Forensic Psychology

1. Forensic Psychology

2. Origin of the term • Forensic – from the Latin word “forum” – public gathering places in the Roman city-states where much of the judicial process took place in the form of debates – thus, forensic psychology deals with the intersection of psychology and the legal process

3. Definition • The professional practice by psychologists within the areas of clinical psychology, counseling psychology, neuropsychology, and school psychology, when they are engaged regularly as experts and represent themselves as such, in an activity primarily intended to provide professional psychological expertise to the judicial system.

4. Critical Judgments That Mental-Health Professionals Are Asked to Make About People Accused of Crimes • Whether they are competent to stand trial • Whether they were sane at the time the crimes were committed.

5. Clinical psychologists specializing in forensic psychology work with individuals who may present with a variety of mental illnesses and mental health issues within the context of the criminal or civil arenas of the law. • Criminal: situations in which an individual has committed a crime against society • Examples: insanity pleas, competency to stand trial, assessment of future violence potential, treatment of sex offenders • Civil: a plaintiff believes someone else has physically or emotionally injured them • Examples: personal injury suits, civil commitment proceedings, child custody disputes, workers compensation cases

6. Competency to Stand Trial • People who do not have an understanding of what is happening to them in a courtroom and who cannot participate in their own defense are said to be incompetent to stand trial. • Defense attorneys suspect impaired competence in their clients in up to 10 percent of cases. • Psychologists have developed tests of cognitive abilities important to following legal proceedings, and people who perform poorly on these tests.

7. Insanity Defense • Insanity is actually a legal term rather than a psychological or medical term, and it has been defined in various ways. • All definitions of insanity reflect the fundamental doctrine that people cannot be held fully responsible for their acts if they were so mentally incapacitated at the time of the acts that they could not conform to the rules of society.

8. Insanity Defense, continued • While the lay public often thinks of the insanity defense as a means by which guilty people “get off,” the insanity defense is used much less often than the public tends to think. • Fewer than 1 in 100 defendants in felony cases file insanity pleas, and of these only 26% result in acquittal.

9. Comparison of Public Perceptions of the Insanity Defense Percentage

10. Insanity Defense Rules

11. Insanity Defense Rules

12. Civil Commitment • Before 1969, in the U.S., the need for treatment was sufficient cause to hospitalize people against their will. Such involuntary hospitalization is called civil commitment. • Since 1969, the need for treatment alone is no longer sufficient legal cause for civil commitment in most states.

13. Criteria for Involuntary Commitment • Grave Disability • Dangerousness to Self • Dangerousness to others • *In many states the danger posed must be imminent.

14. Involuntary Commitment and Civil Rights • People who have been committed to a mental institution often feel that they have given up all their civil rights. • But numerous court cases over the years have established that these people retain most of the civil rights, and have certain additional rights due to their committed status. • Right to Treatment • Right to Refuse Treatment

15. Child Custody Disputes • Ninety percent of the time, parents who are divorcing can agree on the custody arrangements for their children without taking disputes to court. • If parents cannot agree, however, the court must help determine how much authority each parent will have in decisions for the children and how much contact each parent will have with the children. • The law requires that custody decisions be made “in the best interests of the child.”

16. Child Maltreatment Cases • Psychologists and other mental-health professionals are now involved in every phase of child maltreatment cases. • The psychologist may conduct interviews and also testify in court.

17. Training in Forensic Psychology • Few Ph.D. or Psy.D. programs offer specialty training in clinical-forensic psychology. • Most clinical-forensic psychologists are graduates of general clinical psychology programs who developed their specialty later in their training, either on internship, by way of completing a forensic fellowship, or by independent and continuing education study.

18. Students interested in becoming clinical-forensic psychologists should consider a clinical Ph.D. or Psy.D. program which offers a forensic specialization or enter a clinical doctoral program which houses a faculty member whose research and clinical interests are in the clinical-forensic area. Additional and more specialized training will occur at the internship and fellowship levels.

19. A Note About Criminal Profiling • Due to depictions in popular media (e.g., Silence of the Lambs, Profiler, CSI), many students express an interest in and ask questions about criminal profiling, which may be described as a criminal investigative technique based, in part, on psychological expertise and knowledge. In reality, few law enforcement agencies employ such techniques and there is little call for such professionals. Those interested in such work would probably do better to consider a career in law enforcement than clinical-forensic psychology.

20. The Behavioral Sciences Unit of the FBI, does employ a few FBI agents who engage in this activity. The FBI makes a distinction between mental health and law enforcement: FBI agents are law enforcement professionals, not mental health professionals. In order to work as a profiler, or with the FBI in any other role, it is necessary to become an FBI agent.