Overview

Rebecca is an Associate Professor of Law, and a UK Research and Innovation Fellow. She has a PhD in Law and Developmental Psychology and a Masters in Developmental Psychology from Cornell University, a Masters in Law from Cornell University Law School, and a BA in Jurisprudence from the University of Oxford. She is a qualified solicitor in England and Wales and Attorney in New York state, USA. 

She completed her practical legal training at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP in London, and also practiced law as a supervising attorney for the Cornell law school clinical programs.  She is part of a steering group at the University of Exeter co-ordinating the Immigration Clinic, a non-profit advice service for those in need of immigration advice. She aims to use her own research and the research of others to promote an evidence-based approach to adjudication, and to enhance access to justice. 

Rebecca conducts research using quantitative methodology and behavioral biology to examine and evaluate the operation of legal regulation in practice, and the extent to which legal regulation reflects modern scientific understanding. This has included examining the failure of legal regulation to address psychological and social pressures that can lead innocent defendants to admit guilt, the relationship between the regulation of compensated and uncompensated surrogacy and human rights, and the appropriate treatment of witness testimony in adjudication. She is also interested in the assessment of damages in cases of intangible injury, particularly as a result of neurological trauma, and is conducting work in this area with collaborators from Cornell University.

Her work has been published in both law and social science journals and books, including leading interdisciplinary peer-review journals such as Law and Human Behavior, and Psychology, Public Policy, and the Law. Her co-authored reports on surrogacy have been considered by legislatures in both New York, USA and Delhi, India.  Her work has been funded by UK Research and Innovation, the Economic and Social Research Council, and the American Psychology and Law Society.

2022-2023 Publications: 

Zottoli, T.*, Helm, R. K.*, Edkins, V, and Bixter, M. (Accepted). Developing a Model of Guilty Plea Decision-Making: Fuzzy-Trace Theory, Gist, and Categorical Boundaries. Law and Human Behavior. 

*joint first author. 

Wilson-Kovacs, D., Helm, R. K., Growns, B., and Redfern, L. (Accepted). Digital Evidence in Defence Practice: Prevalence, Challenges, and Expertise. International Journal of Evidence and Proof.

Helm, R. K. (2023). Plea-based Sentence Reductions: Legal Assumptions and Empirical Realities. In J. Roberts and J. Ryberg (Eds.), Sentencing the Self-Convicted: The Ethics of Pleading Guilty. Hart Bloomsbury.

Helm, R. K. (2023). Adaptive Lie Detection and Perceived Prevalence of False Reports in Evaluation of Sexual Offence Allegations. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition.

Helm, R. K., and Growns, B. (2023). Predicting and Projecting Memory: Error and Bias in Metacognitive Judgments Underlying Testimony Evaluation. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 28(1) 15-33.

Growns, B., Dunn, J. D., Helm, R. K., Towler, A. and Kukucka, J. (2022). The Low Prevalence Effect in Fingerprint Comparison Amongst Forensic Science Trainees and Novices. PLOS ONE, 17(8) e0272338. 

Helm, R. K. & Growns, B. (2022). Prevalence Estimates as Priors: Juror Characteristics, Perceived Base Rates, and Verdicts in Cases Reliant on Complainant and Defendant Testimony. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 36(4), 891-904.

Helm, R. K. & Millar, M. (2022). Jury Decision-Making in the Criminal Trial. In E. Johnston (Ed.), Challenges in Criminal Justice. Routledge.

Hans, V. P., Reed, K., Reyna, V. F., Garavito, D. & Helm, R. K. (2022). Guiding Jurors' Damage Award Decisions: Experimental Investigations of Approaches Based on Theory and Practice. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 28(2), 188-212.

Helm, R. K., Dehaghani, R., & Newman, D. (2022). Guilty Plea Decisions: Moving Beyond the Autonomy Myth. Modern Law Review, 85(1), 133. 

