The Course of BPS Division of Forensic Psychology - Essay Example

E- Portfolio Name Institution Instructor Course Date E- Portfolio When I enrolled for the course of BPS Division of Forensic Psychology I certainly believed that this would be the gateway to becoming a chartered psychologist which is certainly my dream career (Towl & Crighton, 2010). For one to study forensic psychology it is important to understand what it involves. Forensic psychology is about the application of psychology to the field of criminal investigation. The first aspects of this course included being introduced to the criminological perspectives. This unit made me understands the various forms of crimes that would require the services of a forensic psychologist. It would be difficult to engage in a career in forensic psychology if you do not understand what types of crimes that occur in the society and this would be vital in analyzing them to see the methods of research I can use in investigating such crimes. As I studied the criminological perspectives, I was able to understand the causes of criminal behaviour and the theories that can be applied in crime. I must admit that this unit was very essential in building my foundation in crime investigation. I started being assimilated into the course and in the once I was through with this unit, it came to my realization that I had made the right choice to enroll for the forensic psychology course. In the self directed learning I was able to learn how a forensic psychologist drafts the literature review either for an offender or a suspect in crime. This is all about gathering of the relevant data and the background information of the culprits involved in a crime (Arrigo & Shipley, 2005). Inaccurate gathering of information may lead to false allegations which can be quite detrimental for my career. My lecturer mentioned that gathering information could be done by anyone but the most important would be to know which information is relevant depending on the case being investigated. The learning of the cognitive and social learning theories was an experience that I will never forget. Before, I had always though that it is impossible to study our thinking process. Through the cognitive theory I was able to understand the mental processes involved in human behaviour. This would be applied while interrogating people involved in crime in order to understand whether they are answerable to any offense. Lack of interrogative skills might lead to shoddy investigations that might end up embarrassing the forensic psychologists involved. As I was going through this unit I could no resist to reflect on my own life since I was a small kid. My parents have always told me that I was very interrogative and yearn to get detailed information about a simple event as a wedding. The other day my aunt was reminding me how I asked about the marital status of the person who designed her wedding dress. May be this were tell tale signs of being a future forensic psychologist. The social learning theories were about understanding the emotional aspects of human beings. It is quite evident that witnesses in crime scenes are filled with emotions when narrating the events that led to a certain crime and more so in the crime involves death (Towl & Crighton, 2010). When one learns the social theories you are able to interact with such people in the process of trying to gather any meaningful information that might be significant in the crime investigation. Social theories might also be applied during the normal interaction with friends or even people we are not familiar with. I took this unit very seriously so that I could understand how to deal with my emotions because I am at times quite temperamental and impatience to get the truth. For any Forensic Psychologist it is of utmost importance to understand the human IQ. When I studied this unit I could understand how IQ can be used to get the moat vital information from a person being interrogated (Arrigo & Shipley, 2005). The IQ factor can also be used to analyze the sanity level of a person in order to decide whether he is fit to be taken through a trial. There are many instances that people pretend to be insane so that they can be excused from a trial or they can be released on the basis of they were not in a sound mind when committing an offence. Who can’t do that anyway if would lead to freedom? Another aspect that I have been able to learn during my course is the personality factors and criminal behaviour. I now understand the various types of criminal behaviour such as the legal criminal behaviour that is punishable by law, moral criminal behaviour which violate religion and morality, and social criminal behaviours which are actions that go against traditions and customs. This unit also covered psychological criminal behaviour that involves actions that might be rewarding to one individual but causes pain or harm to others. Criminal behaviours are antisocial in nature and it’s vital for a forensic psychologist to understand in details all the mentioned types of criminal behaviours. This will enable me as a forensic psychologist in future to be able to categorize the criminal behaviours that my clients will be possessing in order to apply the best interrogative technique (Towl & Crighton, 2010). Risk factors in early childhood include instability in families, family financial background, hostile parent-child relationships, and lack of discipline administration by parents. I must say that studying of these opened my mind so much as it occurred to me that being a forensic psychologist involved more than having the job title. I even began appreciating the diversity in this course and how applicable it is in life. The learning of the personality factors was very interesting to me as it elaborated why various people commit certain offences. It had never occurred to me that criminal behaviour could be related to genetics or chromosomal patterns until I learnt this during the unit of personality factors. Other risk factors for criminal behaviour include hormonal imbalances, learning disabilities, hyperactivity, and low IQ (Arrigo & Shipley, 2005). Individual who posses these personality factors have higher chances of committing crime. Understanding the types of criminal behaviours is necessary in calculating crime rates in the society. The estimation of crime rates enables us to predict recidivism or future crime acts as indicated by arrests and re-arrests of offenders. In future I will use this information while writing crime reports where I will be required to categorize crime by type, and other factors such as gender, location, and age. The study of biological psychology has been vey helpful to me as it explained the relationship of genetic factors such as DNA and crime investigation. Biological psychology is about the internal and external factors that affect human behaviour (Arrigo & Shipley, 2005). To be sincere I never thought that forensic psychology will involve the study of biology in details but upon further studies I realized that it is almost practically impossible to study forensic psychology without a background in biological psychology. When we covered the unit about substance misuse and offending behaviour, I was able to connect to my neighborhood when I was young. There was this neighbour who was a drug addict. This made him to be violent when he was high and we had to avoid him literary by running away from him. One day he was caught molesting a young girl almost to a point of raping her. Another incidence