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Resources.

The resources listed on this page have been informative to me and/or they have been helpful in developing educational material for students (and the general public) who wish to learn more about topics related to forensic psychology and the criminal justice system.

Documentaries.

There is a growing number of documentaries (films and series) that depict problems that can occur within the criminal justice system, from policing and criminal investigations to sentencing and incarceration.

The listed documentaries mostly concern stories of wrongful conviction. 

  • Amanda Knox (2016): "This Emmy-nominated film explores the murder of Meredith Kercher by Rudy Guede in Perugia, Italy, and the subsequent wrongful convictions of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito."

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  • West of Memphis (2012): "Documentary focusing on the criminal investigation into the murders of three 8-year old kids for which 'The West Memphis Three" (then teenagers) were wrongfully convicted."

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  • The Central Park Five (2012): "In 1989, five Black and Latino teenagers were arrested and charged with brutally attacking and raping a white female jogger in Central Park. The five would spend years in prison for a crime they didn’t commit before the truth about what really happened became clear."

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  • Southwest of Salem: The story of the San Antonio Four (2016): "In the late 1990s, four Latina lesbians in Texas were wrongfully convicted of gang-raping two little girls, in a trial beset by deep-rooted homophobia and baseless hysteria over accusations of Satanic rituals." 

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  • The Syndrome (2014):"The documentary follows the crusade of a group of doctors, scientists, and legal scholars who have uncovered that “Shaken Baby Syndrome,” a child abuse theory used in hundreds of U.S. prosecutions each year, is not scientifically valid." 

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  • The State of Texas vs. Melissa (2020): "Melissa Lucio was sentenced to death in Texas for the murder of her 2-year old daughter Mariah, who died two days after a tragic fall down a flight of stairs. For ten years she has been awaiting her fate, and she now faces her last appeal." More about Melissa Lucio on the Innocence Project website.

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  • Scenes of a Crime (2011): "Award-winning documentary explores a nearly 10-hour interrogation that culminates in a disputed confession, and a high-profile child murder trial in New York state."

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  • Deadline (2004): "Journalism students uncovered new evidence that exonerated 13 people on Illinois death row. This documentary follows the process of rehearing all the death row cases in Illinois and the history of the death penalty in America through a critical lens."

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  • After Innocence (2005): "True story of seven innocent men who were wrongfully imprisoned for decades and released after DNA evidence proved their innocence. The film focuses on their journey back into society and efforts to rebuild their lives." 

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  • 13th (2016): "In this thought-provoking documentary, scholars, activists and politicians analyze the criminalization of African Americans and the U.S. prison boom."

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Documentary series

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  • The Innocence Files (2020): "A documentary series that chronicles the work of the Innocence Project and other organizations in the Innocence Network fighting to overturn wrongful convictions."

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  • Making a Murderer (2015 & 2018): "Filmed over a 10-year period, Steven Avery, a DNA exoneree who, while in the midst of exposing corruption in local law enforcement, finds himself the prime suspect in a grisly new crime."

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  • The Confession Tapes (2017): "A critical look into some true crime cases where American law enforcement made up for lack of actual physical evidence by using devious psychological tactics during interrogation in order to extract confessions from naive suspects."

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  • Exhibit A (2019): "A true crime series on how innocent people have been convicted with dubious forensic techniques."

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TV documentaries

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  • How accurate is visual memory? (60 Minutes, 2010): "CBS News’ 60 Minutes reports on the case of Ronald Cotton, who was wrongfully incarcerated for over 10 years for a brutal rape and burglary he did not commit."

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  • Death by Fire (Frontline, 2010): "Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in Texas in 2004 for allegedly setting a fire that killed his three young daughters 13 years earlier. He always claimed his innocence. Since 2004, further evidence in the case has led to the inescapable conclusion that Willingham did not set the fire."

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  • The Child Cases (Frontline, 2011): "An investigation by NPR, ProPublica and Frontline into more than 20 wrongful conviction cases involving faulty forensics in accidental child deaths."

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  • The Confessions (Frontline, 2010): "An award-winning documentary on the case of the “Norfolk Four” – Navy sailors convicted of a murder they didn’t commit after giving false confessions under pressure."

