Teaching Psychology and Law:
Strategies for the Dynamic Delivery of Course Content
M. Kimberly MacLin & Dwight J. Peterson
University of Northern Iowa
Abstract
We describe a timeline approach for teaching Psychology and
Law using a mock crime and trial. Discussion on ensuring that
course content does not get “lost” in a dynamic, engaging
class project, along with practical information on incorporating
these mock events into your courses is provided.
Introduction
Courses in Psychology and Law and its many variations are
becoming increasingly popular for students in psychology,
criminology, political science, and non-majors looking for an
interesting elective. Students entering such courses often
believe they will delve into the worlds of CSI and Silence of
the Lambs and typically have career aspirations that are
equally fictional. They are often surprised about the depth and
rigor inherent in this field, as well as the breadth of topic
coverage possible in such courses. While the course content
is inherently intriguing to most, it still can be a challenge to
organize and teach a course that accurately conveys course
content while preserving the intrigue that brought students to
the course in the first place.
Teaching Context as Well as Content
Many psychology and law classes, as well as existing text
books, are structured using a topical approach. In other
words, various topics relevant to psychology and law are
covered, sometimes in no particular order. By the end of such
a course, the student has a solid understanding of major
issues, but may lack a contextual basis from which to
understand the impact of this information on the legal system.
One way to teach context is by covering the content using a
timeline approach. While incredibly complex, many aspects of
our criminal justice and legal systems are time ordered. Thus,
arranging course content along a meaningful timeline serves
as a vehicle for teaching the relevant topics, methods, and
theories in a psychology and law course.
Benefits include covering material in the order that it occurs in
the real world, from the causes of crime all the way to the
inmate’s reentry into society.
An additional way to teach content in context is to incorporate
strategies that encourage experiential learning, such that
students learn and do. One such strategy is a semester-long
project developed for psychology and law courses that
includes a mock crime-investigation-mock trial. We have
found that students get deeply invested in the project and
often are surprised by their motivation and intensity with
regard to the project activities. This motivation turns the
common classroom situation of ‘having’ to learn something
(e.g., for a test), into needing to learn something in order to do
the tasks necessary for the project.
Project Overview
This semester-long class project is designed to engage
students in the criminal justice process so that they can
effectively apply the theoretical and methodological principles
they are learning in a psychology and law course to the realworld situations to which they relate.
The project is comprised of a mock crime and a mock trial,
with all of the necessary preparations in between. Given the
flow of the project, it is beneficial to cover course material in
terms of the criminal justice timeline such that relevant course
material is covered at roughly the same time that the major
events of the project are taking place. Each student chooses
a role to play and participates in the criminal justice and legal
systems as that role throughout the entire semester. The
class project requires individual and group work, and thus the
students receive both individual and group grades for their
participation.
This project has been designed for a Psychology and Law,
semester long (15-week) course that requires Introductory
Psychology as a pre-requisite and is open to majors and nonmajors alike. You can effectively carry out this project with
class sizes from 25-50. There are minor roles that can be
excluded or included depending on the size of your class.
Many roles can realistically have more than one person, and
your jury size can range greatly. A class size of 38 is an ideal
number.
The Crime
We recommend that you stage a murder as your crime. This
allows for a lot of investigative opportunities and an intense
crime scene and trial. Good locations for the crime include
lobbies, wide hallways, and open areas (e.g., in your Union).
Given that the crime occurs during class time, pedestrian
traffic is often limited. Your crime site should not block any
walkways. Be mindful of the weather (if outdoors), possible
noise issues (the media and law enforcement often clash—
loudly!) and getaway possibilities for your perpetrator.
Arrange for your eyewitnesses to come upon the crime scene
with the crime either just being committed, or just completed.
This allows for the eyewitnesses to have an actual memory
trace for use in the investigation. One of the witnesses calls
911 (a ‘police officer’s’ cell phone back at class), and the
crime scene unit is alerted. The scene is processed, and if the
media were paying attention, they often show up as well.
Investigation and Trial Preparation
The investigation continues through periodic in-class
project days. Investigation activities include:
•Interviewing witnesses
•Lineup development
•Lineup administration
•Witness interviews with sketch artist
•Autopsy/Coroner activities
•Police reports
•Background checks
•Case development
•Case planning
•Depositions
•Pre-trial motions
The Trial
The trial takes place over 3-4 class periods. Time limits are
imposed for each portion of the trial (including deliberation).
A class period is then devoted to debriefing, venting,
critiquing, and evaluating the experience.
Roles
Police Officers (2)
Detectives (2)
Crime Scene Investigators (2)
Sketch Artist (1)
Profiler (1; optional)
Bail Bonds (1; optional)
Bailiff (1)
Judge (1)
Jurors (8-16)
Jury Commissioner (1; optional)
Defense Attorneys (2)
Prosecuting Attorneys (2)
Expert Witnesses (2; one for each side)
Character Witnesses (2; one for each side)
Eyewitnesses (2-5)
Camera Person (1)
TV Correspondent/Reporter (1)
Newspaper Reporter (1; optional)
Newspaper Photographer (1; optional)
You will need to find people from outside your course to play
the following roles: victim (1), perpetrator (1), innocent
suspect (1).
Don’t Lose Sight of Content
This is a fun, highly engaging project. Therefore, you must
guard against the project serving as the dominating content
of the course. It is very important that the project is linked to
reading material, assignments and lectures. Students report
being very engaged in the academic aspects of the course,
because they are using the information every day. The
project then serves as a highly salient example for the
theoretical and methodological content that is inherent in
the course.
Sounds Like a Lot of Work
It is. But is also incredibly rewarding to see students get so
invested, engaged, excited (and angry and frustrated). In
the process, they learn about the scientific underpinnings of
many aspects of our legal system, and how psychology
plays an important role in scientific understanding of police
and legal practice as well as an important participant in
policy development and reform. Feel free to contact me for
project materials or strategies to link course content to
project activities (kim.maclin@uni.edu).