APA Standards and Forensic Psychology Practice

In what ways do you think that forensic psychology practice creates challenges for the concept of competence?

The professional competence of forensic psychologists depends on the basic psychological education and understanding of the specifics of the activities of law enforcement agencies. Unfortunately, the qualitative composition of psychologists does not fully correspond to the needs of the practice and the level of development of psychological science. Forensic psychologists often have professional deformation that creates challenges for the concept of competence (Humphreys et al., 2017). As the practice of correctional institutions show, there is no integral educational system based on psychological and pedagogical methods. This does not allow the staff to successfully solve the tasks of purposefully changing the personality and collective of convicts. Therefore, it is necessary to actively introduce psychologically sound technologies for the resocialization of convicts into the practice of correctional institutions (Humphreys et al., 2017). It is generally accepted that the effectiveness of the functioning of correctional facilities depends largely on the professional competence of forensic psychologists. Therefore, considerable attention should be paid to the substantiation of the psychological requirements for the staff.

Reference

Knapp, S., & VandeCreek, L. (2003). A guide to the 2002 revision of the American Psychological Association’s ethics code. Professional Resource Press/Professional Resource Exchange.

Humphreys, L., Crino, R., & Wilson, I. (2017). Psychological functioning predicts competence development for postgraduate students of professional psychology. Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 11(1), 49-56.