Psychology and Law

Spring 2005

 

 

Instructor: Dr. Kelly Charlton

Office: 312 Education Center

Phone: 521-6459

e-mail: kelly.charlton@uncp.edu (this is the best way to reach me)

Home Page: http://www.uncp.edu/home/charlton

Office Hours: MWF 1:30 – 2:30; TR 12:30 – 1:30

 

Textbook: Bartol, C.R & Bartol, A. M. (2004). Psychology and Law: Theory, research, and application. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

 

 

Course Objectives

 

 

 

POLICIES AND REQUIREMENTS

 

 

Exams:

There will be four exams during the semester (100 points each), the dates are on the course schedule. The first three exams will be non-cumulative exams and the focus of each will be on the material presented during the current chapters and lectures. The fourth exam will be the final and it will be cumulative, it will cover the material from all of the first three exams. Your lowest grade from these four exams will be dropped. This means that only three of the four exams will count toward your final score. Therefore, if you are completely satisfied with your scores on the first three exams and you have not missed an exam you may opt not to take the final. If, however, you are not satisfied with one of your first three exam scores, or if you have missed an exam you may want to take the final exam. Each exam will include both multiple choice and short answer questions. Each exam will be worth 100 points.

 

 

In and out of Class Activities:

Occasionally we will have inclass activities, you will receive points for participating in and completing these activities accurately. Depending on the demands of the activity these will be worth from 5 to 15 points and will contribute to the total points that can be accumulated in the class (this means that if you are here and attending class regularly you will most likely benefit from inclass activity points, if you are not attending class regularly you will not receive these points and your grade will suffer).

 

Additionally, there will be some assignments that will require some out of class work (ex. Short papers, web/library/community research and report, etc.). Points will be given for each assignment and will contribute to the total possible points in the class. On occasion you may be required to locate and print out a legal case (most likely from a website), be prepared for this. If you miss the day an out of class assignment is given you should contact a classmate for the assignment and consult the timeliness policies.

 

 

 

Attendance:

Attendance is not mandatory, however, it is strongly encouraged. It has been my experience that attendance is necessary for your success in class. Exam material may come from both the book and/or from lecture and activities in class and if you are not in class you may miss vital information. In addition, there will be no make-ups on in-class activities.

 

Grading:

Your letter grade will be assigned according to the percent of total points (exam + paper + in and out of class activities) you earn in the class:

A = 93 - 100% B- = 80 - 82% D+ = 67 - 69%

A- = 90 - 92% C+ = 77 - 79% D = 63 - 66%

B+ = 87 - 89% C = 73 - 76% D- = 60 - 62%

B = 83 - 86% C- = 70 - 72% F = 0 - 59%

 

Timeliness and Make-up Exams:

There will be no make up exams, because you may drop one of the four exam scores if you miss an exam then that score will be the one that is dropped. There are no make-ups on missed in class activities. Though there are no make-ups on in class activities, I will add to everyone’s inclass total one score that represents the average of the point value given to all the activities assigned during the semester to reduce the penalty for missing one. Your paper is due at the beginning of the class on the due date listed in the course schedule. Extensions for out of class assignments will not be given. Instead, assignments received after the due date will have 5% of the points deducted for each day it is late. However, you may turn in your paper no more than one week late. Because you will also lose points if you are late over a weekend you may e-mail me your assignment (see the guidelines below for emailing assignments) when you finish and then turn in a hard copy on Monday morning. This way I have the documented time and day you finished and I can compare the e-mailed copy to your hard copy. If you have a DOCUMENTED absence that requires you to be missing more than 1 or 2 days of class in a row please speak to me in advance, we’ll discuss penalty free late out of class assignments.

 

E-mailing Assignments:

More and more people ask if they may email me their assignments, so much so that we need some policy on it. If you would like to email me an assignment please send it to Kelly.charlton@uncp.edu. Put “Assignment Psy 360” and then the name of the assignment in the subject of the email. You MUST put those exact words that you see in quotes in the subject because I will be using them to filter your assignment to an appropriate folder. Attach your properly formatted assignment (when I open it and print it and it should look like you would like it to look if you handed it to me in hard copy) in one Word, or WordPerfect document. You must sign your email with a name I can find on my class roster (I have no way to know who babyblue2345@yahoo.com, bigdaddy2349@hotmail.com, or lipsofgold1954@aol.com are, for example). I will reply (so, you should send it from an account that I can reply to, i.e., I can’t reply to “labpc”) to each email I receive that is sent in the proper format. If you don’t get a reply from me within a few days, it is up to you to follow up on whether or not the assignment was received.might consider checking to see that you put “Assignment Psy 360” in the subject line. If you feel that you need to resend me your assignment, please forward the orginially sent email with that appropriate information in the subject line (that way I can see when the document was first sent). Ultimately, it is your responsibility to make sure that I receive an assignment sent via email.

