Forensic Psychology

Forensic Psychology

Q1.

The first police selection phase is the interview in which it provides with the information expressed through the body language, emotions being expressed in order to communicate with the interviewer and an ability to convey a sense of self. In an interview many skills are being evaluated such as the personality characteristic, self-confidence, interpersonal skills etc. There are two validities for interviews in police selection, which are: lack of criteria against the judge predictors and screening of applicants by eliminating those who are unqualified for the police position.

Second, psychological tests are the administration of psychological tests carried out for police applicants which can easily be administered in groups. The measures for psychological testing are carried out by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and the California Psychological Inventory (CPI). The MMPI consisted of true and false which has to be completed in 1 hour, the CPI also consisted of true false similarly like the MMPI and Inwald Personality Inventory (IPI) consisted of true and false which identified the personality and the behavior of the selected applicant. The validity is being demonstrated through MMPI, CPI and IPI for using up a multiple hurdle strategy for qualifying for the minimum psychological test criteria.

Lastly, Situational tests which shows the policeman's performance while being on the job. In this test the performance of the candidate was being judged through different situational tasks for four of the police jobs: general patrol officer, patrol sergeant, detective and intermediate-level commander. Further small tests were also observed such as the foot patrol observation test, clues test and the bull session which were used as the situational tests in the police selection. The validity consisted of knowledge instruction questions which correlated with the mental ability and the behavioral affection questions correlated with the personality.

Fulero, M.S., Wrightsman, S.L., (2009), Forensic Psychology, Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, data retrieved from http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Q75v8ES8YxQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=forensic+psychology+by+solomon+M.+Fulero&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ENEyUuHtAcWU0AXt6IH4Cg&ved=0CEUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

Q2.

Warren McCleskey was involved in a robbery at the Atlanta furniture store and was sentenced to death for killing a White police officer. He was later executed in 1987 when US Supreme Court rejected claims against him. The jury suggested for any aggravating or mitigating factors in support for the victims favor. A racial discrimination arose between the Warren McCleskey being an African American and the officer being White police officer.

Justice Powell's study showed that in many cases the African American was being found guilty in every case rather than the White American men, as this could be one of the reasons of discrimination and favoritism. In such situation courts have made distinctions for such claims through disparate treatment where an employer treats an employer less favorably than other employees because of race, religion, sex or national origins. Another claim is the disparate impact in which more harsh treatment is being implemented over the victim as comparative to the disparate treatment. For the statistical assessment, disparate assessment is more favorable for gathering data, estimation and valuation tools.

On the basis of racial disparities, the court would not overturn its decision for the death ...