The Social Need for Forensic Psychology

The social need for Forensic Psychology arose from the need for expert testimony in a court of law. After Stern’s discoveries, psychologists began appearing more and more often in courts (Tartakovsky, 2011).
The first instance was in Germany, when a defense attorney asked a psychologist Hugo Munsterberg to review a case in which his client confessed to murder, but then changed his mind and claimed that he was not guilty (Tartakovsky, 2011). The judge, after hearing Munsterberg’s opinion, however, was furious that Munsterberg thought that he had expertise in the case, and refused to believe in his assessment, and the man was found guilty and hung (Tartakovsky, 2011).
Following this experience, Munsterberg published a book entitled On The Witness Stand. In his book, he explained the importance of psychologists in a courtroom, and how suggestive questions could cause false memories, and thus that eyewitness testimonies are often altered by the way in which questions are asked, making them unreliable.
Therefore, after the book was published and accepted by scientific communities, it then became clear that there was a need for experts to testify in the courts, however, this need was not filled until around 1940s-1950s, when they became a regular part of the courtroom (Tartakovsky, 2011).
Since then, forensic psychology has been growing and evolving, and forensic psychologists are no longer only working in the courtrooms. Forensic psychology is a broad profession, however, every specification of the profession applies psychology to criminal investigations and the law.
They are often involved in all aspects of the law. Some work in family courts, for instance providing professional opinions on child custody and assessing competency to ...

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...rsity of Washington (Bell). After falling for a beautiful woman with long brown hair parted down the middle, he grew into a handsome young confident man (Bell). However, when she broke his heart, he raped and murdered an estimated 40 women resembling his first love (Bell).
Even on death row, Bundy only confessed to some of his murders, and most of the bodies were never found (Bell). He continuously told different people different things, and even told one detective “for every murder that was publicized, there could be one that was not (Bell).” To this day, no one is completely aware of how many people Ted actually killed however many experts believe the tally could be as high as 100, without counting the 36 confirmed victims. And as to where the bodies of several of his victims lie, no one will ever know. Bundy was executed by electric chair on January 24th, 1989.