Courts are failing badly in keeping junk psychological science out of the courtroom in criminal cases, permitting the admission of psychological tests that have never been reviewed for reliability and others that have been found unreliable, a recent study reports. Among the problematic tests, another group of psychologists write, is a “psychopathy checklist” commonly used by prosecutors to argue that a defendant poses a future danger to society and should be sentenced to death. The article, Psychological Assessments in Legal Contexts: Are Courts Keeping “Junk Science” Out of the Courtroom?, which was published February 15, 2020 in the Association of Psychological Science journal, Psychological Science in the Public Interest, looked at 364 psychological assessment tools psychologists reported having used in legal cases. It found that nearly 1/4 of the tests were considered unreliable, 1/3 lacked general acceptance in the field of psychology, “and only about 40%...
Striving for a World without Capital Punishment