Question

Summarize and Peer-review article Forensic Psychology in Child Mental Health:

The role of the forensic psychologist in child mental health By Marina Tolou-Shams, Ph.D. Broadly speaking, forensic psychology refers to the application of psychology within a legal context. Forensic psychology may be also referred to as “legal psychology” or “law and psychology.” Continued debate about the definition of “forensic psychologist” is perhaps due to the many roles forensic psychologists find themselves adopting (e.g., evaluator versus treater) and the differing legal contexts within which they may find themselves working (e.g., within prisons or private practice). In addition, forensic psychologists can be trained in clinical, social, developmental, cognitive, or any other psychology subdiscipline, which lends further variability to the definition. Vis-à-vis a series of true/ false statements, this article is intended to serve as a beginner’s guide to understanding the role of a clinical forensic psychologist in juvenile mental health. True or false: Forensic psychologists only work with incarcerated youth. False. Forensic psychologists may work within jail and prison settings, but they can also work with a wide range of youth in contact with the court system who are not incarcerated. For example, they may be asked to provide competency to stand trial evaluations at the pretrial phase before a determination is made regarding the youth’s guilt or innocence and sentencing. The question of competency relates to whether the juvenile has “present sufficient ability to consult with his lawyer with a reasonable degree of rational understanding — and whether he has a rational as well as factual understanding of the proceedings against him” [Dusky v. US 362 U.S. 402, 80 S. Ct. 788 (1960)]. These evaluations may be ordered due to concerns raised about cognitive limitations (e.g., intellectual and/ or development disabilities) or mental health impairment (e.g., delusions and/ or hallucinations) that others fear might impair the juvenile’s ability to competently stand trial. Forensic psychologists also work in juvenile court clinics that are typically housed within the courthouse setting and see a range of youth at different points in the civil and criminal justice system (e.g., newly charged at intake, on probation, recently detained) for a variety of mental health issues including emergency risk assessment (e.g., for suicidality or violence potential), initial screenings for competency, and substance abuse assessment. True or false: Forensic psychologists are only hired to provide evaluations for criminal cases. False. Forensic psychologists provide consultation and evaluations for both criminal and civil cases. Civil cases involving children and adolescents, in whom forensic psychologists may be hired include child custody evaluations, questions about visitation rights, and parental fitness (related to termination of parental rights). Forensic psychologists are also hired to provide comprehensive mental health evaluations for status offenders (e.g., youth who are not attending school and are referred to truancy court) to provide recommendations for school and home to foster academic success and reduce reoffending with more serious crimes. True or false: The only difference between forensic and clinical psychologists is that forensic psychologists have to testify in court. False. Anyone can be asked to testify in court. Forensic psychologists may testify in court more frequently than clinical psychologists (who are not forensically trained) just due to the nature of their work centering on evaluations for courtinvolved youth. However, there are other distinctions between forensic and clinical, non forensically-trained psychologists that are worth noting. To begin with, a forensic psychologist approaches the juvenile’s case from a different perspective than a traditional clinical psychologist. The role of the forensic psychologist in conducting a courtordered evaluation of a juvenile is not to be empathic and try to put him or herself “in the juvenile’s shoes” in order to understand the juvenile’s perspective. The forensic psychologist evaluator must take an objective, neutral stance rather than being an advocate. In addition, forensic psychologists are trained to understand that they must be aware of the various legal statutes governing the particular jurisdiction in which they are conducting the evaluation. True or false: Forensic psychologists should try to avoid concurrently providing a court-ordered evaluation and psychotherapy for an adolescent. True. Trying to objectively evaluate a juvenile for the court after having had a long-term client-therapist relationship is very challenging. In some cases, families will ask the forensic psychologist evaluator to provide treatment because of their expertise. Some forensic psychologists are comfortable with this as long as the evaluation has been submitted to the court and the case is closed (i.e., there is no chance that the psychologist would be called as an expert witness on the case). The American Psychological Association Ethics Code (2002) suggests that a “psychologist refrains from entering into a multiple relationship if the multiple relationship could reasonably be expected to impair the psychologists objectivity, competence, or effectiveness in performing his or her functions as a psychologist, or otherwise risks exploitation or harm to the person with whom the professional relationship exists.” In addition, there are specialty guidelines for forensic psychologists that further address the issue of dual roles. Unfortunately, it might not always be so easy to avoid these dual, conflicting roles. For instance, when the psychologist is the only forensic psychologist in a small, rural town in which there are no other appropriately trained evaluators. Or perhaps the forensic psychologist is the only evaluator and psychotherapist who can provide services in a particular foreign language. In these cases, the psychologist should consult with family, the attorneys (if involved) and/or the court as necessary to explain the situation and minimize the impact of assuming dual roles. True or false: Hiring a forensic psychologist who has a particular expertise (e.g., trauma or substance abuse) related to a juvenile’s court involvement will better help the case. False. While professional credibility is important to the judges and attorneys, it is not necessarily the case that a forensic psychologist has to be an expert in a particular area in order to conduct a thorough, ethical, and objective forensic evaluation. Remember, clinical forensic psychologists are licensed clinicians. Thus, while they receive more intensive training in forensics throughout their graduate training and postdoctoral work, they also have a breadth of training in various other clinical areas. When you are looking to hire a forensic psychologist for evaluation or consultation, don’t hesitate to ask them questions about their background, training, and experience. Learn more about their area of specialization and if they are not comfortable performing such an evaluation, ask them to recommend other forensically trained colleagues. True or false: If a 16-year-old is receiving a court ordered mental health evaluation, the parent does not also have to complete questionnaires and/or participate in the evaluation process. False. In forensic evaluations, it is often important and necessary to assess the consistency and content of reports across multiple informants. It is standard practice within the field (and even more so when evaluating juveniles) to obtain data from the custodial parent or guardian to make recommendations. True or false: When a child receives a court-ordered evaluation, everything the child or parent(s) say to the psychologist is kept confidential. False. Remember that the forensic psychologist’s role is different from the traditional clinical psychologist. Informed consent is not even required when the assessment is ordered by the court. However, evaluators should notify the parent and juvenile of the purpose of the evaluation, who may be privy to the information, and the fact that neither the juvenile nor the parent will have any control over how the information obtained is used. If an attorney is involved in the case, a parent should rely on the attorney to help them understand these legal issues. In sum, forensic psychology is quite different from traditional clinical psychology. Clinical forensic psychologists are uniquely trained to understand the interface between psychology and juvenile justice, and this knowledge informs their diverse roles as evaluators, consultants, and/or treatment providers within the legal system.

Answer 1

forensic psychologist is a person who could also be referred to as a legal psychologist. There have been speculations about the definition of the role of forensic psychologist, which are different in the different roles carried out by the forensic psychologists. They would be working with the people who have been incarcerated as well as the people who are out of prison settings. They might be involved in the trial phases as well as the risk assessment in the different mental health conditions. They need to be Impartial to both the parties so as to provide a testimony without being empathetic.

Also, they require to be aware of the different aspects of crime and laws that apply to them. These people are clinicians as well and do have clinical expertise as well.unlike clinical psychologists, they would not be forming any personal relationships or interpersonal relationships with the patients or their families and the information provided to them do not fall under the category of privacy and confidentiality.