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Dutch documentaries

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  • De Arnhemse Villamoord: een Nederlandse documentaire-reeks over een moordzaak in Arnhem waarbij negen mannen mogelijk onterecht veroordeeld werden.

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  • De Pompmoord: een driedelige Nederlandse documentaireserie over een potentiële onterechte veroordeling van vier mannen na een valse bekentenis van één van de mannen. De serie maakt een reconstructie via verhooropnames, het dossier en gesprekken met direct betrokkenen.

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  • De zaak Carlo: een Vlaamse documentaire over een kwetsbare verdachte die onder druk van de politie een valse bekentenis voor moord aflegde.

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Podcasts.

I am a huge fan of podcasts, they are my favorite form of media and I listen to them while cooking, cleaning, driving etc. Never not listening... Not only do I rely on podcasts to stay up-to-date with what's happening around the world, I also use them to further inform and educate myself on forensic (psychological) science and criminal justice topics.

 

My personal favorite is Wrongful Convictions: Junk Science hosted by Josh Dubin, Innocence Project Ambassador-Advisor and defense attorney. It's a podcast series detailing 12 forensic science techniques that have contributed to wrongful convictions. The host grabs and holds your attention with some great storytelling.

Wrongful Convictions

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Investigative Journalism into (potential) Wrongful Conviction Cases

  • Murderville: "An investigative podcast hosted by Intercept reporters examines the systemic failures that lead to wrongful convictions."​

  • Earwitness: Investigative journalist Beth Shelburne digs into the case of Toforest Johnson who is on death row for a crime he and many others claim he hasn't committed, the murder of a deputy sheriff. It's a jaw-dropping, cringing story of outright tunnel vision and confirmation bias among police, malpractice by the prosecution, poor legal representation, and the issue of witness statement reliability.

  • Mother's Guilt: Podcast sharing the story of Kathleen Folbigg, an Australian woman who was convicted and imprisoned for the deaths of 4 of her children. Once considered 'Australia's worst female serial killer', Kathleen was pardoned in 2023, not the least because of a petition signed by 151 scientists from around the world.

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Forensic Science​

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  • Wrongful Conviction: Junk Science: "A hard look at the pseudo-sciences like arson, bite-mark identification, blood spatter, and ballistics that are sometimes used to put innocent people behind bars."

  • CSI on Trial: "New docuseries exposes flaws in common crime scene investigation methods used in criminal cases and tells the emotional stories of the wrongly convicted"

  • Justice in America - Season 3 episode 27: Junk forensic science

  • Unraveled – Season 3: Experts on Trial (problems with forensic experts in US justice process)

  • Just Science: Forensic science podcast by RTI Internation Center for Forensic Science

  • Forensic Talks: "A series of interviews with Forensic Professionals from different disciplines around the globe."

  • California MCLE podcast - A failure of American Forensics (Aug & Sept 2021)

  • The Untold Story: Criminal Injustice - Jay Learns that Forensic Science isn't very Scientific

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Memory & Investigative Interviewing

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Use of Evidence in Criminal Law

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  • Excited Utterance: legal podcast with up-to-date legal scholarship on evidence and proof. For example:

    • Episode 38: with Dr. Sara Appleby (effect of recanted confessions and exculpatory DNA)

    • Episode 50: with Dr. Brandon Garrett (proficiency of experts)

    • Episode 93: with Dr. Tess Neal (validity of psychological assessments in court)

    • Episode 105: with Dr. Brandon Garrett (Autopsy of a Crime lab)

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Bias in Legal Settings

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Criminal Justice System

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Family Justice

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  • Do no harm: "This six-episode series takes you inside the Brights’ fight to hold their family together, against a system that can sometimes do more harm than good." On overly eager child protection services and wrong interpretation of injuries as child abuse.

  • Through the Cracks: "When 8-year-old Relisha Rudd went missing from a homeless shelter in Washington, D.C., 18 days passed before anyone realized something was wrong. Through The Cracks investigates: Was Relisha's disappearance preventable?"

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Forensic Psychology​

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  • Bad People: Dr. Julia Shaw and comedian Sofie Hagen discuss legal and forensic psychology topics.

  • The Forensic Psychology Podcast

  • Unrestorable: True crime podcast series on the issue of competence to stand trial. When a mother is charged with the murder of 2 of her children, she is declared not competent to stand trial and is committed to a psychiatric facility. Some people think she is faking incompetence to avoid prison, because state law requires charges to be dropped after five years of incompetence. Through this case, the podcast touches upon dilemmas and challenges where mental health and the justice system intersect. 

