UTEP Legal Psychology Ph.D. Program

Faculty, Students, & Alumni

Faculty

Steve L. Crites, Jr., Ph.D. (Ohio State University)
Email: scrites@utep.edu.
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Dr. Crites is Associate Professor of Psychology. His research focuses on electrical brain activity that is associated with cognitive processes and judgments and has demonstrated that this brain activity can be used to assess concealed knowledge about events (e.g., a crime) and likes/dislikes. Ongoing research focuses on developing a practical method for assessing an individual’s likes/dislikes toward key individuals and organizations such as Osama bin Laden or the United States that might index a person’s trustworthiness or loyalties. Click here to learn more about Dr. Crites' research.

Jennifer Eno Louden, Ph.D. (University of California, Irvine)
Email: jlenolouden@utep.edu.
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Dr. Eno Louden is Assistant Professor of Psychology at UTEP. Her research interests involve issues related to criminal justice and mental health, including assessments of contextual influences on criminal justice outcomes for offenders with mental disorders (OMDs, such as social support and neighborhood characteristics), community corrections agencies’ policies and practices for supervising OMDs, probation officer decision-making, and the stigmatization of these offenders and how this stigmatization affects offenders’ outcomes in the criminal justice system.

Jacqueline Evans, Ph.D. (Florida International University)
Intelligence Community Post-Doctoral Fellow
Email: jrevans@utep.edu.
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Dr. Evans holds an Intelligence Community Post-Doctoral Fellowship at UTEP. Her research interests are related to issues at the intersection of law and behavioral science, including the effects of alcohol intoxication on eyewitness memory, and how legal decision makers (including jurors, investigators and attorneys) evaluate evidence provided by intoxicated individuals. She has also conducted studies examining how witnesses are able to use metacognition to maintain high accuracy rates, and how jurors use evidence of metacognition to evaluate witness testimony. Her most recent research involves the study of interrogation techniques and the deception of deception in interrogative settings.

Harmon M. Hosch, Ph.D. (New School for Social Research)
Email: hhosch@utep.edu.
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Dr. Hosch is Professor of Psychology and Criminal Justice, and Associate Dean of Liberal Arts for Social and Behavioral Sciences at UTEP. His research interests include jury decision making, language and cultural factors in juror's perceptions of testimony. Professor Hosch was the Director of the Law and Social Science Program at the National Science Foundation (NSF) from September, 1996 through August, 1998. To learn more about his research please visit the Institute for the Study of Judicial Processes: http://clhb.utep.edu.

Roy S. Malpass, Ph.D. (Syracuse University)
Email: rmalpass@utep.edu.
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Dr. Malpass is Professor of Psychology and Criminal Justice at UTEP. He has published extensively in the areas of face recognition, eyewitness identification, and cross-cultural psychology. His current interests including face recognition, cross-race recognition, eyewitness identification and memory, lineup procedures and fairness, culture and behavior. Dr. Malpass is a past President of the Psychology & Law Division of the International Association for Applied Psychology, and has served as Executive Director of the Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. To learn more about his research, please visit his Eyewitness Research Laboratory: http://eyewitness.utep.edu.

Christian A. Meissner, Ph.D. (Florida State University)
Email: cmeissner@utep.edu.
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Dr. Meissner is Associate Professor of Psychology and Criminal Justice, and Director of the Investigative Interviewing Research Laboratory at UTEP. His research involves the cognitive and social psychological processes that underlie investigative interviewing and the gathering of human intelligence, including the interviewing of cooperative and non-cooperative individuals, and approaches to credibility assessment in this context. To learn more about Dr. Meissner's research, please visit his Investigative Interviewing Research Laboratory: http://iilab.utep.edu.

