Dr. Butler’s research is highly applied, policy-oriented, and concerns the social psychological factors that jeopardize defendants' right to due process. Her areas of scholarship include prejudice, aggravating and mitigating circumstances in capital trials, defense-attorney concessions, jurors’ decision-making processes, expert testimony, individual differences, the insanity defense, post-sentence-civil commitment, capital judges’ decision-making processes, defendant attractiveness, pretrial publicity, and the psychological pains of imprisonment.

Dr. Butler has written book reviews, encyclopedia entries, case reports, and journal articles for the following psycholegal publications: American Journal of Forensic Psychology, American Psychology-Law Society News, Behavioral Sciences and the Law, the Encyclopedia of Psychology and Law, the Florida Defender, the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, the Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice, Law and Human Behavior, Psychology, Crime, and Law, Psychology of Women Quarterly, and The Jury Expert. In 2007 and 2008, she was the recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Research Award at the University of South Florida-Sarasota. Dr. Butler’s research has been funded by grants from both the University of South Florida and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (Division 9 of the American Psychological Association). Her publications have also been cited by various international, national, state, and local media outlets.

Dr. Butler has conducted pretrial research for numerous high-profile cases, but currently devotes her private practice to client-centered mitigation, jury selection, and change-of-venue foci. Her areas of expertise are capital trials, defenses involving mental illness, complex felonies, and cases concerning police misconduct. However, she continues to be involved in a wide range of both trials and appeals. Dr. Butler has also served as a consultant for The Innocence Project of Florida and is currently on the Regional Board of Directors of the Florida Capital Resource Center.

Dr. Butler is an internationally-recognized authority on both death qualification and capital pretrial publicity. She has provided expert testimony regarding their biasing effects in several death-penalty trials.

Dr. Butler currently teaches at New College of Florida. She is also a member of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychology-Law Society, the Association for Psychological Science, the National Alliance of Sentencing Advocates and Mitigation Specialists, the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.

Primary Interests:

Aggression, Conflict, Peace
Applied Social Psychology
Attitudes and Beliefs
Causal Attribution
Group Processes
Judgment and Decision Making
Law and Public Policy
Nonverbal Behavior
Personality, Individual Differences
Persuasion, Social Influence
Prejudice and Stereotyping
Research Methods, Assessment

Aggression, Conflict, Peace
Applied Social Psychology
Attitudes and Beliefs
Causal Attribution
Group Processes
Judgment and Decision Making
Law and Public Policy

Nonverbal Behavior
Personality, Individual Differences
Persuasion, Social Influence
Prejudice and Stereotyping
Research Methods, Assessment

Journal Articles:

Butler, B. (2011, forthcoming). Capital pretrial publicity as a symbolic public execution: A case report. Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice, 11(3), xx-xx.
Butler, B. (2010). How to think like a shrink: Using psychological concepts to enhance voir dire. Florida Defender, 22(4), 12-14.
Butler, B. (2010). Moving beyond Ford, Atkins, and Roper: Jurors’ attitudes toward the execution of the elderly and the physically disabled. Psychology, Crime, and Law, 16(8), 631-647.
Butler, B. (2010). My client is guilty of “this,” but not guilty of “that:” The impact of defense-attorney concessions on juror decisions. American Journal of Forensic Psychology, 28(1), 5-19.
Butler, B. (2010). “He’s something less than human:” The impact of pretrial publicity on capital defendants’ right to due process. Florida Defender, 21(4), 19-24.
Butler, B. (2008). Caveats of the death-qualified jury: Ways capital defense attorneys can use psycholegal research to their advantage. The Jury Expert, 20(1), 10-22.
Butler, B. (2008). The role of death qualification in venirepersons' susceptibility to victim impact statements. Psychology, Crime, and Law, 14(2), 133-141.
Butler, B. (2007). Death qualification and prejudice: The effect of implicit racism, sexism, and homophobia on capital defendants' right to due process. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 25(6), 857-867.
Butler, B. (2007). The role of death qualification in capital trials involving juvenile defendants. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 37(3), 549-560.
Butler, B. (2007). The role of death qualification in jurors' susceptibility to pretrial publicity. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 37(1), 115-123.
Butler, B. (2006). Jurors' attitudes toward post-sentence civil commitment. American Journal of Forensic Psychology, 24(2), 21-30.
Butler, B. (2006). NGRI revisited: Venirepersons' attitudes toward the insanity defense. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 36(8), 1833-1847.
Butler, B., & Moran, G. (2009). Is “more” mitigation “better?” A comparison of the additive and averaging models in capital cases. American Journal of Forensic Psychology, 27(1), 57-70.
Butler, B., & Moran, G. (2007). The impact of death qualification, belief in a just world, legal authoritarianism, and locus of control on venirepersons' evaluations of aggravating and mitigating circumstances in capital trials. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 25(1), 57-68.
Butler, B., & Moran, G. (2007). The role of death qualification and need for cognition in venirepersons' evaluations of expert scientific testimony in capital trials. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 25(4), 561-571.
Butler, B., & Moran, G. (2002). The role of death qualification in venirepersons' evaluations of aggravating and mitigating circumstances in capital trials. Law and Human Behavior, 26(2), 175-184.
Butler, B., & Wasserman, A. W. (2006). The role of death qualification in venirepersons' attitudes toward the insanity defense. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 36(7), 1744-1757.

Other Publications:

Butler, B. (2008). Racial bias and the death penalty. In B. L. Cutler's Encyclopedia of Psychology and Law. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Butler, B. (2008). Victim impact statements. In B. L. Cutler's Encyclopedia of Psychology and Law. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Butler, B. (2006). Social science and the death penalty. [Review of the book Death by design: Capital punishment as a social psychological system]. American Psychology-Law Society News, 26(3), 12-13.

Courses Taught:

Experimental Social Psychology
Introduction to Psychology
Legal Psychology
Psychology and Law
Psychology of Juries
Psychology of Women
Research Methods in Psychology
Social Justice: A Psycholegal Perspective
Social Psychology
The Death Penalty

Experimental Social Psychology
Introduction to Psychology
Legal Psychology
Psychology and Law
Psychology of Juries
Psychology of Women

Research Methods in Psychology
Social Justice: A Psycholegal Perspective
Social Psychology
The Death Penalty

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Phone: (941) 321-3190
Fax: (941) 306-4829

Brooke Butler
3775 Parkridge Circle
Sarasota, FL 34243
United States