Forensic Psychology: Examining Time, Process, & Lessons Learned - Essay Sample

Introduction

Analyzing Forensic Process: Taking Time into Account (Taylor et al., 2008) is an article that explains a great deal of forensic psychology. The journal reviewed the sequences of events and behaviors. This is a peer-reviewed article because the authors stated in the abstract that they aimed to examine the recent efforts to evaluate the forensic issues, discuss the contemporary methods used during forensic psychology, and identify the lessons learned from the previous research. Also, this journal is a peer-reviewed journal because it has all the elements of peer-reviewed journals. These elements include the abstract, introduction, findings or discussions, and the conclusion.

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Time is an essential aspect of forensic psychology. Time enables forensic psychologies to understand and determine how various events unfold. Forensic psychologists conduct risk assessments to examine the personal developments of the offender to help them predict the offender's future behaviors. Further, the reviewers argued that police investigations proceed as a result of a series of actions and decisions. Serious crime investigations also consider the basics of forensic psychology, whereby the forensic investigations comprise sequences of actions and reactions between the victims and the offenders. The forensic analysis involves various forensic processes. The reviewers reviewed the top ten forensic psychology journals to evaluate how time is featured in forensic psychology. Article reviewers also argued that a common variable-centric approach is appropriate in providing a rigorous way of conducting forensic investigations. The decisions of forensic psychologists are useful in understanding the context of crime through evidence-based approaches. This journal focused on three major issues, namely, the benefits of forensic psychology in violence investigation and the essence of sequence-based forensic investigations.

Summary of the Article

The Essence of Sequence-Based Forensic Psychology

According to this journal, analyzing cases of sequences of events does not require complicated analysis to determine the crucial findings. The forensic psychologists will sequentially deconstruct an event into behaviors that help the psychologists to identify how the crime unfolded. The reviewers also found out that anti-social behaviors and violence are rising, which makes the psychologists investigate these issues from a forensic perspective. The violent behaviors are modified by the cultural traditions which initiate aggression in the social context. Forensic psychologists argue that understanding the time of the violent episodes will help to offer crime reduction approaches. Clips of the violence are analyzed in a forensic sequence to determine the root cause of violence. The forensic psychologists will code the observable behaviors of the offenders as either de-escalating or escalating acts. It is also fundamental to note those involved in the crime and the person they intended to harm or the person who is already harm. Psychologists can identify some features that can lead to severe violence and crime escalation through a sequence of acts and results analysis. The first step in analyzing violence is to look at the contingency within the actor's codes.

Additionally, it is importing for the forensic psychologist to apply the principle of contingency. Contingency involves counting occasions in which one event leads to the other. The analysis of emergencies helps to reveal the dynamics of incidences. The first thing when evaluating the sequences is to determine the factors that regulate the behaviors of the offenders. The actions of the protagonists typically determine the intensity of the planned offense. The behaviors of the victims are used to assess the trajectory of violence.

Contrary to the common stereotype, the victims of the violence attempt to deescalate the violent rather than escalating it. The decomposition of violent episodes can be related to the severity of the violence. Forensic psychology suggests that increase the investigation time reduces result accuracy. The findings of the forensic investigation have implications for forensic psychologists in understanding and managing violence. At some points, forensic psychologists should formulate the intervention strategy, which will help them to avoid any bias during the investigation. They should also come up with a measure to facilitate and manage the incident under investigation. During the incident investigation, it is essential to identify the behavioral dynamics of bystanders and the offenders because they will help during the incident investigation (Gudjonsson, 2003). As a psychologist, the behaviors which characterize an incident will help to understand factors that initiated and facilitated a crime. The most important thing learn from the essence of sequence-based forensic psychology is that investigation requires to probe forensic incidences to identify and solve the underlying issues.

