Reid Fontaine - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Reid Fontaine

Social Science Research Network, Feb 6, 2008

The relation between social rejection and growth in antisocial behavior was investigated. In Stud... more The relation between social rejection and growth in antisocial behavior was investigated. In Study 1, 259 boys and girls (34% African American) were followed from Grades 1 to 3 (ages 6-8 years) to Grades 5 to 7 (ages 10-12 years). Early peer rejection predicted growth in aggression. In Study 2, 585 boys and girls (16% African American) were followed from kindergarten to Grade 3 (ages 5-8 years), and findings were replicated. Furthermore, early aggression moderated the effect of rejection, such that rejection exacerbated antisocial development only among children initially disposed toward aggression. In Study 3, social informationprocessing patterns measured in Study 1 were found to mediate partially the effect of early rejection on later aggression. In Study 4, processing patterns measured in Study 2 replicated the mediation effect. Findings are integrated into a recursive model of antisocial development.

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Jan 31, 2012

Psychology, Public Policy and Law, Nov 1, 2008

Recent scholarship has drawn attention to the alternative contributions of dysfunctional reactive... more Recent scholarship has drawn attention to the alternative contributions of dysfunctional reactive cognition (e.g., provocation interpretational bias) and emotion (e.g., provoked fury) in heat-of-passion killings. Two main theses have been advanced. First, there exists a meaningful parallel between the instrumental-reactive aggression dichotomy in psychology and murder-manslaughter distinction in law. Second, analysis of this parallel suggests that the heat-of-passion (or provocation) defense disproportionately favors emotional over cognitive dysfunction in mitigating murder to manslaughter. These theses, however, have yet to be fully developed and raise additional, critical questions that have not yet been addressed: Other than interpretational style, how may socialcognitive science inform our understanding of the role of cognitive bias in reactive homicide? How is serious interpretational bias related to alternative forms of psychiatric disorder as recognized in law? This article addresses these and related questions regarding the differential and interactive contributions of dysfunctional cognition and emotion in the execution of reactive homicide.

Social Science Research Network, Jan 28, 2008

Behavioral scientists have distinguished an instrumental (or proactive) style of aggression from ... more Behavioral scientists have distinguished an instrumental (or proactive) style of aggression from a style that is reactive (or hostile). Whereas instrumental aggression is cold-blooded, deliberate, and goal driven, reactive aggression is characterized by hot blood, impulsivity, and uncontrollable rage. Scholars have pointed to the distinction between murder (committed with malice aforethought) and manslaughter (enacted in the heat of passion in response to provocation) in criminal law as a reflection of the instrumental-reactive aggression dichotomy. Recently, B. J. Bushman and C. A. Anderson (2001) argued that the instrumental-reactive aggression distinction has outlived its usefulness in psychology and pointed to inconsistencies and confusion in criminal law applications as support for their position. But how similar is the legal distinction between murder and manslaughter to the instrumental-reactive aggression dichotomy in psychology? This article compares and contrasts the psychological and legal models and demonstrates that the purposes for distinguishing between instrumental and reactive aggression in psychology and law are undeniably different in meaningful ways. As such, a perceived shift in law away from differentiating murder and manslaughter has no bearing on the usefulness of the instrumental-reactive aggression distinction in psychological science.

Social Science Research Network, Feb 6, 2008

Externalizing behavior problems of 124 adolescents were assessed across Grades 7-11. In Grade 9, ... more Externalizing behavior problems of 124 adolescents were assessed across Grades 7-11. In Grade 9, participants were also assessed across social-cognitive domains after imagining themselves as the object of provocations portrayed in six videotaped vignettes. Participants responded to vignette-based questions representing multiple processes of the response decision step of social information processing. Phase 1 of our investigation supported a two-factor model of the response evaluation process of response decision (response valuation and outcome expectancy). Phase 2 showed significant relations between the set of these response decision processes, as well as response selection, measured in Grade 9 and (a) externalizing behavior in Grade 9 and (b) externalizing behavior in Grades 10-11, even after controlling externalizing behavior in Grades 7-8. These findings suggest that on-line behavioral judgments about aggression play a crucial role in the maintenance and growth of aggressive response tendencies in adolescence. Inquiry in social-cognitive psychology (e.g., the association between cognitive processing and maladaptive social development. How-Erdley & Asher, 1996, in press; Fontaine, Burks, & Dodge, 1998; Guerra, Nucci, & ever, many researchers have continued to regard empirical attention to cognitive function-Huesmann, 1994; Huesmann & Guerra, 1997) and developmental psychopathology (e.g., ing and antisocial behavior in childhood and (especially) adolescence as insufficient (e.g.,

