Psychology and Criminal Investigation - Essay Example

? Psychology &Criminal Investigation Submitted by: Submitted al Affiliation) Psychology and criminal investigation Osterburg & Ward (2010), define crime investigation as a practice that involves gathering of facts and proof with the sole purpose of detecting, arresting, and convicting suspected offenders. According to the authors, Professor Turner (a pioneer in the field of criminal investigation) explained criminal investigation as the reestablishment of past events (Osterburg & Ward, 2010). Therefore, for a governed region to have an effective criminal justice structure, crime investigations become an important element in trying to gather facts of a crime (or intended crime) in order to charge the culprit according to the law (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2006). This in turn will inspire the citizens to have faith in the judicial system. On the other hand, Henriques (2004) suggests human psychology to be a curious combination of social sciences and psychology conventionalism and defines it as the science of human conduct at the personal level (Henriques, 2004).Consequently, psychology has different categories used to treating or analyzing individuals. Therefore, this paper examines the impact of psychology on criminal investigations. In addition, it seeks to evaluate using psychological theories, practices, and researches in the investigation of crime the impact of psychology on criminal investigations. Forensic psychology is a field that deals with both psychology and the law. In recent years, it has experienced tremendous growth since more and more students have shown interest in this particular field of psychology. Its popularity is driven from popular TV programs, popular movies and articles based on this field. It always brings out heroes who brilliantly solved maliciousoffenses or track down criminals using psychology. Cherry (2009) suggests that, Forensic psychology is the intersection between the justice system and physiology. This means that, it is understanding criminal law in terms of its relevancy with jurisdiction in order to interact well with judges, attorneys and other law interprets (Macdonell, 2010). Additionally, forensic psychology is a specialization of psychology that addresses Legal issues, as well as association with people who work with the legal system (Macdonell, 2010). Moreover, it is the application of the profession and science that enables the criminal department to seek to answer questions related to law and legal systems (Ward, 2013) . In addition, forensic psychology is broadly described as the application of psychological knowledge to the system of justice in order to enable individuals obtain justice. Additionally, this field includes areas like theoretical analysis of criminal behavior, correctional psychology that entails institutional and community correction (Acton, 2013). Alifano (2006) defines crime investigation as both an art and science such that it is an association between practical knowledge, experience, intelligence, instincts, common sense and verdict. Additionally, viewed as an applied science, crime investigation involves details, evidence, and facts in order to demonstrate, identify or locate the guiltiness of an individual (Alifano, 2006). In addition, crime investigation involves questioning a suspect on the events of a particular crime by asking questions that will prompt him or her to give relevant information that will help with the investigations. On the other hand, psychology calls for mental processes. Crime investigation involves police officers related to a suspected criminal offense of some kind (Osterburg & Ward, 2010). Profiling involves estimating the psychological and sociological characteristics of a criminal. It also includes using any evidence collected from the crime scene to determine the cause of the crime. Once a criminal is apprehended, The next thing is to determine what more information does he or she, as well as his or her profile in terms of personal details. The details, his/her acquaintances can provide very crucial information. All these will surely produce a productive interview (Douglas et al., 1986). Furthermore, the authors describe profiling as the analysis of a person’s psychological and behavioral characteristics in order to access whether they are likely to have committed the crime under investigation (Douglas et al., 1986). Moreover, profiling involves a lot of prompting questions of the investigating officer. In addition, it is the act of developing a psychological profile of an offender based on the state of the crime scene. It also involves a psychologist's understanding of human behavior, pathology and motivation to try and create well detailed profile of the offender. The psychologist can also use this information to determine how the offender is likely or behave in the future.It is also useful to crimes such as arson, and sexual crimes (Davis & Lauber, 1999).Profiling tecniques have been used by law enforcements more often in hostage taking;though it does not provide the true identity of the offender,it indicates kind of a person likely to have committed the offence by focusing on certain behavioural characteristics (Bower, 2006). Subsequently, forensic psychology integrates in various ways with crime investigation; for instance, crime investigation can incorporate forensic psychology clinically, experimentaly, risk assessment, and in terms of advisory roles. For example, a clinical pyschologist may provide mental health services assessment, diagnosis and treatment to individuals who may have come into contact with the criminal justice system. Clinical psychologists might be asked to check or determine if the person is in his or her right state of mind (Bower, 2006).The clinical psychologist might also be asked to prescribe treatment for the person suffering from the mental disorders or in the case of addiction related ailments (Cherry, 2009). Additionally, crime investigation can incorporate psychology in terms of consultancy, that is, as an advisory role. Therefore, the forensic psychology expert advices the judges on what criminal penalties or sentence to place on the criminals after doing a thorough examination of their mental state.Moral responsibility depends crucially on the mental state on which