Effective Police Station Legal Advice - Country Report 1: Belgium

This Country Report for Belgium has arisen out of a comparative study into police station legal advice, led by Dr Vicky Kemp, University of Nottingham. She received a small grant from the British Academy/Leverhulme to undertake semi-structured interviews with defence lawyers and policy officers responsible for criminal legal aid in six jurisdictions: Belgium, England and Wales, Ireland, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Dr Miet Vanderhallen was the consultant responsible for the research undertaken in Belgium and the Netherlands, assisted by Enide Maegherman, both from the University of Maastricht

Effective Police Station Legal Advice - Country Report 1: Belgium

This Country Report for Belgium has arisen out of a comparative study into police station legal advice, led by Dr Vicky Kemp, University of Nottingham. She received a small grant from the British Academy/Leverhulme to undertake semi-structured interviews with defence lawyers and policy officers responsible for criminal legal aid in six jurisdictions: Belgium, England and Wales, Ireland, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Dr Miet Vanderhallen was the consultant responsible for the research undertaken in Belgium and the Netherlands, assisted by Enide Maegherman, both from the University of Maastricht

Effective Police Station Legal Advice - Country Report 4: The Netherlands

This Country Report for the Netherlands has arisen out of a comparative study into police station legal advice, led by Dr Vicky Kemp, University of Nottingham. She received a small grant from the British Academy/Leverhulme to undertake semi-structured interviews with defence lawyers and policy officers responsible for criminal legal aid in six jurisdictions: Belgium, England and Wales, Ireland, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Dr Miet Vanderhallen was the consultant responsible for the research being undertaken in Belgium and the Netherlands, assisted by Enide Maegherman, both from the University of Maastricht

Effective Police Station Legal Advice - Country Report 1: Belgium

This Country Report for Belgium has arisen out of a comparative study into police station legal advice, led by Dr Vicky Kemp, University of Nottingham. She received a small grant from the British Academy/Leverhulme to undertake semi-structured interviews with defence lawyers and policy officers responsible for criminal legal aid in six jurisdictions: Belgium, England and Wales, Ireland, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Dr Miet Vanderhallen was the consultant responsible for the research undertaken in Belgium and the Netherlands, assisted by Enide Maegherman, both from the University of Maastricht

Allegiance Bias in Statement Reliability Evaluations Is Not Eliminated by Falsification Instructions

Are expert witnesses biased by the side (defense vs. prosecution) that hires them? We examined this issue by having students act as expert witnesses in evaluating interviews in a child sexual abuse case (Experiment 1, N = 143) and tested the value of an instruction to counteract such allegiance effects. The intervention concerned an instruction to consider arguments both for and against the given hypothesis (i.e., two-sided instructions; Experiment 2, N = 139). In Experiment 3 (N = 123), we additionally provided participants with three different scenarios. Participants received a case file regarding a case of alleged sexual abuse. With the file, participants received an appointment letter emphasizing elements of the file that questioned (defense) or supported (prosecution) the veracity of the accusation. Participants displayed allegiance bias (Experiments 1–3), but two-sided instructions were not successful in eliminating allegiance bias (Experiments 2 and 3). The findings underscore the importance of legal safeguards in expert witness work

Effective Police Station Legal Advice - Country Report 4: The Netherlands

This Country Report for the Netherlands has arisen out of a comparative study into police station legal advice, led by Dr Vicky Kemp, University of Nottingham. She received a small grant from the British Academy/Leverhulme to undertake semi-structured interviews with defence lawyers and policy officers responsible for criminal legal aid in six jurisdictions: Belgium, England and Wales, Ireland, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Dr Miet Vanderhallen was the consultant responsible for the research being undertaken in Belgium and the Netherlands, assisted by Enide Maegherman, both from the University of Maastricht

Tunnel vision and falsification in legal decision-making

The importance of studying legal decision-making has been demonstrated by miscarriages of justice, where a piece of problematic evidence often receives a lot of attention. Nevertheless, there is often also evidence for the suspect’s innocence that was ignored. The cognitive process that can cause such evidence to be ignored is known as tunnel vision. Tunnel vision starts with a belief in something, such as the belief that the suspect is the perpetrator of the crime he or she is charged with. When presented with information that contradicts the belief, an uneasy feeling, known as cognitive dissonance, arises and to avoid that negative feeling, the initial belief should be maintained, and consonance should be achieved. In the current chapter, theories on legal decision-making will be explained, and attention will be drawn to the danger of tunnel vision and potential remedies in the form of falsification and the consideration of alternative scenarios. As the chapter is mostly based on the inquisitorial system of the Netherlands, a Dutch legal case will be used to demonstrate how attempts at falsification can be overlooked when deciding on whether a defendant is guilty or not.</p