Sanguinity and disillusionment where law meets social science.

Abstract

The current state of legally oriented social science research is a mixture of success and unfulfilled promise. Despite numerous indications that the relationship between social science and law continues to improve, dissatisfaction persists because a true empirical jurisprudence has not developed and because most research remains focused on a narrow range of legal topics. While commentators beseech their colleagues to expand the scope of inquiry, a variety of drawbacks still deter all but an intrepid few. Inhibiting factors include uncertainty about whether any particular study will influence policy making, and a professional reward structure that discourages interdisciplinary empirical research.

Effects of lawyers' socio-political attitudes on their judgments of social science in legal decision making.

“…For example, while psychology’s impact on law has sometimes been substantial and perhaps even decisive (see Ballew v. Georgia, 1978; Levine & Howe, 1985; Maryland v. Craig, 1990), in a number of cases (e.g., Bowers v. Hardwick, 1986; Lockhart v. McCree, 1986; McCleskey v. Kemp, 1987; Parham v. J.R., 1979) the U.S. Supreme Court has dismissed or marginalized the legal relevance of social science research. Many social scientists and some legal scholars (e.g., Bersoff, 1992a,b; Bersoff & Glass, 1995; Haney, 1980; Melton, 1984,1987a,b; Saks, 1989; Saks & Baron, 1980; Tanford, 1990; Tremper, 1987) have lamented the law’s inattention to relevant psychological research. “[S]cholars have noticed that courts seem particularly averse to social science, displaying hostility toward it...and rejecting science as no more reliable than intuition” (Tanford, 1990, p. 151).…”

The psychology and law of voluntary manslaughter: what can psychology research teach us about the “heat of passion” defense?

“…In addition to the law's general resistance to change, there is also the well-known reluctance to base changes in the law on new empirical or scientific research (Faigman, 1989;Haney, 1980;Lempert, 1986Lempert, , 1988Tanford, 1990;Tremper, 1987). The law's relationship with science has long been strained.…”

The Use of Research in the Seattle and Jefferson County Desegregation Cases: Connecting Social Science and the Law

“…Empirical social science evidence clearly played a significant role in these cases, as in the Brown v. Board of Education decisions before them. Nonetheless, historically, exchanges between the social sciences and the law have often involved tensions due to apparent differences between the two systems (see Barata & Senn, 2003; Bersoff, 1986; Crosby & Smith, 2007; Haney, 1980, 1991; Manuto & O'Rourke, 1991; Melton, 1987, 1990; Monahan & Walker, 1988, 1991; Roesch, Golding, Hans, & Reppucci, 1991; Smith & Crosby, 2007; Tremper, 1987). Indeed, many fundamental differences in perspective persist between social science and the law, including the goals we have in evaluating information, the value we place on information from varying sources, and the assumptions and conclusions that guide our use of that information.…”

“…The intellectual traditions of social science and American jurisprudence are, as several scholars have noted, often at variance with each other (Barata & Senn, 2003; Bersoff, 1986; Crosby & Smith, 2007; Haney, 1999; Monahan & Walker, 1991; Melton, 1987; Roesch et al, 1991; Tremper, 1987). In fact, some scholars have noted that, in examining the potential merits and limitations of school desegregation programs, social science research has not always been based in the same understandings and reasoning that guide the decisions of the Court (see Braddock & Eitle, 2004; Wells, 2002).…”