There are a  vast amount of different jobs for Psychologist in the Criminal Justice Field. The jobs explained in this editorial represent the foundations of Psychological evaluations and assessment by the different departments located in the Criminal Justice Field. 

There are many areas and fields that use Psychologist on an everyday basis in the United States and in the rest of the world. Some of the Jobs other than social psychological therapy on a private basis are located in the field of Criminal Justice. As explained and recanted many psychological evaluations and experimental jobs are located in the Criminal Justice Field.  Criminal Justice agencies need qualified Psychologists to help them evaluate criminals, workers, and prisoners in the law enforcement arena. Let us begin by exploring some of the jobs that exist in each area of Criminal Justice such as Law Enforcement, Courts, and Corrections. 

Law Enforcement

 Psychologists play an important role in the Law Enforcement area of Criminal Justice. They evaluate criminals to find out what their mental state of mind is at the time that they have committed a given crime. This evaluation may lead to the capture of a repeat offender establishing that the criminal has possibly had mental disorders in the past that have been evaluated and attended to on a regular basses. If a criminal leaves a ransom note, you can tell if they are in distress by the type of handwriting that the criminal displays on the note. Psychological disorders such as mental disorders could prohibit the capacity of learning for the criminal. They may not understand that their actions are reckless, dangerous and go against the civil grain of society, such as people that are members of gangs that participate in illegal activities according to Gross and Magaletta (2009).

Another Law Enforcement job that Psychologists perform is to evaluate Police Officers. Psychologist evaluates Police Officers to recommend them for the Police Force every day. A Police Officer should have many different qualities that are common among the Police Department some of which qualities include being incorruptible, well adjusted, people oriented, free of emotional reaction, and logical, Green, Edie / Heilbrun, Kirk / Fortune, William H. / Nietzel, Michael T. / (2010).

Psychologist performs interviews that evaluate the stature of Police Officers and the way they respond to their surroundings. Personal interviews, observations, and physical tests all provide good information for the Police Force to make a hiring decision, Green, Edie / Heilbrun, Kirk / Fortune, William H. / Nietzel, Michael T. / (2010). Structured interviews provide the Psychologist with a sense of reliability and the validity of their information whether resume or report from the Police Academy. All information that is obtained by the Psychologist is reviewed and later written into a record identifying why the Police Department should hire the applicant or why they should not hire the applicant. Green, Edie / Heilbrun, Kirk / Fortune, William H. / Nietzel, Michael T. / (2010).

Courts and Evaluation of Witnesses

The Psychologist evaluates witnesses that are brought to court for extraneous reasons. They are called upon to evaluate the sanity of a witness that is brought to trial whether by the prosecution or defence. Problems such as PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) or ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder) are common disorders that the Psychologist should test for during interviews and assessments. Whether or not the witness is suffering from depression or any other mental barrier that may affect their competency during trial is a decision that the Psychologists needs to make known. Psychologist are also used to identify cases of witnesses  that have health and mental problems that exclude them from being able to testify in trail such as  a witness clamming to identify another person but the witness has  bad eyesight and is unable to confidently identify the suspect. The witness could have a number of problems with their eyesight ranging from glaucoma, color blindness, and blindness that could affect the prosecutions ruling during the court trial. Is the witness a sociopathic liar, a person that cannot be trusted, is this disorder built in to their personality or social being?  These are some of the questions that a qualified Psychologist can provide answers for.

While evaluating child abuse, the Psychologists is to decipher whether there are grounds for a case against the suspect. When a Psychologist evaluates a victim of child abuse, they must enquire a series of questions that eliminate the accusation of false testimony. After evaluating the child’s situation, the recommendation for relocating the child is the next step to evaluating child abuse. Psychologists perform a number of tests on the child, parents, and witnesses that give them information such as emotional state, mental problems, and physical wellness. This information will eventually present the courts with a recommendation, Psychology Information Online.

Child custody is another area that using a Psychologist may be beneficial to the court, while performing an assessment.  Families that go through divorce may need a mediator to examine the best solution for the child during the divorce process. In most cases, the Psychologist will offer emotional support to the parents that are obligated to be fair and equal during the litigation of child support. A Psychologist evaluates the parents for any psychological problem that may hinder their parenting decisions: Franklin, Donald PhD, (2010).   

