The RAND testimony series contains the statements of RAND staff members as prepared for delivery. The opinions and conclusions expressed in this testimony are the author's alone and should not be interpreted as representing those of RAND or any of the sponsors of its research. RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publ...

a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of its research sponsors. The RAND testimony series contains the statements of RAND staff members as prepared for delivery. The opinions and conclusions expressed in this written testimony are the author's alone and should no...

Children must be willing to accept some of what they hear “on faith,” even when that testimony conflicts with their own expectations. The study reported here investigated the relation among vocabulary size, object recognition, and 24-month-olds’ (N = 40) willingness to accept potentially surprising testimony about the category to which an object belongs. Results showed that children with larger...

The aim of this article is to explore the boundaries of psychiatric testimony in criminal cases. In a series of vignettes, the author describes applications of psychiatric testimony in nontraditional areas. These are criminal cases in which the defendant-who was not mentally ill-acted in response to a situation that would tend to trigger violence in many persons: protection of self or others. I...

The Supreme Court's 1993 decision in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., holding that the admissibility of scientific evidence depends on its scientific merit, has made American law receptive to valid science to an unprecedented degree. We review the implications for psychology of the law's taking science seriously. We consider the law before Daubert, and the ways that Daubert as well...

The interests of the public and both the medical and legal professions are best served when scientifically sound and unbiased expert witness testimony is readily available in civil and criminal proceedings. As members of the medical community, patient advocates, and private citizens, pediatricians have ethical and professional obligations to assist in the civil and criminal judicial processes. ...

a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of its research sponsors. The RAND testimony series contains the statements of RAND staff members as prepared for delivery. The opinions and conclusions expressed in this written testimony are the author's alone and should no...

a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of its research sponsors. The RAND testimony series contains the statements of RAND staff members as prepared for delivery. The opinions and conclusions expressed in this written testimony are the author's alone and should no...

a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of its research sponsors. The RAND testimony series contains the statements of RAND staff members as prepared for delivery. The opinions and conclusions expressed in this written testimony are the author's alone and should no...

When and why was the expert witness program developed? The process began approximately 15 months ago when the Board of Councilors of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) brought the issue of expert witness testimony to our attention. They identified problems that our fellowship has been facing with essentially fraudulent or unethical testimony by expert witnesses on both the defe...