Forensic psychology is the application of the science and profession of psychology to questions and issues relating to law and the legal system.
The word “forensic” comes from the Latin word “forensis,” meaning “of the forum,” where the law courts of ancient Rome were held.
Today, a forensic psychologist may be sought when there is an adversarial criminal or civil process where scientists with specialized knowledge play a role and offer their expert opinion on psychological matters.
Forensic psychologists should have a comprehensive understanding of the legal system. Understanding statutory and case law and utilizing research-based evaluation tools that meet legal standards is the foundational bedrock of forensic assessments.
Forensic psychologists typically conduct forensic psychological assessments and write forensic reports that answer psycho-legal questions. For example,
- “Was the defendant insane at the time he/she committed the crime?”
- “Is the defendant competent to stand trial?”
- “Does this defendant show sexual deviance and is he/she at risk of reoffending?”
Forensic psychologists also provided expert testimony in court after evaluating a client or defendant. Providing expert testimony as a “teaching expert,” is yet another role a forensic psychologist can play in the courtroom. As a “teaching expert,” they educate the trier of fact (i.e., judge or jury) about a specialized area of knowledge without having evaluated the defendant. For example, education regarding
- Adverse childhood experiences (ACES) and other mitigating factors
Adolescent brain development & it’s impact on Sexual Deviance, paraphilic disorders (e.g., pedophilic disorder)
Typically, from the time you retain our services and provide us with discovery and other records, our turnaround time is between four and six weeks. If your case needs to be expedited, we can discuss arrangements to complete the evaluation and report in a shorter time frame.
For private attorneys and public agencies such as public defenders and district attorney offices, we have a retainer agreement and fee schedule.
Upon contacting our office, we can send the retainer agreement and fee schedule for your review.
Depending on the type of evaluation and the number of records to be reviewed, we will provide you with an estimate on the number of hours we believe your case will take to complete.
Evaluations are conducted both in and out of custody. For in custody clients, we travel to the jail, prison, or hospital to evaluate you’re the client. For out of custody clients, we meet with them at our office in Jupiter and Fort Lauderdale offices.
Forensic neuropsychologists diagnose and treat patients with brain injuries, mental health issues, or neurological disorders. Some of these diagnoses may be linked to the trauma associated with criminal activities.
The neuropsychologist is qualified to answer questions pertaining to brain-behavior relationships and the neuropsychological data. The forensic psychologist is usually better able to deal in court with the relevant psycholegal questions such as in- sanity, coercion/false confessions, etc.
Attorneys may find it useful to consider consultation with an expert forensic neuropsychologist when beginning to put together their thoughts on cases involving personal injury claims. Neuropsychologists are uniquely equipped to provide the court with important information about the claimant’s brain functioning, utilizing unique interview and testing methods. Neuropsychologists also take into consideration any psychological factors that may contribute to the claimant’s picture.
Neuropsychological evaluations can:
- Detect mild changes in brain functioning that may not be visible on brain imaging
- Answer whether the pattern of test findings is consistent with known effects of particular neurologic injury
- Lend support for cognitive impairment that is caused by non accident related or pre-existing conditions
- Document the extent and types of cognitive impairment, estimating whether there has been a decline from pre-injury baseline
- Predict lasting effects of injuries
- Prescribe treatment for ongoing conditions
- Identify inappropriate treatment and possibly iatrogenic effects of inappropriate treatment
- Identify how severe any injury effects are and what areas of skill are preserved
- Provide support for exaggeration of symptoms or malingering (both psychological and in terms of claims of changed brain functioning)
- Criminal cases: Determine the defendant’s legal sanity or mens rea
- Criminal cases: Determine the impact of brain injury on the defendant’s actions
A standard clinical interview including: psychosocial history; educational history; vocational history; medical history; drug & alcohol history; legal history, military history; account of concerns at issue and subsequent symptoms and treatment; and current complaints.
Neuropsychological testing including assessment of : intelligence; attention; concentration; memory; language skills; motor skills; executive and problem-solving skills; symptom validity testing; and personality testing
Three to four hours of interview and five to six hours of testing
A standard clinical interview, as described above.
More extensive personality testing using tests such as: MMPI-3 and PAI.
Three to four hours of interview and three to four hours of testing.
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