forensic

psychology
Presented to: Dr.Haziq
Mehmood
Presented by: iqra saddique
What is forensic psychology?
 Forensic Psychology is devoted to psychological aspects
of legal processes in courts. The term is also often used to
refer to investigative and criminological psychology. The
word “forensic” means legal; any thing that is pertinent to
law comes into the area of forensic psychology. The range
of application of forensic psychology is not merely
limited to the criminals, it involves all matters that are
relevant to our legal and civil systems like courts, police,
lawyers, crime investigations, criminal behaviours, police
recruitments, trainings and adjustment e.t.c.
Definition:
 According to Wrightsman “Forensic
Psychology is reflected by any application
of psychological knowledge or methods to a
task faced by the legal system”
 Bartel & Bartel Views Forensic psychology
as both:
I. The research endeavor that examines
aspects of human behavior directly
related to the legal process e.g.,
eyewitness memory and testimony, jury
decision making or criminal behavior
II. The professional practice of psychology
within or in consultation with a legal
system that encompasses both criminal
and civil law and the numerous areas
where they interact.
Brief History
 Hugo Münsterberg, a student of Wilhelm Wundt and a professor at
Harvard University, is generally credited with founding the field of forensic
psychology. His landmark textbook, On the Witness Stand (1908),
comprised nine chapters arguing for the involvement of psychologists in a
number of aspects of the legal system.
 In the United States, the first psychological experiment on the psychology
of testimony was conducted by J. McKeen Cattell of Columbia University.
 In American criminology, one can trace the origins of a clinical or
psychological criminology to the psychiatrist William Healy, who in 1909,
created the Juvenile Psychopathic Institute to assist the newly created
juvenile court in Illinois, and his classic work is called Pathological Lying,
Accusation, and Swindling.
 The history of the insanity defense goes back to England, to the case of
Daniel M'Naghten in 1843, who shot and killed the secretary of the prime
minister, and the M'Naghten test for insanity was used for assessment.
 Forensic psychology as an area of
APA
 Development as an APA division In
2001 the American psychological
Association (APA) approved the
creation of a new division called
the forensic psychology division
41. And now days Psychologists
are routinely consulted by courts
on various issues.
 Difference

Criminal psychologist Forensic psychologist

 Evaluate crimes and  Work with all types of

only work with court cases including
criminals civil matters not only
involving criminals.
Role of a forensic psychology
cont.
 A Forensic Psychologist is more likely to be indulged in following
activities:
 Jury selection
 Competency assessment
 Insanity assessment
 Custody assessment
 Applying psychological theory to criminal investigation
 Understanding psychological problems associated with criminal behavior
 The treatment of criminals include piloting and implementing treatment
programms
 Modifying offender behaviors
 Responding to the changing needs of staff and prisoners

 cont.
 Few of those assessment procedures are listed below:
 Psychologists can help interview the family.
 Forensic psychologist can gather the information through interviewing
the third party like close friends, neighbours office colleagues and other
relevant people.
 Forensic Psychologist can assess the personality type from collected
information.
 Can analyze medical records for identifying the presence/absence of
mental illness. Perform a psychological autopsy
 Reducing stress for staff and prisoners
 Providing hard research evidence to support practice
 Undertaking statistical analysis for prisoner profiling
 Giving evidence in court; advising parole boards and mental health
tribunals; crime analysis.
Forensic psychology in Pakistan
 Pakistan prevalence/universities
offering forensic psychology
 Under progress in Pakistan
 Punjab university offering a diploma in forensic psychology
 Punjab university is offering area of specialization in
masters level
 Virtual university is offering a course in forensic
psychology (Dr Asir Ajmal)
 Institute of health and management science Islamabad is
offering 1yrPGD in forensic psychology
 Dr Shahnila Tariq has started a diploma in forensic
psychology in university of management and technology,
Lahore.
 University of Peshawar plans to begin forensic psychology
courses in Pakistan by Dr Muhammad Jehanzed khan.
Literature in Pakistan
 Personality Traits and Juvenile Delinquency
in Punjab, Pakistan Kausar, Nadeem, Rasheed et al., 2012
( )

 Background: The current research focused to investigate the relationship

between personality traits and juvenile delinquency among delinquents and
non-delinquent juveniles, taking Pakistan as a model country.
 Method: The sample comprised of 240 participants (among them half were
delinquents) and the purposive sampling technique was applied. Four
subscales of Minnesota Multiphase Personality Inventory were used for
measuring the personality traits.
 Results: Our results interestingly indicated that overall delinquents scored
high on Psychopathic Deviant Scale, Depression, Hypocardiasis, and
Schizophrenia as compared to non-delinquents.
 Conclusion: These results could be applied not only in Pakistani society,
but overall internationally to develop or improve the personality traits of
young generation.
 Pathways of Women Prisoners to Jail in Pakistan (Adeela khalid & Nashi Khan
2013)

