Adjunct Assistant Professor and Visiting ScholarThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
CH 415M
(205) 934-3850
She/her/hers
Research and Teaching Interests: Psychology and law, forensic mental health evaluation practices, not guilty by reason of insanity pleas (i.e., the insanity defense), legal decision-making, and biases within the criminal justice system
Office Hours: Tuesday 10-11am or by appointment
Education:
- B.A. Louisiana State University, Anthropology
- B.S., Louisiana State University, Psychology
- M.A., The University of Alabama, Clinical Psychology & Law
- Ph.D., The University of Alabama, Clinical Psychology & Law
The primary goal of Dr. Meaux’s research is to assist those with severe mental illness in the criminal system by producing research with clear clinical implications. To this aim, one branch of her research concerns forensic evaluation practices (e.g., competency to proceed and not guilty by reason of insanity), with an emphasis on understanding current practices and identifying the cause for discrepancies from best practice guidelines. Ideally, by revealing how and why these practices are discrepant, evaluators can make targeted advancements towards best practices, which will hopefully decrease variability in subsequent legal outcomes for defendants. Another aspect of her forensic evaluation research concerns how legal actors view and consider the results of such evaluations when making legal decisions.
Given the considerable diversity of individuals in the criminal system and the implications for fairness, another branch of her research concerns biases within the criminal system with the goal that these biases may be consciously redressed. Some projects examine how defendants’ demographic factors or legal actors’ personality traits impact legal outcomes (e.g., juror decision-making, forensic evaluation referrals). Other projects assess factors correlated with biases toward religious or gender minorities in legal contexts.
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Current Courses
PY 215: Research Literacy in Psychology
PY 218: Abnormal Psychology
PY 320: Forensic Psychology -
Select Publications
- Meaux, L. T., Cox, J., Edens, J. F., DeMatteo, D., Martinez, A., Bownes, E. (2021). The Personality Assessment Inventory: A U.S. case law survey and examination of relevance to legal proceedings. Journal of Personality Assessment, 104(2), 179-191.
- Meaux, L. T., Cox, J., & Titcomb Parrott, C. (2021). Discrepancies between ideal and actual mental state at the time of the offense evaluation practices. Journal of Forensic Psychology Research and Practice, 21(5), 417-437.
- Cox, J., Meaux, L. T., Kois, L., Jensen, C. (2021). Now see this? Forensic evaluator opinions regarding direct observation when evaluating competency to proceed. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 52(6), 600-609.
- Cox, J., Stanziani, M., Coffey, C. A., Bownes, E., Brooks-Holliday, S. F., & Meaux, L. T. (2021). “Your rights end where mine begin:” A mixed-methods study of Moral Foundations Theory and support for bathroom bills. Sexuality Research and Social Policy.
- Meaux, L. T., Doran, S. C., & Cox, J. (2020). Aberration of mind or soul: The role of media in perceptions of mass violence. Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research, 12(4), 209-222.
- Cox, J., Meaux, L. T., Stanziani, M., Coffey, C. A., & Daquin, J. (2019). Partiality in prosecution? Discretionary prosecutorial decision making and intimate partner violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36(17-18), 8471-8493.
- Meaux, L. T., Cox, J., & Kopkin, M. R. (2018). Saving damsels, sentencing deviants and selective chivalry decisions: Juror decision making in an ambiguous assault case. Psychiatry, Psychology, and Law, 25(5), 1-13.
Please visit Dr. Meaux’s Google Scholar page for more information about her publications.
