Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-09-05

Washington, d. c., Sept. Z:-Ine
psychologist, with his uncanny KnoWi-
edge of human completes, may soon pc
expected to play an important part III
our courts of justice.
In almost every trial there are pal
fling points in the testimony. was tne
witness telling the truth when ne salo
that he saw the prisoner at O'Clock
on the evening of the crime, wearing d
brown suit and a green necktle! CouIo
! another witness be believed when ne
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 lett
for almost every jury to face after the
possibilities of legal strategy nave
been exhausted. Yet the jury Is ex-
pected to weigh all this evidence ana
arrive at a conclusion.
With a legal psychologist in court,
justice can be melted out with more
! exactness, so the psychologists them
selves tell us. The witness who was
| emphatic about the clothes worn by the
man he met might have his story shot
to atoms by a psychological explanation
that colors cannot be distinguished az
twilight. 1t 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
witness, psychologists have proved thaC
a shot fired directly behind a person
cannot be distinguished from one fired
| directly in front In such circum-
| stances an individual is not capable or
saying from which direction the sound
came. .
These examples indicate the sort Of
assistance that the psychologist who
specializes in legal and criminal
branches of his subject might be called
upon t. 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 n~ew-fangled theories.
Bench and Bar Skeptical
Bench and bar are Inclined to look
upon psychology as a science stlll IN
the experimental stage. Although a
psychologist may have a Doctors de-
gree from a first-class university and
a string of discoveries to his credit,
he is likely to be told that his methods
and tests are not yet 100 per cent re-
liable. and that therefore his evidence
cannot be accepted as expert terti-
mony.
Psychologists are naturally some
what sad over this sign of reactiOnary
tendencies on the part of the legal pro-
f%ession, 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
convince the world that an exact sci
ence could be based on the formation
of skin at the finger tips.
1t will take time to prove to the
laymen that each human mind is not
a law unto itself, but is constructed
and car be analysed like any other
we'll ordered apparatus. Completes
are, innumerable and difficult to ac-
count for, but the psychologist now
has back of him carefully tested prin-
ciples that enable him to a~nalyze his
subjects with reasonable exactness.
One hundred per cent accuracy is
hardly to be expected. Medicine has
been practiced thousands of years, the
psychologist points out, but il is not
an absolutely accurate science. Doc
tors today fatty contradict accepted
theories of 10 years ago. What is
more, they disagree with one another.
Yet the testimony of a physician or an
a~lienist is given careful consideration
by the courts.
Inc use or expert advlce or 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 consequences.
Evidence might be gone over time and
again until some slip was noted or I'M
til it was clear that the jury would
simply have to guess at the truth.
But the trial and error method of
presenting 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 as
founding.
Hans Gross, the well known
c~riminologist, has pointed out how