Helm, R. K. (2022). Cognition and Incentives in Plea Decisions: Categorical Differences in Outcomes as the Tipping Point for Innocent Defendants. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 28(3), 344-355. 

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Supervision

Dr. Helm welcomes approaches from prospective doctoral students in any of her research areas and is happy to discuss research proposals.

She currently supervises three PhD students: David Teague, Suzi Rockey, and Maddy Millar. For more information on her research group, see here: https://evidencebasedjustice.exeter.ac.uk/our-team/

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Publications

_{Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.}

| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 |

2023

• Growns B, Gough M, Helm RK. (2023) Generalisability and stability of visual comparison ability, Applied Cognitive Psychology, volume 37, no. 6, pages 1341-1351, DOI:10.1002/acp.4127.
• Helm R, Reyna V. (2023) Fuzzy Trace Theory: Memory and Decision-Making in Law, Medicine, and Public Health, Memory in Science for Society: There is nothing as practical as a good theory, Oxford University Press.
• Helm R. (2023) Plea-based Sentence Reductions: Legal Assumptions and Empirical Realities, Sentencing the Self-Convicted: The Ethics of Pleading Guilty.
• Helm R. (2023) Plea-based Sentence Reductions: Legal Assumptions and Empirical Realities, Sentencing the Self-Convicted: The Ethics of Pleading Guilty, Hart Bloomsbury.
• Wilson-Kovacs D, Helm R, Growns B. (2023) Dataset for Digital Evidence in Defence Practice: Prevalence, Challenges, and Expertise.
• Wilson-Kovacs D, Helm R, Growns B, Redfern L. (2023) Digital Evidence in Defence Practice: Prevalence, Challenges, and Expertise, The International Journal of Evidence & Proof, volume 27(3), no. 3, DOI:10.1177/13657127231171620. [PDF]

2022

• Growns B, Dunn JD, Helm RK, Towler A, Kukucka J. (2022) The low prevalence effect in fingerprint comparison amongst forensic science trainees and novices, PLoS One, volume 17, no. 8, DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0272338. [PDF]
• Helm R, Millar M. (2022) Jury decision making in the criminal trial.
• Helm RK, Growns B. (2022) Prevalence estimates as priors: Juror characteristics, perceived base rates, and verdicts in cases reliant on complainant and defendant testimony, Applied Cognitive Psychology, volume 36, no. 4, pages 891-904, DOI:10.1002/acp.3978. [PDF]
• Hans VP, Reed K, Reyna VF, Garavito D, Helm RK. (2022) Guiding Jurors' Damage Award Decisions: Experimental Investigations of Approaches Based on Theory and Practice, PSYCHOLOGY PUBLIC POLICY AND LAW, volume 28, no. 2, pages 188-212, DOI:10.1037/law0000342. [PDF]

2021

• Helm R. (2021) Cognition and incentives in plea decisions: Categorical differences in outcomes as the tipping point for innocent defendants, Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, DOI:10.1037/law0000321.
• Helm R, Nasu H. (2021) Regulatory Responses to 'Fake News' and Freedom of Expression: Normative and Empirical Evaluation, Human Rights Law Review, DOI:10.1093/hrlr/ngaa060.

2019

• Hans VP, Helm RK. (2019) Procedural Roles, The Oxford Handbook of Criminal Process, Oxford University Press (OUP), 208-228, DOI:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190659837.013.12.
• Hans VP, Helm RK. (2019) Procedural roles: Professional judges, lay judges, and lay jurors, The Oxford Handbook of Criminal Process, 209-228, DOI:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190659837.013.12.
• Helm RK. (2019) Constrained Waiver of Trial Rights? Incentives to Plead Guilty and the Right to a Fair Trial, Journal of Law and Society, volume 46, no. 3, pages 423-447, DOI:10.1111/jols.12169.

