Legal psychology from social psychology historical introduction of forensic psychology

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Copyright:
©2023 Robles
Citation:
Robles-Mendoza AL. Legal psychology from social psychology. historical introduction of forensic psychology. 
Forensic Res Criminol Int J. 
2023;11(1):5
‒
7. 
DOI: 10.15406/frcij.2023.11.00361
The importance of professional ethics and a high-quality 
execution in the forensic evaluation lies in the social impact that the 
psychologist has. The psychologist has the obligation of keeping 
updated the professional, scientific, and legal development knowledge 
within his specialty, as well as having the highest ethical standards 
of his profession. As mentioned by Serrano
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his significance in the 
forensic field forces the psychology professional to comply with his 
obligations in order to avoid incurring on a corrective, criminal or 
legal responsibility. Psychology experts perform their role as jurists’ 
collaborators, being experts who counsel judges to enter judgments 
about a fact (persons or situations) on his area of expertise. Therefore, 
the specialization in law and criminology scopes will be fundamental 
for their professional exercise. So far, we have addressed the legal 
psychology exclusively from a forensic perspective; however, this 
is not the only application specialists can execute, but it is the most 
common. 
Garzón
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mentions that it was approximately in the late 20
th
century 
when relations between law and psychology began to be formalized 
through the human behavior analysis applied to the judicial context. 
In this sense, he defines Forensic Psychology as responsible for 
judicial procedures and its relation with the individual psychological 
processes. In this respect, it is a broad term that encompasses all the 
possible application approaches of the psychology knowledge towards 
the specialization area of the judge, even beyond the administration of 
justice and the action areas within the courts. Forensic psychology 
will provide to the lawyer, public prosecutor, judge, court clerk, 
and other public officers the psychological concepts and technical 
instruments they need in order to improve their judicial performance, 
and consequently, they will deliver a better management of justice. 
This way, prison psychology gradually begins to emerge, as well as 
the psychologists assigned to the family courts or who act as specialist 
witnesses on oral trials, the expert legal counselors who prepare the 
dispute for both contending parties at the justice courts, and also as 
support for the juries.
Other application area is the one related to the penitentiary field, 
where the psychology professional analyzes and applies the inherent 
evaluation and treatment procedures for people who are under prison 
custody, as well as the procedures for those ready to be reintegrated 
to society.
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It is also relevant to highlight the contribution of 
psychologists in the criminology area. Garrido
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states criminological 
psychology intents to understand the crime, its causes, and its authors 
so to provide tools that help prevent it. Its performance takes place 
within the forensic world (prisons, police departments, and courts), 
and in the community itself by trying to prevent delinquency, and 
through the intervention in civil organizations as well. It has a close 
relationship with clinical, community, and social psychology, but that 
does not impair its singularity concerning the severity and extension 
of the problem that is being confronted and the outlined methods for 
these tasks.
On the other hand, Chargoy
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defines criminological psychology 
as the study of antisocial behaviors, and as a part of the criminal 
sciences. We can classify these behaviors in two categories: criminal 
and non-criminal behaviors. Criminal ones are included in the penal 
code and therefore, they are punishable; non-criminal behaviors are 
mostly associated with non-tolerated conducts by society because 
they trespass the established social rules. If we focus on criminal 
behaviors, we can place criminological psychology as part of legal 
psychology and criminal law. If classified as non-criminal instead, it 
is placed within the criminological sciences and therefore, it involves 
more socio-cultural elements.
One of the most successful psychology fields applied to the legal 
area, developed during the 20
th
and 21
st
centuries, is the one of criminal 
profiling or criminal psychology, defined as a process to identify 
and provide a general description of the psychological traits of an 
individual by analyzing the crimes this person has committed. In other 
words, criminal profiling is a psychological technique that draws the 
psychosocial traits of the victims, the forensic findings and the author 
motivations based on the psychosocial aspects of human behavior and 
the crime scene in order to elaborate the statistical data which allows 
their classification into relatively homogenous groups of people, with 
the ultimate objective of cooperating with the investigation or helping 
to provide evidence of guilt.
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The profiler must evaluate a series of essential elements that will 
lead to the identification of the responsible for the criminal behavior. 
Garrido
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considers that first of all, a victim analysis is needed: gender, 
age, ethnicity, habits, and appearance. Afterwards, the places where 
the victim established contact with the offender are studied, and also 
if the victim was transported to another location where the crime took 
place, in which case we are talking about two crime scenes. A third 
one could even exist if the offender hides the victim at a different 
location in order to try to conceal evidence against him. Nevertheless, 
many times the crime happens suddenly in a random, unplanned 
place, where the victim is left. The reconstruction of the crime scene 
comes later. This is done by describing how the facts occurred based 
on the assault sequence, the 
modus operandi 
of the offender, the 
response from the victim, among other factors. Finally, the criminal 
profile is created, which describes the criminal through the analysis of 
demographic data, educational level, criminal records, family history, 
habits and interests, the vehicle used to commit the crime, personality 
characteristics, and possible psychiatric conditions.
The psychology of criminal investigation is a brand-new area in 
continuous growth. Its main contributions are linking different crimes 
to a particular offender, inferring the characteristics of offenders from 
the behavioral cues of the crime scene, guiding the techniques for 
interviewing victims, witnesses, and suspects, and supporting the 
decision-making of case investigators. Therefore, it covers a wide 
range of investigation areas: the different aspects of criminal behavior 
(crime psychology, criminal behavior analysis, criminal careers, 
criminal narratives, crimes against property, violent crimes, and 
organizational crimes), investigation procedures (decision-making, 
information sources, computer systems, police interrogation methods, 
psychological autopsies), and recently, the inclusion of psychological 
evidence from crime scenes at the courts of justice.
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Lastly, one of the 
newest application areas of legal psychology is victimology, whose 
professional development is in its initial stages. This area studies the 
behavior of the victims before, during, and after the trauma event, 
taking both crime victims and other kinds of victims into consideration.
One of its best performances with the support of behavioral 
clinic psychology is the specialized psychological care given at 
the assistance centers for victims of crime at the Attorney’s offices 
that provide crisis assistance, emergency telephone assistance, 
and psychological evaluations focused on the truthfulness of legal 
testimony, as well as crime and victim prevention. Acting ethically 
within the legal framework requires knowing the environment 
wherein the professional will be working, and recognizing the 
characteristics, concepts, and procedures of the judicial structure 
of our country. Subsequently, the psychologist needs to acquire the 
professional skills, training, and experience within this area in order 
to achieve ethical and professional performance. To that end, the 
principles of the behavioral theory, along with the criminological 
theories, will be the conceptual basis of the specialized knowledge 

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Legal psychology from social psychology. historical introduction of forensic psychology