Forensic Psychology Henry Manresa Walden University
11/09/2019
Professional role and personal interest
Forensic psychology is the application of clinical specialties to legal institutions and people who come into contact with the law. It is the interaction of psychology and the law.
Psychologists in this line of work could find employment in government agencies, schools, rehabilitation centers, police departments, law firms, prisons, and jails. There is a wide range variety of responsibilities for a forensic psychologist, but most jobs relate to the criminal justice system. In a criminal case, the mental capacity of the defendant to stand trial is a significant question. A forensic psychologist is usually consulted to conduct a competency review to determine whether the defendant can consult with their lawyer, understand the proceedings, and in defense of the accused (Gudjonsson, Haward 2016). Where the accused is incompetent, the psychologist determines the cause of the incompetency, course of treatment if available, and whether they can stand trial after treatment. In a criminal case, the prosecution should prove that the accused had criminal intent, that is if they made up their mind to commit the crime. The capacity to form the intent to commit the crime may be impaired where the defendant has a mental condition. Intoxication and duress during the crime can also be reasons to not form intent.
A psychologist reviews the evidence and the defendant's history to testify whether criminal intent was there or not.
A forensic psychologist may conduct a psychological autopsy, which is evaluating the mental state of the deceased if the cause of death is unknown. It involves reviewing their medical records, family history, relationships, personal diaries, and substance abuse histories (Gudjonsson, Haward 2016). A practicing forensic psychologist may offer counseling services to
those incarcerated for violent or sexually related crimes and inmates who cause problems within prisons.
A forensic psychologist would help investigators determine police determine the motives for certain crimes, and narrow down the suspect pool. Psychology studies human behavior and why they behave the way they do. It gives a deeper understanding of a human mind thereby providing a psychologist with deeper insight into the reasoning of individuals. When a crime is committed, understanding behavior can enable the police to determine who may have committed the crime. It also helps in determining the questions that an investigator may ask in an interrogation (Pozzulo, Forth, Benell 2015). A forensic psychologist may formulate these questions from their research and studies of the human mind. Counseling just-released prisoners may also be necessary so that they can assimilate into the community to ensure they do not commit a crime again. A forensic psychologist would work in family courts to help resolve child custody disputes, investigate domestic violence cases, and assess visitation risks of a parent on a child.
The role of forensic psychologists interests me because it offers a wide range of career employment options may be in both private and public sectors. The profession would always involve helping someone, primarily through counseling, which gives job satisfaction. It is a challenging and stimulating field and may offer risk to a thrill-seeker. No two people are the same, and the human mind is fascinating. As a psychologist, you have to come up with different ways to address different people in all situations.
Qualifications, certifications, and licensure
Qualification as a forensic psychologist requires education. To have access to a wide range of career opportunities, a forensic psychologist should have a doctorate as a master's level
psychologist may find entry-level employment. A degree in psychology is the start where studies focus on learning general features of human behavior. Students intending to become forensic psychologists at this stage should also take courses in law and criminal justice. A master's degree would take up to two to three years to complete with studies including profiling, interviewing techniques, criminal psychopathology, victimology, and psychological assessment. A graduate program would require the student to some practical experience. A student would then further and get a Ph.D. or a Psy.D in clinical psychology. Post-doctoral studies would then focus on forensic psychology providing the training required to work in the field (Bartol, Bartol 2017).
A forensic psychologist who wants to evaluate individuals on behalf of the court, or serve as an expert witness regarding a defendant's competency, would require obtaining a license. Each state oversees its licensing requirements. Most states would require an applicant to take the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology offered by the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards. Applicants are subjected to background checks, fingerprinting, and review of professional credentials. Most states require some form of continuing education in the field for a forensic psychologist to maintain licensure (Bartol, Bartol 2017). Board certification may not be legally required for a forensic psychologist but helps in growing a career in the area. The American Board of Forensic Psychology does certification. To qualify, applicants must have a doctoral degree, at least one hundred hours of specialized training in forensic psychology, and one thousand hours of direct experience in forensic psychology over a minimum of five years or full-time at least two thousand hours formal post-doctoral training in forensic psychology.
