Hammad Altaf

Forensic Psychology and our Legal System

Law is an enormous term. It is evergrowing in its scope and not perfectly defined in its nature. As a subject it is as colossal as the term itself. In the context of my discussion, Law is synonymous to the man made laws. In todays society, the laws (other then customs and laws through agreements) are product of assigned and authorized person(s) or body(s). The modern legislation is a political, sociological, geographical, technical and hence a very sensitive issue. It is because the field of law is a directly interlinked with every man who is a part of the society (or even if not, in certain cases). In our part of the world or to be prcised; in our country, laws and lawmaking (including the judgments given courts i.e. Precedents etc...) has never been scarce of controversies, difficulties, inefficiencies and other miscellaneous problems. Yet, sociological, political, geographical and to some extent technical aspects are considered. BUT, there are two rudiments or aspects which have never been intentionally taken into consideration while legislation or administered by our courts and judges, these are Forensic psychologyand LegalPhilosophy (not strictly jurisprudence) Its application and role will be discussed later but first we got to know that what does it really mean?

Meaning of the term

Forensic Psychology is a term which again does not have one universally accepted definition. Its scope has also been subject of debate of various psychologists. But it will be easy for us to understand its meaning and basic content if we look at it etymologically. The word "forensic" comes from the Latin word "forensis," meaning "of the forum," where the law courts of ancient Rome were held. Today forensic refers to the application of scientific principles and practices to the adversary process where especially knowledgeable scientists play a role. The root of word Psychology is psyche which means soul and spirit in Greek. But in practice Psychology is study of mind, thought and behavior. Thus, it is the application of the science and profession of psychology to questions and issues relating to law and the legal system Defining Forensic psychology Various authors define it in accordance to the different functions that it serves. For instance; That branch of applied psychology which is concerned with the collection, examination and presentation of evidence for judicial purposes (Harward 1981) The provision of psychological information for the purpose of facilitating a legal decision (Blackburn 1996) The broad definition, is that forensic psychology is "the development and application of psychological principles to the problems and administration of legal, judicial, correctional, and law enforcement systems; clearly rooted in the discipline of psychology and its subfields, but also

interdisciplinary in nature, drawing on diverse disciplines such as the law, sociology, political science, anthropology, philosophy, medicine, and linguistics." [ John Jay College website, 2005]

What Forensic psychology practically is? The practice of forensic psychology creates a great deal of confusion for many people. The average individuals (even professionals of the field of law) are notsure about the role a forensic psychologist and how it can serve the courts, attorneys, and their clients. When most individuals hear the word forensic, they automatically think of homicide reconstruction, blood analysis or other crime scene related topics. The word forensic is simply defined as relating to or dealing with the application of scientific knowledge to legal problems. There are forensic pathologists, criminologists, scientist, and so on. The role of a forensic psychology is to educate the trier of fact on a legal matter. A forensic practice does not provide treatment, but examines subjects based on referral objectives set forth by the legal system.

Forensic psychology, its application and insertion in our legal system

The easiest way to apply and explain the field is to break down the criminal justice system into its own sub-components and see where psychological knowledge can be applied to these areas.

In the Criminal Investigation

Forensic Psychologists can play a number of key roles in a criminal investigation. Immediately following a crime a forensic psychologist may be asked to act as a criminal profiler. Criminal profiling involves the psychologist (though all profilers are not psychologists) using his understanding of human behavior and motivation so that he/she can create a psychological profile of the offender. From observations of the crime scene one can infer the behavioral characteristics of the individual who created it. In turn, profilers use their knowledge of which the typical offender is that bears these characteristics and then predicts how the investigators can expect the offender to behave in the future.

Within the Police Stations

In western society psychological knowledge has been applied to areas of investigative police work and police interrogation to the police line-up. Both of these areas have prospered greatly from psychological research. One may also find a Police Psychologist working with the officers. Other jobs can be performed, such as: Provide counseling to officers, Aid in the evaluation of prospective applicants, Provide crisis counseling for crime victims.

In The Court System

Again in the western court system, Forensic Psychologists are frequently used for both criminal and civil cases. In the criminal realm, the forensic psychologist is often asked to assess competency. Competency assessments can serve a number of purposes. First, a defendant can be assessed for the ability to stand trial and/or to make legal decisions on their own behalf. These evaluations are carried out when the defendant appears to suffer from a mental defect, such as an acute psychiatric disorder (i.e., schizophrenia) or a mental disability (i.e., mental retardation).

