Dr. Joshua J. Reynolds
Forensic and Legal Psychology
Assistant Professor
Psychology Department
University of Scranton
Welcome to the Forensic and Legal Psychology Laboratory!
About our lab
Our laboratory is primarily concerned with forensic and legal psychology research.
Forensic and legal psychology concerns the intersection of psychology and the criminal justice system and examines human behavior related to the legal process, including eyewitness memory, testimony, jury decision making, the insanity defense, and lie detection. Within that area, some of our research concerns criminal behaviors such as homicide and rape. For example, one thing I am interested in is using details from the crime scene, like the weapon, to predict who the perpetrator is in a homicide case. This is really fun research since a lot of people including the police have all sorts of ideas about what crime scene details mean, and they are frequently wrong or sometimes there is just no existing data. But it is fascinating that people form many beliefs about such things, and sometimes are very confident in those beliefs, despite lack of empirical evidence. Other research focuses on topics related to the fourth amendment. But we do actually do more than just forensic psychology research, which includes social cognitive research like on self-control, and evolutionary research like understanding exploitative strategies.
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We are currently located at: WEISS 304
Current lab members
Anna F. Gowarty
Anna is a junior at the University of Scranton, majoring in psychology and criminal justice. She is also part of the University’s Honors program. Her interests include juror bias impacts on cases, effectiveness of criminal profiling, and police interactions with individuals with mental health disorders.
Annabelle R. Berry
Anabelle is a junior psychology and philosophy major at The University of Scranton. She is also a part of the Special Jesuit Liberal Arts Honors program. Her interests include juror decision making, the relationship between mental illness and criminality, and public perception of mentally ill defendants.
Connor S. Gannon
Connor is a junior at the University of Scranton. He is majoring in Psychology with a minor in criminology. He is interested in the effectiveness of criminal profiling, public perception of forensic evidence and the median from which it is publicized, and psychological factors behind criminal rehabilitation.
Past lab members
Madeline Williams, Owen J. Stanczak, Emma Trautfetter, Maria Rocha, Taylor Boyle
Interested?
Interested in being a research assistant in our lab?
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To be considered for a research assistant position the following criteria must be met:
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GPA higher than 3.3
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Must have had or are currently taking at least one research methods course and one statistics course (they might be combined like psych 211 and 212) OR have read a basic introductory statistics/method book
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Taken a forensic psychology OR legal psychology course OR read at least one textbook in the area (e.g., Costanzo & Krauss, 2018).
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Feel free to contact Dr. Reynolds to apply for a research position.
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Upon admission to the lab, all lab members are expected to use the statistical software R, and will be encouraged to read the following book on statistical analysis.
https://xcelab.net/rm/statistical-rethinking/
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