The application of scientific psychological knowledge and methods to legal questions, covering forensic assessments, competency evaluations, expert testimony, correctional psychology, and research on false confessions, interrogation practices, eyewitness testimony and cognitive bias. The American Psychological Association recognized it as a professional specialty by 2001.
Facts
What It ExaminesSourced to the subject's own accountThe application of psychological principles to legal issues: forensic assessments, competency evaluations, expert testimony, correctional psychology, criminal investigations, false confessions, interrogation practices, eyewitness testimony and cognitive bias. 1 Formalized YearSourced to the subject's own accountThe year the American Psychological Association recognized forensic psychology as a professional specialty; the American Psychology-Law Society itself was founded in 1969. Known LimitationSourced to the subject's own accountScholars question whether violence risk assessments are accurate enough to be relied upon for consequential legal decisions, since future behavior cannot be predicted with exactness and risk is always situation dependent. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Criminal profiling draws heavily on forensic psychology's account of offender behavior and cognition.
Sibling disciplines at the boundary of mental health and law; forensic psychiatry is medical, forensic psychology is not.
The American Psychological Association's own position on polygraph accuracy is part of the discipline's documented scientific controversy.
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