This discipline
of psychology deals with the legal system, including
the front end operations (police work, investigation),
legal proceedings (expert witness, competency
& psychological assessment, jury selection),
and institutionalization (confinement, treatment,
parole hearings). Forensic psychologists may also
be called on to: evaluate new laws and programs,
assist in the assessment and hiring of new police
officers, etc.
A forensic psychologist is any psychologist who
offers an expert psychological opinion in a way
that it impacts one of the adversarial arenas,
typically the courts. Many people think of forensic
psychologists as focusing on criminal matters.
This is certainly not always the case. A forensic
psychologist is any psychologist who by virtue
of training or experience may assist a court or
other fact finder in arriving at a just or correct
decision. For example a forensic psychologist
may assist in a wide variety of civil matters.
Civil matters include but are not limited to lawsuits
or insurance claims where emotional suffering
is a part of the claim, determination of competency
of an aged or ill person to make decisions, whether
a death was an accident or a "disguised suicide"
in an insurance claim case, or in a wide variety
of other areas.
The different aspects and roles of forensic work
are stated below, these however are not only restricted
to this these are just a few examples of what
psychologist do.
1. Divorce and child custody mediation
2. Determination of criminal responsibility (insanity)
and competency to stand trial
3. Jury selection and case strategy
4. Expert opinion/testimony on questions of a
psychological nature
5. Assessing receptiveness and response to treatment
6. Psychological testing and evaluation
7. Assessment of dangerousness (e.g., sexual predator
laws)
8. Selection and placement of police officers,
security and military personnel
9. Explaining the effects of psychological conditions
and illness
10. Conducting critical incident debriefing, advising
on CIS management, and fitness for duty evaluations.
11. Consulting with managers to develop workplace
safety and violence debriefing procedures.
12. Designing and conducting treatment programs
for offenders and perople at risk.
13. Conducting research on treatment effectiveness.
14. Preparing profiles of various types of offender
(e.g., sexual offenders, arsonists, etc.)
15. Teach courses or provide professional development
workshops on forensic topics
Forensic Psychology is one of the most unchartered
and young fields of psychology studied today,
as well as one of the fastest growing and most
popular. Starting in the late 1800’s, psychologists
began looking into the causes of crime and delinquency
and tried to understand the motivation. As understanding
grew treatment facilities were opened and diagnosis
of behaviors began, but not without skepticism
and low supports from some more conservative psychologist
of the time. With further knowledge of the criminal
mind and behaviors forensic work seeped into the
law field and was used to convict criminals and
also to prevent crimes from happening. Forensic
studies took a hiatus during the time period from
World War I until around the 70’s when a
strong resurgence in action oriented public policy
and understanding of social behavior became of
importance to society. Presently forensic psychology
is used to sentence criminals, determines guilt
or innocence, helps determine eyewitness accuracy,
assists in the relevance of lie detector tests
as well as assisting lawyers and council in criminal
trials. Forensic Psychology has a long way to
go and has come quite a long way in a short time,
catching the attention of many people and will
be around helping us improve our communities for
years to come.
Criminal profiling involves the psychologist using
his understanding of human behavior, motivation,
and pathology so that he/she can create a psychological
profile of the offender. The profiles can be surprisingly
accurate. From observations of the crime scene
one can infer the behavioral characteristics of
the individual who created it. To a profiler everyone
is a slave to their psychological makeup. In turn,
profilers use their knowledge of whom the typical
offender is that bears these characteristics and
then predicts not only how the investigators can
expect the offender to behave in the future, but
also what their physical appearance will likely
be. While profiling may seem very exciting, few
psychologists are ever involved in this field.
There fortunately are not a lot of serial offenders
out there. Unfortunately, there are even less
places where one can obtain profiler training.
Once the suspect has been apprehended there are
more opportunities for psychological intervention.
Psychological knowledge has been applied to many
more areas of investigative police work, from
the police interrogation to the police line-up.
Both of these areas have prospered greatly from
psychological research. While those studying in
these areas do not typically work within the police
station (they will often do their research from
an academic institution) they will often act in
a consulting capacity and will perform teaching
projects with the department. One may also find
a Police Psychologist working with the officers.
While this individual may preform a number of
the above jobs, they will also be on hand to provide
counseling for officers, aid in the evaluation
of prospective applicants, and provide crisis
counseling for crime victims.
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