What is Forensic Psychology? video transcript

Forensic psychology is incredibly interesting because it’s about people, it’s about evidence, risk.

It’s about understanding people, understanding why they’ve offended and working towards a way for that person to lead a better life.

Personality assessments, there’s developmental psychology there, there’s cognitive psychology, there’s statistical research thinking, there’s practical applications. You can really see how the knowledge is being applied and how it makes a difference. Really got two roles. One is to be good at research and to generate evidence and the other one is to be good with people, engage people motivate people.

I worked on a project in Glasgow which was about giving a parenting intervention for men who have been convicted of intimate partner abuse. One the reasons that men might want to change their behaviour is that they want to be good Dads and they don’t want to be doing what their Dads had done to them. Five years down the line, we had fantastic feedback. The kids were able to try and be noisy round the Dad without being scared. About 55 families came through that project, that’s 55 people who are safer with better experiences and more importantly 55 children who probably don't have the risk factors to go onto perpetrate. There's always good in everybody and if you can pick that out and work with that and take steps forward, it really does make a difference.

One of the things that I find are really rewarding is seeing people change. And that’s both staff and prisoners. With prisoners moving from a place of relative instability to somewhere where they can lead a better at life and a good life. It is really heartening to see.

I'm a trainee forensic psychologist in a low secure unit for adult males. I work with people who have been sectioned under the Mental Health Act and may have a history of offending behaviour. I will meet with the service users to carry out an assessment of their psychological needs and then develop care and treatment plans from there.

Finding a way to engage people that are difficult, that’s always the part that’s interested me the most. A case of someone that I work with a long time ago, he assault members of staff on a daily basis and so we thought about a way to engage that person successfully and it really worked.

I primarily work with families and children, especially looking at the development of criminality. That led me into working with the World Health Organisation. We were particularly concerned over the numbers of children who were placed in institutional environments so we produced a report which went to the UN general assembly in New York. 193 member states agreed not to place a child under 3 years of age in institutional care to reduce the damage especially to the developing brain. You would never dream forensic child psychology would take you around the world.

I had one young man who I went to go and see about coming on a fire setting course. And he said to me I didn't do it. I didn't do it. There's no point in coming on and course. He came on the program and week 2 he decided to come clean with everyone and tell them the truth about what he’d done said I lied to Theresa I thought she would leave me alone, but she showed me that someone does actually care and that young man has gone on, he’s been released from prison and he's doing really well, and he hasn't reoffended so it's those types of success story really bring a smile to my face because that's what forensic psychology is about.

It's really rewarding when you feel that perhaps somebody has moved on in the right way and it’s probably what makes it such a fascinating career.

What we need in forensic psychology is a variety of people from various backgrounds and genders to address the problems and needs of both offenders and victims.

I love my job. I find it interesting. I find it exciting. Every day is different.

One of the reasons why I joined is to have that connection with people and get to know them better and get to know what’s life about.

Sometimes they will contact me after they’ve been released and say thanks for that, I feel like my life is back on the straight and narrow and I'm not going to harm anyone else and that really is you know what more can you ask for in a job?

What is Forensic Psychology? video

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