Righting a Wrongful Conviction: A Mixed Method Approach to Examining Exonerees’ Reintegration

Whether an individual is rightfully or wrongfully convicted, they experience a range of difficulties upon their release back into society. While rightfully convicted individuals are eligible for programming to assist them with their reintegration, wrongfully convicted individuals are currently ineligible. The goal of this program of research was to examine exonerees’ post-release experience. In Study 1, through qualitative interviews, exonerees (N = 14) shared their stories to raise awareness of the reality of their reintegration needs, with specific attention to their priorities of receiving support, treating deinstitutionalization, and promoting community acceptance upon release. Studies 2 and 3 were designed to examine exonerees’ priority of community acceptance. In Study 2, we experimentally examined mechanisms (i.e., criminal status, factor contributing to the conviction, crime, race) that may influence stigma that exonerees experience. Undergraduate students’ (N = 317) reported negative perceptions of false confessors, however, participants believed all exonerees deserved reintegration services and financial compensation. In Study 3, we surveyed members of the Canadian public (N = 206) to assess their perspectives of exonerees’ reintegration; we found they support the government funding reintegration programming for exonerees, and providing them with financial compensation. Taken together, this program of research has provided evidence to support that exonerees’ ineligibility for reintegration support deserves to be reconsidered.</p

What do Undergraduate Students Learn from Participating in Psychological Research?

Researchers often rely on undergraduate students to participate in psychological studies and so ethical guidelines state that there must be educational value to their participation. In previous studies that have asked undergraduates if they felt they learned something new from participating in research, students have generally said yes. However, we know relatively little about what specifically they are learning. The current study aimed to extend previous research by asking undergraduate participants (N = 479), who had all taken part in at least one psychology study, to indicate if and what they learned about the research process, themselves, or other people as a result of their participation. Participants were also asked to recommend ways to make participating in studies more educational. Our findings suggest that the majority of participants are learning from their participation; most often about the design or process of research, but also sometimes about their own psychology or that of other people. Based on students’ feedback, we provide specific recommendations for further improving the educational potential of studies

‘Angry and heartbroken for the failure of the system’ : A content and thematic analysis of viewer reactions to When They See Us

As the number of wrongful conviction media productions released to the public increases, an understanding of their potential impact on viewers is prudent. One such production, When They See Us, depicts the wrongful conviction of five racialized youth, and we investigated the effect of watching this specific wrongful conviction media production on a subset of Reddit users’ online conversations about wrongful convictions and the criminal justice system in general. Following an inductive content analysis of Reddit comments shared to r/WhenTheySeeUs (N = 461), seven coding categories were observed. The ‘Wrongful Conviction Relevant’ coding category was the third most frequently occurring, representing 28% of total comments. Additionally, after conducting a deeper thematic analysis of the ‘Wrongful Conviction Relevant’ comments, the following themes and subthemes were identified: Risk Factors (Individual Characteristics and System Factors), Exoneration and Beyond (Impacts on Exonerees and Changes to System), and the Innocence Movement (Unmet System Expectations and Public Awareness). Users’ ‘Wrongful Conviction Relevant’ comments were situated within the academic literature investigating wrongful conviction correlates, outcomes, and preventative measures, and discussed in relation to viewer reactions to other wrongful conviction media productions

Putting negative attitudes on the agenda? Not Criminally Responsible Reform Act publicity and juror decision-making

The current study examined the effect of publicity about Canada's recent Not Criminally Responsible (NCR) Reform Act - legislation surrounding accused in insanity cases that purportedly aims to enhance public safety - on juror decision-making. In line with agenda-setting theory, we expected tha