was when a certain who was on drugs thought that his gun was a toy and pulled a trigger and killed his wife. He was arrested by police as was smiling sheepishly at the corpse. These are real life situation that show how misuse of drugs can influence human behaviour and the decision making process. When one is high on drugs there is high risk of committing an offence or a crime. The society that we live in is full of all forms of sex crimes. I must admit that this course has been very helpful to me because it has enabled to know the various types of sex offenders in the society and factors that lead them to engage in sex crime (Arrigo & Shipley, 2005). During my practical application of forensic psychology, I might encounter cases that involve sexual offenders. To get information from them requires knowledge and skills in analyzing how they behave which I have learnt in this course. Most of the sexual offenders opt to keep it a secret and so it requires an expert such as a forensic psychologist to be able to identify them. I have also come to learn that offenders who are aged 17 years and below are referred to as young offenders. Imprisoning this people is normally a last result as most of the times they are put in correction centers (Towl & Crighton, 2010). When dealing with a young offender a forensic psychologist may be required to us a different technique for interrogation than would be used for adults. This is due to the fact that their thinking is different and unless one gets to their level it might be difficult understand them. As a forensic psychologist it is also vital to understand the psychology of female offenders. This course has taught me on how to deal with female offenders and the tactics to use to deduce any information from them (Towl & Crighton, 2010). Female offenders tend to be emotional than male offenders and if certain approaches are used then it is easier to get almost any information from them Courts normally experience problems in dealing with violent offenders who in most times are mentally retarded or just stressed up. When I learnt about violent offenders and how to deal with them, it was an opportunity for me to at least understand some of the people that I would be dealing with. An ordinary judge or a lawyer will find it damn challenging to deal with a violent offender because containing him becomes a problem and they also have a general hatred towards other people. The unit that we covered about domestic and intimate partner violence was quite elaborate on how violence involving people in relationships, has become rampant in the contemporary society. This violence involves men, women, and teenagers who can either be in a heterosexual or a homosexual relationship (Arrigo & Shipley, 2005). I learnt that this relationship is about power and control where one partner in the relationship wants to control the other. The effect is that it affects the culprits emotionally, psychologically or physically. It is important for a forensic psychologist to understand how individuals involved in this kind of violence behave. The unit on psychology of terror was about the study of the terrorists’ mind to understand why they kill their victims. Generally it is not an easy task as terrorists will never volunteer for such studies. How terrorists define right and wrong is very different from the reality and their motivation for killing is based on very different principles. What I learnt in this unit is that terrorists are sane people who pursue their goals in a very rational manner. They have self esteem and follow orders from charismatic leadership. Suicide bombers in terrorism activities do not have fear of death and seem to enjoy taking risks. Modern technologies have led to the introduction of technological crimes that involve use of modern technologies such as computers. I learnt this in the unit named modern technologies and crime. Individuals with hidden motives may steal data about a company by getting access to computer database while pretending to be genuine employees (Arrigo & Shipley, 2005). Besides psychological testing, such criminals may be traced by the use of forensic DNA fingerprinting. Some of the technological crimes include hacking, introduction of computer viruses, bank frauds, money laundering, and software piracy. Working with offenders is another important unit that I have covered in my studies. Working with offenders involves a forensic psychologist being able to interact with various types of offenders such as violent offenders, young offenders, female offenders and other types of offenders (Towl & Crighton, 2010). This assists in learning how they behave under certain circumstances and the methods that psychologists can use to gather important information from them. The unit about Xmas did no appear to be very necessary to me at first until I came to understand its implication on psychology (Arrigo & Shipley, 2005). Xmas is more about happiness than material goods. Those who associate it with religious or spiritual meaning are likely to be happier than those who associate it with material gifts. Offenders profiling as I came to learn, is a process used by psychologists to predict the characteristics of an offender based on the information availed in a scene of crime. It assists psychologists in explaining the behavior of offenders and this improves crime detection through presentation of facts that are evidence based. Offender profiling is very significant to crime investigators as it might provide lead information. Offender profiling is also known criminal profiling. The unit on punishment vs treatment introduced how punishment can be used to correct a behavior. It involves change of environment to an offender that makes one to repeat a similar offence. The argument is that severe punishments may lead to recidivism where ex convicts repeat the same offences that lead them to prisons (Arrigo & Shipley, 2005). There are however some offenses that may require treatment more than punishment. This may include drug abuse and some mental illnesses. As a psychologist it is vital to understand which offenses require punishments and which ones can be corrected through treatment. Other than the coursework, I have also been taking parts in other co-curricular activities such as voluntary services to hospitals and community centers. This I believe has positive impact to the society and also gives me an opportunity to interact with people which is an important aspect of my course and career. I also participated in a field trip that was meant to expose us to practical forensic psychology and this made me see a bright future as this course is in high demand. As a forensic psychologist, I would like to base my career in courts where I shall be dealing with all types of offenders that I have covered through this course. With my interrogative nature and the passion that I have for this course, I think I will be a successful forensic psychologist who will assist in numerous crime investigations. I look forward to the continuation of this course into my third year where I intend to start my project early in the year. The project will hopefully focus on death investigation as I believe that will open up my creativity and will also require diverse application of forensic skills. References Arrigo, B. & Shipley, S. (2005). Introduction to forensic psychology: issues and controversies in crime and justice. London: Academic Press Towl, G., & Crighton, D. (2010). Forensic Psychology. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Read More