CCP Legal & Ethical Considerations 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Under the Daubert standard, what must a court determine before admitting expert profiling testimony?
- The expert holds a doctoral degree
- The methodology is scientifically valid and reliably applied (Correct answer)
- The profiler has testified in at least 10 prior cases
- The profile matches the defendant exactly
Correct answer: The methodology is scientifically valid and reliably applied
Daubert requires courts to act as gatekeepers, ensuring expert testimony rests on a reliable methodology that has been properly applied to the facts.
Question 2: A criminal profiler is subpoenaed to testify about a client's statements made during a forensic evaluation. Which privilege most commonly applies?
- Attorney-client privilege
- Marital privilege
- Psychotherapist-patient privilege (Correct answer)
- Work product doctrine
Correct answer: Psychotherapist-patient privilege
The psychotherapist-patient privilege, recognized in Jaffee v. Redmond (1996), protects confidential communications in mental health contexts.
Question 3: Which ethical principle obligates a criminal profiler to stay within the boundaries of their demonstrated competence?
- Beneficence
- Fidelity
- Competence (Correct answer)
- Justice
Correct answer: Competence
The principle of competence requires practitioners to only perform services and use techniques for which they have appropriate training and expertise.
Question 4: When a profiler's analysis might exonerate a suspect but the prosecutor asks them to omit that finding, the profiler should:
- Omit the finding to maintain the working relationship
- Include all findings regardless of their impact on the case (Correct answer)
- Report only findings the prosecutor requests
- Reanalyze the data until it supports prosecution
Correct answer: Include all findings regardless of their impact on the case
Ethical obligations require profilers to report all significant findings objectively, even those unfavorable to the retaining party.
Question 5: The Fourth Amendment primarily protects individuals from:
- Self-incrimination during questioning
- Unreasonable searches and seizures by government actors (Correct answer)
- Being tried twice for the same crime
- Cruel and unusual punishment
Correct answer: Unreasonable searches and seizures by government actors
The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and requires warrants supported by probable cause.
Question 6: A profiler discovers that a colleague fabricated case data in a published study used widely in the field. The most ethical course of action is to:
- Confront the colleague privately and let them self-correct
- Ignore it to protect the profession's reputation
- Report the misconduct to the relevant professional organization (Correct answer)
- Publish a rebuttal without naming the colleague
Correct answer: Report the misconduct to the relevant professional organization
Professional ethics codes generally require reporting scientific misconduct to protect the integrity of the field and public safety.
Question 7: Which doctrine holds that evidence obtained as a result of an illegal search is inadmissible, along with evidence derived from it?
- Fruit of the poisonous tree (Correct answer)
- Plain view doctrine
- Inevitable discovery rule
- Good faith exception
Correct answer: Fruit of the poisonous tree
The fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine excludes not only illegally obtained evidence but also any secondary evidence discovered because of the initial violation.
CCP Legal & Ethical Considerations 2
Under the Daubert standard, what must a court determine before admitting expert profiling testimony?