Secondly, and more importantly Psychologists may also be asked to make an evaluation regarding the defendant's mental state at the time of the offence. The entire "not guilty by reason of insanity" defence relies on the psychological evaluation of a defendant's inability to form criminal intent. On Civil side frequently, people forget about the applications of forensic psychology. Often a forensic psychologist is asked to make evaluations of defendants or plaintiffs disability or level of trauma. From these evaluations the court can decide whether compensatory damages should be provided. Civil-Forensic Psychologists also work on child custody, sexual harassment, and immigration cases. I want to elaborate their role somewhat, as in respect of American and European system, where it is being exercised from some time now; F.Rs (Forensic psychologists) serves in family law arena as mediator between divorced parents who remain in dispute about the needs and interests of their children. F.Rs provide Courts with analysis relevant to questions of criminal insanity. They help Courts decide whether or not sex offenders are likely to re-offend or whether or not they are dangerous. They provide information and recommendations necessary for sentencing purposes. Forensic psychologists are routinely called upon in death penalty cases to provide analysis of the intentions, motivations and personality characteristics of the accused. In juvenile courts, F.Rs are often asked to help in determining whether or not young offenders can be rehabilitated.

Help to Lawyers
They will inform the lawyer of potential questions that could stump a witness or set him/her off on a tantrum. This can be very influential in a trial

Forensic Psychiatric Facilities

In advance countries most Forensic Psychologists work either in a correctional institution (i.e., prison, jail, or juvenile hall) or in a psychiatric hospital. In this environment they perform a number of important roles. One of the most essential roles is therapeutic intervention. The Forensic Psychologist in these institutions will often provide a range of therapies in order to control or eliminate the psychiatric disorder that has led to the offenders criminal acts. The success of the practice is highly dependant on the nature of the disorder. Certain disorders (i.e., obsessions, schizophrenia, bipolar depression, addictions) can be correlated to criminal behavior and can often be treated satisfactorily; others (i.e., sociopath, psychopath) are far less successfully controlled. Thus, the services include: Parent-child family counseling Parenting skills training Anger management Divorce adjustment counseling for children and/or adults Parental communication skills training Counseling of individuals who violate restraining orders Counseling juveniles on probation Supportive counseling for the victims of crimes

Counseling of individuals awaiting trial Counseling adults on probation Anger management skills training for violent offenders Counseling and psychotherapy for sexual offenders

History of Forensic Psychology

Usually, the historical aspect of a particular topic or subject for that matter is described first. But, I intentionally inserted it later so that we may first get some idea of what the subject really is. Now let us see how did it evolved. In 1908, Hugo Munsterberg published the book On the Witness Stand. It was about eyewitness testimony and juries and arguably the first book on forensic psychology. Few consider the German William Stern's publication of the first journal or periodical dealing with forensic psychology, called Betrage zur Psychologie der Aussage. In 1916, Lewis Terman, a Stanford psychologist, began to apply psychology to law enforcement. He revised Alfred Binet's intelligence tests and formed the Stanford-Binet intelligence test. These tests were used to assess the intelligence of thirty applicants for the police and firefighting jobs in San Jose, CA. In the United States, the first psychological experiment on the psychology of testimony was conducted by J. McKeen Cattell of Columbia University. The history of the insanity defense goes back to England, to the case of Daniel M'Naghten in 1843, who shot and killed the secretary of the prime minister, and the M'Naghten test for insanity was used in many countries, including the U.S., up until 1962. In American criminology, personality theorists such as Hans Eysenck (1916-1997) and a variety of other people contributed to prison psychology and police psychology. Most notable among them was Hans Toch, founder of the SUNY-Albany school of criminal justice in the late 1960s and the John Jay College of criminal justice which has broadened the education in this field. The application of psychology in law and law enforcement continued throughout the 1920's and 1930's. The demand for psychologists in the legal system has grown considerably over the past several decades. Currently, almost 2,000 psychologists belong to the American psychology -Law Society.

