Hugo Munsterberg's Psychology and Law : A Historical and Contemporary Assessment

Psychological research has much to offer the criminal justice system. One of the first to recognize this was the German-American psychologist Hugo Münsterberg in the early 20th century. The issues Münsterberg raised, such as eyewitness misidentification and false confessions, continue to be of paramount importance in the 21st century. The present book reintroduces Münsterberg''s work to a modern audience, using contemporary research and cases to show how far we have come-and how far we still have to go-in applying psychological research to the courts.

Though widely regarded as a founder of the modern field of psychology and law, German-American psychologist Hugo Münsterberg now century-old ideas and research approaches continue to thrive. In fact, the discipline still grapples with many of the issues raised by Münsterberg in his seminal 1908 book, On the Witness Stand. Hugo Münsterberg''s Psychology and Law: A Historical and Contemporary Assessment makes Münsterberg''s enduring insights available to a new generation of scholars and students and presents the "state of the science" on the very concepts that Münsterberg was one of the first to investigate. These include eyewitness memory, deception detection, false confessions, suggestibility, hypnotism, and the causes of criminal behavior. Opening with a brief biography of Münsterberg and a historical overview of the field, the book''s organization closely follows that of On the Witness Stand, with each chapter providing a summary of Münsterberg''s work followed by a contemporary perspective on the topic. Each chapter asks the reader to consider what we have learned since Münsterberg''s time and whether subsequent research has shown him to be right or wrong. The final chapter asks what Münsterberg may have missed, and what we may be missing today. Hugo Münsterberg''s Psychology and Law will be of interest to a broad range of scholars, practitioners, and professionals in the legal and mental health fields.