Training Our Protectors
  • Home
  • Site Contents
    • Index of all subtopics
  • Introduction
  • Stress Effects on Police
    • Papers: Stress Effects on Police
  • Understanding Violence
    • A Complex Matrix
    • Nature-Nurture Interactions>
      • Papers
    • Child abuse and neglect>
      • Papers
      • Papers: Corporal punishment effects
    • Effects of Trauma and Stress>
      • Papers
    • Powder-keg formula>
      • Papers: Early Signs
    • The Violent Brain>
      • Brain Injury and Damage>
        • Papers
      • Genes and temperament>
        • Papers
      • Neurohormonal imbalances>
        • Papers
    • Intimate violence and abuse>
      • Papers
    • Substance Abuse>
      • Papers
      • Papers
    • Psychopaths and APD>
      • Papers
    • Parallels of collective violence and war zones>
      • Papers
  • Abuse of Power
    • Authoritarians>
      • Papers
    • Going backward: A trend toward authoritarianism>
      • Papers
    • "Stand Your Ground">
      • Papers
    • Prosecutor's Certainty>
      • Papers
    • Innocents swept up in frenzy >
      • Papers
    • He’s just "faking it” >
      • Papers
    • Punitive approach>
      • Papers
    • Police Brutality>
      • Papers
      • Articles: Tasers and Pepper Spray
      • SWAT Overkill-Warrior Cops
      • Militarization
      • Stop and Frisk
      • Blog and News Posts: Police Abuse
    • Racial Profiling
    • A Global Crisis>
      • Global Reports
    • Locked up and restrained>
      • Papers
      • News and blog posts
    • Torture>
      • Papers
      • News and blog posts
      • Links
    • Human Rights Abuses>
      • Reports
      • Links
      • New Page
    • Governments Mistreating Citizens>
      • Papers
    • Civil liberties>
      • Links
      • Papers
    • "War on Terror" Errors and Effects>
      • Torture Debates
      • Bush Cheney Policies
      • Overreaction to 9/11
      • New Page
      • New Page
    • Systemic Corruption>
      • Papers
  • Juvenile "Injustice"
    • What are we doing to our children?
    • News around the world
    • News from U.S.
    • Links
  • Prison Nation
    • Links
    • Articles: Overview Issues
    • Mass Incarceration>
      • Papers
    • Solitary confinement
    • Supermax>
      • Articles
    • Sentencing Discrepancies>
      • Papers
    • Mandatory Minimum Sentencing
    • Three Strikes
    • The New Chain Gangs
    • Private For-Profit Prisons: Corporate welfare>
      • Links
      • Papers
      • Articles
    • Mentally ill in prison>
      • Papers and articles
    • Inside Rape>
      • Papers
    • Effects on Families and Children>
      • Papers
  • Neuroscience of law and justice
    • Fairness and Reciprocity>
      • Papers and Articles
      • Links
    • Diversity of Human Nature>
      • Papers
    • Memory>
      • How memory is reconstructed
      • Eyewitness fallibility
      • The Line-up
      • Academic Papers on Memory
    • False Confession
    • Misperception and misjudgment>
      • Papers
    • Micro-expressions>
      • Papers
    • Volition>
      • Assumptions about personal agency and self-control>
        • Papers
      • Temporary impulsive behavior
    • Prejudice and Discrimination>
      • Papers
    • Unrecognized extenuating circumstances
  • Social psychology of justice
    • Values and Attitudes>
      • Papers
    • Groupthink>
      • Papers
    • System Justification>
      • Papers
    • Obedience, Compliance, Conformity>
      • Papers
    • Denial and Projection>
      • Papers and Articles
    • Whistleblowers as Traitors>
      • Papers
    • Revisiting Zimbardo
    • Seminal Studies
    • Loyalty and Collusion>
      • Papers
    • Search for belonging: gangs and mercenaries>
      • Papers
    • Situational social roles>
      • Papers
  • Debating Approaches
    • Punishment vs. prevention>
      • Papers
      • Links
    • Gun control and Common Sense>
      • Papers
      • Links
    • Drug treatment or harsh incarceration>
      • Papers
      • Links
  • Ineffective and Outdated Methods
    • Coercive Interrogation and leading questions>
      • Papers
    • Myths About Psychological Profiling>
      • Papers
    • Polygraph>
      • Papers
    • Tough Love and Zero Tolerance>
      • Papers
    • Bounties and Informants>
      • Papers
    • Boot camps>
      • Papers
    • The "Bad Seed" view>
      • Papers
  • Economic and Political Issues
    • Privatization: mercenary and contract security>
      • Papers
    • Inadequate training and monitoring >
      • Papers
    • Mislabeling
    • Corruption: A Quiet Violence
    • War on Poor: Draconian Policies
    • Dickens and Les Miz
  • A Broad Cultural Background
  • Solutions
    • Prevention>
      • Links
      • Papers
    • Social Investment>
      • Links
      • Papers
    • Restorative Justice>
      • Links
      • Papers
    • Helping Kids-at-Risk>
      • Links
    • Juvenile Justice alternatives>
      • Papers
      • Links
    • Empathy and Ethics>
      • Papers
    • Conflict resolution>
      • Links
      • Papers
    • Community-based programs>
      • Links
    • Never Assume>
      • Links
      • Papers
    • Offset Damage>
      • Links
    • Healing the Hurt>
      • Links
      • Papers
    • Global Approaches
    • Helping Law Enforcement Professionals>
      • Coping with danger and high-stress situations
      • Triage and Crowd Control
      • Links
      • Papers
    • Major Policy Reforms>
      • Papers
  • Resources
    • Discussion of Methods
    • Exercises and Surveys
    • Authoritarian Questionnaire
    • Values Questionnaire
    • Civil Liberties Questionnaire
  • A Look at History
    • A History of Punishment
    • Inhumane incarceration, detention>
      • Papers
    • Chain gangs, debtor’s prison, the poorhouse>
      • Papers
    • Gulags, Political prisoners>
      • Papers
    • Internment>
      • Papers
  • Social Advances slideshow
  • Statistics
    • General Indicators
    • Stats: Prison Population
    • Stats: Gun Violence
    • Stats: Child abuse
    • Stats: Substance-abuse related violence
  • Recommendations
    • Organizations and Advocates
    • Books
    • Video Lectures
    • TV Shows
    • Feature Films
    • Documentaries
    • Other Media
    • Exhibits
  • Index of all Links
  • Index of all paper topics

