Dr. Vivian Rotenstein is a socio-legal psychologist whose research employs tenets of social psychology to inform processes and outcomes in the civil and criminal justice systems. Her research employs a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative and quantitative analyses, and involves both experimental work and the analysis of secondary data sets. Within social psychology and law, she has conducted extensive research on implicit and explicit forgiveness attitudes towards formerly incarcerated individuals, biases (by race, gender, etc.) within individual juror attitudes and jury deliberations within the criminal and civil systems, and voir dire for capital punishment cases. Her experimental jury work is substantiated by work as a trial consultant researcher with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Scientific Resources for the Law, during which she assisted clients with jury selection during voir dire, and conducted post-trial interviews with shadow jurors.

She received her PhD in Psychology from Cornell University, with concentrations in Law, Psychology, and Human Development, and Social and Personality Psychology. Her dissertation examined gender biases in the prosecution of sexual misconduct cases and in civil juries’ deliberation process. She received her Master’s degree in Developmental Psychology from Cornell University, and her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Southern California.