Custom «Educating the Forensic Psychologist» Essay Paper

According to Ann (2004) forensic psychology entails the connection amid psychology and the criminal justice organization. It’s all about accepting the criminal law in the appropriate jurisdictions in order to be able to cooperate appropriately and effectively and the entire official professional in the judicial system. A forensic psychologist is an individual who studies the events and motives of wrong doer’s such as the criminals and usually has a degree or masters in the field of either psychology or criminology or in other cases the both. After receiving their education, most of the forensic psychologist takes jobs in the police fields and their experience via the aid of their experience at the time of their course. Forensic psychologist can not have a clear definition of what it is all about due to the fact that there happens to exist so many branches of psychology. They include the social, cognitive, behavioral to name just but a few yet on the side of forensics there are many types of crimes namely, arson, manslaughter, rape, murder etc. Therefore, the role of forensic psychology is based on the history and education of the forensic psychologists.

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In order to understand how understand the complexity of forensic psychology; let us look at the following examples. A forensic psychologist whose field is in the inmate’s prison is very much contrasting to the forensic psychologist who works in the federal bureau of investigation (FBI) or the CIA unit. The general part of forensic psychology is that entails the study of the criminal mind regardless the nature of the crime. Under the education of forensic psychology, we are going to look at the following aspects, the standard of the education, strengths, and weaknesses of the current graduate programs of the existing education of forensic psychology. We are also going to look at the factors that make these institutions not deliver the sufficient directions in terms of qualifications in the degrees and courses that they offer, in general in the forensic psychology field. Education of the forensic psychology as a course is not up to standard as it does not deliver at all stages of the psychology and law field (Moses 1999).

In order to completely understand how n an institution fails to meet the quality standards in delivering education to the forensic psychologist, it is vital to discuss in details the role of a forensic psychologist. Forensic psychologists are individuals whose role is the study of the actions and activity of a criminal. The individual must have enrolled in an institution of higher learning and attained a degree in psychology, criminology or both of them. However, most of them encompass a master’s degree; and this may raise eyebrows on the inadequate of quality education given at the degree level. As said before, once they acquire their education they work as police officers but in different fields. Research and investigation is the basic of every forensic psychologist since he or she interviews incarcerated criminals to understand and accept that they committed crimes in cases where there is clear evidence. They also make the criminals realize why the committed their crimes. Later they scrutinize all the information at hand and from there a conclusion is made. To add more experience to their work, forensic psychologists revise the works made by other psychologists and case files of other criminals with similar or different cases. Having acquitted this wisdom, they are able to observe the similarities between criminal who are different. The fact that a crime scene discloses a lot of information about the criminal makes the forensic psychologists to formulate profiles for the person responsible for the crime based on what signs he or she may possibly leave behind.

A forensic psychologist also plays the role of the expert witness in the cases at the court, via this role of expert witnesses. They provide relevant and clear physical evidence to the judges or magistrates in the court and this aids the judge in the type of judgment to be given to the criminal on the basis of the criminal possibility to go ahead with the same trend of behaviors. Forensic psychologists get consulted every time the person responsible for the crime on parole again. There also exist forensic psychologists whose role is to study how witness in crime scenes is sure and accurate about the information he or she is giving. Therefore is vividly clear that the role of the forensic psychologist is unlimited and thus the urge to have a strong and delivering forensic psychology education background.

The existence of a forensic psychologist is crammed with demanding and stimulating roles and this way of specification requires an individual who is careful and serious in taking of each step in his or her education lifetime. In order for a person to be a full forensic psychologists with all the required standards, on must have been to a graduate school of either law of psychology for a long required time of course completion. This aids in the layout of the foundation of the career as a forensic psychologist by the partaking of the right classes. For instance, the roles of a forensic psychologist are directly or indirectly got from the wisdom that is gained in the social and abnormal psychology plus the criminal law. On addition, to become up to date with the human beings ways of reasoning, a flow in motivational psychology is of advantage to the learning of the studying of the to come forensic psychology. A student taking this course therefore must understand the areas that they know they are capable of doing and absorbing fast in class when it comes to the study and selection of the fields of forensic psychology he or she is intending to pursue. For example, an individual who has a desire for the field of rehabilitation, it is advisable for the person to take a course in the forensic psychology option of education. Another person may have the desire of the transmission of wisdom to others and as a result he or she can take a course of being a teacher of forensic psychology, individuals who have the blessings of having the ability o addressing a gathering of people or he surrounding people generally are advised to take the field of the judicial system, by joining the forensic psychologists who specifies in the expert testimony in cases concerning similar crime situations (Goldstein 2007).

According to Goldstein it’s very vital for a forensic psychologist to consider the environmental position at which the education is to take place; there are a variety of fields in the forensic psychology. For example, dedication of oneself to the areas of forensic psychology entails reading and analyzing of files in the court surroundings. The educational success of forensic psychology professionals continues after the securing of work in the desired field of work and specialization. However, these individuals are advised to keep up with the changing world in the means of new concepts and theories plus integration of better technologies of forensic psychology in order to keep in pace with the current changing syllabus of educating forensic physiologists.

The advantages of working as a forensic psychologist is that an one is even the opportunity to give aid to others, for instance in a case where a forensic psychologist take the role of a witness in a court of law, the judge is more likely to be convinced of the truth and accuracy of the matter simply since its from an individual who has the knowledge of law or psychology or in some case both of them. Contrary, in a case where the same information is presented by a local citizen, however much it has, weight, accuracy and truth in it, the possibilities of a superb attention s likely to be minimal. In cases when the victims of the case happen to win the judgment, there exists an opportunity of the forensic psychologist to help others. The career of forensic psychology can be rewarding in cases when an individual feels that he or she is gaining full satisfaction from the job. For instance, it can be one’s field of interest so he or she enjoys the role played in forensic psychology. Economically, it helps someone who would be roaming in the streets or looking for a job in order to put the food on the table, so it acts as a source of income to the worker, Another advantage is the nature of the psychologists to socialize and familiarize themselves with the outside society as a part of their learnt skills to give out devotion. For example, police officers try to make better relationships in individuals who are convicts through socializing. This is in the aim of advising the convicts who feel isolated in the security centers, they show them that that’s not the end of life and once they are out of the prison they can something better with their lives. Surprisingly, cases are heard of convicts transforming completely and becoming better and even God- fearing individuals. In other case an innocent convict out of fear and desperation may fail to prove his innocence and in such case only a professional forensic psychologist can analyze such a case and come up with a solution (Huss, 2008) Therefore these individuals can change the life of someone who was to spend his life in jail due issue life framing and set ups. On addition to the issue of being a policeman, there is the con of one developing a level of trauma, this is in case where as a forensic psychologist in the field of defense as a policeman, he or she comes into contact with new numbers of people daily who live in misery and sufferings such as murder, rape, robbery and rape among females.

The weakness of this type of job is like for instance a psychologist who works with convicts may be at risks since not all of them are willing to socialize with him, therefore they are likely to e violent to him thus endearing his or her life as anything can happen. Another pro of the job is the fact that one may be only be able to interact with wrongdoer and in turn can affect his social life once he or she is outside the working environment. There are prisons that are situated in remote parts and therefore there exists addition al expenses in terms of transport and up keeps. In a case whereby n individual who used to work as a forensics psychologist quits the organization due to personal or organization problems like resigning or being sacked, it get very hard to get hold of him incase he commits a crime. This is due to the fact that the individual too received the same type of training and is always aware of the next probable move and therefore avoids it. Cases of high level of crimes are later revealed to be committed by individual who were either in the police, army or generally any of the service units and hence they hold special trainings (Blackburn, 2003).Another weakness is the cost factor; the most expensive training to enroll is the joint JD/PHD programs that necessary require the students to get enrolled for the law and the psychology school and entails detailed teaching, research and practical activities thus making the profession to look challenging(Hart, 2009).

John Jay College of criminal justice is well famous in the field of forensics psychology and the other areas that are relevance to that field. They offer this faculty at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The college’s department offers a wide range of courser on the field of forensic psychology. The college offers the following courses Bachelor of Arts in forensic psychology, masters in forensic Psychology, masters in forensic mental health counseling, doctoral program in forensic Psychology and a Postgraduate certificate in Forensic Psychology.

The other similar university that offers the forensic education is he university of North Dakota that provides a masters of science in forensic psychology , the institution also offers the an online degree program for professional who are working and enables them to attain the masters degree. Candidates at this institution under this field are rule enforcement officials, and counselors. Student who sit for the masters of Science in forensic psychology program are required to have undergraduate degree in the social sciences. Then, graduates in this program may go ahead and pursue a doctoral program or may only find jobs as forensic psychologists (Weiner, 2003).

The main reason why the above stated colleges despite being qualified to offer the forensic psychology fail to deliver enough directions for students in what their profession really entails is due to the factors such as the cognitive issues. The scientific issue is also a major reason for the mismatch in the criminology training programs and the practice at work places. For instance, the effectiveness of the scientific ways used for the criminal researches require competent methods of operations, these include, the reasoning and the elucidation of the findings at hand. Therefore this would require a forensic psychologist who has the skills in scientific method of research. Due to a change of the criminology educational programs, syllabus in the educational institutions and the invention of new technological techniques of handling issue pertaining investigations. In such cases you are likely to find a bunch of forensic psychologists but only a limited number of them are acquitted with the updates on the new techniques of tackling criminology (Barol, 1999). This is evident in the above discussed point.

On addition, the greater part of the forensic psychology and criminology education is directed towards the government and mainly entails abiding of the law. The subjects offered during the course education are given lecture by individuals who are employed by the government and hence offer the curriculum an attachment that will ease the path for the student position and the employment in future of the student. Consequently, most of the forensic psychologists end up working for the police services, the prisons or even the prosecutions which are government owned, this is likely to bring about bias. This is based on the act that these se individuals get a feeling that they are working for the government and not the society.

The third cause is on the base that, to be a good forensic psychologist, one must clinch and perform all the scientific methods as said in one of the above paragraphs. Therefore, an individuals approach to crisis solving has got to be always intentional and cynical. Those kinds of practices should be together with the individual’s professional identity. For instance being good at forensics does not necessarily mean that that forensic know how and ability is perfect. Competent psychologists who are direct from the universities and therefore have fresh minds to work in the government agencies, however unless these persons have precise education in the forensic psychology field from an individual who was practicing it, they are likely to arrive at the crime scenes with very little ideas on where to start and what generally is going on. This means that despite getting education and being granted, they do not know or understand their responsibilities and laws that rule their behaviors maybe due to their intellectual level and ability (Barol, 1999).

We can conclude by saying that the profession forensic psychology is worth only if u have a Ph.D in this field. The amount paid is pretty well averaging at 40,000 dollars in one year. It is also vital to understand that the areas of forensic psychology are vey wide and no psychologists can perform all these tasks and therefore partitioning is done to enable the individual to be an expert in their particular area, the role of forensic psychology is based on the history and education of the forensic psychologists.