Familiarity and Conviction in the Criminal Justice System

Joanna Pozzulo is a Full Professor and the Chair of the Department of Psychology at Carleton University. Dr. Pozzulo's research and teaching broadly falls under the domain of Forensic Psychology (borrowing from developmental, social, and cognitive psychology). Dr. Pozzulo has published widely on the "young eyewitness". Emily Pica is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychological Science and Counseling at Austin Peay State University. Dr. Pica's research interests include ways in which we can improve identification accuracy, factors that influence jurors' decision making, and the perceptions of the wrongfully convicted. Chelsea Sheahan is an Adjunct Professor at Carleton University. Her research focuses primarily on factors that impact eyewitness memory within a developmental context. Her secondary research interests are broadly in the area of juror decision making and corrections.

Chapter 1
Defining Familiarity and Overview of Concepts

Chapter 2
Theoretical Underpinnings: A Social Psychological Perspective

Chapter 3
Theoretical Underpinnings: A Cognitive Psychological Perspective

Chapter 4
Eyewitness Descriptions and Identifications of Familiar Perpetrators

Chapter 5
Factors that can Interact with Familiarity: System Variables

Chapter 6
Factors that can Interact with Familiarity: Estimator Variables

Chapter 7
Considering "Familiarity" as a Dependent Variable

Chapter 8
How Persuasive is an Eyewitness who is "Familiar" with the Defendant?

Chapter 9
Future Directions for Research Examining the Notion of "Familiarity" and its Impact on the Criminal Justice System