Chapter 4 - Forensic Psychology, Forensic Psychiatry, and Criminal Profiling: The Mental Health Professional's Contribution to Criminal Profiling

Abstract

Forensic psychology and psychiatry involve the application of behavioral sciences to legal questions. Common psycholegal questions that forensic-mental-health professionals answer involve risk for future sexual offense, recidivism, competency to stand trial, and criminal responsibility/sanity at the time of the offense. In addition, forensic psychologists and psychiatrists, with their knowledge of human behavior, can add a unique perspective to ongoing investigations in the form of offender profiling. Forensic psychologists and psychiatrists are specifically trained mental-health professionals with set levels of education, patient contact, licensure, and certification. Not everyone who calls himself or herself a psychologist, or a forensic psychologist, in the profiling community can meet these standards. Those employing profilers should be particularly wary of those who cloak their advice in psychological garb to imply legitimacy, including so-called investigative psychologists and psychics. Forensic psychologists and psychiatrists have a unique understanding of and training in mental processes, physiology, thinking, human behavior, and psychopathology. Because of this, forensic-mental-health professionals can be well positioned to acquire further education related to investigations and the forensic sciences, thereby allowing them to review available evidence and to offer an informed assessment of the kind of individual who may have committed a particular criminal act. However, they are also bound to operate within set ethical limits and guidelines.