Encyclopedia of Psychology and Law

Psychology and law is a relatively young field of scholarship. Conceptualized broadly, the field encompasses diverse approaches to psychology. Each of the major psychological subdivisions has contributed to research on legal issues: cognitive (e.g., eyewitness testimony), developmental (e.g., children’s testimony), social (e.g., jury behavior), clinical (e.g., assessment of competence), biological (e.g., the polygraph), and industrialorganizational psychology (e.g., sexual harassment in the workplace). Scholars from university settings, research institutions, and various government agencies in several continents have contributed substantially to the growth of empirical knowledge of psychology-law issues. Though young, the field shows clear signs of maturation. These signs include scientific journals devoted exclusively to psychology-law research; the publication of psychology-law research in highly prestigious psychology journals; professional associations devoted to psychology and law in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia; annual professional conferences; and hundreds of books on psychology and law topics.