In response to constant careful oversight by a dedicated review panel that had been assigned the ... more In response to constant careful oversight by a dedicated review panel that had been assigned the arduous task of monitoring the state's compliance with its own voluntary settlement, over the course of 18 years the state created a marvelous new system of care for children, one that has become the foundation for the design of children's mental health delivery systems across the country. The case of Willie M. inspired innovative concepts in children's mental health service delivery, concepts such as individualized treatment plans and the creation of new treatment forms where none had existed before, child-based rather than program-based treatment, "wrap-around care," treatment in the least restrictive alternative setting, a continuum of care, building strengths rather than ameliorating deficits, paid paraprofessional mentoring, and therapeutic group homes. The state invested in the training of a new breed of professionals assigned to work with children who became known as "Willie M. kids." Novel approaches to assessment were also created, including measurement that directly connected a child's current status and needs to treatment plans. This measurement included not only assessment of the child but also assessment of the environmental risk and protective factors that surrounded the child; thus, the focus of treatment planning was bounded not by the child but by the entire community. Furthermore, the initial assessment was later tied to outcome goals and became the Assessment and Outcomes Instrument (AOI). Because the service system was closely watched by the court and the court was constantly asking the state to provide documentation of its compliance with the settlement, the state had to develop a quantitative system of measuring treatments and outcomes for children. This system meant that the state accumulated more data on troubled children than ever before, and the body of scientific knowledge about these children also grew. These innovations did not occur readily. The state was slow in delivering on its promise, and on numerous occasions the review panel had to ask the oversight judge to call the state back into court and to cite the state for noncompliance. The administrator of this review panel throughout the late 1980s was Marci White, a polite but unforgiving watchdog. She became the major thorn in the side of the state, criticizing, demanding, receiving, and demanding more. The criticism continued, the state became even more embarrassed, and the taxpayer dollars increased. But change finally occurred. The state shrewdly figured out that the only way to get out from under the thumb of the review panel was to co-opt its enemy, the panel's administrator. In 1992, the state hired Marci White to become the Willie M. Program Director. In the blink of an eye, White had gone from criticizing the state to being the state, which had in effect told her to put up or shut up. Over the next six years, she did, indeed, put up. White and three colleagues (Eric Vance, Charles Davis, and Gustavo Fernandez) became like the Four Musketeers as they pushed through legislative reform, trained professional staff, and worked tirelessly to bring the state into compliance with the federal court. Eventually, White and colleagues returned to court to argue, with data, against the very review panel that White had built. Ironically, their success meant the demise of their program, because in 1998, the legal case was officially closed. The state was officially in compliance. The plaintiffs withdrew all cause for action. The Willie M. Program was over. In some respects, the plaintiffs were victorious: in 1999, state legislation mandated that qualifying children receive continuing services of the sort that the program had created, and it authorized funding under the name Assaultive and Violent Children's Funds. In other respects, the closing of the case meant that the program could be folded in to the regular state mental health, education, and corrections systems, to be gobbled up by the very bureaucracy that had been the subject of the suit in the first place. Indeed, the legislation that mandated services and authorized funding in 1999 was quickly repealed only one year later. In the year 2001, has the system changed from its state 22 years previously? Part I: The Legal History of the Willie M. Class Action Law Suit A Circus of Media Attention Is Engineered April 1979: A news conference starts the ball rolling. As lights flash and cameras roll, a sober but folksy judge from the same state as Senator Sam Ervin of Watergate fame tells stories of emotionally disturbed children who were being neglected or, worse, mistreated at the state's training school. He scolds the state for not acting to help these children. He implies that some "do-gooder" lawyer should sue the judge who assigns children to this awful fate, even if that judge is. .. himself. Sometimes the only way to catalyze change is to embarrass the players through the media, and so District Court Judge George Bason of Wake County, North Carolina, decided to use the media in order to draw attention to the sad plight that faced adolescents in the juvenile courts. The news conference he called he called attracted state and local television stations and newspapers. In dramatic fashion, he told a story of an emotionally disturbed boy, Thomas H., who had come through the doors of his court room over and over.. . and over. Entering the halls of juvenile justice in North Carolina in the 1970s meant going through a revolving door. Like many states, North Carolina saw a growing trend in the number of case workers, lawyers, and judges in the juvenile justice system who were becoming frustrated by the lack of rehabilitative options for adjudicated children. This frustration was fueled by the common observation that more and more juvenile offenders were becoming repeat offenders and that more and more repeat offenders were becoming serious offenders. In addition to being concerned about children who were adjudicated criminally "delinquent," juvenile justice professionals were discouraged by the lack of services and the frequency with which non-delinquent children who were adjudicated "abused," "dependent," "neglected," or "undisciplined," were returning to court later as delinquents. Some experts in the field believed that the recurring cycle of adjudication was fueled, at least in part, by the fact that the state failed to provide professional services through which these children's emotional and behavioral problems could be curbed. State mental health professionals and educators were not willing to take responsibility for