a person acts(Bower, 2006). Additionally, they advice the experts to conduct more tests to be certain;from those ranging from pre trials to judgement passings.The judge will pass judgement with consideration of the information given by the advisory board, an example is in the case of United States vs. Wright (Legal Information Institute, 2002).Moreover, crime investigation can incorporate forensic psychology in terms of risk assessment, that is, they can evaluate and have the capacity to predict the consistency of crime or a particular case. For instance, criminal investigation departments can utilize forensic psychologists to determine the frequency of sexual offences within a particular region and in a certain duration. This enable the criminal investigation department to incapacitate dangerous sexual offenders and assist in the clinical assessment in the particular cases(Janus & Prentky, 2003). Therefore, criminal investigators gather the initial information about the crime; thereafter, they investigate to prove whether the offender has a case to answer or whether the offender actually committed the crime. They do so by asking key witnesses of the crime or obtaining initial key evidence from the crime scene such as fingerprints, or the items used to perform the crime(Ask, 2006). There are some incidences where no physical evidence exists or there were no witnesses to the crime, thus in such scenarios, the criminal investigators cannot make a direct conclusion. Consequently, in such incidences the criminal investigators may approach the forensic psychologist for further analysis or assessment of the evidence and criminal patterns (Canter, 2000). Thus, the forensic psychologist, creates a profile for the unknown offender basin on the behavioral approaches in the recent studies or information of the area and begin to fit in the characteristics of the offender (Canter, 2000). The criminal departments then use the descriptive profile to come up with various profiles of suspects for the crime. In addition, the psychologists advise the policing department on clinical matters pertaining to the profiled suspect(s) (Canter, 2000). Besides that, the crime investigators can incorporate the psychologists in determining the mental health state of the suspect(s) they are investigating (Canter, 2000). The inclusion of psychological theory in the investigation of crime profoundly implicated the apprehending of criminal offenders. For instance, psychological theories such as investigating an individual’s behavior as childhood habits formulate some of the adult behaviors, such theories become vital for criminal investigators during profiling of a suspect (Byrne, 2010). For example, the psychologist can assist the criminal investigators to realize whether a sexual offender, or serial killer had issues during his or her childhood, therefore they can plan a counter attack of the individual(s) (Byrne, 2010). Additionally, the psychologists can assist the criminal investigators to carry out cognitive interviews, whereby they allow the suspect to express himself or herself during the interview as a means of interrogation (Hollin, 2005). In addition, cognitive interviews can allow witnesses or suspects to explain the screen as they experienced it, thus enables the psychologist to depict behavior or patterns expressed by the suspect or witness (Hollin, 2005). Moreover, psychologists can use their theories to depict unconscious behaviors or motives depicted by the criminal offender or during suspect or witness questioning. This enables the criminal investigators to realize the criminal intent of the offender and whether the offender will require psychiatric assistance (Byrne, 2010). Furthermore, the inclusion of psychological research in the investigation of crime can profoundly impact profiling of suspects and crime offenders in various ways. For instance, basing on cognitive interviews, profiling suspects, the psychologists may videotape their previous patients, obtain criminal trends of a region based on their profiling research and offer this information to criminal investigators (McGurk, Carr, & McGurk, 1993). This will enable criminal investigators to obtain trends or a pattern of a particular area or individuals who were under study. For example, in the instances of serial killers, psychologists can enable criminal investigators realize whether the killing patterns are from the serial killer or they are from a copy cat killer. Additionally, the psychologist can conduct resources on drug related crimes and offer not only criminal investigators information on individuals or gangs but also formulate plans with the criminal correctional departments to come up with treatment programs in order to reduce the drug related crime (Holloway, Bennett, & Farrington, 2005). Moreover, the inclusion of psychological practice in the investigation of crime can greatly impact criminal investigation departments in various ways. For instance, psychologist are able to predict criminal patterns of a particular region based on research and after studying their patients that were either criminal suspects or crime offenders. Psychologists are therefore in a good position to advise the criminal investigators on prevention measures or symptoms of criminal offenders. In addition, psychologists are able to assist the criminal investigators to carry out appropriate and effective interviews of suspects or crime offenders and offer guidance on the behavioral patterns of the individuals interviewed (Smith, 2011). Additionally, the psychologists can enhance the effectiveness of the criminal investigators through offering guidance in the approaching of personal or group interviews with the suspects or eye witnesses as they can use their practice to evaluate the individual’s state of mind during the interview. As well as offering guidance on the approach of crime offenders who have psychiatric needs (Smith, 2011). References Acton, A. .. (2013). Issues Criminology and Criminal Justice Research. Ottawa: Carleton University. Alifano, C. M. (2006). FUNDAMENTALS OF CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION. New York: Worldwide Law Enforcement Consulting Group, Inc. Ask, K. (2006). Criminal Investigation: Motivation, Emotion and Cognition in the Processing of Evidence. 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