History and Development of Forensic Psychology

     Early Developments in Forensic Psychology

        Wilhelm his Wundt is widely credited with being the first to initiate experiments in the field of psychology, and is therefore a flame for future individuals to apply these experimental processes to a variety of situations, including legal ones. set fire to. Hugo Münsterberg, a student of Wundt and the first director of the Harvard Psychology Laboratory, wrote On the Witness Stand in his first decade of the 20th century. Münsterberg used this publication to bridge the gap between psychological and legal principles by introducing psychological research that could be applied to legal proceedings. Sigmund Freud is another prominent psychologist who has framed the field through his work showing that psychopathological processes play a role in criminal behavior. Other psychologists have also been involved in the development process of forensic psychology by adding clinical and applied mechanisms of psychology to the legal setting, such as Leitner Witmer, William Stern, and William Healy.

Major litigation cases

Brown v. Topeka Board of Education (1954)

        This was the first time the U.S. Supreme Court referred to the expert opinion of psychologists. After this, it was considered beneficial to add psychological mechanics within the courtroom.

Jenkins v. USA (1962)

        Years after the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision, his DC Court of Appeals judge David Bazelon ruled that psychologists have the legal authority to testify as medical professionals about mental illness. Did.

Foundation of Psychological Society

        The American Psychology-Law Society (AP-LS) was founded in 1969, then in 1980 he was reorganized into Division 41 of the APA. As the field continued to grow, more organizations supported research in psychology applied to law. It was chartered by the American Board of Forensic Psychology (ABFP) in 1976 and eventually became part of the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) in 1985. National Invitational Conference on Forensic Psychology and Education and Training in Forensic Psychology (1995). By 2001, the field of forensic psychology was recognized as a specialty by the American Psychological Association (APA).

Forensic Psychology in Popular Culture

        Recently, the popularity of forensic psychology has increased in the media and among the younger generation. For example, many of Netflix's recent documentary series feature forensic psychological content, such as Making a Murderer and Sins of our Mother. Other TV shows and movies such as Criminal Minds, Manhunter, Mindhunter, and Silence of the Lambs have popularized the practice of criminal profiling, especially within the Behavior Analysis Unit (BAU) of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). rice field. [25] Despite growing excitement about the idea of ​​a career in criminal profiling, a student expressing interest in this particular aspect of forensic psychology noted that the practice of criminal profiling was rarely practiced outside his BAU. I notice that it is not used [26]. They also found that there are many forensic psychology practices outside of criminal proceedings.