The Role of Developmental Social Cognition in Criminal Defense Law

The Role of Developmental Social Cognition in Criminal Defense Law

The Role of Developmental Social Cognition in Criminal Defense Law

Developmental Psychology, 2014

This study examines the role of moral disengagement in fostering engagement in aggression and vio... more This study examines the role of moral disengagement in fostering engagement in aggression and violence through adolescence to young adulthood in accordance with a design in which the study of individual differences and of their relations is instrumental to address underlying intraindividual structures and process conducive to detrimental conduct. Participants were 345 young adults (52% females) who were followed across 4 time periods (T1 M age = 17 years to T4 M age = 25 years). The longitudinal relations among irritability, hostile rumination, and moral disengagement attest to a conceptual model in which moral disengagement is crucial in giving access to action to aggressive tendencies. Findings suggest that irritability and hostile rumination contributed to the development of each other reciprocally and significantly across time. While hostile rumination and moral disengagement significantly mediated the relation between irritability and violence, moral disengagement significantly mediated the relation between hostile rumination and violence.

European Journal of Personality, 2012

This paper examined empirically the value of a conceptual model in which emotional stability and ... more This paper examined empirically the value of a conceptual model in which emotional stability and agreeableness contribute to engagement in aggression and violence (EAV) indirectly through irritability, hostile rumination and moral disengagement. Three hundred and forty young adults (130 male and 190 female) participated in the study. The average age of participants was 21 at time 1 and 25 at time 2. Findings attested to the role of basic traits (i.e. agreeableness and emotional stability) and specific personality dispositions (i.e. irritability and hostile rumination) in predisposing to EAV and to the pivotal role of moral disengagement in giving access to aggressive and violent conduct. In particular, the mediational model attested to the pivotal role of emotional stability and agreeableness in contributing directly to both hostile rumination and irritability and indirectly to moral disengagement, and to EAV. Agreeableness and hostile rumination contribute to moral disengagement th...

Toward a conceptual framework of instrumental antisocial decision-making and behavior in youth

This study examined how sociomoral judgments and other evaluations of aggression related to poten... more This study examined how sociomoral judgments and other evaluations of aggression related to potentially aggressogenic social-cognitive factors and patterns of conduct problem behaviors. Participating were 124 ninth graders in the seventh, eighth, or ninth year of a developmental research project on social competence. Subjects were assessed across social cognitive dimensions after imagining themselves involved in interactions portrayed in six videotaped vignettes. Subjects responded to vignette-based questions representing sociomoral judgments and multiple components of social information processing. The findings indicated that: (1) sociomoral judgments about possible aggressive responses across varied social contexts consistently predicted externalizing problems; and (2) sociomoral judgments about aggression mediated the relation between hostile attributional style and externalizing behavior. The findings suggest that sociomoral judgments about aggression play a crucial role in the ...

Supreme Court has granted the defense for strict liability crimes, but some statutes deny the def... more Supreme Court has granted the defense for strict liability crimes, but some statutes deny the defense in such cases. There is never a reason for a defendant to raise the statutory defense; the constitutional defense is better or at least as good in all cases. But many courts and lawyers do not recognize that there are two defenses, one offering less coverage than the other. As a result, many defendants are convicted after their claims are rejected under a statute when they might have been acquitted had they raised the argument directly under the Constitution. Ironically, then, a law intended to protect people from government deception has itself become a source of government deception. This is unjust. Courts, counsel, legislatures, and the American Law Institute should reconcile the defenses, and ensure that cases are decided based on applicable law rather than because of lawyers' or judges' mistakes about the law.

