A forensic psychological assessment is similar to any other psychological assessment, but differs in a few important ways. Although each assessment is different depending on what the aims of the assessment are, a forensic psychological assessment typically entails a highly trained psychologist gathering and synthesising information from a range of sources to form an opinion on a person’s psychological functioning.
The ways forensic psychological assessments differ from other psychological assessments are:
1. The psychologist conducting the assessment is specially trained in forensic psychology.
All psychologists in Australia receive generalist psychological training. After this, some psychologists go on to specialise in a specific area. One of these areas is forensic psychology.
Forensic psychologists specialise in psychology in legal and criminal justice settings. They are trained to operate in criminal settings (for example, assessing whether a defendant is competent to stand trial or what factors contributed to a convicted offenders criminal behaviour), family settings (for example, assisting the Family Court determine custody or other complex family issues) or civil settings (for example, assessing victims of crime or workplace injuries). Forensic psychologists are trained to understand the legal environment and furnish courts or tribunals with the information they need to settle legal matters.
2. Typical clinical or therapeutic assessments are based on only a few sources of information, normally restricted to an interview with a person and (sometimes) psychological tests. Forensic psychological assessments use many more sources of information. Whilst the sources the psychologist use will depend on the specific needs of the assessment, they typically include:
a. Court or police reports (including Police Statements of Material Facts, if available)
b. Medical or hospital reports
c. Past psychological reports
d. Work reports
e. One or more interviews with the person being assessed
f. One or more interviews with others who know the person being assessed (this could include family, friends or workmates)
g. Specialised psychological testing
h. Any other information or reports that may be relevant
3. The tests that the psychologist uses are likely to be different to other psychological tests. Sometimes forensic psychologists many use the same tests used in clinical settings but in a different way. At other times a forensic psychologist may use special tests that are designed to test one or more very specific psycho-legal issues. These are unlikely to be used in normal clinical assessments.
4. Forensic assessments are independent. The psychologist who completes a forensic assessment should not be your therapist, and your therapist should not provide a forensic assessment. It is unlikely the person being assessed will know the psychologist who completes the assessment.
Psychologists who provide therapy may provide what is referred to as a ‘treatment report’. This should outline what issues the person came to them with, what the psychologist’s diagnosis is (if any), what treatment the psychologist has provided and how the client responded to that treatment. These reports can be helpful for a court or tribunal, but are not a substitute for an independent forensic assessment.
The problem with these reports is that they are heavily dependent on what information the client does - or does not - provide to the psychologist, and the assessment techniques are often not valid within a legal context. Forensic assessments do not have these issues.
5. The person being assessed is not the only client. In clinical or therapeutic contexts the person being assessed is often the only client. However, forensic assessments are completed to assist a court or tribunal to determine a particular matter. For this reason, the court is the primary client. The person being assessed is also considered a client, however because the assessment is being completed to assist a court, the overriding responsibility of the psychologist is to the court. This means that the opinions of the forensic psychologist may not always support the person being assessed (for example, if the psychologist’s opinion is that the person being assessed has a different problem to what the person being assessed believes).