Police use of force standards and mental health crises in the United States: Identifying research and policymaking targets.

An area of psychology-law research and policy that requires increased attention is the use of force during encounters with someone in mental health crisis. Cases in which law enforcement officer (LEO) intervention during a mental health crisis leads to injury or death of the person in crisis underscore the need to understand what behaviors and circumstances are relevant in excessive force litigation, what concepts may benefit from empirical research, and what facets of policies and precedent may require modification. In particular, the current national and international attention to the United States' external mechanisms of control over police conduct (i.

Valid or voodoo? A qualitative study of attorney perceptions of risk assessment in sentencing and plea bargaining.

Prior research largely has explored judicial perceptions of risk assessment in sentencing. Little is known about how other court actors, specifically, prosecutors and defense attorneys, perceive risk assessments in the sentencing process. Here, we report a qualitative study on the use of risk assessment by prosecutors and defense attorneys in Virginia.

Risk and resources: A qualitative perspective on low-level sentencing in Virginia.

Virginia's sentencing guidelines include alternative sanctions based on the use of a quantitative instrument called the Nonviolent Risk Assessment (NVRA) that identifies individuals convicted of drug and property crimes that are considered to be at lower risk of recidivism. Although nondispositive, the NVRA affords judges the discretion to grant alternative sentences to eligible low-risk defendants. In this study, we explore how judges make use of the NVRA instrument when sentencing individuals convicted of low-level drug and property crimes.