Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-09-07


chologist, with his uncanny knowledge of hui
n n completes, may soon be expected to play
an important part in our courts of justice.
In almost every trial there are battling
points in the testimony. Was the witness tell
ing the truth when he said that he saw the
prisoner at o'clock on the evening of the
crime, wearing a brown suit and a green
necktie? Could another witness be believed
when he insisted that the shot was fired by
the man directly in front Of him and not by
any person back of him?
Some problems like these are left for al
most every jury 20 face after the possibil lies
of legal strategy have been exhausted. Yet
the jury is expected to weigh all this evidence
and arrive at conclusion.
With legal psychologist in court, justice
can be melted out with more exactness, so
the psychologists themselves tell us. The
witness who was so emphatic about the
clothes worn by the man he met might have
his story shot to atoms by psychological
explanation that colors cannot be distin-
guished at twilight. It is a fact that the
brain has no mechanism for distinguishing
colors at dusk. One and all, they are seen
as shades of gray.
AS for the shot fired in front Of the wit
ness, psychologists have proved that a shot
fired directly behind person cannot be dis
tinguished from one fired directly in front.
In such circumstances an individual is not
capable of saying from which direction the
sound came.
These examples indicate the sort of assist
ance that the psychologist who specializes in
legal and criminal branches of his subject
might be called upon to give to the courts.
At present such experts are aware of the
service they can render, but the legal profess
sion is wary of what might be regarded as
new-fangled theories.
Bench and Bar Skeptical
Bench and bar are inclined to look upon
psychology as science still in the expert
mental stage. Although psychologist may
have a doctors degree from first-class uni
versity and string of discoveries to his
credit, he is likely to be told lat his methods
and tests are not yet LOO per cent reliable,
and that therefore his evidence cannot be &C.
copied as expert testimony.
Psychologists are naturally somewhat sad
over this sign of reactionary tendencies on
the part of the legal profession, but they are
not discouraged. History is merely repeating
itself. They recall that Identification by
finger prints was once regarded as bunk by
fool proof detectives. 1t took time to con-
vince the world that an exact science could
be based on the formation of skin at the
finger tips.
It will take time to prove to the layman
that each human mind is not law unto it
self, but is constructed and can be analysed
like any other well ordered apparatus. Com
plexes there are, innumerable and difficult
tt account for, but the psychologist now has
back of him carefully tested principles that
enable him to analyZe his subjects with rea-
sonable exactness.
One hundred per cent accuracy is hardly
tc be expected. Mediocre has been pr .cticed
thousands of years, the psychologist points
out but it is not an absolutely accurate sci
ence. Doctors today flatly contradict &C
cepted theories of 10 years ago. What is
more, they disagree with one another. Yet
the testimony of physician or an alienst i:
given careful consideration by the courts.
The use of expert advice of various sorts in
legal cases has been growing steadily. When
civilization moved at a slower pace and
| courts had less crowded dockets, a trial
might drag along with less serious conse-
| quences. Evidence might be gone over time
and again until some slip was noted or until
| it was clear that the jury would simply have
| to guess at the truth.
| But the trial and error method of present
| ing testimony has more and more given place
! to research methods The scientific detective
| of the fiction magazines is a reality. Few
| lawyers and detectives are the versatile au-
| thorities on all manner of subjects that the
story book hero always is, but they do know
when and where to get expert opinion, and
the results are often astounding.
Value of the Microscope
Hans Gross, the we'll known criminologist,
has pointed out how the microscope in the
| hands of an expert can reveal important facts