Abstract: Sex offender registries (SORs) have been established in both Canada and the United States with the auspice of protecting the community from dangerous and violent sexual predators and have been generated as a response to community concerns. Yet, little is known about how community members perceive the function and use of these registries. The current study surveyed 207 student and 637 community participants from U.S and Canada. The results indicated that Americans were more in favor of the availability of SORs, were more accurate at identifying who should be placed on SORs, and were more aware of the registries than Canadians. Although students were less aware of SORs, they held more positive views of them than community members. Attitudinal measures were related to views of SORs, particularly attitudes toward sexual offenders. The findings suggest participants’ views were commensurate with their respective countries’ policies. Implications for public policy will be discussed.

Jung, S., Allison, M., & Martin, E. (2018). Perspectives of Americans and Canadians on the use and function of sex offender registries. International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, 52, 106-117. doi: 

Although English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) eyewitnesses interact regularly with police officers in the U.S. and Canada, little research has examined their testimonies. This study sought to assess the testimony accuracy of 17 ESL witnesses, and the contemporaneous notes the officers made during free and cued recall questioning. We assessed accuracy using two methods: A checklist approach (CL) that has been used in past studies (e.g., List, 1986) and an inductive microanalysis of face-to-face dialogue (MFD) approach that was developed for this study. We found that witnesses gave more accurate information in free recall and made more errors in cued recall when both the CL and MFD methods of analysis were used. The same pattern of results held for the officer note data. When we directly compared the MFD and CL data, however, we found that the MFD method captured more information (both accurate and inaccurate witness details), suggesting that it provides richer accuracy data for eyewitness testimony and officer notes. Future research on ESL witness testimony using the MFD approach is discussed.

Allison, M., Basquin, C., & Gerwing, J. (2017). Assessing the accuracy of English-as-a-Second-Language eyewitness testimonies and contemporaneous officer notes using two methods. Applied Psychology in Criminal Justice, 13, 1-17.

Their work was titled “Community perceptions of sex offender registries: A cross-cultural comparison”. They described people’s views of sex offender registries (SORs) and made comparisons between students and community members, as well as Canadians and Americans. The country comparison was examined because while SORs are publicly available in the U.S., they are available only to law enforcement in Canada.

The authors found that participants’ views were largely commensurate with their countries policies. For example, more Americans felt that SORs should be publicly available than Canadians. Americans were also more aware of the SORs, realistic about their function and less negative about sex offenders in general. Community members were more aware of SORs than students but were less convinced that SORs help to reduce crime.

Future research will examine legal decision-makers’ views of SORs.

Assistant Professor Buffie Longmire-Avital from the Department of Psychology served as guest editor for the special issue. Longmire-Avital states in her editor letter: “As institutional administrators are urged to examine the practices, policies, and social climates that are sustaining inequities on the college campus, faculty should consider if the historical pathways to engaging undergraduates in research and mentorship are truly accessible to all.”

The special issue contains five research articles:

– Participation in Undergraduate Research at Minority-Serving Institutions
– Increasing the Participation of Historically Underrepresented Groups in Undergraduate Research using Federal Work-Study
– Simplify-Guide-Progress-Collaborate: A Model for Class-Based Undergraduate Research
– Near-Peer STEM Mentoring Offers Unexpected Benefits for Mentors from Traditionally Underrepresented Backgrounds
– Seeing the Unseen: Lessons from a Case Study on Mentoring Underrepresented Students in Research

And two dialogues:

– Historically Black Colleges and Universities: Undergraduate Research, Mentoring and the Graduate School Pipeline
– Undergraduate Research: An Essential Piece for Underrepresented Students’ College Success

Consider submitting to PURM in 2016 in our next special issue (Mentoring Undergraduate Research in the Professional Disciplines – see the Call for Papers ).

Title: Recognition and recall of vehicles and manufacturer symbols: Implications for eyewitness vehicle identifications

Description: The purpose of this study was to examine people’s recall and recognition of cars because some witnesses to crimes may see only the getaway car. We compared participants’ accuracy in identifying vehicles and manufacturer symbols in a free recall versus recognition questionnaire format. Participants in the recognition condition were more accurate than those in the free recall condition on many of the questions. Across conditions, participants had the most difficulty in remembering the Mazda 3-Series Truck symbol and the Buick and Subaru symbols. The majority of participants were accurate at identifying the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Honda symbols, and participants with more driving experience were more accurate on some of the questions. Men were more accurate than women on several of the vehicle questions, but on only one manufacturer symbol question. We discuss future eyewitness research and the implications of this study.

Citation:
Allison, M., Overman, A. A., Braun, M., Campbell, M., & Price, J. R. (2014). Recognition and recall of vehicles and manufacturer symbols: Implications for eyewitness vehicle identifications. Applied Psychology in Criminal Justice, 10, 83-97.

Link to online article: http://www.apcj.org/journal/index.php?mode=view&item=92

The complete citation and abstract:.

Jung, S., Ahn-Redding, H., Allison, M. (2014). Crimes and punishment: Understanding of the Criminal Code. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 54, 341-366. doi: 10.3138/cjccj.2013.E17

Abstract: Knowledge about criminal law is expected in our society. There are many important reasons why accurate knowledge should be expected, such as deterring citizens from engaging in illegal conduct and ensuring that people are making sound decisions about supporting or not supporting changes in the criminal justice system. This study surveyed 301 undergraduate students about their knowledge of criminal laws and the associated sentences. Our results indicate that participants were accurate in defining theft and the ages for legal use of substances and in identifying whether specific scenarios describe acts considered sexual offences, but less able to define the blood alcohol level for impaired driving, dangerous driving, sexual interference, or aggravated sexual assault. With regards to sentencing dispositions, participants were not consistently accurate. They also tended to inflate the likelihood of reoffending in general, particularly violent and sexual offending. Prior exposure to the criminal justice system did not seem to be associated with crime and sentencing knowledge or recidivism estimations. Our findings identify areas where young adults are unaware of legal definitions of crimes and their punishments and point out the need to find innovative ways to educate young adults on the Criminal Code.

Allison, M., Jung, S., Sweeney, L., & Culhane, S. E. (2014). The impact of illegal alibi activities, corroborator involvement, and corroborator certainty on mock juror perceptions. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 21, 191-204. doi: 10.1080/13218719.2013.803275

Allison, M. & Brimacombe, C. A. E. (2014). A credible crime report? Communication and perceived credibility of elderly eyewitnesses. In M. P. Toglia, D. F. Ross, J. Pozzulo, & E. Pica (Eds.). The Elderly Eyewitness in Court. New York, NY: Routledge, Taylor & Francis (pp. 289-307).

Allison, M., Sweeney, L., & Jung, S. (2013). A comparison of Canadian and American offender stereotypes. North American Journal of Psychology, 15, 589-608.

The Jung, Allison, and Bohn (2013) paper was published in Applied Psychology in Criminal Justice. The authors studied people’s perceptions of criminal suspects’ alibis. This work was also a collaboration with a colleague at MacEwan University in Canada.

Ahn-Redding, H., Allison, M., Semon, M., & Jung, S. (2013). What do students really know about criminal justice? International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, 41, 405-420.

Jung, S., Allison, M., Bohn, L. (2013). Legal decision-making on crimes involving an alibi. Applied Psychology in Criminal Justice, 9, 45-58.

The presentation was co-authored by Amy Overman (associate professor of psychology), 黑料不打烊 graduates Meghan Braun ’11 and Molly Campbell ’11, and John R. Price of Carolina Child Psychology, PLLC.