Benefits of Forensic Psychology in Violence Investigation

Most of the forensic cases are complex, and this calls for the knowledge of forensic psychology to dissect and determine the fate offenders. The reviewers of this article argued that some reasons make the process of examining a complex process difficult. The first instance arises when there is an inadequate meaning of inference regarding the differences in forensic methods. Forensic processes are complex; therefore, they require the means of reasoning when handling various cases that involve two or more subgroups. During the process of forensic investigations, the psychologist can draft state-transition diagrams for different situations and groups under investigation. Developing a state-transition description will help in case dissection, but their visual comparison of this diagram can provide limited information about the chances of contingency occurrence. This forensic investigation process is pertinent when similar events of interest occur irregularly. The investigation can still represent a critical incident in the way things unfold during the investigation process. The second instance arises when the state-transition models focus on the instantaneous contingencies. In a more complicated manner, the investigation focuses on the relationship between behavior and sequence. For instance, the forensic psychologist's active probing can confuse the perpetrator and eventually leads to confession after many intermittent exchanges. Therefore, it is crucial to capture indirect relationships. Consequently, rational persuasion is the epicenter of negotiation strategies. Persuasion is effective in low and high-context offenders and victims.

There are many ways in which forensic psychologists can overcome these instances. The common one is to adopt a contingency analysis approach. This approach will ensure that the forensic psychologist is sensitive to possibilities by considering the sequences of behaviors. Additionally, it is essential to evaluate the progression of great episodes where one the investigator examines one event after another. Also, the psychologist can investigate the behaviors which coincide. However, these solutions might not work well, but the investigator requires arbitrary decisions on the best ways to divide the information enable a forensic psychologist to capture the relevant relationship. The proximity coefficient determines the contribution of events to the event sequences. Concerning the proximity coefficient, the event sequences may occur together in a way that is a bit complicated. Over time, occasions can occur in particular ways that are organized and connected in an orderly manner rather than haphazard and random. As the Psychologists find more events, the proximity coefficient tends to reduce monotonically to separate the phenomena under investigation. This difference does not have any effect on the length of the sequences. One of the common areas that applies the idea of proximity coefficient is the study of the interaction between the offenders and the police. In forensic psychology, the sequence range method is useful in the utilization and the effects of influence strategies within the forensic investigation context. To dissect the complex process, the negotiators should not use threats to stimulus interactions. Threats will escalate the conflict, and the perpetrators may fail to give adequate and relevant information.

Psychological Relevance of this Article

Forensic psychology deals with crime investigations. This discipline involves the interaction of forensic studies and practices with the law. The psychologists in this line of duty apply their knowledge in incident and investigation, and review of law and psychology (Nigrini, 2012). Forensic psychologists provide multiple services in ensuring that the offenders offer relevant information, which will help when carrying out investigations. This article focused on time as a crucial factor in forensic psychology.

Additionally, this article is relevant in the field of psychology because forensic psychologists conduct researches that give learners a clear insight into various psychological concepts. Assessment processes hold a profound hope for forensic psychology. Most of the psychological theories and contemporary issues surrounding investigations involve incident analysis over time to generate credible results. The practice of forensic psychology comprises sequential events and interactions. This article addresses most of the forensic issues as the sequence. Concepts of psychology play critical roles in forensic psychology because it equips people with adequate knowledge that is used to solve legal problems which take time before arriving at conclusions. Therefore, psychology accounts for time to advance the real insight about disclosing sequential the are behind the forensic phenomena.

One essential area which links psychology to forensic psychology is the aspect of the investigative processes that utilize various concepts of psychology. Forensic psychology is very critical in distinguishing perpetrators on account of their behaviors during an incident. Forensic psychologists use methods that work well within a specific time frame. The forensic psychologists apply concepts of psychology to determine the duration if investigating a crime scene. Dissection of complex situations allows the forensic psychologists to probe deeper into the issue to find credible information about the matters under investigation. Perhaps, forensic psychology is a process which takes time before it is fully established. The relevance of this article to psychology shows up when accounting for the time and the procedures a psychologist used to determine the verdict of a case. Often, forensic psychologists adhere to these procedures to create a functional interaction between the offenders and their behaviors. For instance, the relevance of forensic psychology exhibits in the courtroom where layers use non-verbal and verbal behaviors to control and alter what the witness says. The layers take time to study the witness' psychology and twist their statements to confuse the witness - the relationship between time and psychology and mutually exclusive. Ultimately, analyzing forensic process take into account the time.

Similarity and Difference Between Scholarly and Non-Scholarly Articles

Scholar and non-scholarly articles, journal, and periodical have a peculiar format which distinguishes them. The report used to write this term paper is a scholarly article because it has the feature and format of academic documents. It has an abstract and a descriptive introduction or summary at the beginning. The report contains some figures and tables and no pictures. The authors also cited the sources in the form of footnotes, unlike non-schola...