The Religion and Society Research Centre at the University of Western Sydney invites you to attend a Public Lecture:

‘Jury Decision-Making and New Religious Movements’

Speaker: Associate Professor Jeffrey Pfeifer

Date: Thursday 13 December, 2012 Time: 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm Venue: Bankstown Campus, Building 1 Level 1 Room 117

Abstract

Jeffrey Pfeifer will present an overview of the research that has been conducted in the last 25 years on jury decision-making and its relationship to New Religious Movements. In addition to providing a contextual overview of the issue (i.e., the legal and social psychological issues relating to New Religious Movements and juror decision making), this lecture will also include a review of the research regarding the ways that jurors may be impacted by religious information, including: expert testimony, defendant/victim religious affiliation, juror religious affiliation, and impacts on civil trials. A review of future areas for research will also be presented.

Jeffrey Pfeifer received his Ph.D. and M.Leg.St. (Master of Legal Studies) from the University of Nebraska and has been teaching and conducting research in forensic psychology for the past 15 years. He is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Life and Social Sciences at Swinburne University of Technology.

In addition to his research on jury decision-making, policing, and corrections, he has also conducted a number of training workshops and program evaluations for security agencies in Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Tanzania, Namibia, Zambia, and Russia. He has testified as an expert witness in a number of capital (death penalty) and non-capital cases and his research has been cited by a number of courts including the Supreme Court of Canada and the Supreme Court of British Columbia.