FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY- Courses, brief definition and history
Forensic – Used or applied in the investigation and establishment of facts or evidence in a court of law
Psychology – The science of mental life
The American Board of Forensic Psychology and the American Psychology-Law Society (1995) define forensic psychology as:
The professional practice by psychologists within the areas of clinical psychology, counseling psychology, neuro psychology, 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. (p. 6)
Forensic psychology is one of the fastest growing areas of psychology as suggested both by an increase in the practice of clinical psychology within our legal system and the increasing interest expressed by undergraduate and graduate students.
Forensic psychology is thus, an interface between psychology and law. Forensic psychology is NOT Forensic Science but is closely related. It provides psychological services for legal community. A forensic psychologist does the work that is both clinical and forensic in nature. They actually delve into psychological perspectives and apply them to criminal justice system. They provide a report for the court.
AREAS covered by a forensic psychologist:
- Eye witness testimony
- How to improve interrogation method
- Child custody evaluation
- Child abuse and evaluation
- Evaluation of adoption readiness
- Mediation of parental conflicts
- Parent – child family counseling
- parenting skill training
- Anger management
- divorce adjustment counseling for adults and kids
- Personal injury evaluation
- assessing the emotional factors in sexual harassment and discrimination
- can help in designing connectional facilities and prisons
- Treatment of mentally ill offenders
- consulting with attorney in analyzing criminal intent
- Evaluation of juvenile accused of crime
- Pre sentencing evaluation of adult or juvenile
- providing counseling for victims of crimes
- Counseling for individuals awaiting trial
- Counseling for those who violate law and order, juvenile delinquents, etc
- dealing Clinical issues such as – Anxiety, Phobia, Anger management, adjustment, desensitization, chronic pain, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, etc
PEOPLE in the field:
- William Stern (1901) gave an experiment on memory, whose result would question eye witness testimony’s reliability.
- Hugo Munster berg, first forensic psychologist
- Alfred Binet and Sigmund Freud, talks of time taken to respond a question as a factor in determining guilt.
- Lewis Terman, IQ test to asses’ personal in police.
In INDIA:
- Dr. Vaya a Clinical Psychologist trained at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore. Currently she is the Deputy Director at the Directorate of Forensic Science (DFS), Gandhinagar.As a result of her work in the forensic field Dr. Vaya has appeared in number of courts as expert witness in polygraph, psychological profiling and BEOS.
- Professor Mukundan is an ex-Professor and Head of the Department of Clinical Psychology, Head of Neuro psychology Laboratory and Clinical Unit, National Institute of Mental Health & Neuro- Sciences, Bangalore, India. He is also a Research Consultant for TIFAC-DFS collaborative project on “Normative data for brain electrical activation profiling”, at the Directorate of Forensic Sciences, Gandhinagar, India and is an Advisor to Directorate of Forensic Sciences, MHA, New Delhi in BEOS profiling and a Consultant to the Directorate of Forensic Sciences, Mumbai, India
BECOMING a forensic psychologist
-
:
- This will first require you to get a doctorate in psychology, often (but not necessarily) in clinical or counseling psychology. It will probably take you about seven years after the undergraduate degree to get this doctorate, though some people may take a little less time.
- One way the person who is already a psychologist becomes a forensic psychologist is by doing additional informal study after receiving the doctoral degree.
To STUDY it: (India)
- NIMHANS Bangalore (India) has a PG certificate course in forensic psychology. Its one year, fee is rs. 20000. You need to have a psychology background.
- 9 months of course in NIMHANS campus and rest 3 months in directorate of forensic science, Ahmedabad (India).
- National Institute of Criminology and Forensic science, Delhi in affiliation to Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi (2004) have introduced post graduate level teaching in Criminology and Forensic Science.
- Amity, a private University in New Delhi, is also reported to have started teaching in criminology and Forensic science.
- Department of Criminology and Forensic Science, Dr Harising Gour University (formerly University of Saugar)
- Department of Criminology and Forensic Science, Karnataka University
- Dharwad, Institute of Forensic Science and Criminology
- Bundel khand University and the National Institute of criminology and Forensic Science, Delhi
Diploma Courses:
-Faculty of Law, University of Luknow,
- Jaipur Law College,
- University of Rajasthan
- Departments of law in Utkal University,
- Manipur University,
- Aligarh Muslim University,
- Panjab University, Chandigargh, Panjabi University, Patiala,
- University of Jammu,
- Guru Ghasidas University, Bilaspur,
- Jai Narayan Vyas University, Jodhpur (diploma courses in Criminology).