Forensic psychologist skills
A forensic psychologist requires various skills to be able to perform their duties. As a therapist, a forensic psychologist should have active listening giving full attention to what other people are saying, asking appropriate questions at appropriate times, and not interrupting inappropriately. In numerous cases, police officers experience traumatic events and may require a therapist who would listen to their account of the facts and take time to understand the implications the incident may have had on them emotionally and psychologically (Pozzulo, Forth, Benell 2015). A forensic psychologist should be able to communicate effectively. Their job involves engaging their clients to diagnose the problem and help them manage their stress.
While conducting a therapy session with a police officer, a psychologist should converse with them to get all the necessary information and articulate what the officer needs to do.
The most frequent duty of a forensic psychologist is a psychological assessment of individuals involved with the law. It is therefore imperative for a psychologist to possess clinical skills such as clinical assessment, strong verbal communication skills, case presentation, interviewing and writing skills. The practice of forensic psychology involves research studies, consultation, being an expert witness in a courtroom, and design and implementation of treatment programs.
Judgment and decision making is essential for a forensic psychologist. They should consider the costs and benefits of different actions and determine the best course to take. As a therapist to police officers, a psychologist may have to determine whether an officer should go back to the field or not after experiencing a particular trauma (Pozzulo, Forth, Benell 2015). A police officer should be able to make quick decisions in the field that may, in severe cases, lead to loss of lives and as such, should be in a mental state which will not affect the decision.
Trauma may cause them to act either too fast, too slow, or not act at all, which may escalate the situation.
A therapist teaches their clients life coping skills after the occurrence of an incident. They should be able to show the client what they need to do and how to do it daily. Police officers encounter different situations daily, and reactions to these situations may determine the result. A psychologist should teach the police how to calmly handle these matters to not escalate. A forensic psychologist should possess effective negotiation skills. A police station consists of many officers who may have differing opinions from time to time. For them to be effective in their work, they need to work as a team. A therapist should put this into consideration and find an effective way of promoting unity in the police force.
Communication and interaction internally and externally
Policing may require experts in areas of behavioral and cognitive assessments. Forensic psychologists assist the police professional in their administrative roles and operational functions (Brewer, Williams 2017). They draw from psychological research on police psychology to help make police operations more effective. Administrative roles include staffing, interviewing, evaluate and training police officers, evaluating job tasks and duties, and carry out a fitness-for- duty assessment. A psychologist would carry out a psychological evaluation of police applicants to determine which applicants possess the required qualities necessary for successful job performance and screen out the applicants with undesirable characteristics. Assessments involve administering a battery of psychological tests, conducting one on one interview, and making a selection recommendation.
Psychological tests include intelligence tests which have been linked with success in training and on the job. Situational tests where applicants engage in a role-playing representative
of position related working conditions. Projective tests where applicants are asked to respond to unstructured stimuli (Brewer, Williams 2017). Personality tests that are used to measure trait stability of the applicants useful in predicting an applicant may say or do. Personal interviews supplement these psychological tests where a psychologist would use structured questions, and based on the responses received, ask more probing questions. A police agency may also provide the psychologist with a list of questions to which they may want answers. An interview validates the results from the psychological test data.
The police safeguard community well-being, maintain order, enforce laws, and keep the peace work that may prove to be dangerous and put the police officer at risk. Education and training are essential due to the nature of this work. Psychologist's critical focus in regards to police work includes managing job-related stress, how to handle people with mental illness, and negotiating hostage and barricaded-suspects.
Police stress is a reaction caused by unfavorable physical, psychological and social forces. It may stem from police work, personal life, the public or the criminal justice system. A forensic psychologist educates officers to manage job-related tasks that can be stressful. Stress recognition and learning skills to manage the potential stress that may arise as part of the training a psychologist gives the police (Ma, Andrew et.al 2015). Training on how to handle people with mental illness is also important for the police. It is important to note that some mental illnesses are associated with criminal behavior because they present in antisocial behavior and violent tendencies. It is crucial to put in place policies that will protect people with mental illness and standardize the nature of how the police respond to them.
A forensic psychologist is responsible for monitoring the psychological fitness of police officers. They perform psychological evaluations on officers who have exhibited a pattern of
problematic on-the-job behaviors. You should document police misconduct, which may take the form of drug abuse, criminal behavior, abuse of authority, and use of excessive force.
Information collected on problematic behavior. The documentation should include performance evaluation, disciplinary actions, counseling reports, and pre-employment psychological reports to support the fitness-for-duty evaluation (Crighton, Towl 2015).
