This course plans to use real and/or hypothetical case studies in
criminal law to provide a focus for our coverage of the following
topics: 1) Judgment and decision-making in relation to issues of
moral responsibility, 2) Individual construction of moral
responsibility, 3)Diminished responsibility, 4a.) Judgments of
comparative desert/culpability.  How do we set levels of
punishments? 4b.) In addition, the feeling of the defendant about
the appropriate level of punishment. 5) Issues of diversity in
judgments of culpability and punishment.  We will begin each segment
of the course by having all of the students read about a real and/or
hypothetical criminal-law case that raises one or more difficult
moral/legal issues.  We will then assign relevant readings from the
psychology literature, as well as from the legal literature, in an
effort to achieve greater insight into the behavior and perceptions
of the actors in the case (as well as the behavior and perceptions
of those who have traditionally shaped the doctrines of criminal law
lawyers, judges, and especially juries). At the end of each segment,
we will return to the case study, and we will discuss the potential
implications of what we have learned for the development of the
criminal law.