 Background: The present study aimed to examine pathways to imprisonment

for women in Pakistan. It was hypothesized that early life victimization in
women, problematic family relationship and economical deprivation would be
significantly associated with criminal activities of women prisoners.
 Method: To identify the pathways to prison, structured interview was devised
by the researchers. Sample comprised of 114 women prisoners enlisted from
Kot Lakhpat jail, Lahore, Pakistan.
 Results: Poverty, revenge, anger and lack of empowerment were significantly
associated with criminal activities of women of fender.
 Conclusion: The umbrella of rehabilitation should also cover social and legal
matters of women offenders along with tackling their psychological issues.
 Self-Harm among Women Prisoners of Pakistan (Hina Javed &
Nashi khan 2014)
 Background: The increase in the rates of self-harming among women prisoners
has been catching the attention of researchers. This study aimed to estimate the
prevalence of self-harm among Pakistani women prisoners before and during their
imprisonment. It also aimed to estimate the reasons for self-harm among women
prisoners.
 Method: The study sample comprised 38 women prisoners. A Structured
Interview Performa and Deliberate Self Harm Inventory was used to assess self-
harm, its types, and reasons.
 Results: showed that majority (f = 25) of women prisoners had the history of self-
harm before their imprisonment. Majority (f = 27) of women prisoners had mental
distress which served as an antecedent for their self-harming behavior. Before
imprisonment, majority (f = 20) of women prisoners harm themselves by banging
their heads and prevent their wounds from healing.
 Conclusion: The results highlight the importance of forensic psychologist and
psychological intervention in prison setting for reducing the incidence of self-ham
among women prisoners
 PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS AMONG PRISONERS IN
PAKISTAN
(Dawood, Saima, Khan, Qadir, Rashid, Ayesha 2017)

 OBJECTIVE To find out the frequency and percentage of psychological disorders among
Pakistani prisoners and to find out the association between type of crime committed and
psychological disorder experienced by them.
 STUDY DESIGN Cross sectional research design. The study was carried out in a jail of
Lahore city. Using purposive sampling strategy, a sample of 48 (Men = 33; Women = 15)
prisoners was taken. Screening Questionnaire for Psychiatric Disorders (Kausar &
Dawood, 2013) was administered to screen out psychological disorders in prison inmates..
 RESULTS Of the total population of 48, 19 (39.58%) prisoners were suffering from
psychological disorders, 2 (4.17% ) were suffering from panic disorder, 2 (4.17%) were
suffering panic disorder with agoraphobia, 1 (2.08%) was suffering from posttraumatic stress
disorder, 5 (10.42%) were suffering from generalized anxiety disorder and 9 (18.75%) were
suffering from major depressive disorder.
 . CONCLUSION Prisoners were found to suffering from psychological disorders, which
indicate the need of psychiatric and psychological services in the prisons
 Mental health and imprisonment: Measuring cross-cutting symptoms
among convicts in Punjab, Pakistan
(Ishfaq & Kamal 2019)

 Background: This study is an initial attempt to measure psychiatric

comorbidity among prisoners in Pakistan.
 Method: Study concluded that Urdu translated version of Cross-
Cutting Symptoms (Adult-version) is a valid instrument to measure
comorbidity of 13 domains..
 Results: Crime related factors like number of cases and previous
criminal record are associated with comorbid psychiatric
symptomology.
 Discussion: The situation prevailing in prisons of Pakistan
definitely needs to measure and use comorbid psychiatric
symptomology as baseline for developing effective treatment plans.
 Incidence of Depression among Incarcerated
Woman in Central Prison, Peshawar, Pakistan
(Mehmood Khan & Hussain 2012)

 Background: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of depression

among women prisoners in Peshawar, Pakistan.
 Method: This was a cross-sectional study carried out at the female barracks of
Central Prison, Peshawar, Pakistan. A total of n=64 female prisoners aged 16–65
years were interviewed.
 Results: An alpha value of less than 0.05 was considered significant. Out of the
64 female prisoners, 38 (59.4%) were found to be suffering from depression. Of
these 38, a total of 73.7% met the criteria for mild depressive episodes, 21.1%
for moderate episodes and 5.3% for severe depressive episodes. Middle-aged
women (31–40 years) were mainly affected. Depression was more common
among urban-dwelling (60.5%) and low-income (64.5%) prisoners.
 Conclusion: The incidence of depression was also found to be higher among
married women. Middle-aged, married women with a low socio-economic status
were found to be at a higher risk of depression. In addition, smoking may have
had some effect on the mood state of patients.
 Criminal social identity and suicide
ideation among Pakistani young prisoners
( Shagufta , Boduszek , Dhingra & Palmer 2015)

