Forensic Assessment Principle Paper

How must it be to live in a criminal mind? How must it be to completely loose the sense of normality? I heartily believe that Forensic Psychology holds the key which opens an entire world of psychopathologies, mental deformities, twisted thoughts and repressed needs of bestiality. Besides letting you sink into the most dangerous minds, it gives you the armament to combat everything hiding in there- knowledge.

At national, state, and local levels, there is increasing recognition of the importance of identifying and responding to the mental health needs of youths in the juvenile justice system, as policymakers and practitioners struggle to find ways to address causes and correlates of juvenile crime and delinquency. The proposed guidelines for mental health assessment provide explicit information about how, why, and when to obtain mental health information on justice youths at each important juncture in processing.

Nearly anyone you ask would be familiar with the television show CSI. The crime lab is colorful and high-tech with all of the fun toys and machines that analysts use to test the ever abundant amount of forensic evidence from every crime scene. It makes for an exciting drama that you cannot help but get immersed in—it also gives us a false illusion, however, creating what has been dubbed as the “CSI effect” (Baskin, 2011). This effect describes the idea that crime shows such as CSI generate unreal expectations, making viewers believe that forensic evidence should be existent in all criminal trials, therefore affecting their overall perspective on a case (Baskin, 2011). But in reality, forensic labs are not that glamorous. In fact, the

Besides the psychological side of the evaluation it is necessary for the forensic psychologist to record and gather information on the client. For instance: Clinical and collateral interviews need to be conducted, parent-child observation, and psychological testing. The psychologist for the most part might have to testify in court to discuss the different points related to the findings of the evaluation. Whether the forensic evaluator is working for the prosecution or the defendant side the work is still equally

The Insanity defense is mentioned as confusing to the psychiatric and legal concept. Furthermore, it is explained that the word “insane” is more of a legal word, then a medical term, and therefor to prove a person or a criminal insane, one must find the mental condition, of a criminal, severely impaired to the point of losing one’s free will. A psychiatrist may be or may not able to determine such illness, and a jury’s decision solely based on a psychiatrists’ opinion may be grounded on unreliable evidence. Retrieved from; West's Encyclopedia of American Law, edition 2 (2008).

In order to successfully treat juvenile offender we must first understand the different factors that contributed to their criminal behavior. We know that there is no underlined path to juvenile offending

Defense counsel has asked this Court to compel the government to disclose the Forensic Peer Review dated August 5, 2014, from the government’s digital evidence file. Defense counsel asserts that the requested document is discoverable under Brady because the document will provide impeachment evidence of the test results obtained by Digital evidence examiner, Gregory Norman (“Norman”) using the Lantern v4 tool. To support its’ contention, defense counsel notes that there is no distinction between exculpatory and impeachment evidence for purposes of Brady disclosure requirements. See Bagley, 473 U.S. 667; Kyles, 514 U.S. at 433 (citing there is no “difference between exculpatory and impeachment evidence” when it comes to the prosecutor's duty

Answer the following questions, which are based upon the first four modules of the course.

1). Forensic Psychology is the application of the theories of psychology to law and the legal system. Issues of violence and its impact on individuals and/or groups delineate the main and central concerns in Forensics within the adult, juvenile, civil, and family domains. Forensic psychologists provide advice to legislators, judges, correctional officers, lawyers, and the police. They are called upon, for example, to serve as an expert witness, diagnose and treat incarcerated and probationed offenders, and screen and evaluate personnel in the law enforcement and judicial systems. Forensics encompasses a wide range of academic orientation. Synonyms for Forensic psychologists include criminal psychologist,

“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have a right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you.” These are the words every juvenile hears as they are being taken into custody. Many juveniles do not understand or misinterpret the Miranda warning they are given. Juvenile are treated with a lesser degree of harshness from wording to punishment when dealing with law enforcement in comparison to adults. But while being interrogated, in some states juveniles are treated the same as adults once they waive their Miranda rights. Juveniles giving false confessions due to the psychological techniques that are used on adults is a concern of the juvenile courts. The severity and sort of the questions causes them to admit crimes that they didn’t commit because they may be trying to give the answer that they think the interrogator desires. This paper will discuss how interrogation worked before many important cases took place and Miranda rights were placed. Next, the type of techniques police officers use when interrogating a juvenile currently. Lastly, the Reid Method on interrogations’ and the reasons behind juveniles giving false confessions.

In order for forensic psychology to be available to the court systems in today’s estate, individuals need to seek specialized schooling to obtain this specific job. In recent years, there have been some specialized forensic training programs. Forensic psychologist can be trained in clinical, social, developmental, cognitive, or any other psychology subdicipline (Shams, 2010). Also, forensic psychologists are able to work within jails and prison settings, but they can also work with a wide range of youth in contact with the court system who are not incarcerated (Shams, 2010). Forensic psychologist can also work in juvenile court clinics that are typically housed within the courthouse setting and they are able to see a range of youth at different points in the civil and criminal justice system for a variety of mental health issues including those who are an emergency risk assessment (Shams, 2010). According to the American Psychology, there are now 18 graduate programs that offer either a Ph.D. or Psy.D. with a major in forensic psychology or a joint J.D. /Ph.D. or Psy.D. degree program. In addition, numerous graduate programs in psychology now offer some coursework in forensic psychology as an elective. The vast majority of forensic psychologists in practice, however, have received training as clinical or counseling psychologists and then added forensic training sometime

Koehler et al. were attempting to discover how jurors with no expertise in the areas of laws and science (a.k.a 'lay jurors') are influenced by expert testimonies by forensic science experts through two experiments.

Prior to the discovery in 1983 of the polymerase chain reaction by Kary Mullis, forensic police work was very different. Before the discovery, partial or scant DNA recovery from a crime scene meant that there was little chance of matching evidence to a suspect. However with modern day PCR, even partial DNA can be replicated many times in order facilitate repeated testing. With abundant evidence it is more likely a match will be made. PCR is like a copy machine for DNA (Nobel). A very small amount of the DNA strand comprises the Genetic Fingerprint. That small section is specific to the individual only.

While strictly enforcing existing laws would result in immediate action to reduce crime, at best this approach could only produce short-term results since it does not address the underlying social issues concerning the reasons why certain communities experience high levels of crime. In a peer-review journal article, Acikkol, Mercan, and Ziyalar (2011) take the position that there are two basic approaches to addressing crime, either forensically or socially. In the forensic approach, evidence is gathered, eye-witnesses are interviewed, and a case is made to prosecute the offender. This approach is punitive in nature since it seeks to punish the offender. Law breakers pose a threat to society that must be appropriately addressed, yet the forensic

Forensic science is the utilization of scientific and technological principles in the investigation of crimes in order to enable courts to ascertain the culpability of the accused. Yet with great strides being made in the fields of science and technology new methods are needed in order to properly bring perpetrators to justice, thus for the analysis of forensic evidence science and technology has provided many new tools that have assisted law enforcement firms in the solving of several cases thought to be unsolvable. Among these tools is the the controversial and influential analysis of the material makeup of most organism's genetic code called deoxyribonucleic acid or more commonly known as DNA. This study of DNA within the forensic science