Pragmatic psychology through a therapeutic jurisprudence lens - Psycholegal soft spots in the crimical justice system

Pragmatic psychology is a psychological framework developed to advance pragmatic principles and ideas in various domains of applied psychology. It involves adopting a holistic, pluralistic, and dynamic approach to knowledge generation and proposes that psychological methods and strategies should be evaluated in terms of their ability to solve problems in specific contexts. Therapeutic jurisprudence is a legal theory that utilizes psychological and other social science knowledge to determine ways in which the law can enhance well-being of individuals who experience the law. We examine the capacity of these theories to resolve two psycholegal soft spots, where legal processes may reduce well-being: (a) the assessment of competence to stand trial in defendants with mental retardation and (b) the determination of parole for sex offenders. These case examples illustrate the beneficial relationship between therapeutic jurisprudence and pragmatic psychology.