 Background: the purpose of this paper is to specify and test a structural model
to examine the relationship between three criminal social identity (CSI)
dimensions (in-group affect, in-group ties, and cognitive centrality) and suicide
ideation 
 Method: Participants were 415 male juvenile offenders incarcerated in prisons
in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan.
 Results: The model provided an adequate fit for the data, explaining 22 per
cent of variance in suicidal thoughts. In-group affect (the level of personal
bonding with other criminals) was found to exert a strong protective effect
against suicide ideation. Results indicate that Juvenile offenders’ sense of
shared identity may help to prevent the development of thoughts of death by
suicide.
 Conclusion : so separating and isolating young prisoners may be ill advised.
Why important in Pakistan?
 In third world country like Pakistan, no research work has been
done to identify the specific factors that lead a woman towards
crime per literature review. According to a comprehensive report
by UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Country
Office Pakistan) at 2011 a large proportion of women prisoners in
Pakistan were in the cases of murder (about 40%) while 24% was
convicted of drug related offenses. While kidnapping cases
constitute 13% of women prisoners, commercial sex workers
comprised of 12%, theft cases 7% and other offenses were found
to be the main reasons for imprisonment of the 4% of total women
prison population.
 Just like that there is no much work in pakistan on Rape and Rape
myths.
Mental health of women prisoners in pakistan
Juvenile justice system
 In 2017 a report on juvenile prisoners of Pakistan raised alarm among
human rights activists and civil society alike, the report, based on
research, stated that as many as 10% of prisoners on death row
languishing in Pakistani prisons are children under the age of 18.
Many of these children were arrested at the young ages of 14, 15, 16
and sentenced to death by our criminal justice system(Urooj, 2018).
 According to the official statistics shared by the Punjab Government,
there are total 599 juvenile inmates – of which 529 are under trial and
70 are convicted.
  in October 2017 a provincial lawmaker of JUI-F Sardar Abdul
Khetiran from Baluchistan claimed that there were 4000 juvenile
prisoners locked up in different jails of the province and “99%” of
them are subjected to sexual abuse. 
Statics of juveniles
cont.
 Even though Pakistan was one of the first countries to promulgate the Juvenile
Justice Ordinance (JJSO, 2000) to conform to international obligations and bring
the law up to date, Pakistan has consistently failed to implement any of the
protections that constitute basic requirements of human rights and protecting the
rights of children.
 There are a total of seven juvenile detention facilities in Pakistan. Two are in
Punjab, four are in Sindh, one is in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but it is not functional.
There is no such facility in Baluchistan. As a result, the condemned children are
kept in the same jails with adult offenders, thus, exposing them to the dark world
of crime, sexual abuse, violence and mental illness.
 Sexual abuse is so prevalent in jails across Pakistan that according to one
lawmaker 99% of children in jails are sexually abused.
 Extra-judicial torture by the police is another common form of violence juvenile
prisoners has to face. The statistics revealed by Human Rights Commission in
Pakistan (RHCP)
Career of a forensic psychologist in
Pakistan
Child protection bureau

 Child assessment
 Therapies (art therapy,
play therapy etc)
 Risk assessment
 Counseling
Women shelter home (Dar ul
Aman
 Child custody
 Family issues
 Marriage issues
 Individual counseling
 Group counseling
 Behavior observation
Forensic psychologist in prions /jails

 Police
stress(insufficient pay,
work load, use of force,
fearful situation,
dangerous situations
etc..
 Criminal profiling
 Individual and group
counseling
References

 Ishfaq, N., & Kamal, A. (2019). Mental health and imprisonment: Measuring
cross-cutting symptoms among convicts in Punjab, Pakistan. Asian journal of
psychiatry, 44, 127-132.
 Shahid, I., Aftab, M. A., Yousaf, Z., Naqvi, S. H., & Hashmi, A. M. (2014).
Prevalence of depression among male prisoners at an urban jail in
Pakistan. HealthMED, 8(6), 699.
 Karim, S., Saeed, K., Rana, M. H., Mubbashar, M. H., & Jenkins, R. (2004).
Pakistan mental health country profile. International Review of Psychiatry, 16(1-
2), 83-92.
 Khan, T. M., Hussain, H., Khan, G., Khan, A., Badshah, A., & Sarwar, R. (2012).
Incidence of depression among incarcerated woman in central prison, Peshawar,
Pakistan. Eur J Gen Med, 9(1), 33-38.
 DAWOOD, S., KHAN, A. Q., & RASHID, A. (2017). PSYCHOLOGICAL
DISORDERS AMONG PRISONERS IN PAKISTAN. Journal of Pakistan
Psychiatric Society, 14(1).
 Publisher's link: 
http://ocw.vu.edu.pk/CourseDetails.aspx?cat=Psychology&course=PSY513
Thank you