Melanie B Fessinger
Biographic Data
| ID | 4127068 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Melanie B Fessinger |
| GIVEN NAMES | Melanie B |
| FAMILY NAME | Fessinger |
| SIGNATURE | FESSINGER M B |
| AFFILIATIONS | City University of New York |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5170-189X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 5 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 13 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Juries are different
OBJECTIVE: We explored how White, Black, and Hispanic people rated their trust in juries, whether these patterns differed from their trust in courts, what potential mechanisms might explain any observed differences, and what potential outcomes might be associated with them. HYPOTHESES: We expected White participants to have the most trust in juries (Hypothesis 1) and Black participants to have the least trust in juries (Hypothesis 2). We expected…
Interrogation tactics may have downstream consequences on innocent and guilty defendants’ plea decisions
OBJECTIVE: We examined whether interrogation tactics that imply leniency (i.e., minimization) or exaggerate seriousness and incriminating evidence (i.e., maximization) have downstream consequences on innocent and guilty defendants' plea decisions. HYPOTHESES: We predicted that (a) participants interrogated using minimization and maximization tactics would plead guilty more often than would those interrogated using control tactics; (b) guilty part…
The power of victim narrative
The state of open science in the field of psychology and law
OBJECTIVE: We conducted a survey to catalog the state of open science in the field of psychology and law. We addressed four major questions: (a) How do psycholegal researchers define open science? (b) How do psycholegal researchers perceive open science? (c) How often do psycholegal researchers use various open science practices? and (d) What barriers, if any, do psycholegal researchers face or expect to face when implementing open science practi…
Attorneys' experiences, perceptions, and plea recommendations in child sexual abuse cases
OBJECTIVE: We examined attorneys' experiences, perceptions, and decisions regarding plea recommendations in child sexual cases. HYPOTHESES: We hypothesized that characteristics of the child (age, relationship to alleged perpetrator) and the report (timing of disclosure, consistency across reports) would affect attorneys' perceptions of evidence strength, likelihood of conviction, and plea recommendations. METHOD: We collected data from a national…
Tell the truth? Identifying common sources and types of advice juvenile defendants receive when pleading guilty to their first offense
We examined the role of advice on juvenile defendants’ plea decisions. We analyzed data from interviews with 1, 216 13- to 17-year-old male youth within 6 weeks of the disposition hearing for their first arrest to understand their plea experiences. The majority of youth (82%) reported that they pleaded guilty. Only some youth (28%) reported receiving advice about doing so. Common sources of advice were defense attorneys (37%), parents (37%), and …
An offer you cannot refuse
OBJECTIVE: We examined whether various plea outcomes-including sentence reduction size (smaller, larger), type (traditional guilty plea, Alford plea), and frame (plea discount, trial penalty)-differentially affected innocent and guilty defendants' perceptions of the voluntariness of their guilty pleas. HYPOTHESES: We hypothesized (1) guilty defendants would rate guilty pleas as more voluntary than would innocent defendants; (2) defendants would r…
A preference for the proximate occurrence
Waiving goodbye to youth
Juveniles are developmentally different from adults but are often treated similarly in the criminal justice system. In case processing, many juveniles are transferred to adult courts. Before case processing, many juveniles are interrogated with the same tactics used against adults. Limited research has examined jurors' decisions in juvenile transfer cases, particularly those involving confession evidence. In two studies, we built on this small li…
From whose perspective? Differences between actors and observers in determining the voluntariness of guilty pleas
OBJECTIVE: Valid guilty pleas must be made voluntarily, yet most defendants report that they did not feel part of the decision-making process or responsible for the decision. Defendants and judges both play a role in determining whether guilty pleas are voluntary. The actor-observer bias suggests that defendants and judges perceive the decision-making process differently given the nature of their roles. The present studies applied this framework …
A national survey of child forensic interviewers
OBJECTIVE: We surveyed a national sample of child forensic interviewers to learn the types of information they wanted to have before interviewing children, their attitudes and beliefs about forensic interviews, the characteristics of their interviews, and their professional experiences. HYPOTHESES: We predicted (1) interviewers would want many different types of information before interviewing children, but specifically details about the child, a…
Do Judicial Instructions Aid in Distinguishing Between Reliable and Unreliable Jailhouse Informants
Jailhouse informants are a leading cause of wrongful convictions. In an attempt to preempt such miscarriages of justice, several states (e.g., Connecticut and California) have mandated that judicial instructions be provided to act as a safeguard against false testimony. This study evaluated the effectiveness of these instructions in helping jurors distinguish between reliable and unreliable jailhouse informants. Participants read a trial transcri…