Vanderbilt University News

Crime and punishment: the neurobiological roots of modern justice
by David Salisbury | Posted on Wednesday, Apr. 18, 2012 
The willingness of people to punish others who lie, cheat, steal or violate other socialnorms even when they weren't harmed and don't stand to benefit personally, is a distinctly

Groundbreaking legal research shows potentially serious failures in the Model Penal Code
by Amy Wolf | Posted on Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011 
Results cast doubt on assumptions about juror abilities, particularly in homicide casesGroundbreaking new legal research from a team of Vanderbilt University and other researchers suggests that juror confusion over how to apply the Model Penal Code in criminal trials could cause major, unnoticed and life-altering sentencing errors.

The paradox of moral focus.
Young L, Phillips J.
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT
Cognition. 2011 May;119(2):166-78. 

When we evaluate moral agents, we consider many factors, including whether the agent acted freely, or under duress or coercion. In turn, moral evaluations have been shown to influence our (non-moral) evaluations of these same factors. For example, when we judge an agent to have acted immorally, we are subsequently more likely to judge the agent to have acted freely, not under force. Here, we investigate the cognitive signatures of this effect in interpersonal situations, in which one agent ("forcer") forces another agent ("forcee") to act either immorally or morally. The structure of this relationship allowed us to ask questions about both the "forcer" and the "forcee." Paradoxically, participants judged that the "forcer" forced the "forcee" to act immorally (i.e. X forced Y), but that the "forcee" was not forced to act immorally (i.e. Y was not forced by X). This pattern obtained only for human agents who acted intentionally. Directly changing participants' focus from one agent to another (forcer versus forcee) also changed the target of moral evaluation and therefore force attributions. The full pattern of judgments may provide a window into motivated moral reasoning and focusing bias more generally; participants may have been motivated to attribute greater force to the immoral forcer and greater freedom to the immoral forcee.