Integrating mental health expertise into law practice is vital to improving the efficiency of the criminal justice system of all countries globally. Most nations rely on clinical psychiatry to evaluate the mental state of criminal offenders linked to high-degree cases like murder, which is crucial for determining sanity and deciding whether they should stand trial. Forensic psychology has provided the requisite expert witness observations to the ongoing judicial cases helping the teams unearth the cognitive and psychological trends needed to prosecute and issue judgment. Significantly, the criminal justice system relies on the knowledge and expertise of forensic psychology to alter and change various societal trends, such as teenage delinquency and crime involvement, strategically offering solutions to various community-related challenges linked to law enforcement and security. The study synthesis the role of forensic psychology in improving the efficiency of the criminal justice system, highlighting some of the challenges experienced when integrating psychiatry with law.
The judicial system is responsible for establishing if a suspect is mentally fit to stand trial. The court of law refers to assessing the competency to stand trial, seeking out any intellectual disorder that could create a barrier to the justice process in the forensic psychology unit (Mosotho et al., 2020). Criminal acts are deliberate, and perpetrators independently engage in such acts knowing the consequences if the law catches them. There are instances where criminal offenders camouflage with any mental-related issue to prevent severe punishment befitting the crime. A forensic psychologist is integral in establishing genuine cases of mental disability through an evidence-based led psychiatric evaluation process using diagnostic tools. For instance, if an offender is diagnosed with an intellectual disability, the evaluation suggests that they have severe limitations to intellectual functioning and the requisite adaptive behavior to distinguish lawful from unlawful acts (Mosotho et al., 2020). The forensic psychologist, in that instance, will have established the grounds for the trial and could offer an expert suggestion on rehabilitative measures for the court to consider when issuing a judgment. In that case, forensic psychology is integral in evaluating the mental capability of a criminal offender to stand trial.
Besides determining a person’s mental competency to stand trial, forensic psychology is vital in providing care, rehabilitation models, and expertise for criminals with mental disorders. According to Kennedy (2022). forensic psychology has evolved in the context of the criminal justice system in terms of operational structures, processes, and procedures organized into formal care models and practices. Forensic psychologists are not prosecutors, but they are tasked with caring for the offenders’ mental well-being. Other criminal justice proceedings can be carried out when an offender is declared mentally fit. However, it is not the case for an offender diagnosed with a mild or severe mental health complication. Forensic psychology is equipped to provide efficient care and treatment for individuals with severe mental disorders considered dangerous to themselves or others (Kennedy, 2022). An expert will determine a person’s dangerousness by combining the risk arising from the mental state with the seriousness of the resulting harm (Kennedy, 2022). In that case, a forensic psychologist is tasked with protecting an offender diagnosed with a severe mental complication from harming themselves or others.
Also, forensic psychology plays a role in providing an expert explanation to some mentally disturbing cases within the criminal justice system. Crimes like filicide, where a parent murder their child through decapitation, are mentally disturbed by the jury (Tiffon, 2021). In most cases, the jury or prosecuting team deems such cases as not requiring a trial as the perpetrator is considered guilty. However, the offender likely has an underlying psychotic condition crucial for explaining their actions. Under no normal circumstance that a parent will murder their child through decapitation, and if such an offender is taken to prison, they are likely to expose other inmates to severe physical torture or even death. Tiffon (2021) identified a filicide case where the perpetrator cited that an evil spirit possessed the child. Such cases have relevant community and media attention and place the court on public trial depending on how the trial is conducted and the judgment rendered. Thus, forensic psychology plays a crucial role in eliminating public psychological tension, especially if the offender has a psychotic disorder. A psychological evaluation will help explain the reasons for committing such mentally disturbing crimes by the offender.
When it comes to caring for criminal offenders with severe mental disorders, forensic psychology is vital in protecting them from self-harm or posing a danger to other people. Secure forensic facilities are designed with therapeutic security, specialist management, governance coordination, physical security, and procedural security (Kennedy, 2022). Specifically, forensic psychologist experts are ideal for designing the physical structures and environment to reinforce the desired rehabilitation process for criminals with severe mental disorders (Kennedy, 2022). As much as the law enforcement agency has the requisite personnel and resources to isolate offenders from the general population, there is a need for expert management of people with severe psychotic conditions. There is a need for a procedural routine of movement within these facilities, treatment of the identified conditions within the affected population, including other therapeutic procedures needed to care for them. Thus, forensic psychology has the expertise to manage and govern the rehabilitation of the mentally insane criminal population.
The legal and psychological fields have work-based challenges that must be identified to improve efficiency. Given that forensic psychology specializes in giving clinical services and knowledge to improve the efficiency of the criminal judicial system, experts are likely to encounter patient-based challenges. Pirelli et al. (2020) identify problems such as vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue as issues that can make forensic psychologists inefficient in an active criminal procedure (Pirelli et al., 2020). By definition, vicarious trauma entails the mental instability a psychologist suffers when a patient retells a traumatizing event (Pirelli et al., 2020). For instance, it is mentally traumatizing for a psychologist when a parent narrates how they chopped off their child’s head in filicide criminal cases. Most practitioners are parents and cannot withstand the thought of such an event happening to someone they know. On the other hand, compassion fatigue is a mental and physical symptom that develops when a psychologist is exposed to severe indirect trauma (Pirelli et al., 2020). Forensic psychologist encounters unconventional forms of mental health practices, with most of them criminally confined. Practitioners must learn the difficulties encountered to develop maladaptive behavior to counter them and improve efficiency.
Forensic psychology plays an integral role in improving the efficiency of the criminal justice system. First, forensic psychologist establishes an offender’s mental competency and cognitive efficiency to stand trial for high-degree criminal cases. Also, the unit is integral in equipping the criminal justice system with the needed expertise to rehabilitate offenders diagnosed with various psychotic conditions. Forensic psychology provides an evidence-based explanation for mentally disturbing cases to ease public tension castigated by the community and media. Still, experts in this field should be aware of the challenges like vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue that can jeopardize their expert abilities not to be biased. Forensic psychology is critical to coordinating, governing, and managing all the psychiatric needs of the criminal justice system, especially with psychotic offenders and offenses.
References
Kennedy, H, G. (2022). Models of care in forensic psychiatry. BJPsych Advances, 28(1), 46-59, https://doi.org/10.1192/bja.2021.34
Pirelli, G., Formon, D, L., & Maloney, K. (2020). Preventing vicarious trauma (VT), compassion fatigue (CP), and burnout (BO) in forensic Mental Health: Forensic psychology as exemplar. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 1-15, https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pro0000293
Mosotho, N, L., Bambo, D., Mkhombo, T., Mgidlana, C., Motsumi, N., Matlhabe, T., Joubert, G., & Roux, H, E. (2020). Demographic, clinical, and forensic profiling of alleged offenders diagnosed with an intellectual disability. Journal of Forensic Psychology Research and Practice, 20(4), 362-376, https://doi.org/10.1080//24732850.2020.1742004
Tiffon, B, N. (2021). Criminal and forensic psychology of a case of filicide by decapitation of a minor. Journal of Forensic Medicine, 6(3), 191-203, https://doi.org/10.22533/at.ed.68721151218
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