Psychology, Public Policy, and Law

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu: Thanks for the memories!
After 12 years as Editor of Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, the time has come for Lamb to both offer their thanks and farewells as well as welcome a new editorial team. They have no doubt that, fresh from a successful term as associate editor, Tess Neal will lead the journal in exciting and innovative directions about which they look forward to learning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Recidivism characteristics of individuals discharged or dismissed from civil commitments as sexually violent persons in Wisconsin.
Individuals convicted of sexually violent offenses with mental disorders that make it more likely than not that they would reoffend sexually if released to the community qualify for indefinite, involuntary civil commitment as sexually violent persons (SVPs) in Wisconsin. This study assessed recidivism among residents dismissed or discharged from SVP commitments. Comparisons of 144 dismissed, 236 discharged, 274 individuals living under civil commitment, and 51 individuals who died while committed under Wisconsin’s SVP program found a variety of sociodemographic and clinical differences between the groups. Sexual recidivism rates of 121 dismissed and 124 discharged individuals with five or more years of follow-up after release did not significantly differ from one another. The fixed 5-year recidivism rate for sexually violent offenses was 11.8% and 14.7% over a variable follow-up mean of 14.5 years. Recidivism rates for combined violent or nonviolent sexual offenses were 12.7% over a fixed 5-year follow-up, and 17.1% over the average variable follow-up period of 14.5 years. Static-99R scores at dismissal/discharge did not discriminate recidivists from nonrecidivists. The Static-99R Routine sample norms were better calibrated for predicting the expected number of sexual recidivists over 5 and 10 years after release. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
How U.S. jurisdictions address competence evaluation and restoration for defendants facing only misdemeanor or low-level charges.
Court orders for competence to stand trial evaluation and restoration services have been increasing at a rate that outpaces the ability of most states to provide these services, prompting a national “competency crisis.” Though many factors contribute to this crisis, one is the disproportionate role of misdemeanor arrests among people with serious mental illness in competence service systems. Thus, one potential strategy to address competence crisis—and perhaps the needs of some people with serious mental illness—may be laws and policies that address competence differently for defendants facing only misdemeanor charges. We reviewed all state statutes that describe competence services in order to consider whether and how states approach competence matters differently for those charged only with misdemeanors or lower-level offenses. We found that most states (n = 29) have some distinct procedures for defendants facing only lower-level offenses, although the nature of these procedures, and which offenses qualify for the procedures, varies greatly. Among jurisdictions with distinct procedures, statutes typically alter competence evaluation procedures, timing of court proceedings, or restoration setting. Some jurisdictions allow for the dismissal of misdemeanor charges in certain circumstances. Overall, it appears that many jurisdictions are aware that misdemeanor offenses may warrant special approaches to competence services. However, given the gravity of the competency crisis—and the limits of competence restoration as a general psychiatric treatment strategy—even greater changes may be appropriate. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
The role of perceived restorative justice understanding and sympathy in a brief restorative justice intervention in prison.
Restorative justice principles offer a framework for successful, community-focused alternatives to the punishment-focused criminal justice system in the United States. Brief restorative justice interventions (bRJIs) are economical, interactive programs designed to facilitate participants’ understanding of restorative justice and insight into the impact of crime. Yet, little is understood about the psychological mechanisms through which bRJIs are effective in promoting behavioral change for incarcerated people. The present study considers two proximate outcomes that may serve as mechanisms for behavioral change (perceived restorative justice understanding and sympathy) and tests the impact of a bRJI on these potential mechanisms for people in prison (n = 1,631). Employing a Solomon split sample technique, we performed exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to validate measures of perceived restorative justice understanding and sympathy, identifying a two-factor structure for each measure. Then, we tested the effect of a bRJI on perceived restorative justice understanding and sympathy. The findings indicated that compared to the preintervention scores, the postintervention scores were higher from both perceived restorative justice understanding and sympathy, consistent with a large and small effect size, respectively. These findings lay the foundation for future research examining these factors as plausible causal mechanisms of changes in distal outcomes such as recidivism and desistence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Tell the truth? Identifying common sources and types of advice juvenile defendants receive when pleading guilty to their first offense.