Matthew H. Scullin, Ph.D. (Cornell University)
Email: mhscullin@utep.edu.
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Dr. Scullin is Assistant Professor of Psychology at UTEP. His research interests span cognitive and social developmental psychology with a special emphasis on the interaction of individual differences, cognitive factors, and social influences. He has two main areas of research. In his studies of juvenile justice issues, he examines children’s memory for events and suggestibility, as well as factors associated with juvenile delinquency. In his research on cognitive and social development in childhood, he has focused on the development of cognitive control and intelligence, and the relation of these constructs to other life outcomes such as school readiness.

James M. Wood, Ph.D. (University of Arizona)
Email: jawood@utep.edu.
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Dr. Wood is a Professor of Psychology at UTEP. His students and he are currently doing research in three areas. (1) They are studying child suggestibility and child forensic interviewing, and are especially interested in the social and motivational factors that influence children's suggestibility in sexual abuse and other legal cases. (2) They are studying aspects of police, military and intelligence interviewing and interrogation, with a focus on the use of translators, and the establishment of rapport, in interrogations. (3) They are interested in the development of tests and decision tools to predict negative outcomes in forensic, mental health, and military settings, including current work on prediction of recidivism in juvenile offenders, and on premature discharge from the military. Click here to learn more about Dr. Wood's research.

Michael A. Zárate, Ph.D. (Purdue University)
Email: mzarate@utep.edu.
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Dr. Zarate is a Professor of Psychology at UTEP. His research focuses on the social cognitive processes that underlie person and group perception, and how those processes lead to prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination. Click here to learn more about Dr. Zarate's research.

Ph.D. Students

	Justin S. Albrechtsen Email: jsalbrechtsen@miners.utep.edu. Justin graduated from the University of Northern Iowa (2005) with a B.A. in Psychology, and received his M.A from the University of Texas at El Paso (2007). He is currently Ph.D. student in the Investigative Interviewing Research Laboratory, and plans to graduate in 2010. His current research interests include deception detection, false confessions, and developing efficient and effective interrogation techniques.
	Rachel L. Barker Email: rlbarker@miners.utep.edu. Rachell graduated from Lamar University in Beaumont Texas with a B.S. in Psychology (2004), and a M.S. in Community/Clinical Psychology (2008). Her master’s internship was completed at the Beaumont Federal Correctional Complex, in which she conducted brief therapy with inmates and participated in teaching a residential drug abuse program. Her master’s thesis examined the relationship between narcissism and aggressive responding. She is currently working on her first year project, which will examine eyewitness identification lineups within a signal detection theory paradigm. Other research interests include child suggestibility, adult and juvenile justice issues, factors contributing to wrongful convictions of the innocent, and the administration of intelligence and personality tests.
	Catherine R. Camilletti Email: crcamilletti@miners.utep.edu. Catherine received her B.A. in Psychology and Art History from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA. Her research interests include children and the law, children’s eyewitness memory and suggestibility, perceptions of juvenile offenders’ culpability, and juvenile recidivism. She received her M.A. from UTEP in December 2008. She is presently working on two projects: one involving children’s suggestibility surrounding a witnessed event and one that examines potential jurors’ perceptions of juvenile offenders’ culpability.
	Misty Duke Email: Misty received her B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and her M.A. in Counseling Psychology from Texas Woman's University. She practiced psychotherapy for ten years with a focus on children and families, and also taught for several years at El Paso Community College. Misty is currently in her first year of doctoral study and is working in the Child & Adult Suggestibility Laboratory at UTEP.
	Allyson J. Horgan Email: ajhorgan@miners.utep.edu. Allyson completed her B.S. in Psychology at Arizona State University’s West Campus (2006) and received her M.A. from UTEP in 2009. She expects to complete her PhD in Spring 2011. Her current research interests include interrogations and false confessions, and human detection of deception.
	Kevin W. Jolly Email: kwjolly@miners.utep.edu. Kevin graduated from Iowa State University in 2005 with his B.S. In 2008, he received his M.A. from the University of Texas at El Paso. His work at the Institute for the Study of Judicial Processes is primarily focused on how jurors evaluate alibi testimony. He is also active in studying how the Investment Model can explain an individual's commitment to his or her romantic relationship. Kevin is currently teaching Introduction to Psychology (PSYC 1301).
	Abigail E. Moore Email: aemoore2@miners.utep.edu. Abbie graduated from the University of Mary Washington with a B.S. in Psychology. She is currently a second year graduate student in Dr. Scullin's lab. Her research focuses on eyewitness identification and testimony, including cross-race identification, composite production, and eyewitness credibility.
	Stephen W. Michael Email: swmichael@miners.utep.edu. Stephen graduated from Elon University (2005) in North Carolina with a B.A. in Psychology. He is currently working on his Masters’ Thesis which will examine the effects of training individuals to deception detection. His research interests include deception detection, interrogations and false confessions, and suspect alibis.
	Larissa A. Schmersal Email: laschmersal@miners.utep.edu. Larissa received her B.A. from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln and she is currently a 4th year doctoral student at the Institute for the Study of Judicial Processes. Her primary area of research focuses on jury decision making, including a specific interest in jurors’ perceptions of trial evidence and the group deliberation process.
	Brooke A. Smith Email: basmith2@miners.utep.edu. Brooke received her B.A. from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona, and her M.A. from the University of Texas at El Paso. She is a 5th year graduate student in the Institute for the Study of Judicial Processes at UTEP, and works in Washington, DC with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Her research examines defendants characteristics and how they affect juror decision making, and she plans to conduct her dissertation work through the Behavioral Science Unit of the FBI.
	Kyle J. Susa Email: kjsusa@miners.utep.edu. Download curriculum vitae. Kyle received his B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his M.A. from the University of Texas at El Paso. He is currently a 5th year graduate student in the Investigative Interviewing Research Laboratory at UTEP. His research examines the social-cognitive processes underlying memory error in face recognition, including phenomena associated with the cross-race effect and the verbal description-identification relationship. In 2006, he was awarded a three year fellowship from the Department of Homeland Security for this research.
	Elizabeth R. Uhl Email: eruhl@miners.utep.edu. Elizabeth received her B.A. from Bradley University and is currently in her 4th year in the Child & Adult Suggestibility Laboratory at UTEP. She currently has two lines of research. The first examines factors that influence children’s suggestibility, while the second examines the impact of social influences on prosecutorial decision making.

