Criminal justice

For your Discussion post this week, you will be able to pick a topic that pertains to adult criminal court that is consistent with your career goals, experience, and/or interests. Consider whether you will be working as a forensic researcher or understanding forensic psychology from a clinical perspective. 

To prepare for this Discussion:

·  Review the Learning Resources for this week. Select one of the following topics that pertains to adult criminal court:

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o  1. Victim’s rights

o  2. Competency to stand trial

o  3. Criminal responsibility

o  4. Estimating violence risk

o  5. Criminal characteristics such as personality or thinking style

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·  Find at least one scholarly reading from a peer-reviewed source not included in the Learning Resources about the topic you have selected that pertains to the role of forensic psychology professional in the criminal system.

NEEDS TO BE 2-4 PARAGRAPHS

·  Give a 1- to 2-sentence summary of your peer-reviewed source(s).

·  Based on the information in your peer-reviewed article, describe some of the roles and responsibilities of the forensic psychology professional in the area that you selected.

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·  How can knowledge of your chosen topic and the role of the forensic psychology professional be applied to Walden University’s social change mission?

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·  Support your response with evidence.

Adult Criminal Court Information

Workers in the adult criminal court, any of whom might call upon the expertise of a forensic psychology researcher, are mainly the judge, prosecuting attorneys, defense attorneys, correctional staff, community supervision staff, victim’s rights staff, or advocates. The potential topics that a forensic psychology professional might address include those in which he or she is an expert within the domain of forensic psychology. Some specific topics will be listed here, but a complete list would far exceed the space available. A member of the adult court might be interested in research related to the defendant’s psychological characteristics such as mental health problems, psychopathy, or developmental makeup such as childhood abuse. Program evaluation statistics might be requested for programs that address problems the defendant might have. Either the prosecuting or defense attorneys or both might enlist the aid of a forensic psychology expert to comment on the quality or veracity of psychological evidence presented in the case or a jury consultant to assist in selecting jurors for a trial.

The roles and responsibilities of the forensic psychology researcher include informing the court as requested about the topic requested by the court and engaging in professional activities to meet the requirement of being an expert in this topic. For example, to qualify as an expert in the topic of the effects of childhood sexual abuse, the forensic psychology researcher likely has conducted extensive research and/or has probably published scholarly works related to this topic and perhaps has had extensive community experience consulting to programs that assist these victims or other related experiences. A forensic psychology professional in law enforcement can qualify as an expert based on extensive experience interviewing victims and conducting research. The judge typically vets expert witnesses using either the Frye standard or the Daubert criteria reviewed during Week 4 in this course.

The primary roles and responsibilities of forensic psychology professionals working from a clinical perspective include conducting court-ordered psychological evaluations of the defendant and then presenting a summary of this evaluation to the court either as an expert witness and/or in written form. The psychological evaluations focus on issues identified by the court such as whether the defendant has mental health or substance abuse problems, criminal responsibility (the insanity defense), competency to stand trial, competency to serve as one’s own counsel, competency to receive the death penalty, violence risk potential, etc. The forensic clinician is responsible for conducting evaluations that are consistent with best practice recommendations in the field of clinical/forensic psychology and maintaining appropriate professional credentials and experiences specified for this role according to state or federal statutes. Typically, most state statutes require that forensic psychology clinicians who conduct psychological evaluations are either a licensed clinical psychologist or psychiatrist.

The roles and responsibilities of the clinical forensic psychology professional also typically include providing treatment to forensic populations. The credentials of forensic clinicians who provide treatment are not typically addressed in state or federal statutes and may include a master’s or doctorate degree in clinical psychology or counseling.

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