CJ325 Psychology for Law Enforcement (CJ325)

-The first policeman could not have imagine such a growth in the field of police psychology. -Hugo Munsterberg Wrote a book titled “On the Witness Stand” (1908). It detailed on investigation, criminal detention, courtroom procedures and more. -Now the law enforcement field cannot function without psychology. It is used in the recruitment and hiring process. Initial training, evaluations, counseling, special operations, specialized segments such as hostage situation etc.

For future cases, each team member on the hostage negotiation team should be trained in psychology to help better respond to the situation. The psychologist should play the role of negotiator and communicator with the hostage taker and a psychologist should be a law enforcement officer him/herself before becoming a part of the team. This would allow the skills of an officer and tactics to know when or not to approach etc.

To summarize. They are four overall steps for the purpose of psychological autopsy. The four purposes are to “Assist in the determination of the manner of death”, “Help determine why a death occurred at a particular time. The timing of the death can be useful in identifying behavior that may have influenced a person’s decision to complete the act of suicide”, “Gain helpful and predictive information by identifying behavioral patterns, precipitating factors and the severity of the s...