Introduction to Psychology/Forensic Psychology

Psychology and Law

Together, Forensic psychology and Legal Psychology compose the area known as Psychology and Law.

Most typically, forensic psychology is practiced by clinical psychologists, and involves a clinical analysis of a particular individual and an assessment of some specific psycho-legal question. Typically, referrals to forensic practices constitute assessments for individuals that have ostensibly suffered neurologic insult(s). These patients have sought legal recourse, and the job of the forensic psychologist is to demonstrate that there is or is not (depending on their employment by either the prosecution or defense) a cause-and-effect relation between the accident and the subsequent (again, ostensible) neurologic change.

Legal psychology is a research-oriented field populated with researchers from several different areas within psychology (although Social Psychologists are typical).