1 year, 5 months ago
via psychology-questions.com
If I was to join the police force, would I have to study about criminal psychology?
I'm not sure if I want to know, but I'd like to look into the subject a bit. Is there a general definition and examples somewhere on criminal psychology?
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M$2 Answers
Greetings,
Although studying Criminal Justice, Criminology and Psychology can all be beneficial to the duties of police work, the vast majority of local and state police departments do not require any specific educational degree. More and more departments are requiring bachelor's degrees before being considered eligible for employment, however the specific degree is of little relevance in the hiring process. The reason for this is that all states have specific standards for obtaining positions as a sworn law enforcement officer. The standards will include a 4 to 6 months training academy where you will undergo extensive training on law enforcement practices and procedures specific to that state or region. For this reason, departments want to know that applicants are capable learners and committed to completing a four year education but usually have little preference to the type of degree earned. The rest of your employment marketability will be evaluated during the testing and interview process, which are incredibly extensive. The application period alone can range from 5 months to a year in most cities.
Criminal Psychology, Criminology, and Forensic Psychology are not incredibly related to most areas of police work. 99.9% of police work is basic patrol and responding to calls for service. These duties are generally very prescribed and intended to alleviate the officer from discretionary liability. More serious cases, such as serial murders, hostage situations, and profiling cases are handled by an incredibly small collection of professionals. There may be a dozen full time criminal profilers in the entire world, and are contracted by departments and agencies to work on specific cases. The average officer will seldom ever have these type of responsibilities. People who do utilize the skills of psychological profiling and forensic psychology will need to have an advanced degree in these fields before being able to acquiring this type of position, as licensure requires a Ph.D or Psy. D. The profession of Criminal Psychologist is not a part of the criminal justice system as the police are, but rather work as a form of outside consultants for certain cases.
References:
Bachelors of Science Criminology
Academic and Career Advisor to Criminology Students: 2007-present
http://education-portal.com/criminal_psychology_schools.html
Although studying Criminal Justice, Criminology and Psychology can all be beneficial to the duties of police work, the vast majority of local and state police departments do not require any specific educational degree. More and more departments are requiring bachelor's degrees before being considered eligible for employment, however the specific degree is of little relevance in the hiring process. The reason for this is that all states have specific standards for obtaining positions as a sworn law enforcement officer. The standards will include a 4 to 6 months training academy where you will undergo extensive training on law enforcement practices and procedures specific to that state or region. For this reason, departments want to know that applicants are capable learners and committed to completing a four year education but usually have little preference to the type of degree earned. The rest of your employment marketability will be evaluated during the testing and interview process, which are incredibly extensive. The application period alone can range from 5 months to a year in most cities.
Criminal Psychology, Criminology, and Forensic Psychology are not incredibly related to most areas of police work. 99.9% of police work is basic patrol and responding to calls for service. These duties are generally very prescribed and intended to alleviate the officer from discretionary liability. More serious cases, such as serial murders, hostage situations, and profiling cases are handled by an incredibly small collection of professionals. There may be a dozen full time criminal profilers in the entire world, and are contracted by departments and agencies to work on specific cases. The average officer will seldom ever have these type of responsibilities. People who do utilize the skills of psychological profiling and forensic psychology will need to have an advanced degree in these fields before being able to acquiring this type of position, as licensure requires a Ph.D or Psy. D. The profession of Criminal Psychologist is not a part of the criminal justice system as the police are, but rather work as a form of outside consultants for certain cases.
References:
Bachelors of Science Criminology
Academic and Career Advisor to Criminology Students: 2007-present
http://education-portal.com/criminal_psychology_schools.html
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M$
Criminal psychology is necessary in order to be an effective law enforcement officer. You will need to understand behaviors of the criminals. The actual term for psychology that deals with abnormal behavior is forensic psychology.
I currently hold a BS in Criminal Justice and I received a minor degree in Forensic Psychology as a requirement of the class. Even my daughter who is training to be a paralegal has been involved in a few psychology classes as well.
Understanding behaviors and understanding critical situations are all parts of psychology. Knowing how to deal with a crisis situation makes a police officer a valuable member of their team. They may be able to talk a man down from holding a gun on the head of a spouse, or you may be able to talk a suicidal woman off the ledge of a building.
Forensic (criminal) psychology is one of the tools used to locate serial killers and child predators. There are specific behaviors and trends that one can look for in profiling the individual that is committing this kind of crime. Many mis-interpret the word profiling too. Much like when someone considers "illegal alien" to be a race, profiling gets the same bad reputation. To profile just means to indicate the most likely type of individual who would be doing a specific crime (serial killers are usually middle-aged white men) and then concentrating efforts on that type of person.
Another place that criminal psychology would be very useful is in the airports. The TSA is not going about the screening of passengers properly because they are more likely to avoid profiling and therefore leaving out many of the actual people who would be inclined to create harm there, and instead just search every person and doggie in a sweater. This reduces the effectiveness of the searches. Especially when the group that would be more likely the culprit are definitely being singled out to NOT search.
I currently hold a BS in Criminal Justice and I received a minor degree in Forensic Psychology as a requirement of the class. Even my daughter who is training to be a paralegal has been involved in a few psychology classes as well.
Understanding behaviors and understanding critical situations are all parts of psychology. Knowing how to deal with a crisis situation makes a police officer a valuable member of their team. They may be able to talk a man down from holding a gun on the head of a spouse, or you may be able to talk a suicidal woman off the ledge of a building.
Forensic (criminal) psychology is one of the tools used to locate serial killers and child predators. There are specific behaviors and trends that one can look for in profiling the individual that is committing this kind of crime. Many mis-interpret the word profiling too. Much like when someone considers "illegal alien" to be a race, profiling gets the same bad reputation. To profile just means to indicate the most likely type of individual who would be doing a specific crime (serial killers are usually middle-aged white men) and then concentrating efforts on that type of person.
Another place that criminal psychology would be very useful is in the airports. The TSA is not going about the screening of passengers properly because they are more likely to avoid profiling and therefore leaving out many of the actual people who would be inclined to create harm there, and instead just search every person and doggie in a sweater. This reduces the effectiveness of the searches. Especially when the group that would be more likely the culprit are definitely being singled out to NOT search.
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M$
Just to clarify your last statement, you can obtain licensure in Psychology with an MS degree, you do not have to have a PhD or PsychD in order to obtain a license to practice. You also do not need to have a license to practice psychology as long as you are a member of a psychological department somewhere, like a hospital or institution.
Criminal Psychologists can indeed be members of the criminal justice system, and not external consultants.
Many law enforcement departments, especially in larger cities, do employ their own forensic psychologists who are members of the criminal justice system within their city.
One does not have to be a profiler in order to have the need to understand behaviors and crisis intervention, but to say there are only a few dozen across the world (profilers, that is) is inaccurate: http://www.criminalprofiler.com/faq.htm.
In the FBI alone, there is "less than 40", but that is more than a few dozen, in just a single country. Scotland Yard, in London, employs many more forensic officers, which are also within the "profiler" status. That puts us up well above, in 2 organizations, over a few dozen.
You have a good post with information that you gleaned in your own education in criminal justice, but certainly you would have to agree that any police officer who is "on patrol" as you indicate, should have a little bit of an inkling of some criminal psychology to be more effective in their job, and during the chances for advancement?