Legal and Forensic Issues in Psychology — An Introduction

Abstract

The involvement of clinical psychologists in forensic issues is not new, as indeed is unsurprising given the reliance of the law upon psychological concepts (e.g. “intent”). In recent years, however, there has been an increasing scope for the psychologist concerned with the workings of the law. Such an increase has, in the United Kingdom, been reflected in such things as the establishment by the British Psychological Society of a Division specifically concerned with such issues, the Division of Criminological and Legal Psychology, established in 1977.