2018

• Koen WJ, Helm RK, Royer CE, Ceci SJ. (2018) Chapter 3 Child Interrogations and Testimony, The Psychology and Sociology of Wrongful Convictions, Elsevier, 83-116, DOI:10.1016/b978-0-12-802655-7.00003-4.
• Koen WJ, Helm RK, Royer CE, Ceci SJ. (2018) Child interrogations and testimony, The Psychology and Sociology of Wrongful Convictions: Forensic Science Reform, 83-116, DOI:10.1016/B978-0-12-802655-7.00003-4.
• Helm RK, Reyna VF. (2018) Cognitive, developmental, and neurobiological aspects of risk judgments, Psychological Perspectives on Risk and Risk Analysis: Theory, Models, and Applications, 83-108, DOI:10.1007/978-3-319-92478-6_4.
• Helm RK. (2018) Cognitive Theory and Plea-Bargaining, Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, volume 5, no. 2, pages 195-201, DOI:10.1177/2372732218786974.
• Reyna VF, Helm RK, Weldon RB, Shah PD, Turpin AG, Govindgari S. (2018) Brain activation covaries with reported criminal behaviors when making risky choices: A fuzzy-trace theory approach, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, volume 147, no. 7, pages 1094-1109, DOI:10.1037/xge0000434.
• Helm RK, McCormick M, Reyna VF. (2018) EXPERT DECISION MAKING A fuzzy-trace theory perspective, International Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning.
• Helm RK, Reyna VF, Franz AA, Novick RZ, Dincin S, Cort AE. (2018) Limitations on the Ability to Negotiate Justice: Attorney Perspectives on Guilt, Innocence, and Legal Advice in the Current Plea System, Psychol Crime Law, volume 24, no. 9, pages 915-934, DOI:10.1080/1068316X.2018.1457672. [PDF]
• Hans VP, Helm RK, Reyna VF. (2018) From meaning to money: Translating injury into dollars, Law and Human Behavior, volume 42, no. 2, pages 95-109, DOI:10.1037/lhb0000282.

2017

• Helm RK, Reyna VF, Franz AA, Novick RZ. (2017) Too Young to Plead? Risk, Rationality, and Plea Bargaining’s Innocence Problem in Adolescents, Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, volume 24, no. 2, pages 180-191, DOI:10.1037/law0000156.
• Helm RK, Hans VP, Reyna VF. (2017) Trial by Numbers, Cornell journal of law and public policy, volume 27, pages 107-107.
• Helm RK, Ceci SJ, Burd KA. (2017) Can Implicit Associations Distinguish True and False Eyewitness Memory? Development and Preliminary Testing of the IATe, Behavioral Sciences & the Law, volume 34, no. 6, pages 803-819, DOI:10.1002/bsl.2272.
• Helm RK, Reyna VF. (2017) Logical but Incompetent Plea Decisions: A New Approach to Plea Bargaining Grounded in Cognitive Theory, Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, DOI:10.1037/law0000125.

2016

• Helm RK, Ceci SJ, Burd KA. (2016) Unpacking insanity defence standards: An experimental study of rationality and control tests in criminal law, The European Journal of Psychology Applied to Legal Context, volume 8, no. 2, pages 63-68, DOI:10.1016/j.ejpal.2016.02.004.
• Helm RK, Wistrich AJ, Rachlinski JJ. (2016) Are Arbitrators Human?, Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, volume 13, no. 4, pages 666-692, DOI:10.1111/jels.12129.

2015

• Hritz AC, Royer CE, Helm RK, Burd KA, Ojeda K, Ceci SJ. (2015) Children's suggestibility research: Things to know before interviewing a child, Anuario de Psicología Jurídica, volume 25, no. 1, pages 3-12, DOI:10.1016/j.apj.2014.09.002.

2014

• Blume JH, Helm RK. (2014) The Unexonerated: Factually innocent defendants who plead guilty, Cornell Law Review, volume 100(1), pages 157-191.

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