Joshua D. Behl - Alibis and Corroborators : Psychological, Criminological, and Legal Perspectives

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG

The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Consider this: the police come to your door and ask you where you were on a Monday evening approximately 6 months ago. Without much thought, you reply I was sitting at home with my family eating dinner. You have just offered the police an alibi. These statements are seemingly innocuous enough. After all, people are accused of crimes all the time. Those that are innocent should have an alibi or a claim that they were elsewhere at the time of the crime. However, that claim is a lot easier to generate than it is to support. And still easier to support than it is to be believed in court.

This book is the first of its kind to be published on the nascent topic of alibis and corroborators. At the time of this publication, there are roughly 200 articles and book chapters dedicated to the topic of alibis in some capacity. However, the field has yet to be organized in any kind of consistent, coherent manner. Therefore, this book should be viewed as a state of the science on the topic. Each chapter is a complete overview of specific research focus within the larger topic of alibis and corroborators, and each could be viewed as stand-alone chapters. However, we believe that the book is best read in its entirety, as some topics (e.g., generation and believability) go hand in hand.

As you read through this book, you will quickly notice that each chapter has at least one case of wrongful conviction that will be profiled. This case is used as a reference case around which the chapter is structured. What readers will also notice is that there is a lot more work that still needs to be done. To that end, each author developed a series of research questions that the editors compiled into a fairly comprehensive appendix at the back of the book. From graduate students looking for research ideas to seasoned scholars who are interested in such topics as eyewitnesses, social influence, power structures, race, investigator bias, tunnel vision, and lie detection, there is so much that we do not yet know that could be answered by our collective efforts. That is the humble goal of this book to provide an overview of what we do know so that we can all work together to answer the questions that we do not know.

Together, we would like to thank the various faculty and staff at Flagler College and Austin Peay State University who made this project a reality. We also would like to acknowledge Dr. Lora Levett and Dr. Kelsey Henderson who have been a constant support throughout our academic careers. We would not be where we are today without the continuous support and encouragement we have received from all of you. We would also like to recognize and thank our tremendous contributing authors who made our job as editors easy and interesting. This book could not have been possible without them. We would also like to thank the editorial team at Springer for taking a chance and trusting two junior scholars with a first-of-its-kind book of this magnitude.

It is my great pleasure to publicly thank my family for their constant outpouring of love and support. Specifically, to my wife, Taylor, and dog, Ruby; parents, Helen Carnegie and Chuck and Nicole Behl; my siblings, Bryan and Marissa Behl, Amanda and Jared Chute, Jessica and Dan Moose, and Jacob Vondran; and my in-laws, Ruth and Daryl Reimer, and Mark and Julie Allegood as well as a host of siblings-in-law, uncles, aunts, cousins, and many more. To have you all in my corner every day is the greatest blessing. I would also like to acknowledge the support of my Flagler College colleagues who have made working at Flagler College a tremendous pleasure. Worth mentioning again are the debts I owe to my wife, Taylor, for always being there for me through the long nights of editing and Zoom calls; to love you is to know you, to be loved by you is greater than anything in this life. And to my parents, Helen and Chuck, your unconditional love and support throughout my life have made everything I have ever done possible. This book is more a reflection of you than it could ever be of me. Finally, I want to thank my co-editor, Megan, for everything you have done to help throughout my academic career, from being my lab supervisor when I was in undergrad to being my most consistent collaborator, co-author, and friend.

First and foremost, I want to thank my parents, Carol and Doug, for their never-ending support and encouragement of all I do, both personally and professionally. I am thankful for my sister, Emily, and brother-in-law, Jeremy, and all my aunts, uncles, cousins, and beyond who have been my constant champions since day one. I am blessed with incredible friends from all stages of my life who are now scattered throughout the country (and world). I want to thank them all for being there for me in good times and bad, always ready with a supportive ear to listen, and a laugh to make sure I do not take things too seriously you know who you are, and I miss you all! I am especially appreciative of my colleagues here at Austin Peay, in the department and elsewhere around campus, for creating a supportive environment in which to thrive. To my favorite fuzzy companion, my dog Nessie, for sleeping at my side while reading, writing, and editing drafts of this book. Finally, I want to thank my incredible co-editor, co-author, colleague, and friend, Josh, for going on this journey together. Without each and every one of you, I would not be who I am, and I am eternally grateful for you every day.