Preview

forensic psychology

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
343 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
forensic psychology
Forensic psychology is concerned with how psychology applies to the criminal justice system. Psychologists interested in this line of applied work may be found working in prisons, jails, rehabilitation centers, police departments, law firms, schools, government agencies. They may work directly with attorneys, defendants, offenders, victims or with patients within the state's corrections or rehabilitation centers.

So i’m gonna focus on the role of psychology that shaped the jail policies. One of the event that changed the way people were treated in prisons for the last 25-30 years was the stanford prison experiment.
Stanford experiment was conducted in 1973 by craig haney and Philip zimbardo. A group of healthy, normal college students were temporily but dramatically transformed in the course of six days spent in a prison like environment. Emotionally strong college students, they suffered acute psychological trauma and breakdowns. The guards too who also had been carefully chosen on the basis of their normal average scores on variety of personal measures quickly internalized their randomly assigned role. The goal in conducting the SPE was to extend that basic perspective- emphasizing the potency of social situations. The study represented an experimental demonstration of the extraordinary power of institutional environments to influence those who passed through them. The behavior of the prisoners and guards in the simulated environment had a remarkable similarity to patterns found in actual prisons.
Despite the fact that guards and prisoners were essentially free to engage in any form of interaction, the characteristic nature of their encounters tended to be negative, hostile and dehumanizing. Specifically, verbal interactions were of threats and insults. It showed that psychologically healthy individuals could become sad and depressed when placed in a prison-like environment.The experiment was conducted in the basement hallway of Stanford university and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    In discussions of the Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by Philip G. Zimbardo in 1970, one controversial issue has been whether or not the experiment should have ever been attempted. On the one hand, Dr. Zimbardo and his colleagues argued that the experiment gave them a deeper understanding of human suffering and a greater empathy for their fellow man (Ratnesar 2011). On the other hand, one of the former guards contended that the experiment made him more hostile and less sympathetic during his time as a guard and that the circumstances significantly altered his perception of what was appropriate behavior. Others even maintain that the prison experiment degraded the prisoners so greatly, empowered the guards to such a great extent, and even affected Dr. Zimbardo’s behavior and mannerisms so dramatically that it thoroughly altered their sense of…

    • 1846 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the infamous experiment in the history of psychology was the Stanford Prison Experiment. Its creator, Dr. Zimbardo, main objective was to see what effects would occur when a psychological experiment into human nature was performed. As I began to perform some research of my own, I noticed that my thoughts on the matter were similar to many; that as a scientific research project, Mr. Zimbardo’s experiment it was a complete failure. However, his findings did provide us with something that was much more important that is still being talked about today; insight into human psychology and social behavior.…

    • 176 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Stanford Prison Experiment had several important implications. One of which derives from average males that were so drastically affected under the burdens of being placed in a confinement setting. When these outcomes are correlated to the much more long- term and harshness of a real prison, you can only imagine the adverse effects on the real criminals serving jail…

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    A team at Stanford University, led by Phillip Zimbardo, conducted the Stanford Prison Experiment to investigate causes of conflict between military guards and prisoners. Zimbardo and his team were seeking to observe the inherent personality traits of prisoners and guards and see if this was the chief cause of abusive behavior in these settings (Haney, Banks, and Zimbardo, 1973). This study is one that is well know and well-recognized. Zimbardo and his study are often discussed in many psychology courses today, and have even caused reform in prison systems as well as IRB/APA ethical committees.…

    • 1783 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The use of psychology in law enforcement is becoming more and more prevalent in today’s society. With a desire to understand the underlying concepts of why an individual acted in the method they did has helped us to understand how we might be able to treat similar cases. Within the confines of the criminal justice system, we relate primarily to three key areas: law enforcement, corrections and the courts. Each of these areas affords us different opportunities to expand our knowledge and use of psychology. Psychologists have become more than just an excuse for the defense; they now assist on multiple levels of the system. From profiling a potential multiple offender’s modus operandi to assessing the best interest of a child in a divorce proceeding. The findings affect all facets of the system, and it is the responsibility of the psychologist to ensure that they present pure, unbiased information for use by the system in an attempt to ensure justice prevails. (Greene, Heilbrun, Fortune, & Nietzel, 2007)…

    • 1338 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 1971 Phillip Zimbardo conducted a controversial study know as the Stanford prison experiment. The experiment was a psychological study of human reactions to being imprisoned and how the effects would interfere with the normal behaviors of both authorities and the inmates in prison. Zimbardo and his team hypothesized “that prison guards and convicts were self selecting of a certain disposition that would naturally lead to poor conditions.” Zimbardo used undergraduate volunteers to play the roles of the guards and the prisoners in a mock prison he created in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. He then recorded how both the prisoners and guards quickly adapted to their roles, and soon this lead to one-third of the authorities taking place in sadistic acts towards the prisoners, which was argued to have lead to psychologically harmful situations. Due to the appalling conditions of the prison, both sanitarily and psychologically the experiment ended on August 30, 1971 just six days after it began, which was eight days short of the foresighted fourteen days it was supposed to have lasted. Many similarities in the ethical concerns of the Stanford experiment were found in the Milgram experiment which was conducted in 1961 by Stanley Milgram one of Zimbardo’s high school friends.…

    • 704 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Zimbardo Research Paper

