Careers in Criminal Psychology

A Career of Dedication and Service

Jan 28, 2009 Kathy Schlossmacher

Criminal Psychology is the act of applying psychological principles to the criminal justice system.

It usually comes under the designation of forensic psychology, but it is different from forensic sciences. Most forensic scientists are looking at crime scenes and putting together what happened. As a criminal psychologist a person is trying to understand the why of something happening. There are many ways that criminal psychologists can do this in the current legal system.

Clinical Work

It is possible to do clinical work as a criminal psychologist. This involves using the skills of social psychology and developmental psychology to understand the criminal and what he or she has done. This can involve deciding if a person is competent to stand trial, which is determined by the person's ability to assist in his or her own defense. It can also involve counseling prisoners or those declared incompetent and sentenced to psych hospitals instead of prison.

Legal Work

Lawyers often depend on criminal psychologists to aide them in trial work. Often this involves trying to profile the type of juror an attorney would want to guarantee the best outcome for his client. Psychologists will often attend jury selection to help attorneys make these very important decisions. The psychologist will design the questions to be asked of the perspective juror and look for body language clues to help in the selection.

Criminal psychologists also often provide expert testimony on issues that relate to a crime that was committed. This type of work can involve explaining the symptoms of actual mental illnesses that may have contributed to the act committed.

Investigative Work

Some forensic psychologists prefer to work solely in an investigative capacity. They work to create profiles of who might have committed a crime. They look for clues at crimes scenes and do extensive research on the kind of person who might commit the act. This can involve extensive research and often can be very intense work. The psychologist is trying to get inside the person's head, which can be a very difficult and intense experience.

Education

Careers in criminal psychology require at least a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and psychology. This, however, does not allow one to move into clinical or more extensive investigative roles. In order to achieve better pay and more interesting work a masters is required. If the clinical is the source of interest to the perspective career holder, then a Ph.D in psychology is required to gain clinical hours and to be able to counsel.

Tough Choices, Great Dedication

Careers in criminal psychology are not easy. The things that one sees can be very disturbing and as in all social service work, the pay is often not commiserate with the education or the long hours. There is also a serious danger of burn out based upon the intensity of the work. A great and serious commitment is required if one chooses to take on a career in criminal psychology

The copyright of the article Careers in Criminal Psychology in Career Advice is owned by Kathy Schlossmacher. Permission to republish Careers in Criminal Psychology in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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