The Role of Developmental Social Cognition in Criminal Defense Law, 2012

The Role of Developmental Social Cognition in Criminal Defense Law, 2012

The Role of Developmental Social Cognition in Criminal Defense Law, 2012

Social Science Research Network, Feb 6, 2008

The relation between social rejection and growth in antisocial behavior was investigated. In Stud... more The relation between social rejection and growth in antisocial behavior was investigated. In Study 1, 259 boys and girls (34% African American) were followed from Grades 1 to 3 (ages 6-8 years) to Grades 5 to 7 (ages 10-12 years). Early peer rejection predicted growth in aggression. In Study 2, 585 boys and girls (16% African American) were followed from kindergarten to Grade 3 (ages 5-8 years), and findings were replicated. Furthermore, early aggression moderated the effect of rejection, such that rejection exacerbated antisocial development only among children initially disposed toward aggression. In Study 3, social informationprocessing patterns measured in Study 1 were found to mediate partially the effect of early rejection on later aggression. In Study 4, processing patterns measured in Study 2 replicated the mediation effect. Findings are integrated into a recursive model of antisocial development.

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Jan 31, 2012

Psychology, Public Policy and Law, Nov 1, 2008

Recent scholarship has drawn attention to the alternative contributions of dysfunctional reactive... more Recent scholarship has drawn attention to the alternative contributions of dysfunctional reactive cognition (e.g., provocation interpretational bias) and emotion (e.g., provoked fury) in heat-of-passion killings. Two main theses have been advanced. First, there exists a meaningful parallel between the instrumental-reactive aggression dichotomy in psychology and murder-manslaughter distinction in law. Second, analysis of this parallel suggests that the heat-of-passion (or provocation) defense disproportionately favors emotional over cognitive dysfunction in mitigating murder to manslaughter. These theses, however, have yet to be fully developed and raise additional, critical questions that have not yet been addressed: Other than interpretational style, how may socialcognitive science inform our understanding of the role of cognitive bias in reactive homicide? How is serious interpretational bias related to alternative forms of psychiatric disorder as recognized in law? This article addresses these and related questions regarding the differential and interactive contributions of dysfunctional cognition and emotion in the execution of reactive homicide.

Social Science Research Network, Jan 28, 2008

Behavioral scientists have distinguished an instrumental (or proactive) style of aggression from ... more Behavioral scientists have distinguished an instrumental (or proactive) style of aggression from a style that is reactive (or hostile). Whereas instrumental aggression is cold-blooded, deliberate, and goal driven, reactive aggression is characterized by hot blood, impulsivity, and uncontrollable rage. Scholars have pointed to the distinction between murder (committed with malice aforethought) and manslaughter (enacted in the heat of passion in response to provocation) in criminal law as a reflection of the instrumental-reactive aggression dichotomy. Recently, B. J. Bushman and C. A. Anderson (2001) argued that the instrumental-reactive aggression distinction has outlived its usefulness in psychology and pointed to inconsistencies and confusion in criminal law applications as support for their position. But how similar is the legal distinction between murder and manslaughter to the instrumental-reactive aggression dichotomy in psychology? This article compares and contrasts the psychological and legal models and demonstrates that the purposes for distinguishing between instrumental and reactive aggression in psychology and law are undeniably different in meaningful ways. As such, a perceived shift in law away from differentiating murder and manslaughter has no bearing on the usefulness of the instrumental-reactive aggression distinction in psychological science.

Social Science Research Network, Feb 6, 2008

Externalizing behavior problems of 124 adolescents were assessed across Grades 7-11. In Grade 9, ... more Externalizing behavior problems of 124 adolescents were assessed across Grades 7-11. In Grade 9, participants were also assessed across social-cognitive domains after imagining themselves as the object of provocations portrayed in six videotaped vignettes. Participants responded to vignette-based questions representing multiple processes of the response decision step of social information processing. Phase 1 of our investigation supported a two-factor model of the response evaluation process of response decision (response valuation and outcome expectancy). Phase 2 showed significant relations between the set of these response decision processes, as well as response selection, measured in Grade 9 and (a) externalizing behavior in Grade 9 and (b) externalizing behavior in Grades 10-11, even after controlling externalizing behavior in Grades 7-8. These findings suggest that on-line behavioral judgments about aggression play a crucial role in the maintenance and growth of aggressive response tendencies in adolescence. Inquiry in social-cognitive psychology (e.g., the association between cognitive processing and maladaptive social development. How-Erdley & Asher, 1996, in press; Fontaine, Burks, & Dodge, 1998; Guerra, Nucci, & ever, many researchers have continued to regard empirical attention to cognitive function-Huesmann, 1994; Huesmann & Guerra, 1997) and developmental psychopathology (e.g., ing and antisocial behavior in childhood and (especially) adolescence as insufficient (e.g.,

