The Centre for Advancement of Psychological Science and Law (CAPSL) officially opened on Feb. 3 at UBC’s Okanagan campus.
The driving force behind CAPSL is the trio of Zach Walsh, assistant professor of psychology, Mike Woodworth, associate professor in psychology, and Stephen Porter, psychology professor. Each specializes in different areas of psychology and law and will bring their expertise to the centre.
The centre focuses on four key areas at the cross-section of psychology and law:
• personality/psychopathy and aggression
• investigative psychology (detecting deception, investigative interviewing, eyewitness memory)
• police and jury decision-making
• preventing victimization by criminals and understanding victim responses to violent crime
Funded by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and the B.C. government, research conducted by CAPSL will be relevant to the basic understanding of the psychology of crime and victimization, and to the types of biases that can influence decisions about suspects and defendants in the legal system, sometimes leading to wrongful convictions. This research could help improve the criminal justice system.
For more information, visit: https://news.ok.ubc.ca/2012/02/02/scholars-join-forces-to-launch-world-class-research-centre/
