Few Aspects of Forensic Psychology:

 

Forensic psychology involves an overlapping relationship between clinical practice experimental research and the law. One simple source of anxiety between psychology and regulation is that psychology is descriptive and law is prescriptive. A psychologist may be called to testify developmental psychologist might testify that cognitive ability and moral reasoning.

What is forensic psychology?

 Many scholars have actually found it useful to think of psychology and law as fundamentally different cultures one basic source of tension between psychology and law is that psychology is descriptive and law is prescriptive? That is psychology tells us how people actually behave and the law tells us how people ought to behave the primary goal of Psychological Science is to provide a full and accurate explanation of human behavior the primary goal of the law is to regulate human behavior and if someone behaves in a way that the law forbids the law provides for punishment but put somewhat idealistic. Psychological science is mainly interested in finding truth and the legal system is mainly interested in rendering justice although neither absolute truth nor perfect justice is fully attainable. scientists must strive for an approximation of truth and courts must strive for an approximation of justice in his classic study of cultural differences.

 Gert Hofstede found that cultures could be usefully differentiated on the dimension of quote/unquote uncertainty avoidance cultures high on this dimension developed elaborate rules and rituals. In an effort to promote clarity and stability legal culture ranks high on uncertainty avoidance because people expect the courts to resolve disputes the legal system must assimilate the ambiguities of a case and render a final unanimous sorry unambiguous decision putting it into a dispute requires a clear binding ruling people are found guilty or set free companies are forced to pay damages child custody is decided and criminals are sent to prison while it is true that an investigation or a courtroom trial can be characterized as a search for the truth that search is conducted in service of a judgment guilty or not guilty liable or not liable and if a defendant is found culpable the judgment becomes one of the consequences how much money should the defendant pay in damages.

What kind of probation should be imposed?

It is crucial that disputes are resolved in a way that appears fair and promotes social stability although citizens may disagree with many specific decisions of the courts they must have faith in the overall fairness of the system in contrast uncertainty is intrinsic to the scientific process. No single research study is ever conclusive and no finding is truly definitive over time uncertainty is reduced, but all conclusions can be revised or reversed by contrary data.

  The scientific process emphasizes the use of testable hypotheses valid and reliable measures statistical standards for accepting and conclusion and replications of findings over time the ultimate truth of a particular explanation of human behavior, maybe unknowable over time. The multiple investigations theories are revised and psychologists are able to construct increasingly useful explanations of human behavior judgments made by scientists are not dichotomous, like guilty or not guilty they are probabilistic that is scientific conclusions are stated in terms of probabilities, indeed the tendency for scientists to talk in terms of likelihoods and to couch their conclusions and caveats and qualifiers is something in the courts and also the general public find frustrating.

The clinicians examine and draw conclusions about a particular person like lawyers they are oriented toward the individual case the law is based on. Authority psychology is based on empiricism whereas law advances through the accumulation of rulings produced by courts psychology advances through the accumulation of data produced by scientists because cultures differ in the amount of deference and obedience given to people in positions of authority this dimension is sometimes called power distance is often used to differentiate cultures. 

The legal system is explicitly hierarchical i.e. It would rank high on power distance if a Court of Appeals overruled the decision of a lower court the lower court must accept the ruling higher courts simply have more authority. If the Supreme Court issue a ruling the matter is settled at least until the High Court agrees to take up the issue again this shows the hierarchical structure of the US Court system in comparison to psychology is much more egalitarian although there are power relationships within scientific communities. 

The structure is far more democratic for any researcher even with a low status. Current facts in the context of past rulings must link the present to the past when lawyers argue in front of judges they cite precedents which are past decisions on legal issues. In cases that are as similar as possible to the current case, the persuasiveness of a legal argument rests to a substantial extent on whether the argument can be tied to existing precedents in making their rulings judges are strongly constrained by the doctrine of let the decision stand. Science is ongoing public self-correcting process research findings are published as articles or presented at conferences and subjected to criticism by others.        

Forensic psychiatry:

You pursue a residency in psychiatry and then they have a small part of their training in psychology due to their medical training they can prescribe medications, which psychologists cannot do. On the other hand, psychologists attend graduate school and derive their training and experience from the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Therefore the vast majority of their training is in psychology but they are not able to prescribe medications as they have little or no training in medicine.

 Criminology or criminal:

Justice these areas focus on the study of crime, not individuals as forensic psychologists do criminologists focus on societal cause’s patterns developments and ways of reducing crime. For example, a criminologist may study the interactions between poverty and crime; lastly, you have the Forensic Sciences which include forensic pathology forensic toxicology, and so on. These professions stem from the natural and physical sciences and tend to be the professions you see on shows like CSI. There are also emerging fields such as forensic accounting and forensic dentistry and overall forensics is creeping into a lot of professions with regard to education and training typically.

into a lot of professions with regard to education and training typically.

  A career in forensic psychology:

I would encourage each of you to take a look in your book as well as search out any of these online so note that practicing forensic psychologists Canon B in criminal civil or personal injury the criminal realm is fairly self-explanatory but the civil area typically involves Family Court and child custody issues, whereas the personal injury realm involves workers compensation and insurance claims there are various areas of psychology that can be considered sub-specialties of forensic psychology but some argue that there they are their own specialties as opposed to being subsumed by forensic psychology regardless. It is important to discuss some of the differences between these areas the first area is police psychology which involves the application of research psychological principles and clinical skills to law enforcement and public safety. 

There are no formal graduate programs in the United States specifically focused on police psychology as a result. Most police psychologists are trained in other areas such as clinical or Counseling Psychology and receive on-the-job training in police psychology. We will not have time in this course to dive much into this area but if you would like more information concerned with book and search from the internet whereas, which covers law enforcement and police psychology.

Conclusion:

If you revel in gaining knowledge about the science of human conduct and the regulation, then forensic psychology will probably hobby you pretty a bit.