We examined the role of advice on juvenile defendants’ plea decisions. We analyzed data from interviews with 1,216 13- to 17-year-old male youth within 6 weeks of the disposition hearing for their first arrest to understand their plea experiences. The majority of youth (82%) reported that they pleaded guilty. Only some youth (28%) reported receiving advice about doing so. Common sources of advice were defense attorneys (37%), parents (37%), and peers (13%). Common types of advice were to tell the truth (54%) or to admit guilt for a reduced sentence (32%). Advice received was related to plea decisions; youth who claimed to be innocent or partially innocent were more likely to plead guilty when they were advised to admit guilt to receive a less severe sentence compared to when they were not advised to admit guilt. However, youth who claimed to be guilty were not more likely to plead guilty after receiving such advice. Our results show that many youth plead guilty without any advice indicating they may need additional protections as they make these consequential decisions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Effectiveness and efficacy of a culturally adapted training program for child interviewers in Chile.
Advances in investigative interviewer training, mostly developed in Western-Anglo-Saxon contexts, are not necessarily applicable to other cultures and languages. This research examined the efficacy and effectiveness of a training program for child interviewers—previously tested with English-speaking cohorts—when adapted to a Latin American Spanish-speaking context. Twenty-eight Chilean interviewers completed an online training program. Study 1 assessed their performance in mock interviews before training, immediately after training, and 13–21 months later at follow-up (N = 84). Study 2 examined field interviews about alleged child sexual abuse (N = 166). The performance of interviewers from Study 1 after training and at follow-up was compared to a group of 14 untrained interviewers. Dependent measures included a set of indicators of best practice interviewing (e.g., open-ended question use). Linear mixed effects analyses demonstrated robust training effects. Training improved most measures of best practice interviewing in mock and field interviews (including open-ended question use). Improvements were sustained up to 21 months in mock interviews and some up to 22 months in field interviews. Culturally specific attributes were evident in the interviewers’ performance in the field. This work demonstrates that evidence-based interviewer training can be culturally adapted and yield positive training outcomes. Findings also suggest that culture-related factors do not interfere with learning best practice interviewing, but along with other unknown contextual factors, they might moderate the use of learned skills in real-world settings. Implications for policy and recommendations for researchers and practitioners aiming to adapt evidence-based training programs to new contexts are drawn from the findings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Finding justice? Recommendations beyond prosecution in 500 cases of child sexual abuse.
Most child sexual abuse (CSA) cases reported to prosecutors and children’s advocacy centers do not proceed to criminal prosecution (more than 80% not prosecuted in Block et al., 2023). While the motivations for an official report of CSA are likely numerous and complex, it is clear that society strives for justice, safety, and support for the victim and the community. Little is known about recommendations other than the binary decision of prosecution or nonprosecution for a large and diverse sample of CSA reports. This study explored recommendations other than or in addition to prosecution in a sample of 500 CSA reports to prosecutors. Recommendations for the victim, perpetrator, caregiver, other legal action, and state action were recorded. Approximately 25% of cases had at least one recommendation and over 49% of these cases had two or more recommendations, with one case having eight total recommendations. Over 26% of cases recommended therapy for the victim and had an ongoing or new involvement with child protective services. Regression analyses revealed that specific case factors predicted different types of recommendations. For example, the odds of recommending an action related to a victim were two times more likely when there was a victim disclosure barrier and when the abuse included penetration. This research has the potential to inform policy aimed at achieving meaningful and just outcomes in extremely complicated and challenging CSA cases. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Psychological science from research to policy: Eyewitness identifications in Pennsylvania police agencies.
Decades of research have explored factors related to eyewitness misidentifications and recommended procedures to maximize identification accuracy. In the current study, we explore whether and how this research has actually been adopted into the formal, written policies of police agencies by evaluating eyewitness identification policies used across all Pennsylvania police agencies. Pennsylvania has a particularly large number of police agencies but no state-wide mandates concerning best practices for eyewitness identifications in law or judicial ruling, permitting an examination of how police agencies choose to voluntarily implement eyewitness science into their policies. We submitted public records requests to all police agencies in Pennsylvania (N = 1,140)—the most comprehensive study of this kind to date—and received a response rate of over 99%. Nearly two-thirds of agencies did not have a written eyewitness identification policy. Among agencies with a written policy, the content of their policies varied substantially. On average, agencies with a policy incorporated five of the eight recommended procedures studied here (Wells et al., 2020). Though many agencies with a policy included in those documents information relevant to these key evidence-based practices, these policies often failed to incorporate central aspects of these scientific recommendations and most failed to require their use. We discuss the implications of these results for policing policy and practice and for how scientific research is translated to criminal justice practitioners. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)

Psychology, Public Policy, and Law - Vol 30, Iss 4