Emotion and the Law

by Bornstein, Brian H.; Wiener, Richard L.

• ISBN13: 9781441906953
• ISBN10: 1441906959
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-11-30
• Publisher: Springer Verlag

Summary

The last decade has seen burgeoning interest in issues at the intersection of emotion and law. Given the longstanding interest in emotion among social (and other) psychologists, most of this research has come from a psychological perspective, but it also includes scholars from law, sociology, philosophy, and neuroscience. The issues are theoretical as well as practical, influencing both psychological theories of emotion and legal practice and policy.The law adopts a double standard in its treatment of emotion. In some areas, the law explicitly addresses emotion as a legitimate consideration, but in other areas, the law denies emotion any role in legal decision-making. For example, legal analysis requires decision makers to consider the emotion of others when weighing the credibility of eyewitnesses, classifying certain offenses as "hate crimes," classifying crimes for purposes of criminal culpability (e.g., "crimes of passion"), awarding damages for emotional injuries (e.g., mental suffering, emotional distress), and allowing jurors' moral response to influence such consequential decisions as punitive damages, capital sentencing, and jury nullification. At the same time, the courts make what may be an untenable presumption when they require jurors to evaluate certain kinds of evidence dispassionately. Emotion and the Lawn features distinguished authors who are working at the cutting edge of interdisciplinary psycholegal scholarship that examines the role of emotion in the law.

Table of Contents

Emotion and the Law: A Field Whose Time Has Come	p. 1
Affect in Legal and Forensic Settings: The Cognitive Benefits of Not Being Too Happy	p. 13
Emotional Influences on Judgments of Legal Blame: How They Happen, Whether They Should, and What to Do About It	p. 45
Explorations in Juror Emotion and Juror Judgment	p. 97
Inner Terror and Outward Hate: The Effects of Mortality Salience on Bias Motivated Attacks	p. 133
Truth in Emotional Memories	p. 157
A Moody View of The Law: Looking Back and Looking Ahead at Law and The Emotions	p. 185
Index	p. 211
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