TY - JOUR
T1 - The Expert as Educator
T2 - Enhancing the Rationality of Verdicts in Child Sex Abuse Prosecutions
AU - Allen, Ronald J
AU - Miller, Joseph S.
PY - 1995/6
Y1 - 1995/6
N2 - The authors discuss the role of expert witnesses in the context of conventional understandings of trials at common law. Controversies surrounding the expert's role turn primarily on whether the expert should educate fact finders, as lay witnesses are required to do, or instead should provide conclusions to which the fact finder simply defers. The authors observe that the likelihood of irrational verdicts increases the more fact finders defer to experts and that experts become advocates often enough to make deference fertile ground for abuse. They conclude that the expert who educates better serves the justice system.
AB - The authors discuss the role of expert witnesses in the context of conventional understandings of trials at common law. Controversies surrounding the expert's role turn primarily on whether the expert should educate fact finders, as lay witnesses are required to do, or instead should provide conclusions to which the fact finder simply defers. The authors observe that the likelihood of irrational verdicts increases the more fact finders defer to experts and that experts become advocates often enough to make deference fertile ground for abuse. They conclude that the expert who educates better serves the justice system.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0001218333&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0001218333&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1037/1076-8971.1.2.323
DO - 10.1037/1076-8971.1.2.323
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0001218333
VL - 1
SP - 323
EP - 338
JO - Psychology, Public Policy, and Law
JF - Psychology, Public Policy, and Law
SN - 1076-8971
IS - 2
ER -