Social Science Research and the Criminal Case

• In Event: Legal Services for the Indigent: Social Work, Mitigation, and Holistic Defense

Abstract

This paper focuses on the role that social science research can plan in non-capital mitigation, drawing from the author's background as an academic and as a practicing mitigation specialist. It focuses on the need to balance defense strategy and the responsible use of research literature. It also examines the question of applying group-level data to individual cases, the need to engage in a careful expression of ideas mined from the literature that avoids pitfalls for clients and for defense strategy. It focuses on the possibilities and the pitfalls of such engagement, particularly for young people (and the case study of neuroscience will be used). The paper will use two case studies to examine the role that social science research literature plays in the criminal case.

Author

• Alexandra Cox, State University of New York, New Paltz