Valerie P. Hans

(Ph.D. Toronto)
e-mail: vhans@udel.edu

Biographical Sketch

Background: M.A., Ph.D. in Psychology, University of Toronto. B.A. from the University of California, San Diego.
Teaching Positions: I am Professor of Criminal Justice and Psychology at the University of Delaware. I hold secondary appointments in the Women's Studies Program and the Legal Studies Program. In addition, I've been a visiting scholar at Stanford Law School, the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and the School of Law at the University of Cardiff in Wales.
Director of Legal Studies Program. Currently I direct the Legal Studies Program at the University of Delaware, a program that offers law-related courses, lectures, and a minor. See the UD Legal Studies Web page for more information!
Research and Writing: My research and writing have centered on the relationship between the public and the courts, and reflect my background in psychology as well as my preference for interdisciplinary approaches to the study of law. My prime research specialty is the institution of the jury. I am the coauthor (with Neil Vidmar) of Judging the Jury (Plenum, 1986), which has been cited by a number of courts including the United States Supreme Court. I have written many articles and lectured widely on different aspects of the jury system, including jury selection, jury decision making, jury instructions, jury bias, the jury in death penalty cases, and jury reform. I have just completed a book that describes my recent research on how juries decide cases with business and corporate parties. In other research, I've looked at public opinion about law and the courts, and the impact of the media on people's views of the legal system.
Service Activities: I have testified as an expert witness on jury matters in criminal cases, and have consulted with lawyers and government agencies on law and social science issues. I served as Co-Director of Research for the Special Committee on Gender of the District of Columbia Circuit's Task Force on Gender and Racial Bias, and am a member of the Delaware Task Force on Effective Use of Juries. I have also participated in the grant review panel for the Law and Social Sciences Program of the National Science Foundation, and have been a member of the executive boards of the Law and Society Association and the American Psychology-Law Society.
Approach to Teaching: In my teaching, I attempt to convey a social science analysis of the legal system. Many students enter criminal justice courses with preconceptions and stereotypes of how law and the courts function. In my courses, I emphasize the benefits of systematic research for better understanding how the courts operate. But I also discuss some of the problems that can arise in trying to incorporate social science insights into the legal system. My courses often include opportunities for students to participate directly in research by conducting surveys and experiments of their own design for class projects. I also enjoy using the Web in teaching. Check out some of my online course syllabi (by clicking on the course name) to see what I do in my classes!

Representative Publications

Books:

Judging the Jury. (With N. Vidmar.) Plenum Press, 1986.

Everyday Practices and Trouble Cases. (With A. Sarat, M. Constable, D. Engel, & S. Lawrence). Northwestern University Press, 1998.

Crossing Boundaries: Traditions and Transformations in Law and Society Research.
(With A. Sarat, M. Constable, D. Engel, & S. Lawrence). Northewestern University Press, 1998.

Business on Trial: The Civil Jury and Corporate Responsibility. Yale University Press, 2000 (in press).

Selected Articles on the Jury:

Hans, V. P., & Appel, A. (1999). The jury on trial. In W. F. Abbott & J. Batt, Handbook of Jury Research. American Law Institute-American Bar Association.

Fulero, S. F., Greene, E., Hans, V. P., Nietzel, M. T., Small, M. A., & Wrightsman, L. S. (1999). Undergraduate education in legal psychology. Law and Human Behavior, 23, 137-153.

Hans, V. P., Munsterman, G. T., & Hannaford, P. L. (1999). The Arizona jury reform permitting civil jury trial discussions: The views of trial participants, judges, and jurors. University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, 32, 349-377.

Hans, V. P. (1998). Illusions and realities in jurors’ treatment of corporate defendants. DePaul Law Review, 48, 327-353.

"The Contested Role of the Civil Jury in Business Litigation." Judicature 79 (1996):242-248.

"Jurors and Experts." (With S. K. Ivkovich.) (1994, Summer). Advocate 16 (Summer 1994):16- 21.

"Attitudes Toward the Civil Jury: A Crisis of Confidence?" In Robert E. Litan (Ed.), 1993. Verdict: Assessing the Civil Jury System, pp. 248-281. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution.

"Jurors' Views of Civil Lawyers: Implications for Courtroom Communication." (With K. Sweigart.) Indiana Law Journal 68 (1993):1297-1332.

"Jurors' Judgments of Business Liability in Tort Cases: Implications for the Litigation Explosion Debate." (With W. S. Lofquist.) Law and Society Review 26 (1992):85-115.

"Citizen Comprehension of Difficult Issues: Lessons from Civil Jury Trials." (With J. S. Cecil and E. C. Wiggins.) American University Law Review 40 (1991):727-774.

Other Selected Articles:

"Training in law and psychology: Models from the Villanova Conference. American Psychologist 52 (1997): 1301-1310.

"Media Coverage of Law: Its Impact on Juries and the Public." (With J. L. Dee.) American Behavioral Scientist 35 (1991):136-149.

