Forensic Science: Psychology

The term forensic refers generally to anything pertaining to the law or the courts of justice and encompasses both criminal and civil law. Consequently, forensic science is the scientific study of issues, incidents, and evidence in relation to legal principles and cases. Examples of forensic science include forensic engineering, forensic linguistics (language), forensic medicine, forensic pathology, forensic psychiatry, and forensic psychology. Forensic laboratories are usually maintained or sponsored by governmental agencies specifically to examine physical evidence in criminal and civil matters and are expected to provide testimony on the physical evidence in a court of law. These laboratories may be asked to examine latent fingerprints, firearms and ballistics, explosives and fire debris, toxic material, and other pertinent evidence found at or near the crime scene and may then be expected to provide expert testimony to the court.

Psychology is the science of behavior and mental processes. Forensic psychology refers broadly to the production and application of psychological knowledge to the civil and criminal justice systems. It includes areas such as police psychology, the psychology of crime and delinquency (criminal psychology), [Page 184]correctional psychology (including institutional and community corrections), psychology and law, risk assessment for the schools, custody determinations, victim services, and the delivery and evaluation of intervention and treatment programs for juvenile and adult offenders. Forensic psychology is a rapidly emerging field of both academic study and professional application.

Forensic psychology can be divided into four major categories: legal psychology, correctional psychology, police psychology, and criminal psychology. Police psychology and correctional psychology are the major applied branches of forensic psychology, whereas criminal psychology and psychology and law are the major research arms. There is, however, considerable overlap among the four areas in both research and application.

The growth in the field is demonstrated by the recent development of several graduate programs in forensic psychology (both at the master's and doctoral level) throughout the world, particularly in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. All the graduate programs specialize or focus on one of the four major areas. Most of the graduate programs in the United States concentrate either on clinical psychology as it relates to corrections or social psychology as it relates to legal psychology. Some universities offer a combined J.D. and Ph.D. as part of the academic package, although partly due to the academic rigor involved, the “package” has become less popular to students in recent years. Programs in police psychology are exceedingly rare in the United States and Canada, although in the United Kingdom, there are several programs called “investigative psychology.” Canada leads the world in research in correctional psychology, and the curricula in Canadian forensic programs reflect this empirical attention. Students graduating from the any of the worldwide graduate programs are expected to be able to analyze, organize, apply, and transmit existing knowledge in the field of forensic psychology, broadly defined. Examples of some of the things that a forensic psychologist (depending on their specialty) may be asked to do include the following:

• Evaluate the effectiveness of preschool intervention strategies designed to prevent violent behavior during adolescence
• Assist police departments in determining optimal shift schedules for their employees
• Establish reliable and valid screening procedures for correctional officer positions at correctional facilities or for law enforcement officer positions at various police and sheriff departments
• Assist attorneys in jury selection through community surveys and other research methods
• Evaluate the effectiveness of a variety of existing programs for juvenile and adult offenders, such as victim-offender reconciliation programs, teen courts, or health education programs
• Consult with attorneys and the courts concerning custody decisions, conflict resolution, and the validity of assessment procedures used in the evaluation of various psychological conditions
• Consult with legislators and governmental agencies as research policy advisers
• Develop a psychological profile for a local police department of a serial burglar frequently victimizing a neighborhood