CRIMINOLOGY

Criminal Justice and Criminology

Use of Psychology by Police

The use of psychology by the police

The use of applied psychology has become increasingly important in the work of policing, police training and the academic study of policing, the oldest use of psychology in policing was for mental testing which was followed by personality testing.

The police and other law enforcement officials use a branch of applied psychology termed as forensic psychology which is basically concerned with the scientific and psychological principles on issues pertaining to law, legal issues, criminals, investigation, criminal profiling and witness evaluation. Forensic psychology is termed as the psychology of law or police psychology. In addition to research on the system and crime, forensic psychologists often help in expert witness at trials aid police during investigation.

Forensic psychology works in a variety of ways and settings, it can be used while testifying in the courtroom, interviewing inmates in prisons, assessments to parolees, performing polygraph tests and gathering evidence at a crime scene. Criminal profiling is an area where the police require the presence of a forensic psychologist. Criminal profiling is the analysis of crime scene and gathering physical evidence and infer the characteristics of the criminal. It helps it understanding the motives behind a crime, his habits, personality and his motivation in performing such a crime. The need for a psychologist is important because the police tend to overlook various elements that need to be considered.

Psychology can be applied by the police themselves in three specific areas:

1) The police needs psychology in order to assess themselves; how to deal with a crime situation it broadens their thinking capacity enables them to see the bigger picture.

2) On handling suspect and victims, The police needs to be aware of how to interact with a each kind of criminal some very harmful ones need ...