In response to constant careful oversight by a dedicated review panel that had been assigned the ... more In response to constant careful oversight by a dedicated review panel that had been assigned the arduous task of monitoring the state's compliance with its own voluntary settlement, over the course of 18 years the state created a marvelous new system of care for children, one that has become the foundation for the design of children's mental health delivery systems across the country. The case of Willie M. inspired innovative concepts in children's mental health service delivery, concepts such as individualized treatment plans and the creation of new treatment forms where none had existed before, child-based rather than program-based treatment, "wrap-around care," treatment in the least restrictive alternative setting, a continuum of care, building strengths rather than ameliorating deficits, paid paraprofessional mentoring, and therapeutic group homes. The state invested in the training of a new breed of professionals assigned to work with children who became known as "Willie M. kids." Novel approaches to assessment were also created, including measurement that directly connected a child's current status and needs to treatment plans. This measurement included not only assessment of the child but also assessment of the environmental risk and protective factors that surrounded the child; thus, the focus of treatment planning was bounded not by the child but by the entire community. Furthermore, the initial assessment was later tied to outcome goals and became the Assessment and Outcomes Instrument (AOI). Because the service system was closely watched by the court and the court was constantly asking the state to provide documentation of its compliance with the settlement, the state had to develop a quantitative system of measuring treatments and outcomes for children. This system meant that the state accumulated more data on troubled children than ever before, and the body of scientific knowledge about these children also grew. These innovations did not occur readily. The state was slow in delivering on its promise, and on numerous occasions the review panel had to ask the oversight judge to call the state back into court and to cite the state for noncompliance. The administrator of this review panel throughout the late 1980s was Marci White, a polite but unforgiving watchdog. She became the major thorn in the side of the state, criticizing, demanding, receiving, and demanding more. The criticism continued, the state became even more embarrassed, and the taxpayer dollars increased. But change finally occurred. The state shrewdly figured out that the only way to get out from under the thumb of the review panel was to co-opt its enemy, the panel's administrator. In 1992, the state hired Marci White to become the Willie M. Program Director. In the blink of an eye, White had gone from criticizing the state to being the state, which had in effect told her to put up or shut up. Over the next six years, she did, indeed, put up. White and three colleagues (Eric Vance, Charles Davis, and Gustavo Fernandez) became like the Four Musketeers as they pushed through legislative reform, trained professional staff, and worked tirelessly to bring the state into compliance with the federal court. Eventually, White and colleagues returned to court to argue, with data, against the very review panel that White had built. Ironically, their success meant the demise of their program, because in 1998, the legal case was officially closed. The state was officially in compliance. The plaintiffs withdrew all cause for action. The Willie M. Program was over. In some respects, the plaintiffs were victorious: in 1999, state legislation mandated that qualifying children receive continuing services of the sort that the program had created, and it authorized funding under the name Assaultive and Violent Children's Funds. In other respects, the closing of the case meant that the program could be folded in to the regular state mental health, education, and corrections systems, to be gobbled up by the very bureaucracy that had been the subject of the suit in the first place. Indeed, the legislation that mandated services and authorized funding in 1999 was quickly repealed only one year later. In the year 2001, has the system changed from its state 22 years previously? Part I: The Legal History of the Willie M. Class Action Law Suit A Circus of Media Attention Is Engineered April 1979: A news conference starts the ball rolling. As lights flash and cameras roll, a sober but folksy judge from the same state as Senator Sam Ervin of Watergate fame tells stories of emotionally disturbed children who were being neglected or, worse, mistreated at the state's training school. He scolds the state for not acting to help these children. He implies that some "do-gooder" lawyer should sue the judge who assigns children to this awful fate, even if that judge is. .. himself. Sometimes the only way to catalyze change is to embarrass the players through the media, and so District Court Judge George Bason of Wake County, North Carolina, decided to use the media in order to draw attention to the sad plight that faced adolescents in the juvenile courts. The news conference he called he called attracted state and local television stations and newspapers. In dramatic fashion, he told a story of an emotionally disturbed boy, Thomas H., who had come through the doors of his court room over and over.. . and over. Entering the halls of juvenile justice in North Carolina in the 1970s meant going through a revolving door. Like many states, North Carolina saw a growing trend in the number of case workers, lawyers, and judges in the juvenile justice system who were becoming frustrated by the lack of rehabilitative options for adjudicated children. This frustration was fueled by the common observation that more and more juvenile offenders were becoming repeat offenders and that more and more repeat offenders were becoming serious offenders. In addition to being concerned about children who were adjudicated criminally "delinquent," juvenile justice professionals were discouraged by the lack of services and the frequency with which non-delinquent children who were adjudicated "abused," "dependent," "neglected," or "undisciplined," were returning to court later as delinquents. Some experts in the field believed that the recurring cycle of adjudication was fueled, at least in part, by the fact that the state failed to provide professional services through which these children's emotional and behavioral problems could be curbed. State mental health professionals and educators were not willing to take responsibility for

