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Vol.7 No.1

Sole Evidence and Legal Judgement of Lay People
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Abstract

The current study aimed to test the impact of unique evidence, on which the prosecution was solely based, upon the lay people’s verdict for the defendant. We also examined if the probability of the defendant’s guilt and the probative value of evidence would vary by the type of the sole evidence and the existence of additional evidence. In the study, 250 lay people participated and were asked to read one of the four simple trial scenarios, to render a verdict for the defendant, and to estimate the probative value of evidence and probability of the defendant’s guilt. The results showed that lay people tended to return a guilty verdict. The additional evidence was found to play a significant role in estimation of the probability of the defendant’s guilt and of the probative value of the evidence, depending on the type of the additional evidence. In discussion, it was suggested that lay people would overestimate the probative value of the unique evidence that was the sole basis of the prosecution. Finally, we discussed the influence of the evidence type on legal judgement in trials.

Understanding Insurance Fraud: Prevalence and Psychological Features
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Abstract

The aim of the current study is to analyze the psychological features that may encourage insurance fraud. To do this, concept and prevalence of domestic insurance fraud were evaluated. Based on previous research and current trends of insurance crime in Korea, three psychological features-opportunistic, moral hazard and organizational-were suggested. Most insurance frauds have become an organized crime which is schemed by more than two accomplices with the family typically as the victim. In addition, individuals tended to tolerate insurance fraud as acceptable and also have a negative attitude towards insurance companies. Prejudice and tolerance towards white collar criminals, which is the highest category of insurance fraud, had pointed out as a maintenance factor of chronic criminal patterns. Finally the implication and limitation of this study was further discussed and a future study with insurance fraudsters was also suggested.

A study of Psychopathic Tendency and Rating of Painful Stimuli: Focusing on Empathy
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Abstract

This study investigated the empathy ability of individuals with psychopathic tendencies. Subjects rated pain intensity of visual stimuli(painful/neutral) consisted of pictures and cartoons. Two different perspectives were manipulated through explicit instructions: the subject's own perspective (Self), and other's perspective (Other). After the rating task, subjects completed self-reported measures of psychopathy and an empathy scale. According to the results, the empathy ability of the group with psychopathic tendencies was lower than the empathy ability of the group with non-psychopathic tendencies. On the rating task, the group with non-psychopathic tendencies was higher than the group with psychopathic tendencies in the pain rating scale. In self perspective condition, the group with psychopathic tendencies evaluated higher pain intensity of neutral stimuli than the group with non-psychopathic tendencies. These findings support that psychopaths appear to lack empathy. Due to the fact that the subjects of this study were university students, it has its limitations when it is generalized. However it will serve the role as the fundamental research, allowing further tools and scales to be created upon. We further discussed the practical implications of the present findings.

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