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Racial disparities in conviction and incarceration have been lamentable features of legal systems for a long time. Research has addressed the attitudes and decisions of police, prosecutors, jurors, and judges in contributing to these disparities, but very little attention has been paid to defendants' own team members—i.e., criminal defense attorneys. Researchers have specifically identified this as a "scholarly gap". To address this, we conducted an empirical study of criminal defense attorneys practicing in forty-three U.S. states (N = 327). The attorneys completed both an implicit measure designed to capture racial bias (a race Implicit Association Test) and an explicit measure designed to capture interpersonal regard for clients. The results provided support for longstanding, but previously speculative, assertions of bias in criminal defense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In past research on criminal stereotypes, individuals of different races have been stereotyped as being more likely to commit certain types of crimes. In this article, we draw on the "bad is Black" heuristic and identify a fundamental underlying dimension explaining such divergence: offenses deemed immoral were associated with Black individuals, while those deemed wrong but not necessarily immoral were associated with White individuals. Our evidence came from a data-driven method that is novel to applied legal psychological research—reverse correlation to produce classification images—and that enabled us to visualize lay persons' criminal stereotypes. We interpreted this theoretical advance through the lens of our legal institutional context, exploring applications and implications of the finding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: Addiction is increasingly considered a chronic, relapsing brain disease; however, many scholars still disagree with the brain disease model of addiction. We set out to provide evidence of attorneys' and physicians' beliefs regarding the model. First, we asked the following question: do attorneys and physicians affirm the full brain disease model, or its modified form, or do they believe that addiction is driven by deficits in self-control or moral weakness? Second, we evaluated the extent to which such beliefs correspond to attitudes toward individuals with substance use disorders (SUDs).Methods: A questionnaire was sent to resident physicians (N = 301) and criminal defense attorneys (N = 483) practicing in the United States. It was comprised of (i) an attitudes measure, (ii) a measure regarding conceptions of addiction, and (iii) demographic questions.Results: Attorneys were more likely to believe that individuals with SUDs had "practically no choice" about whether to seek and use, whereas physicians were more likely to believe that such individuals had "genuine choice." For both groups of participants, the rejection of the full brain disease model of addiction was associated with more negative attitudes toward individuals with SUDs.Conclusion and Scientific Significance: These results represent an important advance, as past research has neglected attorneys' attitudes and is inconclusive regarding the manner in which beliefs about the brain disease model of addiction are related to attitudes toward individuals with SUDs. Educating practitioners regarding this relationship would raise awareness regarding when and to what extent stigma is likely to be present, which may in turn provide a foundation from which to address stigma. (Am J Addict 2020;00:00-00). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sigmund Freud's 1936 letter (the "Acropolis letter") to the French author and Nobel Prize laureate, Romain Rolland, is considered paradigmatic of Freud's self-analyses and has been used in much biography and psycho-biography of Freud. The letter also has long been a scholarly puzzle, both in terms of its manifest content and in terms of its awkwardness as a letter to a supposed friend. While the letter culminates with Freud identifying his own aggression for his father, the letter consistently has been cited as evidence of Freud's unacknowledged aggression for Rolland. In this article, I revisit translations and understandings of the letter, presenting evidence that, contrary to widespread scholarship, Freud's relationship with Rolland was neither rivalric nor clearly antagonistic. Moreover, misreadings of the Acropolis letter, likely precipitated by imperfect translations, are identified and refuted. A new translation of the letter is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: While a large percentage of criminal offenders suffer from substance use disorders (SUDs), virtually nothing is known about the attitudes criminal defense attorneys possess toward their clients who are facing substance-related charges. This is a serious concern, as the burden of steering individuals with SUDs into treatment often falls to criminal defense attorneys. The goal of this study was to examine the attitudes of criminal defense attorneys toward individuals who have been accused of drug crimes.Methods: A questionnaire was sent to criminal defense attorneys (N = 1,933) from all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. It was comprised of (i) demographic information and (ii) a version of the 11-item Medical Condition Regard Scale (MCRS).Results: Criminal defense attorneys held generally positive attitudes toward clients with substance-related charges, but there was a significant divergence in attitudes between private and public attorneys, with the latter showing both greater familiarity with and better attitudes toward this same group of clients. These differences were impactful: worse attitudes toward clients strongly correlated with greater predictions that the clients would reoffend.Conclusion and Scientific Significance: Given the magnitude of the incarcerated population with SUDs and the centrality of defense attorneys in the treatment process, especially its initiation, the divergence in attitudes between private and public criminal defense attorneys is concerning. There is a clear need for increased collaboration between physicians and attorneys, with an aim of increasing the number of individuals with SUDs receiving proper treatment (Am J Addict 2018;XX:1-7). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]