In carrying out their duties, criminal psychologists always need to think strategically, and act logically, communicate efficiently, be ethical to the utmost level as they comprehensively seek solutions regarding crimes and terrorism incidences. However, these basic requirements for their profession may not always fall in line as it may necessitate. The psychologists often face a range of challenges that may make their work challenging, while others may make them inefficient in performing their duties.
To have an insight on what problems they tread through, check the following;
1. Conflicting Personal and Professional Ethics.
Criminal psychology applies principles on legal grounds to reach legal solutions concerning cases in question. This means the professional ethics required by criminal psychology are those used for clinical, experimental, actuarial, and advisory purposes for carrying out legal duties. Criminal psychology may contain some principles that contradict the personal morals and ethics of you as a practitioner. A person’s ethics base on their interests or some religious beliefs which are not professional in any way. If these personal ethics conflict with your professional ethics, then you may end up in ethical dilemmas with contradicting interests on which course of action is best to take.
2. Competence required.
The psychologists are required to pull all strings together and work to the best of their competences in providing reliable information, all these based on their education, training, consultation, and study or professional experience acquired. Their level of expertise is determined by accounting for the relative complexity and nature of services they are providing relevant to their training and experience, the preparation and study they devoted to the matter they are tackling.
In the bid of being competent, they face the challenge of avoiding misrepresentation of their research by any form. They ought to be aware of professional standards, laws, rules, and procedures in play to avoid impairing the rights of the affected individual. Harnessing all these aspects can be very tedious and very challenging at the same time.
3. Mitigation of Harm
Rarely can a criminal psychologist harm someone, but incidences do occur where harm may occur unintentionally. For instance, as a criminal psychologist, you may require to review the execution of a criminal. If the culprit is found competent for life execution, you would have caused harm to life. On the other, if the culprit lives, you are saving his life as well.
4. Psychological information misuse
Abuse of personal information may occur regularly in institutional settings by these psychologists. The criminal psychologist should ensure the information obtained from an inmate is put into use appropriately. Correctional staff focusing on negative information can as well cause the psychologist to bias in that direction hence making a wrong inference. Such incidences may render the psychologist a hard time in deciding on what deductions or inductions are best for the subjects involved.
5. Analytical procedures.
This is more of an ethical dilemma facing criminal psychologists that are required to follow the well-established protocols. These protocols provide guidance during tests of analysis, including recording those tests and their results. However, criminal psychologists often do not follow these protocols, which is not ethical.
6. Abuse of work.
Criminal psychologists may, at times, attempt to use the profession in going against human rights. They may need to avoid participating in practices contrary to the legal, civil, or moral rights of others as well as deny helping someone else who might use the psychology knowledge in a way that violates human rights.
7. Work Delegation.
In this case, a supervisor is responsible for the work of his subjects. He ought to ensure he takes well-thought steps to avoid delegating the work to people who have some or any relationships with those getting the services, in which this may lead to a lack of objectivity.
The ideas above explain to you some of the challenges faced by criminal psychologists while trying to do their. From personal beliefs and ethics contradicting with professional ethics to cases of work-related activities, many challenges fall on the professional paths of these psychologists. There is a need for ways to be sought to reduce these challenges. The criminal justice system is trying to make the environment more conducive for criminal psychologists.