Law and psychology

Law and psychology can never be alienated; they have a lot in common. The study of both the subjects, in one way and another focuses the human behavior and both tries to find means to control them. The man made laws are product of human brain, while human brain is controlled by a particular psychology. The reason why people (subjects) always does not accept the validity of a particular law is because of the conflict of their psychology with that particular law. Psychology plays or shall play a vital role in legal arena for times to come. Forensic Psychology is the branch which deals with the law. I have discussed earlier the variety of functions and tasks it performs for the legal system. But I am of view that its scope is wider than seen and its importance is greater then what is utilized.

Pakistan and field Psychology

To start with, in our society or country, Psychologists are as avoided as police. The role of psychologists is awfully misunderstood and immensity of the scope of the subject is unknown. This usually goes with majority of the social sciences. This has to do with the literacy rate some what, which is 42.7% (source: Central Intelligence Agency, US). Other factors play as important role such as; traditional views, obedience towards customs and lack of organizational activities. Speaking of organizations, there hardly exists any prominent society or association with exceptional contribution towards the department, in the country. Still I must admit their efforts in this hostile enviourment. Following are the associations which directly or indirectly deal with the subject, in Pakistan: Pakistan Psychological Association in Lahore and The Council of Social Sciences, Pakistan (COSS) which was formed in late 1999. Yet there is no association for forensic psychology in Pakistan as there exists in west e.g. American Board of Forensic Psychology formed in 1949. Only about 300 psychologists are registered with the Pakistan Psychological Association and the ratio of those who specialized in Forensic, are nominal.

Forensic Psychology (F.P) to be applied in our Legal System

Law and psychology are much interlinked. Advanced countries with well established legal system assessed the requirement of involvement of F.P and soon dissolved it well. As a contrast, our nation never realized its need and never intentionally applied efforts. So far the traces of F.P we see in our legal system is merely inherited. Forensic psychology can do considerable good to our system through its insertion in; Judicial system Police And even Legislation It is not necessary to explain that how would it help us in our legal system, as it is already explained earlier. But its role in our society still needs some arguments. I will try to highlight few points as under; Criminal law in Pakistan needs few reforms. Quite laws require more efficiency as the criminals often escapes the true or appropriate punishment they deserves. There should be certain scale for determining the punishment, not only considering the nature but the intensity of offence as well. Law of torts has always been under shadowed in our society. One way to enforce it is by help of F.P. If we take the example of Law of Defamation, we will find that the basic obstacle revolves around determining the nature/amount of loss occurred by the plaintiff in respect to his person. Then, what should be the amount of damages, as in; i. The compensation deserved by the plaintiff, and ii. Sufficiency to penalize the defendant. The judges with help of forensic psychologists can come to a better and more accurate conclusion regarding mental state of both defendant and plaintiff.

On necessary matters Forensic psychologist and even other social scientists shall be called to assist in all legislation on all levels i.e. The Parliament, Provincial Assemblies and so on Well, Forensic psychology is definitely required in various other departments of our legal system such as police investigations etc Where and how to apply it, is rather tricky to explain but what is easy to explain is that it is hardly applied here.

Concluding thought
We discussed a very technical and vague subject i.e. Forensic psychology is hardly a century old concept as we compare it to the theories of law, philosophy and other psychological domains having traces in antiquity. Yet its importance is not to be ignorable. Western nations e.g. U.S.A and U.K recognized the potential of the subject and used it to great effect. Their criminal investigations are lethal, their civil judicial decrees are accurate, their legislation is popular and sense of obedience of law is greater due a better legal system. Today their legal system is rather superior as compared to ours due to elements and factors such as these. The problems of legal system of Pakistan are fundamental. To re-establish it, lots of steps are required as numerous obstacles exist. We are pressed by the high levels of corruption, incompetence and unawareness of people associated with the legal system, thus, causing faithlessness, grievance and frustration to the people affected by it, in short every one of us. Forensic psychology might not be the only or even the best weapon to remove inefficiency and improve the standard of our legal system but it would positively bring some credibility to it. This will cause in the proper utilization of our resources (in shape of psychologists) and a trend of analytical research analysis will take place. We need our laws, judgments and investigations to be more in accordance with logic and reality and this is what we been striving for and what we deserved. In the future, instead of striving to be right at a high cost, it will be more appropriate to be flexible and plural at a lower cost. If you cannot accurately predict the future then you must flexibly be prepared to deal with various possible futures. Edward de Bono