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. There is a club in downtown Waterloo that a lot of kids go to so they can stay away from trouble. The club does a lot of fun things like doing art projects, playing sports and taking trips to the community pool during the summer. Within the club, there are also more activities that are called Specialized Programs. These consist of Club Tech, which teaches children to become familiar with computers and other forms of technology, Teen Initiative, which has different options for older children, and many other programs for children. Here is the website for the Boys and Girls Club:
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2AZSl8/www.uplink.com.au/lawlibrary/Documents/Docs/Doc20.html
Above is the link to an incredibly large listing of common vocabulary terms used in the forensic sciences. I've found it useful when reading journal articles, or adding in relevant terms ot a blog posting, etc.
For example, criminals get more and more upset and emotionally frustrated when thinking about jail-time, in particular a longer jail sentence. This is known as inmate reactance, which is the increased negativity experienced when an inmate has his personal freedom threatened. Serial killers often have call signs, or specific rituals, or behaviors that they emit at each crime scene indicating that they are the ones responsible. This is often highlighted in movies about serial killers like Seven, Silence of the Lambs, etc. We could say that each of these serial killers has a unique personation which indicates they are responsible; personation is the term for these ritualistic behaviors such as "body positioning (of the victim), mutilation, or other symbolic gestures."
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~mlyount/MySites/ForensicPsychology/Vocab.html
This is another site which has vocabulary more specific to forensic psychology. This website has longer descriptions for each word which can be helpful. Although many of the words are basic psychology terms that don't always have a direct relevance to forensics.
Some more highlights include:
Ecomania- pathological attitude directed towards one's family
Familicide- when an individual kills his/her spouse and one or more children
Frottage- sexual gratification achieved by rubbing against the clothing of a member of the opposite sex in a crowd.
Learn something new every day, I thought that last one was known as "creepy."
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2N0o2F/www.youtube.com/watch%253Fv%253DKZeiSKnhOBc
There are a large number of sites describing the so called "Monkey Experiment" where 5 or so monkeys are put in a room with a banana suspended at the top. A ladder is introduced, and whenever a monkey approaches the ladder the rest are shot with cold water. Naturally the monkeys quickly learn to associate this behavior with the negative stimulus of the water so it is said they beat on the other monkey that tries to go near the ladder. One by one all the monkeys are replaced until the new monkeys all beat up monkey's who approach the ladder but none of them knows why. Although I found these stories interesting I was unsure of their scientific merit since only one site made any reference to an actual research article (i.e. "possibly from a U.K. study). In particular the link above makes an incredibly shallow analysis of how this "experiment" relates to politics at the very end, it's actually funny to me...
Perhaps on of the best know and worst school shootings in history, the Columbine school massacre has for years made people think bullying lead to all of the destruction. With this news piece written a year ago is talks about another angle that after years of investigation has lead to show that the two responsible were actually not just two regular boys but two that would be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. Basically saying they were psychopaths and there is more to the story then once told.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-04-13-columbine-myths_N.htm 
Im a pretty big fan of Tru TV. I tend to watch a number of shows on that channel and when i made my way to the website i came across this crime library. This is a website that is devoted to all sorts of information on all different types of offenders including murderers. The website has a number of different types of cases on the main page such as celebrity siblings arrests, false convictions, "dumb" criminals etc. and you can also look at specific kinds of murders and cases that have happened in history. I thought this website was interesting and could be beneficial for someone that was looking for a certain case or someone that is interested in reading about all types of crimes in general
In the discussion of discretion, a case came to mind from about six months ago that involved a police officer shooting a perpetrator of a domestic dispute gone bad and included the two police officers having to try and restrain the man but failing to do so. The fact that the officer shot the man in the chest multiple times caused many to question his discretion of the situation.
http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/59182472.html
This is the a follow up article that expalins a bit more.
http://www.collegemocktrial.org/welcome/welcome.php
This is a link to an interesting thing called "Mock Trial." This is an activity for people in high school. It gives people the chance to sort of perform a trial, and take on roles, such as attorney, and witnesses. It is a great educational program for young people who are interested in how lawyers do their job, and how trials work. What is also neat is that it is a head to head competition, with schools participating, and the chances to compete at a state level and a national level. I thought I would post this, because I am a social studies teaching major, and it may be a useful tool for anyone who could be teaching government some day
This site provides a list of readings on psychology and law.
http://comp.uark.edu/~lampinen/read.htm
The Law and Psychology Lab is run by Dr. James Lampinen of the Psychology Department at the University of Arkansas. The lab conducts research and publishes articles on missing persons, protecting children from violence, false memories, eyewitness testimony, police interrogations, children's memory, jury decision making, and the relationship between states of consciousness and memory.
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