CrimePsych

This has to be my favourite discipline within the forensic field, and one that i am personally very involved with (i am currently working towards my Master of Forensic Psychology degree). But for the ‘newbies’ the role a forensic psychologist actually plays in the real world can be somewhat confusing – partly due to Hollywood’s version of what a forensic psychologist does. Forensic psychologists are classed as scientist-practitioners as they are constantly applying their skills and psychological knowledge to the understanding and functioning of the criminal justice system as a whole.

As can be anticipated, most peoples conception of what a forensic psychologist (or psychiatrist) does is fairly generalised; the vast majority envision that a forensic psychologist is simply a ‘profiler’, working in some capacity within law enforcement advising police and other detectives of their UNSUB’s (unknown subject) criminal profile. This is probably the most glamorous role within the field, and something i would personally hope to do in the future! But realistically there are a large number of jobs that be conducted by a forensic psychologist, least of which is the aforementioned one. Lets talk about some of these now…

To start with, forensic simply means ‘pertaining to a court of law’ or ‘of the law’, so a forensic psychologist or psychiatrist is simply a psychologist/psychiatrist that specialises in the criminal justice system. The more common roles that a forensic psychologist will undertake include:

1. They provide expert psychological evidence in trials, sometimes verbal but more often through the means of written reports (psychological testing of a defendant etc is often undertaken to analyse competency or in cases where child protection is an issue).
2. They consult with legal/law and other related professionals on various things ranging from impact of court proceedings on witnesses and testimony, liaise with police investigations, help with crime prevention, child protection and victim’s needs among others.
3. They develop and conduct research, and provide clinical services to persons within the criminal justice system. This includes things such as treatment of people with substance abuse disorders, therapy for crime victims, assessing and treating offenders – usually during incarceration and after release on parole as well as things such as counselling children who have been affected by the divorce of their parents.

In time we will be adding various articles on to this section of the website covering every aspect of forensic psychology, statistical analysis and other key areas of study you need to be au fait with.