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Sexual Abuse Cases

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  • ​Chasing Cosby about Bill Cosby: "A six-episode podcast from the Los Angeles Times, collects the firsthand accounts of women who say they were drugged and assaulted by 'America’s Dad'.”

  • Believed about Larry Nassar: "An inside look at how a team of women won a conviction in one of the largest serial sexual abuse cases in U.S. history."

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Dutch Podcasts

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  • De Verhoorkamer: "In De Verhoorkamer neemt Lot Buis je mee in het proces van een valse bekentenis afleggen. Want, wie doet dat nou? Een moord toegeven die je niet hebt gepleegd? En… zou dit jou ook kunnen overkomen?" 

  • Dr. Bones: "De podcast over een serieleugenaar die zich voordoet als forensisch patholoog."

  • Jan & Christina: "Radiomaker Katinka Baehr volgt fotograaf Jan Banning tijdens zijn grote missie. Banning is ervan overtuigd dat Christina Boyer al bijna 28 jaar onterecht vastzit voor de moord op haar 3-jarige dochter."

  • De Zaak Ontleed met Saskia Belleman: "Alle ins en outs over de meest spraakmakende rechtszaken. Door rechtbankverslaggever Saskia Belleman en presentator Wilson Boldewijn."

  • Zij is van mij: "Rechtbankverslaggeefster Saskia Belleman onderzoekt het onderwerp 'vrouwenmoord in Nederland' en spreekt met nabestaanden, slachtoffers, een dader, politie, een forensisch psycholoog en een officier van justitie."

  • Stemmen van Assisen: "Misdaadreporters bij het Nieuwsblad nemen je mee door de strafste rechtszaken van het hof van assisen."

  • De Criminoloog: "Met deze podcast worden luisteraars op een toegankelijke manier geïnformeerd en vermaakt over criminologisch onderzoek."

  • Het Misdaadbureau: "Een wekelijks actueel onderzoeksprogramma naar misdaad in Nederland."

  • De Stille Getuige: "Een kijkje in de werkwijze van het Nederlands Forensisch Instituut bij analyse van sporenmateriaal."

  • De Zaak Y: "Wie heeft Ingrid Caeckaert vermoord? Waarom is deze zaak nog niet opgelost? En kan onderzoek naar het Y-chromosoom voor een doorbraak zorgen?"

  • Napleiten: "Een misdaadjournalist en een strafpleiter praten met advocaten en officieren van justitie over bijzondere zaken die hen altijd zullen bijblijven."

  • Tegenvoets: "De scherpe blik van 2 juristen op actualiteit en maatschappij. Walter Van Steenbrugge en Johan Vande Lanotte kijken met één oog naar wat leeft in onze samenleving en met het andere naar de wet en het recht."

  • De Rechtbank: Na de feiten: "Normaal gezien spreken een rechter en een veroordeelde elkaar na een veroordeling nooit meer. Een uniek gesprek tussen een rechter en een veroordeelde, die ze voor een lange tijd naar de gevangenis stuurde."
     

Misdaadverslaggeving en impact op maatschappij

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  • De Deventer Mediazaak: "Verslaglegging hoe de Deventer moordzaak ontaardde in een mediazaak."

  • De Schaduw van Dutroux: "Vijfentwintig jaar na de Witte Mars, een van de grootste betogingen in België ooit, onderzoeken journalisten de schaduw die de zaak-Dutroux wierp over de verdere geschiedenis van België."

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Cold Cases​ in Nederland en België

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(Machts)Misbruik

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Books.