    • 1014 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Stanford Prison Experiment was a study conducted in 1971 by Dr. Phillip Zimbardo. According to Dr. Steve Taylor (2007), “It’s probably the best known psychological study of all time.” (Classic Studies in Psychology, 2007). Zimbardo stated that the point was to see what would happen if he put “really good people in a bad place” (Dr. Zimbardo, 2007). He did this during a time were most college students were protesting for peace and were against anything authoritarian. The experiment contained both positive and negative aspects; which will be discussed further in this paper.…

    • 1014 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    (“On the Ethics of Intervention…” narration 1-3). More than seventy people signed up, but only a total of twenty four people were ‘clean’ from crimes or psychological problems (“On the Ethics of Intervention…” 1). “Virtually all had indicated a preference for being a prisoner because they could not imagine going to college and ending up as a prison guard. On the other hand, they could imagine being imprisoned for a driving violation or some act of civil disobedience” (“Reflection on the Stanford…” 5). Prisoners were arrested for either burglary or armed robbery (Lestik 1). The guards and convicts were destined to their roles by a flip of a coin to be fair (Lestik 1). College students who were selected to represent the role of prisoners were arrested by the Palo Alto police as if they actually committed action against the law (Lestik 1). Rights were read, fingerprints were stamped, and they were handcuffed into a police car (Lestik 1). The prisoners did not know what was going on even though they signed up for the experiment (Lestik 1). “We were studying both guard and prisoner behavior, so neither group was given any instruction on how to behave. The guards were merely told to maintain law and order, to use their billy clubs as only symbolic weapons and not actual ones, and to realize that if the prisoners escaped the study would be terminated”…

    • 1435 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The role of a forensic psychologist in the assessment of offenders is to examine the psychological health of the offender. They will be involved and assessing the offenders throughout all stages of the trial, Pre-trail, trial and sentencing.…

    • 721 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Forensic Psychologist

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The role of an expert witness in the criminal justice system such a forensic psychologist, is to make appropriate and suitable assessments, therapeutic assessment, conduct interviews, conducts evaluations and consultations, and also collects data pertaining to case (Huss, 2013). A forensic psychologist may render an opinion in family law in a case involving custody dispute. The attorney may need the psychologist to assess or evaluate the impact of any negative behavior demonstrated from any of the parties that are displaying the behaviors (mother or father). Another issue that a forensic psychologist may be rendering an opinion on is policy related issues on crisis intervention plans. Forensic psychologist will act as consultants for that…

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Zimbardo

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Stanford County Prison experiment by Zimbardo (1971) supports Milgram’s study. Zimbardo (1973) experiment took place in a pretend prison house which was created in the basement of Stanford University. This was to investigate the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner/prison guard. Participants in both studies had a difficult time ending the experiment. The participants felt they did not want to appear inconsistent or leave the experiment. Participant’s behaviour was in control by social/professional forces and environmental contingences, rather than their own personality traits or character power.…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Forensic Investigations

    • 1177 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Dr. Edmond Locard’s Exchange Principle states, “Any action of an individual, and obviously the violent action constituting a crime, cannot occur without leaving a trace.” It is hard to say Locard’s Exchange Principle was not disregarded. After three months of expert investigation it was found that the DNA evidence that was discovered at the scene did not belong to Jennifer or Noura. Also Noura’s own DNA was not found at all at the scene of the crime. It is very hard to understand how Noura could have made extreme violent contact with her mother and not left any fingerprints, footprints, hair, skin cells, blood, bodily fluids, pieces of clothing or fibers behind. This lack of traces evidence sets off two different paths in my mind. One way leads you down a road of pure hatred for a parent. Everyone was felt this way one time or another in their life, where a disagreement or argument over something that is usually aimed at protecting the youth, leads to a massive outburst or feeling of rage, that is always immediately followed by guilt or remorse by a normal human being. But what happens when this rage affects a “not so normal” child. One with malice aforethought, that is just so tired of being controlled that they premeditate a murder and thoroughly clean any trace of evidence. The other path is the road Noura’s defense took. She is irrefutably innocent and Jennifer’s killer/killers are still on the loose.…

    • 1177 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Forensic Psychology

    • 433 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Using the text for this course, the University Library, the Internet, and/or other resources answer the following questions. Your response to each question should be at least 200 words in length.…

    • 433 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this experiment a simulated prison was created where college students were recruited for a two week study and paid $15 a day to either be a prison guard or an inmate. “After a day or two in which the volunteers self-consciously “played” their roles, the simulation became real-too real.” (Social Psychology) The guards took their roles too seriously and “devised cruel and degrading routines.” (Social Psychology) After only six days, the experiment got out of hand and was forced to be shut down. The experiment showed that situational factors powerfully affected human behaviors. This was shown by the many inmates that broke down and had emotional breakdowns and left the experiment because the prison guards took it too far when given a position of authority. The individuals in the experiment were deindividualized and no longer had any self-awareness of what they were doing within the group. Zimbardo’s Experiment clearly showed that “people will readily conform to the social roles they are expected to play, especially if the roles are so strongly stereotyped as those of the prison guards.” (McLeod, Zimabardo - Stanford Prison Experiment,…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Incarceration

    • 982 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The prison system has been a natural form of punishment for deviance and criminal acts for centuries. By the end of 2010, more than seven million adults in the united states were apart of the incarceration system. () This represents about one in every thirty-three adults in the United State’s population. In todays current world statistics, the United States incarcerates more people per capita than any other country. () The weight of psychological research on imprisonment concurs that the adaptation experience to the nature of institutionalism, the effects of solitary confinement, the challenges inmates face in order to survive prison, and, eventually reintegrate themselves into the free world has prolonged mental affects from the process of…

    • 982 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays