My research examines normative and descriptive models of legal decision making. Topics of interest include: the consumption of forensic science (e.g., DNA evidence); the role of behavioral genetics in decisions regarding culpability; lay judgments of appellate court decisions; and legal standards of proof. I am especially interested in actuarial risk assessment and violence risk communication.
Selected Publications
Scurich, N., Monahan, J., & John, R.S. (in press) Innumeracy and unpacking: Bridging the nomothetic/idiographic divide in violence risk assessment. Law & Human Behavior doi: 10.1037/h0093994
Lyon, T.D., Scurich, N., Handmaker, S., & Blank, R. (in press) How did you feel? Increasing child sexual abuse witnesses production of evaluative information. Law & Human Behavior doi: 10.1037/h0093986
Scurich, N., & John, R.S. (2012) A Bayesian approach to the group versus individual prediction controversy in actuarial risk assessment. Law & Human Behavior, 36(3), 237-246.
Scurich, N. & John, R.S. (2012) Constraints on restraints: A Signal Detection analysis of the use of mechanical restraints on adult psychiatric inpatients. Southern California Review of Law and Social Justice, 21(1), 75-107.
Scurich, N., & John, R.S. (2012) Prescriptive approaches to communicating the risk of violence in actuarial risk assessment. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 18(1), 50-78.
Lyon, T.D., Ahern, E.C, & Scurich, N. (2012) Interviewing children vs. tossing coins: Accurately assessing the diagnosticity of children’s disclosures of abuse. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 21, 19-44.
Scurich, N., & John, R.S. (2011) Trawling genetic databases: When a DNA match is just a naked statistic. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, 8(s1), 49-71.
Simon, D., & Scurich, N. (2011) Lay judgments of judicial decision-making. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, 8(4), 709-727.
Scurich, N. & John, R.S. (2011) The effect of framing actuarial risk probabilities on involuntary commitment decisions. Law & Human Behavior, 35(2), 83-91.
Scurich, N., & John, R.S. (2010) The normative threshold for psychiatric civil commitment. Jurimetrics Journal, 50(4), 425-452.