2018 Distinguished Service to SPSSI Award Recipient

Rich Wiener received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Houston. He studied law at the University of Nebraska/Lincoln (UNL) College of Law where he earned a Master’s Degree in Legal Studies.   He is currently the Charles Bessey Professor of Psychology and Law at UNL and for 13 years he served at the director of the Law and Psychology Program.  Dr. Wiener is the past editor of Law and Human Behavior, the official journal of the American Psychology/Law Society (Division 41 of the American Psychological Association) and he currently serves as the Secretary/Treasurer for the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. 

Rich has also served SPSSI as a council member, chair of the Court Watch committee and as a member of other committees including the membership and fellows committees. He has served as a research consultant for the National Center for Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the Nebraska Judiciary, the Nebraska Office of Probation Administration, the Nebraska Crime Commission, and for the Nebraska Parole Board. Wiener studies the application of social and cognitive psychology to problems of legal decision-making. He currently conducts and supervises applied research in the areas of legal decision making, policy and social science, discrimination, and program evaluation. He is the recipient of multiple funding awards from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Justice. Dr. Wiener has published numerous peer reviewed journal articles, edited volumes, book chapters and law review articles.  Professor Wiener teaches courses at the graduate level and in the Law College at UNL.