For this discussion, you will select one high-profile serial killer from real life or character from a television show, movie, book, game, etc. Briefly describe this person/character, including the medium (real life, television, movie, book, etc.) from which he or she comes, why you selected him or her, and his or her background and the background of the crimes he or she committed. Based on your reading this week, describe how forensic psychology could have been helpful in this case. Identify trends in forensic psychology that would prove helpful. Discuss why profiling is or is not a science. Examine the similarities and differences between what you have read about forensic psychologists' work and the way television and movies presents their work sharing your insights. ?????
FYI:
Forensic Psychology: is defined as the research and application of psychological knowledge to the legal system. The term forensic refers to anything pertaining or potentially pertaining to law, both civil and criminal. The forensic pathologist examines the bodies of crime victims for clues about the victim's demise. Forensic anthropologists and forensic pathologists often work in conjunction with homicide investigators to identify a decedent; discover evidence of foul play; and help establish the age, sex, height, ancestry, and other unique features of a decedent from skeletal remains. Forensic entomology, is the study of insects (and their arthropod relatives) as it relates to legal issues. These careers have been popularized in television shows such as CSI, Bones, and NCIS.
You don't have to be a forensic psychologist to work in the world of forensic psychology! The work settings in which forensic psychologists are found include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Private practice
- Family courts, drug courts, and mental health courts
- Child protection agencies
- Victim services
- Domestic violence courts and programs
- Forensic mental health units (governmental or private)
- Sex offender treatment programs
- Correctional institutions (including research programs)
- Law enforcement agencies (federal, state, or local)
- Research organizations (governmental or private)
- Colleges and universities (teaching or research)
- Juvenile delinquency treatment programs
- Legal advocacy centers (e.g., for the mentally ill or developmentally disabled)
Aggressioncan take a number of different forms and appear across a range of contexts. It is certainly not abehaviorrestricted to a single individual or culture: it is universal. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) Stated that even within the most beautiful landscape, in the trees, under the leaves the insects are eating each other; violence is a part of life. One element is clear, and this is that aggression causes significant distress and harm, a fact captured well by Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), who stated: " I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent". (Davey, 2011, 293)
This is not to say that aggression is inevitable. Humans should not accept that violence and aggression are the norm, rather they remain behaviors that continue to fascinate scholars and practitioners interested in reducing the occurrence of aggression and its after-effects. It is also a core element of forensic psychology practice, where assessments, interventions and research tend to focus largely on aggression, whether this is overt aggression (e.g. sexual offending, general violence including assaults and robbery) or more subtle forms of aggression of the person (e.g. harassment) or relating to possessions (e.g. criminal damage). (Davey, 2011, p 292)
Criminal Profiling
Victims of Crime
"Psychological reactions after criminal victimization tend to be more severe than to other types of trauma. Psychological reactions include shock, numbness, denial and severe anxiety." (Davey, 2011) As psychologists working with victims, we need to be aware of wider societal attitudes towards victims of crime. Your text states that we are "programmed to seek the causes of events, especially if they are unusual, traumatic or unexpected." Take for example the traffic jams caused by "onlookers", even though all the lanes are open in the road! As therapists we use cognitive behavioral counseling to help victims of crimes change their faulty thinking and address guilt or blame they carry about possibly causing the event. Many symptoms can result from traumatic events - experiences that involve a threat of death or serious injury and evoke fear, helplessness, or horror. Apart from depression and complicated grief, the main effect is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It lasts for at least a month and has three kinds of symptoms:
- Reliving the experience in nightmares, intrusive memories, flashbacks, and physical reactions to anything that serves as a reminder of the experience.
- Efforts to avoid people, places, activities, feelings, and thoughts that bring the experience to mind; loss of interest in everyday activities;
feelings of emotional numbness and estrangement; inability to recall aspects of the experience.
- Heightened arousal or vigilance, as indicated by irritability, angry outbursts, insomnia, poor concentration, and a tendency to be easily startled and constantly on guard.
"Many people who have been criminally victimized do not tell anyone about their experience. Many suffer in silence, never reporting their experience to the police, medical or psychological services, or even friends and family, out of fear that they will not be believed or will be blamed, or because they feel ashamed about what happened to them." (Davey, 2011, pg 257) But not everyone who has suffered a trauma or been the victim of a crime will develop PTSD. Victims of may center their lives around a trauma in undesirable ways, but others believe they have learned from a traumatic experience and found new meaning in their lives.
Resilience is the rule rather than the exception, both emotionally and physically.