Alumni
	Jessica L. Marcon, Ph.D. (2009) *Assistant Professor* Department of Psychology Central Michigan University
	Nicole Pruss, Ph.D. (2008)
	Stephen J. Ross, Ph.D. (2008) *Visiting Assistant Professor* Department of Psychology Florida International Univesity
	Lisa D. Topp, Ph.D. (2008) *Assistant Professor* Department of Psychology Stephen F. Austin University
	Jessica Wildermuth, Ph.D. (2008) *Researcher* Federal Sentencing Commission Washington, DC
	Keli S. Allen (Holloway), Ph.D. (2006) *Senior Business Analyst* LivePerson, Inc.
	Tanya S. Taylor, Ph.D. (2006) Research Analyst American Institute of Research Washington, DC
	Laura A. Zimmerman, Ph.D. (2006) *Research Psychologist* Klein Associates Applied Research Associates
	Scott E. Culhane, Ph.D. (2005) *Assistant Professor* Department of Criminal Justice University of Wyoming
	F. James Billings, Ph.D. (2004) *Visiting Assistant Professor* Department of Psychology The Honors College St. Mary’s College of Maryland
	Dawn E. McQuiston, Ph.D. (2003) *Associate Professor* Department of Psychology Arizona State University-West
	V. Anne Tubb, Ph.D. (2001) Chief Psychologist Federal Correctional Institution (Big Spring, TX) Federal Bureau of Prisons
	Debra L. Corey, Ph.D. (2000) *Assistant Professor* Department of Psychology Our Lady of the Lake University
	Kimberley A. McClure, Ph.D. (1998) *Associate Professor* Department of Psychology Western Illinois University
	James W. Schutte, Ph.D. (1996) Legal Psychologist Barrientos & Associates El Paso, TX

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