Legal Research

The Case of Mimi the Cat

By turquhart

After being shot at by a local villager just before sunrise, a black cat, which ?ducked and ran away,? goes missing for a couple of weeks. She returns home with a scratch on her paw. Two witnesses to the alleged armed attack offer testimony based on the psychological faculty of perception?in this case, visual acuity.

Mimi?s case and other smile-eliciting case descriptions are in a new book published by Amsterdam University Press: The Popular Policeman and Other Cases: Psychological Perspectives on Legal Evidence. (We have a copy.)

The authors hope to encourage consideration ?of often neglected issues in the field of psychology and the law.? There is potential for expert witness testimony in areas ?that psychologists are not thought to possess relevant information.? The case descriptions collected here may provide useful training in the application of psychology within a legal context. An added plus: ??some cases, in spite of their sometimes dramatic qualities, may occasionally elicit a smile.?

Posted by Toni Urquhart

Full post as published by FSU College of Law Library Blog on January 26, 2006 (boomark / email).