http://www.wcupa.edu/_academics/sch_cas.psy/career_paths/forensic/career08.htm
When looking up things to post, I stumbled upon this great resource from WestChester University. It explains what forensic psychology is, how it differs from forensic science, and provides History, links, key term definitions, sub fields, a day in the life of, and so on.
Some interesting things that I learned:
- The primary difference between forensic psych and forensic science is that forensic psych's take psychological perspectives and apply them to the criminal justice field, their career can even solely be based on research. (like eye-witness identification, or memory)
- Forensic Psych actually dates back to 1901 where William Stern was studying memory, these experiments were the first that provoked thought about eyewitness testimony in court and showed people that recall memories are generally inaccurate.
- Hugo Munsterberg, who many of us have heard of was actually considered the first forensic psychologist after writing "On the Witness Stand"
- There are even sub-fields to forensic psych like criminal investigative and clinical-forensic psychology.
- Forensic psychologists can help with jurty selection, this process can actually take weeks.
- The long hours worked by most forensic psychs are not compensated heavily like one may think. There is also a high risk of burnout.
- Masters degree jobs start out at 20,000-25,000.
The site has a lot more information than this, giving pros and cons to every aspect of the job. Also it gives you real information regarding pay scale, hours, and expectations for the job. Very useful for people interested in going into the feild.
When looking up things to post, I stumbled upon this great resource from WestChester University. It explains what forensic psychology is, how it differs from forensic science, and provides History, links, key term definitions, sub fields, a day in the life of, and so on.
Some interesting things that I learned:
- The primary difference between forensic psych and forensic science is that forensic psych's take psychological perspectives and apply them to the criminal justice field, their career can even solely be based on research. (like eye-witness identification, or memory)
- Forensic Psych actually dates back to 1901 where William Stern was studying memory, these experiments were the first that provoked thought about eyewitness testimony in court and showed people that recall memories are generally inaccurate.
- Hugo Munsterberg, who many of us have heard of was actually considered the first forensic psychologist after writing "On the Witness Stand"
- There are even sub-fields to forensic psych like criminal investigative and clinical-forensic psychology.
- Forensic psychologists can help with jurty selection, this process can actually take weeks.
- The long hours worked by most forensic psychs are not compensated heavily like one may think. There is also a high risk of burnout.
- Masters degree jobs start out at 20,000-25,000.
The site has a lot more information than this, giving pros and cons to every aspect of the job. Also it gives you real information regarding pay scale, hours, and expectations for the job. Very useful for people interested in going into the feild.
I'm really amazed at how little the income is for the average "forensic psychologist" with a masters degree given how important this area of study really is. I would imagine that this salary is the lowest salary possible (except for those working part-time or seasonally perhaps) anywhere in the field of forensics and the criminal justice system, including office clerks and janitors or laborers who work for correctional facilities.
I think this says more than anything about what the society at large thinks about the research findings in forensic psychology. It seems that the research in eye-witness testimony and memory evidence alone demands a paradigm shift in our justice system that as of yet has not begun to take place.
I hope a few people respond to this post as I'm generally interested to know what others think about how lay people (those who know nothing of forensic psychology research findings, i.e. everything we learn in this class) think about this stuff.
The field has been around for more than 100 years but still isn't always taken that seriously even with consistant, significant, replicable research findings in direct contradiction to current practices.
In my opinion this is partly due to the fact that people do not want to hear what forensic psych has to tell them. Although people consantly complain about problems in the legal system, I think most people believe that by and large it is useful, leads to Truth, and helps protect them. And that problems like wrongful convictions, etc. are very few and far between. In essence, it's sort of a necessary evil that can't be helped.
When they are told that known wrongful convictions (where there is direct evidence contrary to the verdict, as opposed to all the unkonwn wrongful convictions we'll never know about estimated with statistics)are much more common, eye-witness testimony is often inaccurate, and that memories in general, let alone memory as evidence, is highly suspect, it is simply more than they can take.
They would be forced to live in a world where they question every piece of information they are given by others extensively, they question themselves and their own ideas constantly, to the point of admitting the limitations of their own memory, where they are incredibly reluctant to put anyone to death for any reason (almost to the point of finding it impossible to do so), and where putting someone in jail is no guarentee that justice has been served, the truth uncovered, or suffering avenged.
I also was pretty amazed at the statement of masters degrees make around 20-25 thousand, which might be true due to the point that psychologists do a lot of counseling of lawyers and juries as a part time job.
A thing that interests me and also Dr. MacLin did a post a while ago on the job within the FBI that requires a masters degree in forensic psychology amongst other degrees. (http://www.fbi.gov/hq/td/academy/bsu/bsu.htm)
The art now know as "profiling" is a position held by an FBI agent with an advanced degree in behavioral science. The interesting thing about this is that it is a full time job and it also requires a few years of experience as a special agent before you can be considered for a profiler job. The starting wage for a special agent is around $43,441.
The FBI operates on a pay scale so the longer you are on the job and depending on your location you will earn more, so I can only assume that since this is a team of highly experienced and educated agents that they make pretty good money which is far from 20 grand.
This job is a bit of a stretch from the jury selection type services offered by some forensic psychologists but it is the more prestige’s roles in my mind.
Another thing that really blew my mind is that in 1901 studies were being done on recall memory and found that it is pretty inaccurate and evidence was given that false memories can be implanted by the test giver on the test taker with the false knife in the photos. 1901!!! 100+ years later there a people that are still convinced memory is fool proof and are willing to take it as good enough evidence to convict a person of a crime.
Ignorance must be bliss, and people refusal to accept forensic psych's findings is probably why this profession makes the amount of money it does.