The police come across different situations while carrying out their duties to the public.
Forensic psychologists may assist with some of these situations drawing knowledge from previously available research into police psychology. Police facing high threat conditions such as hostage and barricaded-hostage situations would formerly choose an assault option by use of specialized teams (Crighton, Towl 2015). Overtime, verbal tactics to diffuse such situations have been developed as opposed to using force. These tactics focus on de-escalating the situation by talking to the suspect to surrender on their own. A psychologist may act as an expert negotiator in that situation or train police on the requirements of a negotiator.
Psychologists can offer police knowledge in conducting criminal investigations. They have conducted studies on police procedures and tactics and have come up with techniques that, when utilized, would produce better results. For example, in eye-witness identification, an officer shows the witness photographs sequentially instead of all at the same time. It reduces the chance of misidentification caused by the witness trying to compare the pictures trying to determine who looks the most like the suspect (Crighton, Towl 2015).
A forensic psychologist may also give insight into police interrogations. An interrogation is a highly stressful environment, and in such a situation, a person may become highly suggestible, which might lead to false confessions. Psychologists encourage police officers to
avoid interrogations which last over long hours to prevent such false confessions (Crighton, Towl 2015).
Criminal profiling is a set of investigative techniques used in identifying the characteristics of individuals most likely to have committed a crime. A profiler will use behavioral techniques to investigate a crime. A forensic psychologist helps in building a profile by investigating the victim's history, considers the motivating factors for the crime, links the crime with other criminal behavior and finally develops a hypothesis that will help focus the investigation on particular types of suspects (Crighton, Towl 2015).
Ethical and legal implications
Like any other profession, forensic psychologists should abide by ethics, and issues may arise. Psychologists are prohibited from work on a contingency basis and should give their expert opinion regarding a situation as is. They may have concerns that their services may go unused if they do not perform as the hiring attorney or client wants (Dickie, 2007). Confidentiality and privilege are in high regard in forensic psychology. Divulgence of a psychologist's work is only under specific particular circumstances. One may fail to understand the issues associated with the communication of this information.
An ethical issue a forensic psychologist may encounter is multiple relationships. For example, if a psychologist is counseling an officer and the supervisor asks for a fitness-for-duty evaluation because there was a noticeable decline in performance by the officer. The psychologist's familiarity with the officer's intimate family details may be biased and ensure the officer keeps the job should refer the officer to a colleague.
There are different levels of the burden of proof in forensic psychology and within the legal system. Failure to understand this raises an ethical issue. A forensic psychologist should be objective (Dickie, 2007). Entering into many relationships, such as an expert witness, consultant, and therapist may affect this objectivity. Advocating for a client or an agenda also affects objectivity. For a forensic psychologist to arrive at a conclusion and give an expert opinion, they should utilize all available resources of information and keep meticulous notes.
An article on Letters of Protection: Ethical and Legal Financial Considerations for Forensic Psychologists explains the potential for violation of ethics such as conflict of interest and loss of objectivity. It also provides the terms and conditions for an ethically and legally appropriate written fee agreement (Woody, 2011).
Inherent psychological risks
A forensic psychologist working directly with the police is open to risks. The work conducted relates potentially to criminals whose behavior is unpredictable. Emotional trauma from a violent police officer or criminal may be substantial (Burke, 2016). During a therapy session, a patient may become violent, and even though in most cases, physical injury caused is minimal emotional scars may run deep. The psychologist may schedule a therapy session to tackle the trauma that the violence caused. A psychologist listens to other people's emotional problems regularly and represses their own emotions to help their clients solve their problems. It may lead to emotional strain, causing them to be vulnerable to distress, burnout, and impairment, which compromises their ability to perform their job effectively. Emotional repression is unhealthy for everyone, even a psychologist, regardless of possessing skills to help others in dealing with stress. The psychologist needs to find the best way to relieve their emotions, such as having a psychologist.
Psychology is generally an isolating profession, which can be a significant stressor. A forensic psychologist working in a police station may prove to be in isolation due to a lack of opportunities to work with colleagues. The confidentiality requirements of a psychologist's job prohibit them from discussing aspects of their work. To avoid isolation, a psychologist should find other psychologists with who they can talk as equal colleagues. Sharing with a person who understands the experiences of a job is relieving on the mind (Burke, 2016).