 

 

 

 

Grading Disputes:

When an exam grade or paper is handed back you will have one week to dispute the points you received. The dispute should be typed and be no longer than 1 double spaced page (with the same typing requirements as the papers) per item disputed. Disputes are due at the beginning of class one week from the day a paper or exam grade was handed back to the class. A dispute should be a clearly articulated argument, not an opinion. Each dispute should also include relevant references (i.e., pages numbers and passages in the text and/or information and date from your class notes).

 

Extra Credit:

I'll assign some extra credit throughout the semester. You may do the extra credit to obtain up to 1.5 total percentage points to be added to your final percentage. For example, if your final points add up to 89.45% of the total points you would receive a "B." If you completed 2 extra credit projects, worth 1/2% each your 89.45% would become 90.45%, an "A." The exact value of each assignment will be determined when it is assigned. Extra credit will be assigned during class at various times during the semester, if you miss a class it is your responsibility to find out from a fellow classmate if any extra credit was assigned.

 

Web Page:

I will post some class materials on the web page (http://www.uncp.edu/home/charlton). If there are technical difficulties with the page, please notify me as soon as possible. If you are relying on the web page for class materials you must notify me of a problem 5 days prior to an exam. In other words, DON’T rely on the web page to get materials the night before an exam, you may find a problem and there will be no way for you to resolve it before the exam.

 

Americans with Disabilities Act:

Any student with a documented disability needing academic adjustments is requested to speak directly to Disability Support Services and the instructor, as early in the semester (preferably within the first class week) as possible. All discussion will remain confidential. Sometimes note takers are needed to assist students with disabilities. Students who are interested in serving as paid note takers in any course should contact the Office for ADA Services as soon as possible. The syllabus is available in alternative formats upon request. Please contact Mary Helen Walker, Disability Support Services, DF Lowry Building, 521-6695.

 

Ethics:

Academic honesty is fundamental to the activities and principles of a university. All members of the academic community must be confident that each person's work has been responsibly and honorably acquired, developed, and presented. Any effort to gain an advantage not given to all students is dishonest whether or not the effort is successful. Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to looking at someone's exam during a test, looking at notes during the test, turning in someone else's work as your own, or plagiarizing from a printed article ( this includes copying information from the internet). If you are in doubt about whether a behavior you intend to do will be viewed as suspicious, talk to me before you do it. You should read further about the Academic Honor Code and the consequences of academic dishonesty in UNCP's Student Handbook.

 

Bottom line, DON’T CHEAT!

 

 

Course Calendar

Week 1 (1/11, 1/13)

Welcome

Careers in Psych and Law

 

Week 2 (1/18, 1/20)

Introduction, Ch. 1

Research Methods

 

Week 3 (1/25, 1/27)

Psychological Assessment, Testing, Ch. 2

 

Week 4 (2/1, 2/3)

Psychology and the Courts Ch. 3

 

Week 5 (2/8, 2/10)

Competencies and Criminal Responsibility Ch. 4

 

Week 6 (2/15, 2/17)

Civil Commitment. Ch. 5

 

2/17 Exam I (lecture & Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

 

Week 7 (2/22, 2/24)

Jury: Procedural Considerations Ch. 6

Jury Decision Making Ch. 7

 

Week 8 (2/28, 3/2, 3/4)

Eyewitness Testimony. Ch. 8

 

Week 9 (3/7-3/11)

Spring Break

 


Week 10 (3/15, 3/17)

Eyewitnesses cont

Psychology of Evidence Ch. 9

 

Week 11 (3/22, 3/24)

Evidence continued

Correctional Psychology Ch. 10

 

Week 12 (3/29, 3/31)

3/29 - Exam 2 (Lecture & Ch. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 )

Family Law Ch. 11

 

Week 13 (4/5, 4/7)

Family continued

Juvenile Delinquency and Justice Ch. 12

 

Week 14 (4/12, 4/14)

Juveniles continued

The Psychology of Criminal Behavior. Ch. 13

 

Week 15 (4/19, 4/21)

Criminal Behavior Ch. 13

Psychology of Law Enforcement Ch. 14

 

Week 16 (4/26, 4/28)

4/26 - Exam 3 (Lecture & Ch. 11, 12, 13, 14 )

 

Finals Week

Final Exam (Cumulative)- Regularly scheduled final time 5/5, 11:00 – 1:30

Note: The above calendar is subject to change (in terms of the exact dates we cover specific topics and the chapters on exams). However, you may consider the exam dates to be quite firm