Program Overview

Introduction to Legal Psychology

The Legal Psychology course, offered by NYUShanghai, is designed to introduce students to the basics of legal psychology through a real-life homicide investigation. This course explores various topics, including witness identification, the reliability of child witnesses, and the prediction of offender characteristics based on crime scene behavior.

About This Course

This course presents the fundamentals of legal psychology by focusing on an individual homicide investigation. Through this case, students will learn about how witnesses remember an offender they see, the reliability of children as witnesses, and how an offender's characteristics can be predicted based on their behavior at the crime scene. Additionally, students will learn about critically assessing expert opinions offered during trials.

Faculty

Pekka Santtila

Professor Pekka Santtila is the Director of the NYU-ECNU Institute for Social Development at NYU Shanghai and a Professor of Psychology at NYU Shanghai. He is also a Global Network Professor at NYU. Previously, he was Professor of Applied Psychology and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Psychology and Theology at the Ċbo Akademi University in Finland.

Professor Santtila's research focuses on legal psychology and human sexuality. His current research in legal psychology aims to improve the quality of investigative interviews using simulated interviews with avatars. His research into human sexuality aims to understand and develop treatments for sexual dysfunctions, with a particular focus on understanding how sexual arousal interplays with the feeling of disgust.

Professor Santtila is a licensed psychologist and specialist in legal psychology (Finland). He has provided investigative advice to the police, acted as an expert witness in numerous legal cases, and consulted on child sexual abuse investigations.

Course Details

• Course Number: SOCS002
• Classes Start: January 1, 2022
• Classes End: December 30, 2030
• Estimated Effort: 3