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- Title
The ultimate opinion rule and psychologists: a comparison of the expectations and experiences of South African lawyers.
- Authors
Allan, Alfred; Louw, Dap A.
- Abstract
Strictly speaking, the ultimate legal issue rule does not form part of modern South African law and psychologists can therefore be asked to express opinions on such issues. In this study judges, advocates, prosecutors and magistrates were asked to indicate to what extent they expect, and in fact find, that psychologists express ultimate opinions in respect of criminal responsibility, child custody and sentencing issues. Respondents expected psychologists to express ultimate legal opinions regarding criminal responsibility and child custody issues. They did not expect psychologists to express such opinions about sentences in criminal matters. The respondents believed that psychologists are prepared to give opinions in respect of all three relevant ultimate issues. The only significant difference between jurists' expectations and experience of psychologists' conduct was in respect of sentencing where respondents believed that they were overly inclined to express opinions regarding the type of sentence a defendant should be given. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
- Subjects
SOUTH Africa; CRIMINAL procedure; CRIMINAL liability; CRIMINAL sentencing; LEGAL opinions; PSYCHOLOGISTS
- Publication
Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 1997, Vol 15, Issue 3, p307
- ISSN
0735-3936
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1002/(SICI)1099-0798(199722/06)15:3<307::AID-BSL274>3.0.CO;2-C