The Role of Developmental Social Cognition in Criminal Defense Law

The Role of Developmental Social Cognition in Criminal Defense Law

The Role of Developmental Social Cognition in Criminal Defense Law

Developmental Psychology, 2014

This study examines the role of moral disengagement in fostering engagement in aggression and vio... more This study examines the role of moral disengagement in fostering engagement in aggression and violence through adolescence to young adulthood in accordance with a design in which the study of individual differences and of their relations is instrumental to address underlying intraindividual structures and process conducive to detrimental conduct. Participants were 345 young adults (52% females) who were followed across 4 time periods (T1 M age = 17 years to T4 M age = 25 years). The longitudinal relations among irritability, hostile rumination, and moral disengagement attest to a conceptual model in which moral disengagement is crucial in giving access to action to aggressive tendencies. Findings suggest that irritability and hostile rumination contributed to the development of each other reciprocally and significantly across time. While hostile rumination and moral disengagement significantly mediated the relation between irritability and violence, moral disengagement significantly mediated the relation between hostile rumination and violence.

European Journal of Personality, 2012

This paper examined empirically the value of a conceptual model in which emotional stability and ... more This paper examined empirically the value of a conceptual model in which emotional stability and agreeableness contribute to engagement in aggression and violence (EAV) indirectly through irritability, hostile rumination and moral disengagement. Three hundred and forty young adults (130 male and 190 female) participated in the study. The average age of participants was 21 at time 1 and 25 at time 2. Findings attested to the role of basic traits (i.e. agreeableness and emotional stability) and specific personality dispositions (i.e. irritability and hostile rumination) in predisposing to EAV and to the pivotal role of moral disengagement in giving access to aggressive and violent conduct. In particular, the mediational model attested to the pivotal role of emotional stability and agreeableness in contributing directly to both hostile rumination and irritability and indirectly to moral disengagement, and to EAV. Agreeableness and hostile rumination contribute to moral disengagement th...

Toward a conceptual framework of instrumental antisocial decision-making and behavior in youth

This study examined how sociomoral judgments and other evaluations of aggression related to poten... more This study examined how sociomoral judgments and other evaluations of aggression related to potentially aggressogenic social-cognitive factors and patterns of conduct problem behaviors. Participating were 124 ninth graders in the seventh, eighth, or ninth year of a developmental research project on social competence. Subjects were assessed across social cognitive dimensions after imagining themselves involved in interactions portrayed in six videotaped vignettes. Subjects responded to vignette-based questions representing sociomoral judgments and multiple components of social information processing. The findings indicated that: (1) sociomoral judgments about possible aggressive responses across varied social contexts consistently predicted externalizing problems; and (2) sociomoral judgments about aggression mediated the relation between hostile attributional style and externalizing behavior. The findings suggest that sociomoral judgments about aggression play a crucial role in the ...

Supreme Court has granted the defense for strict liability crimes, but some statutes deny the def... more Supreme Court has granted the defense for strict liability crimes, but some statutes deny the defense in such cases. There is never a reason for a defendant to raise the statutory defense; the constitutional defense is better or at least as good in all cases. But many courts and lawyers do not recognize that there are two defenses, one offering less coverage than the other. As a result, many defendants are convicted after their claims are rejected under a statute when they might have been acquitted had they raised the argument directly under the Constitution. Ironically, then, a law intended to protect people from government deception has itself become a source of government deception. This is unjust. Courts, counsel, legislatures, and the American Law Institute should reconcile the defenses, and ensure that cases are decided based on applicable law rather than because of lawyers' or judges' mistakes about the law.

The Role of Developmental Social Cognition in Criminal Defense Law, 2012

The Role of Developmental Social Cognition in Criminal Defense Law, 2012

The Role of Developmental Social Cognition in Criminal Defense Law, 2012