UTEP/El Paso Area

        For those of you who may not be familiar, El Paso TX is located in far west Texas on the border with New Mexico and Chihuahua, Mexico.  El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, MX combine to form the largest border cities in the world with a combined population of approximately 2.2 million.  Approximately 77% of the population in El Paso are of Hispanic origin and this bi-cultural environment provides us with unique research opportunities.  As more and more Hispanic immigrants enter the United States our knowledge of the influence of these cultures in our legal system must increase as well.  UTEP provides a unique opportunity for us as psychologists to begin studying these issues.  The Center for Law and Human Behavior, for example, has conducted one of the largest jury studies to examine the impact of testifying in English or Spanish (see the Jury Project website for more details).  Furthermore, we've been able to extend our knowledge of the "own-race" bias through investigating the phenomenon in a predominantly Hispanic community compared to the vast majority of research that has been conducted in predominantly Anglo or African-American communities. 

    If you are interested, Dr. Meissner has provided some wonderful pictures of the UTEP campus and El Paso area on his website.  Click here to see what the high desert of the Southwestern US has to offer.