​Forensic Psychology (Undergraduate)

Advanced Forensic
Psychology (Graduate)
These courses provide basic and advanced introductions (respectively) to forensic psychology – a subfield of psychology in which basic and applied psychological science or scientifically-oriented professional practice is applied to the law to help resolve legal, contractual, or administrative matters (American Psychological Association, 2013; Neal, 2018).  “Forensic” comes from the Latin word for “court,” and “forensic psychologists” are psychologists who help courts make decisions about people when some question related to psychology is involved.  Thus, forensic psychologists typically are involved in cases “pre-adjudication,” which means before the legal decision is made, and they help courts make informed decisions about cases. ​

Forensic psychologists provide services (e.g., assessment, treatment, presentation of research) explicitly for the purposes of informing a legal decision (e.g., performing a child custody evaluation to inform the court’s upcoming decisions about  parenting time and rights in a divorce decree, conducting competency restoration treatment services in an attempt to restore trial competency so that the defendant can be adjudicated “competent” and move forward with their ongoing legal case, providing a summary of the research data about factors that contribute to a false confessions or mistaken eyewitness identifications while the case is ongoing).  ​

​In these courses, we learn in-depth about some of the major ways in which psychologists are involved in the criminal court system (e.g., when legal questions arise about a defendant’s competency to stand trial, his/her mental state at the time of offense).  We teach each other about some of the other criminal and civil competencies that psychologists help the courts assess (e.g., when questions arise about a defendant’s competency to confess, to plead guilty, to be sentenced and executed, to make a will, to consent to research).  And we cover in less detail some of the other common questions forensic psychologists help answer (e.g., risk of future violence, risk of future sex offenses, ability to safely live in the community, juvenile delinquency). Finally, we learn about the paths toward careers in forensic psychology.
Undergraduate Learning Outcomes
  • Demonstrate an ability to think critically and analyze the issues presented in forensic psychology.
  • Identify and discuss landmark cases that demonstrate the practical role of forensic psychology (such as the impact of intelligence testing in the Atkins vs. Virginia case).
  • Explain the unique challenges that forensic psychologists face clinically, legally, and ethically.
  • Analyze how the law can be therapeutic or anti-therapeutic for the people most directly affected by it.
  • Apply the concepts learned in the course to current real-life cases.
  • Discover how to become a forensic psychologist and identify various careers in forensic psychology.
Graduate Learning Outcomes
  • Demonstrate independent, articulate, creative thinking about the legal system’s use of psychology to help resolve legal, contractual, and administrative matters.
  • Teach classmates about a civil or criminal competency by designing and delivering an organized, clear, fluid, and engaging presentation.
  • Identify and discuss landmark cases in forensic psychology (such as the mental capacities defendants must have to stand trial in Dusky v. U.S. and the capacities they must have to represent themselves at trial in Godinez v. Moran and Indiana v. Edwards).
  • Describe and analyze the ethical challenges forensic psychologists face, such as the “double agent” issue.
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