Evaluating the Facilitating Attuned Interactions (FAN) approach
A national survey of child forensic interviewers
OBJECTIVE: We surveyed a national sample of child forensic interviewers to learn the types of information they wanted to have before interviewing children, their attitudes and beliefs about forensic interviews, the characteristics of their interviews, and their professional experiences. HYPOTHESES: We predicted (1) interviewers would want many different types of information before interviewing children, but specifically details about the child, a…
Do Judicial Instructions Aid in Distinguishing Between Reliable and Unreliable Jailhouse Informants
Jailhouse informants are a leading cause of wrongful convictions. In an attempt to preempt such miscarriages of justice, several states (e.g., Connecticut and California) have mandated that judicial instructions be provided to act as a safeguard against false testimony. This study evaluated the effectiveness of these instructions in helping jurors distinguish between reliable and unreliable jailhouse informants. Participants read a trial transcri…
Evaluating the Facilitating Attuned Interactions (FAN) approach
Waiving goodbye to youth
Juveniles are developmentally different from adults but are often treated similarly in the criminal justice system. In case processing, many juveniles are transferred to adult courts. Before case processing, many juveniles are interrogated with the same tactics used against adults. Limited research has examined jurors' decisions in juvenile transfer cases, particularly those involving confession evidence. In two studies, we built on this small li…
From whose perspective? Differences between actors and observers in determining the voluntariness of guilty pleas
OBJECTIVE: Valid guilty pleas must be made voluntarily, yet most defendants report that they did not feel part of the decision-making process or responsible for the decision. Defendants and judges both play a role in determining whether guilty pleas are voluntary. The actor-observer bias suggests that defendants and judges perceive the decision-making process differently given the nature of their roles. The present studies applied this framework …
An offer you cannot refuse
OBJECTIVE: We examined whether various plea outcomes-including sentence reduction size (smaller, larger), type (traditional guilty plea, Alford plea), and frame (plea discount, trial penalty)-differentially affected innocent and guilty defendants' perceptions of the voluntariness of their guilty pleas. HYPOTHESES: We hypothesized (1) guilty defendants would rate guilty pleas as more voluntary than would innocent defendants; (2) defendants would r…
A preference for the proximate occurrence
Attorneys' experiences, perceptions, and plea recommendations in child sexual abuse cases
OBJECTIVE: We examined attorneys' experiences, perceptions, and decisions regarding plea recommendations in child sexual cases. HYPOTHESES: We hypothesized that characteristics of the child (age, relationship to alleged perpetrator) and the report (timing of disclosure, consistency across reports) would affect attorneys' perceptions of evidence strength, likelihood of conviction, and plea recommendations. METHOD: We collected data from a national…
Tell the truth? Identifying common sources and types of advice juvenile defendants receive when pleading guilty to their first offense
We examined the role of advice on juvenile defendants’ plea decisions. We analyzed data from interviews with 1, 216 13- to 17-year-old male youth within 6 weeks of the disposition hearing for their first arrest to understand their plea experiences. The majority of youth (82%) reported that they pleaded guilty. Only some youth (28%) reported receiving advice about doing so. Common sources of advice were defense attorneys (37%), parents (37%), and …
The state of open science in the field of psychology and law
OBJECTIVE: We conducted a survey to catalog the state of open science in the field of psychology and law. We addressed four major questions: (a) How do psycholegal researchers define open science? (b) How do psycholegal researchers perceive open science? (c) How often do psycholegal researchers use various open science practices? and (d) What barriers, if any, do psycholegal researchers face or expect to face when implementing open science practi…
Juries are different
OBJECTIVE: We explored how White, Black, and Hispanic people rated their trust in juries, whether these patterns differed from their trust in courts, what potential mechanisms might explain any observed differences, and what potential outcomes might be associated with them. HYPOTHESES: We expected White participants to have the most trust in juries (Hypothesis 1) and Black participants to have the least trust in juries (Hypothesis 2). We expected…
Interrogation tactics may have downstream consequences on innocent and guilty defendants’ plea decisions
OBJECTIVE: We examined whether interrogation tactics that imply leniency (i.e., minimization) or exaggerate seriousness and incriminating evidence (i.e., maximization) have downstream consequences on innocent and guilty defendants' plea decisions. HYPOTHESES: We predicted that (a) participants interrogated using minimization and maximization tactics would plead guilty more often than would those interrogated using control tactics; (b) guilty part…
The power of victim narrative
Psychology (10 works) · Social Psychology (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Political science (8 works) · Deception detection and forensic psychology (7 works) · Jury Decision Making Processes (5 works) · Memory Processes and Influences (5 works) · Legal psychology (4 works) · Medicine (4 works) · Plea (4 works)