Psychology has many roles in our everyday lives including our career choice. In my pursuit for a criminal justice degree I’ve come to realize that psychology plays an enormous part. Different areas of psychology can be studied in this field such as forensic, clinical, criminal, and developmental psychology. Each of these areas are studied to determined what drives a deviant act whether it’s societal norms, nature vs. nature, or antisocial behavior. Knowing the criminal mind can assist authorities to understand the different aspects of a criminal mind frame. Forensic psychologist work with offenders, victims, and authorizes to implement the criminal behaviors and actions. They often are often used to determine the mental state and competency of the defendant at the time of the crime and throughout the trail. The evidence that is provided must be factual and the source must be presented. Most forensic psychologist are often capable in depicting an offender’s next move. In compared to a typical clinical psychologist , a forensic psychologist observes the client or defendant.
Clinical psychologist help first-time offenders adjust to their confinement. They asses, diagnose, and help treat a variety of mental disorders, abnormal behavior, and psychiatric problems. Clinical psychologists often work in medical settings, private practices, or in colleges.
Some may even work directly with clients who suffer from severe psychiatric disorders. The roles of a clinical psychologist may consists of assessing and diagnosing psychological disorders, treatment of disorders, offering legal testimony, teaching, conducting research, carry out programs that treat and prevent social problems. In developing a treatment plan many clinicians use different methods. The major methods are psychodynamic approach, cognitive behavioral perspective, and humanistic perspective. The psychodynamic approach came from Sigmund
Freud who believed that the unconscious mind plays a big role in our behavior, Now with the cognitive perspective focuses on how people feelings, behavior and thoughts interact. Unlike the other two methods the humanistic perspective helps an offender realize their full potential.
Criminal psychology allows the psychologist to get inside the criminal mind by examining the mentality and social behavior of an individual. Cesare Lumbroso (1835-1909) was believed to be the first criminologist attempted to classify criminals based on age, sex, gender, physical characteristics, education, and geographic region. He implied that there were three types of criminals. Born criminals which meant these people were corrupt since early childhood, the insane criminals are the ones who suffer from a mental illness, and the criminals who have physical deformities such as unusual ear size, eye defects, unevenness of the face, etc. Criminal profiling is often used in crime scene investigations where the profiler relies on their intuition and mixed studies to learn about the crime and the criminal. It’s also a process of linking an offender’s actions at the crime scene to their characteristics to help the police narrow down a suspect. A century later criminal profiling is being used in the F.B.I... They are trained law enforcement officers who study every behavioral aspect and detail of an unsolved violent crime scene in which evidence was left behind. Criminal investigator analysis are considered to be the hub of the bureau.
Developmental psychologist explores an individual’s emotional and mental development over an extended
