CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
► Understand the definition of forensic psychology.
► Know the major issues in the education and training of forensic psychologists.
► Appreciate the ethical obligations of forensic psychologists.
KEY TERMS
Attorney-Client Privilege Legal Immunity
Legal Duty Breach of Duty
Plaintiff Defendant
Clinical prediction Actuarial prediction
Dynamic factors Static factors
LECTURE NOTES
Roles and Responsibilities of Forensic Psychologists
Forensic psychology is the application of the scientific and professional aspects of psychology to
questions and issues relating to the law and the legal system. Forensic psychology often involves
the overlapping relationship between clinical practice, experimental research, and the law.
Examples of schools which offer combination PhD-JD degrees include Arizona State University,
Drexel University, Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, and the University of Florida.
Post-doctoral fellowships in forensic psychology offer forensic training to psychologists who
already have doctoral degrees.
The American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) offers “board certification” in forensic
psychology as well as in 12 other areas of psychology. Such a certification is NOT needed to
practice, but does give “boarded” psychologists a competitive advantage.
Testimonial evidence involves witnesses speaking under oath. It could be a lay witness where
someone has personal knowledge of a matter, or an expert witness where someone offers an
expert opinion.
Evidence is admitted into testimony via the rules of evidence of that particular jurisdiction.
Daubert is generally equivalent to the Federal Rules of Evidence (Rule 702). Testimony can be
admitted under Daubert or “Rule 702” even if it did not gain acceptance in the scientific
community, if in the trier of law’s opinion, it would assist the trier of fact in understanding the
facts of a case. Does this allow in junk science? Or does it make room for scientific procedures
that have not been around long enough to gain general acceptance?
These source documents provide guidelines for psychologists engaged in forensic work:
Ethical principles of psychologists (APA)
Specialty guidelines for forensic psychologists (CEGFP)
American Board of Professional Psychology
Society for law and psychology
What are the circumstances when it might be necessary to breach confidentiality?
What are the limits of confidentiality when a clinician is faced with a patient who threatens to
harm others?
Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California (1974, 1976) holds that a therapist has a duty
to use reasonable care to give threatened persons such warnings as are essential to avoid
foreseeable danger arising from a patient’s condition.
Brady v. Hopper (1984) held that there is no duty to warn if events are not foreseeable and no
direct threats are made. This case involved John Hinckley who revealed to his psychiatrist his
identification with the assassin in the movie “Taxi Driver” and who possessed guns, but made no
threats against President Reagan or anyone else.
There has been a debate within psychology of using clinical judgment versus relying on data to
assess dangerousness.
Clinical judgments = human judgments
Actuarial judgments = statistically-based judgments
SUMMARY
Forensic psychology is the application of scientific psychology to the legal system and
legal issues. Within forensic psychology there is an overlapping relationship between clinical
practice, research and the law. There are about eight graduate training programs which offer
doctoral degrees in forensic psychology or clinical psychology with a forensic concentration.
Thirteen graduate programs offer degrees in a closely related field such as psychology and law.
In addition to rules of evidence and statutory requirements, psychologists are bound by
ethical principles. The primary source documents that guide psychologists doing forensic work
are the American Psychological Association’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of
Conduct (APA; 2002) and the Specialty Guidelines for Forensic Psychologists (Committee on
Ethical Guidelines for Forensic Psychologists (“CEGFP”, 1991) from Division 41 of the
American Psychological Association.
There are times when a forensic psychologist, by way of his/her involvement with the
courts and the legal system, is asked to make predictions regarding the future dangerousness of
an individual. Such predictions are notoriously difficult (if not impossible) to make with any
significant degree of accuracy. There is some disagreement within forensic psychology
regarding the relative efficacy of clinical versus actuarial (statistical) forms of assessments when
predicting such dangerousness. The research clearly points to the superiority of actuarial
methods, but many forensic psychologists seem comfortable with their clinical judgments, and
there is research to support the notion that juries are more influenced by clinical opinion expert
testimony over more accurate actuarial opinion expert testimony.
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. What are the two doctoral degrees normally awarded in forensic psychology?
2. What is an expert witness, and how is this different from other witnesses?
3. What are the basic holdings of the Frye and Daubert standards?