Police officers are likely to suffer from stress due to the nature of their work. Police are prone to burnout chronic work stress, which makes it hard for people to perform their duties and maintain relationships. The cause is exposure to repetitive stressful events such as lack of control in personal life, isolation from family and friends from an exhaustive work schedule, unsatisfying assignments, being passed over for promotion, and extremes of activities ranging from boredom to chaos (Ma, Andrew et.al 2015). A rotating work schedule can be created to set to allow the officers to spend time with family and friends and rest. Recognize work performed on merit to ensure that everyone has equal opportunities to grow.
An article on Understanding Police Stress Research examines the different types of stressors and their effect on the police compartmentalizing them into personality-related stressors, occupational-related stressors, organizational-related stressors, and the health consequences of police stress (Abdollahi, 2001).
An accused person may give a false confession in an interrogation due to influence from the police officers. Lengthy interrogation may distort the thinking of an individual. An interrogation that lasts over several hours may cause the suspect to become fatigued and suggestible such that they may start to believe whatever they are told. A forensic psychologist
may address this challenge by encouraging the police to take breaks while conducting the interrogation.
Challenges
A forensic psychologist working with the police could face challenges that may not be faced by other psychologists because they work near criminals, some who have hardened over time. They may get verbally or physically abused when treating aggressive individuals. The accused may take offense in cases where the psychologist recommends that the police should prosecute. A psychologist may choose to take some defense lessons to ensure they can fight off a physical assault.
The police officers may see themselves as secure and view therapy as a sign of weakness, therefore, refusing to participate in it. A psychologist's job involves helping individuals cope with stressful situations which police officer face all the time given the nature of their work. The concept that having a therapy session is a weakness is wrong because not everyone has the tools to deal with emotional traumas. To mitigate this challenge, a psychologist may set up a training session with the officers to educate them on the positive aspects of therapy.
A psychologist will set up techniques that will aid in police investigations. There may be a risk that the officers may negatively apply the methods that may be due to a lack of understanding or their benefit. The psychologist may feel accountable where these techniques lead to wrongful convictions. To address this, education and training of officers is crucial so that they know how to apply these techniques properly.
Police officers are under constant pressure to close cases by the public, local authority, or in some cases, by the nation. As a consultant, a psychologist may rush to judgment in determining the mental capacity and competence of the accused, giving them unfair representation. Psychologists should take the time to evaluate an individual reviewing all pertinent factors and choose to ignore outside pressures.
Police work is dangerous; therefore, police officers have learned to rely on one another for support. They work together in tandem to create and nurture a culture built on solidarity, control, isolation, and authority. It causes there to be mistrust and a lack of respect for psychologists. A psychologist should be able to recognize this police culture but should make the best attempt to accommodate it. To be able to address this challenge, a psychologist should be ready to acknowledge and appreciate the existing culture of the police force (Bartol, Bartol 2012).
In conclusion, a forensic psychologist is actively involved in staffing, training, and evaluating police performance. They come up with tests and questions to determine the fitness of an officer to perform their duties. These tests need to be exhaustive to cover all aspects of behavior to determine whether an individual is fit for duty. It may be a challenge in that a lot of work goes into ensuring that you make the right decision. There is a wide range of opportunities for applications for forensic psychology, especially in the criminal justice system. A forensic psychologist plays a significant role in determining the prosecution of an offender, especially regarding whether they had the competence and capacity to commit a crime a psychologist may prove to be an advocate in a court.
The work of a psychologist within prisons and jails to improve their behavior so that they can be productive members of society makes them essential contributors to the community. It
requires bravery for an individual to choose to work within a prison, especially given the danger it may involve. To become an established forensic psychologist requires time, dedication, and passion. The education relevant may take up to ten years from a degree, master's degree, and doctorate. There are also state requirements to practice as forensic as a psychologist, which is certification and licensure, which require examination. To keep practicing, an individual should keep studying in the area of psychology, even after receiving a license.
Psychologists require specific skills to help them perform their duties effectively. They should be able to utilize these skills and give their clients some coping skills to deal with their issues. The police may rely heavily on psychologists for their internal and external duties. With the help of psychologists, police work is more efficient. A forensic psychologist, like any other individual, is prone to emotional trauma arising from their job and may require help to deal with them. Forensic psychology, especially in a policing environment, could offer up challenges but with policies in place a psychologist and be able to handle them.
References
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