Clinical and Forensic Evaluations
Although the two terms are widely used in psychology, they differ in terms of application in interviewing, discussion of informed consent, and role in the treatment, diagnosis, or assessment of human behavior and functioning. Clinical psychological evaluations are broad and usually range from diagnosis of depression with cognitive-behavior treatment in an outpatient clinic to evaluating a kid for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in a school to developing a behavior plan for a person with schizophrenia in a psychiatric infirmary. However, forensic evaluations are classically a division of clinical phycological assessments (Rogers, 2008). Forensic evaluations are the intersection between law and psychology.
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In this case, adults are required to offer a printed consent before clinical evaluations. As such, the parents of the children under assessment should offer this consent for juvenile clinical cases. That is however contrary in forensic evaluations as not such consents are required by the court. Also, different from the clinical assessment is the referral source. In clinical evaluations, the majority of adults who undergo clinical evaluations are self-referred although there are those who are referred by a physician. In forensic evaluations, almost all evaluations are court ordered or referred by the suspect’s lawyer. Clinical and forensic evaluations similarly differ in terms of testing and assessment (Silber B., 2016). The testing and assessments are carried and completed in different settings. For instance, the clinical evaluations are carried out in community psychological health centers or medical facilities but the majority of forensic evaluations are carried out in prisons, state hospitals and few are completed in private offices. Written reports are required in both evaluations but the forensic psychologist is required to answer special legal questions. Any information which does not relate to the legal question is viewed as irrelevant (Silber B., 2016). As such, the readability of the report is summarized and irrelevant information, which is misleading or biased might be introduced. Writing reports are crucial in forensic evaluations to assess the suspect's competence to stand
In the Forensic Case #356228, skeletal remains of both human and animal were discovered in a hunting area. The skeletal remains were of potential victims named as either Robert Rutherford or Stephen Morton. Robert Rutherford, potential victim #1, was an African American, 65 years or age, had a pacemaker, carried a Gerber 650 knife, had unknown religious affiliations, and was 5’ft 6”inches tall. Potential victim #2, was Stephen Morton, a Caucasian 40 years of age, had a heart condition, was a hunter in the same area, also had unknown religious affiliations, carried a Gerber 650 knife, and was 5’ ft 7” inches tall.
Other evidence located within the grave consisted of a generic watch, two cigarette butts, a button, a washer and a shell casing. All of these could be analysed for finger prints and DNA. The cigarette butts would also show a serial number indicating the brand (shown in Figure 3), which can be useful if it is found a victim or offender smokes a particular type of cigarette.
From a trial strategy point of view, you always start with the piece(s) of evidence you believe are most damaging to the client's case and work backwards looking for an exploitable flaw in the search and seizure procedure that would make that or those item(s) inadmissible. The further back in the series of events you can argue a fatal flaw, the more likely that the evidence and any additional materials which flowed from that particular item of evidence will be excluded. This is the practical analysis of all the times we see or hear of law enforcement arguing that there was some technical item which drew their attention and suspicion and justifies their hunch that criminal activity is afoot.
Costanzo, M., & Krauss, D. (2012). Forensic and Legal Psychology: Psychological Science Applied to Law. New York: Worth Publishers.
Player: case report and emerging medicolegal practice questions. Journal of Forensic Nursing, 6(1), 40-46. doi:10.1111/j.1939-3938.2009.01064.x
Forensic (criminal) psychology is a job field that deals with both psychology and law. The field has experienced dramatic growth in recent years due to the role of popular movies, television programs and books popularizing the field. Often these individuals are depicted as vivid components in solving vicious crimes or timing out a criminal’s next home. While these depictions of certainly entertaining, yet these portrayals are not necessarily precise. Forensic psychologists play an instrumental role in the criminal justice system while applying psychological principles to the legal system. The crossover of the two spheres is best decided in the Encyclopedia of Psychology,
National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Clinical forensic nursing: A new perspective in the management of crime victims from trauma to trial. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7546512
The Forensic interview technique is a result of the increasing awareness of child abuse and neglect cases in the United States in the last quarter of the 20th century (Newlin et al, 2015). Forensic interviewing has come a long way from when it was first being developed and has continuously evolved to have the best outcome for children. The purpose of Forensic interviewing is to be more child friendly, to consider the age and development of the child, and to be cognizant of a child’s trauma which is specified in the “Purpose of the Child Forensic Interview” and “Considerations Regarding the Child” sections of the Newlin article. Forensic interviewing has become more specialized and developed since it first began to be utilized. It has developed
McGrath, Michael G. "Criminal Profiling: Is There a Role for the Forensic Psychiatrist?." Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law 28. (2000): 315-324. Web. 13 Apr 2011.
The part explains the general requirement of informed consent and limited exceptions of informed consent. Because of the implementation of informed consent in most of the clinical investigations, the subject rights of voluntary participation and rights to be informed are secured. The following subpart introduces additional safeguards for children as clinical investigation subjects. Children are likely to be more vulnerable and are not capable of providing assent. Therefore, the additional safeguards provisions are written in
Evidence collection is a crucial part of forensics. Its reliability can be compromised by input bias from law
Just as insight into the mind of the artist may be gained by examining and comparing the progression of his work, so knowledge of the mind of the serial killer can be ascertained by an examination of his canvas: The murder scene. Forensic profiling is the attempt to do just that. An investigator tries to discern information about the killer based on the information at the crime scene, deducing information about the cause from the effect. This is not an exact science, and has been often likened to an art. It is the goal of this work to provide the reader with a basic understanding of the function and application of forensic psychology, as well as an explication of some of its strengths and weaknesses.
Review, PubMed PMID: 19543886. Saferstein, R. (2011). Criminalistics: An introduction to forensic science (10th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Roesch, R., & Rogers, B. (2011). The cambridge handbook of forensic psychology. Canadian Psychology, 52(3), 242-242-243.
Gaensslen, R. E., Harris, H A., & Lee, H. (2008). Introduction to Forensic Science and Criminalistics. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. .