Plenty of books have been written on the issue of wrongful conviction; informative books, biographical narratives, and fiction. Below, some informative books on wrongful convictions and the contribution of faulty forensic sciences are suggested, as well as more general forensic and legal psychology (text)books.​

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Wrongful Convictions and Forensic Sciences

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  • Convicting the innocent. Where criminal prosecutions go wrong (Garrett, 2011)

  • Blind injustice: A former prosecutor exposes the psychology and politics of wrongful convictions (Godsey, 2019)

  • The autopsy of a crime lab. Exposing the flaws in forensics (Garrett, 2021)

  • Junk science and the American criminal justice system (Fabrican, 2022)

Forensic and Legal Psychology

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  • APA handbook of forensic psychology (Cutler & Zapf, 2015)

  • Forensic psychological assessment in practice. Case studies (de Ruiter & Kaser-Boyd, 2015)

  • The psychology of criminal conduct (Bonta & Andrews, 2017)

  • Psychological evaluations for the courts (Melton, Petrila, Poythress, Slobogin, Otto, Mossman, & Condie, 2017)

  • Police psychology. New trends in forensic psychological science (Marques & Paulino, 2021)

  • Forensic and legal psychology. Psychological science applied to law (Costanzo & Krauss, 2021)

  • The future of forensic psychology (Landström, Granhag, & van Koppen, 2022)

  • Duped: Why innocent people confess - And why we believe their confessions (Kassin, 2022)

  • The Oxford handbook of developmental psychology and the law (Redlich & Quas, 2024)

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Forensic Risk Assessment

 

  • Handbook of violence risk assessment (Douglas & Otto, 2021)

  • Risk assessment in forensic practice (Crighton, 2022)

  • International perspectives on violence risk assessment (Singh, Bjørkly, & Fazel, 2016)​

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Bias and Myths

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  • Thinking, fast and slow (Kahneman, 2013)

  • 50 Great myths of popular psychology. Shattering widespread misconceptions about human behavior (Lilienfeld, Lynn, Ruscio, & Beyerstein, 2010)

Dutch Books

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Rechtspsychologie
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  • Routes van het recht. Over de rechtspsychologie (van Koppen, de Keijser, Horselenberg, & Jelicic, 2017)

  • Inleiding in de rechtspsychologie (Otgaar, Jelicic, & Merckelbach, 2022)

  • Bakens in de rechtspsychologie (Liber Amicorum Peter van Koppen, door Horselenberg, van Koppen, & de Keijser, 2021)

  • De som van alle bewijs: Scenario's in strafzaken (van Koppen, 2022)

  • Gerede twijfel (van Koppen, 2013)

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Forensische Psychologie
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  • Instrumenten voor risicotaxatie. Kinderen & jeugdigen (2012)

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Bias en Kritisch Denken
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  • Intuïtie maakt meer kapot dan je lief is (Merckelbach, 2017)

  • Goede verhalen zijn zelden waar (Merckelbach, 2017)

Websites.

There are many websites from organizations, government agencies, and academics that provide good resources on forensic and legal psychology themes. The websites listed below are just a small selection of interesting websites.

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First of all, colleague dr. Sara Appleby has created a website on which she gathers and shares resources for teaching forensic psychology.

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For the issue of wrongful convictions, I recommend visiting the website of the Innocence Project, especially the section of their science and research department. Another wonderful resource for data and research purposes, is the National Registry of Exonerations. It is a public database that records all exonerations in the United States since 1989. The website provides graphs of the prevalence of variables that have contributed to wrongful convictions (e.g., eyewitness misidentification, forensic sciences) and it is possible to categorize cases according to crime details. Keep an eye out for the new project EUREX: the European Registry of Exonerations.

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The website of the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law is another great hub for information on (American) criminal justice reform and the accuracy of evidence presented in court. Check out their projects, publications, and blog posts.

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Also, visit the blog by members of the Maastricht Forensic Psychology Section here.

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Recordings

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The website of the Forensic Psychiatry Institute hosts recordings of the international forensic psychiatric lecture series in which both international and Canadian experts discuss relevant and innovative topics on forensic psychiatry (e.g., asylum evaluations, malingering, patients with special needs).

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Every first Tuesday of the month, the Deception Research Society hosts 'Lies and Allies Tuesdays' in which 3 academics invited to discuss new research in the area of deception (detection). The recordings are available on their YouTube channel.

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Webinar on 'the state of science around pretrial risk assessment', presented by dr. Sarah Desmarais & dr. Samantha Zottola from Policy Research Associates, Inc. (hosted by MHS Public Safety)

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Webinar in Dutch on false confessions by colleague dr. Horselenberg for the Universiteit van Nederland: 'Hoe laat je een onschuldige bekennen'.

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Satirical (and spot on) analysis of criminal justice issues in the US by Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. [highly recommended!]

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