Question

Dilemmas What is the psychological approach to the study of law? Identify and describe some of the dilemmas reflected in the psychological approach to the law with examples.

Answer 1

The psychological approach to study of law is where there would be laid emphasis on the roles that every person would play within the system. Here, the approaches of psychology would be applied on the questions that would be in relation to the system of justice. This can be reframed to be understood as the scientific approach or the scientific study on what law does to people. There are a number of dilemmas that the legal system faces, first is, that the rights of the individual have to be maintained with the rights of the society l example seat belt laws. Second is where strict adherence to rules have to be carried out or discretion could be made based on particular cases. Moreover, there is a dilemma if uncovering truth is more important than making people satisfied, as a wide range of the population are not satisfied with the legal system. For example the victim rights that allow people a chance of fairness. The last dilemma is science vs law where lawyers are supposed to take the scientific data and laws in consideration, but they don’t.