"Attitudes Toward Corporate Responsibility: A Psycholegal Perspective." Nebraska Law Review 69 (1990):158-189.

"Special Issue: Race, Ethnicity, and the Law." (With Ramiro Martinez, Jr. [special issue editors].) Law and Human Behavior, 18 (3) (1994).

"Special Issue: Law and the Media." [special issue editor] Law and Human Behavior, 14 (5) (1990).

"Responses to Corporate Versus Individual Wrongdoing." (With M. D. Ermann.) Law and Human Behavior 13 (1989):151-166.

"Psychology and the Law." In W. L. Gregory & J. Burroughs (Eds.), 1989. Introduction to Applied Psychology (pp. 327-368). Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman & Co.

"An Analysis of Public Attitudes Toward the Insanity Defense." Criminology 24 (1986):393-414.

Courses Regularly Taught

CRJU 202: Problems of the Criminal Judiciary. This survey course provides an overview and analysis of the operation of the criminal courts. Current controversies and related empirical research about the courts are emphasized in class lectures and discussions. Topics that are typically discussed in depth include: the structure and functions of the criminal court system; the roles of the judge, jury, prosecutor, and defense counsel; the adversarial process; trial court workgroups and how they operate; and plea bargaining and negotiation between lawyers.

CRJU/PSYC 346: Psychology and the Law. This course examines the relationship between the two fields of psychology and law. Psychological insights contribute to the development of theories about how law and legal procedures operate to affect our society. As well, in recent years, growing numbers of psychologists have become involved in a range of activities in the legal system, from evaluating a defendant's mental state or dangerousness to testifying as experts and selecting juries. There are many positive contributions that psychologists can make to the legal system, but their participation sometimes raises profound ethical questions. The pros and cons of psychology in the legal system are debated throughout the course..

CRJU 350 (also cross-listed with WOMS 350): Women and Criminal Justice. Traditional criminologists often ignored women as objects of scholarly investigation, focusing on male criminals instead. But over the last several decades there has been increasing attention to women in criminal justice. Part of the impetus was a perception that crimes by women were on the rise; other scholars believed that the criminal justice system treated women unfairly. This course reviews explanations for female crime and looks at how much and what types of crime women actually commit, and how women convicted of crime fare in the correctional system. It also explores in depth how women are treated in the courts as both victims and defendants. Finally, women's increased professional participation in the criminal justice system (as judges, police officers, and correctional personnel) is studied.

CRJU 446: Judging the Jury. This course examines and evaluates the often-maligned, often- praised institution of the jury. The jury has been described by critics as a group of twelve people "of average ignorance," and by supporters as a bulwark of freedom and democracy. Until the last few decades, such rhetoric remained untested. But there is now a good deal of systematic empirical research that explores the jury's functioning and purposes. This course begins with a presentation of the history of the jury and a discussion of contemporary controversies over the jury's role and abilities. Readings and lectures will discuss jury selection, how individual jurors arrive at their judgments, and how the collective views of six or twelve jurors are combined into group verdicts. The course also reviews research findings about the jury's alleged biases and fact finding competence, particularly in complex cases.

LEST 301: Introduction to Legal Studies. This course acquaints students with the range of perspectives on legal studies, showing the different theories and methods that have been used to gain insights about law and legal phenomena. It presents a variety of discipline-oriented approaches, including the sociology of law, law and economics, psychology and law, legal history, and legal philosophy. Theoretical perspectives such as feminist jurisprudence and critical race theory provide an important multicultural component. The course uses these diverse approaches to describe the role and impact of law in society.

Law Links. In this section, I've listed some links to legal resources and information about the courts as well as the field of psychology and law.

Courts

U. S. Federal Courts Homepage. This homepage provides information about the federal court system.

Federal Judicial Center. This is the homepage for the research arm of the federal courts.

Department of Justice. This homepage allows you to obtain information about the current research undertaken by the Department of Justice, and to search a large number of law and criminal justice sites.

National Center for State Courts. An centralized resource for information about the nation's state court systems. Researchers at the NCSC conduct studies of court operations and functioning.

Delaware Court System. This site provides detailed information about the court system in Delaware.

CourtTV. This is the home page of the cable network CourtTV, which provides regular updating of news about trials around the country.

Law and Legal Resources on the Internet

University of Delaware Library Guide to Resources for Legal Studies. Our library has assembled this useful guide to internet and library resources relating to law.

The Virtual Law Library at Indiana University. An excellent and comprehensive collection of legal resources on the internet.

FindLaw Guide to Legal Resources. Another good site that points to a wide array of legal resources on the internet.

Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute. One of the first and still one of the best sites to search U.S. Supreme Court cases, current and past.

Villanova Law School Federal Court Site. This excellent site includes full-text court opinions for the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals (for cases since 1994), as well as several other circuit courts.

Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice Faculty

Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice Home Page

University of Delaware Home Page