Corrections

Counselling is a major area of psychology, the different types of counselling such as suicide assessment, improving individual skills, and group skills all build a stronger foundation for the patient. Drugs, abuse, crisis intervention, and the rehabilitation of sex offenders all play an important role for the Corrections Officer and Psychologist that work together helping prisoners deal with social problems in the correctional systems.  Other areas of corrections involve the assessment of institutionalized inmates. This involves a number of correctional studies that implement the evaluation of the inmates work environment, how the inmates react to their punishments and how to treat inmates for social and psychological problems. Evaluation of environment adaptation displays how inmates react to other inmates and workers in the prison system. Assessments, studies, and tests absolutely improve the success rate of the overall correctional system. Thomas and Jones (Sept 1999)

Much like a doctor is needed to fix physical problems with the body a Psychologist is needed to fix problems with the brain. There is a need for testers, analyzers, and assessors for studies in the psychological field. Many areas in Criminal Justice have to have on staff Psychologists in order to operate efficiently.

References

Franklin, Donald PhD, (2010) http://www.psychologyinfo.com/forensic/criminal_court.html

Green, Edie / Heilbrun, Kirk / Fortune, William H. / Nietzel, Michael T. / (2010) © Cengage Learning, Wrightsman’s Psychology and the Legal System, 6e

Gross, Nicole R. / Magaletta, Philip R. Ph.D.(2009) The National Psychologist,Corrections system has career opportunities from source: http://nationalpsychologist.com/articles/art_v18n2_2.htm

O’Brien, Thomas\ Jones, Derek J. (Sept 1999) American Psychologist News Paper, A Balanced Approach for Corrections Policy Needed

Power Control Theory

Power – Control Theory Identifies that gender differences between boys and girls in the family and the way they are treated by their mothers and fathers at home display that parents shelter girls more than boys due to the fact that girls are guided away from trouble with the law by scare factors presented mostly by their mother. Boys have more lenient rules thrust upon them due to the fathers aspect of allowing boys to hold jobs and own cars in their high school years, while mothers prepare daughters for college and other forms of education to make life easier for them in the long run.

Two disadvantages of the Power-Control Theory are that the theory changes with economic differences in social class and it also changes between single parent families versus egalitarian families.

  Boys and girls should be treated equally between both parents giving them a chance to learn work skills and also giving them a head start with the ability to drive as long as it does not interfere with school work and social programs at school, allotting both girls and boys to have the same treatment of discipline keeping them away from crime. I also think that College or trade programs should be an automatic give me as long as they take it serious and try hard to make good grades.

Measuring Light Intensity

The Inverse Square Law demonstrates the distance between an object and the light array needed to display the object. By moving the camera or object further away you will need more light to display the object within the same lighting as the closer photograph. To balance the light needed for the photograph you must calculate the difference between a close light array and a far light array. From a   starting point of light every time the object movement is doubled the light source must be quadruple. Most often the amount of light that you started with is not enough for the finished product that is located further from the camera than the first photograph. In general you will multiply the starting point by 4 for every movement twice the distance away from the original light setting.

As you can see in the two upper demonstrations of the Inverse Square Law  that as the light travels out ward it is dispersed among the area and the intensity of the light becomes less. By making calculations to increase the amount of light needed you will provide the proper amount of light to take your photograph.  The easiest way to perform the light calculation is to times the distance by 4. It is important to have the proper amount of light; lets take for example that you have a subject that is 4 ft from the camera you then move the subject double the distance away from the camera then the light calculation would be 16d thus the calculation would be  4*4 , next move the subject 4 more ft and the calculation would be 4*4*4 equaling 64 so it would be 64d and so on and on to quadruple the light array as the object moves further from the camera.      

The flash can have an adverse effect on a subject when used improperly the flash array is able to submit the  subject to too much light in retrospect producing a glair or it could not light the subject at all if the objective is located  too far away from the flash.  Some of the issues with the flash are how powerful the flash is when actuated. Most flash cameras will not be able to take pictures telescoping over 300 meters. This presents problems with taking surveillance in dark areas camera such as hall ways and under bridges. Some other variables that you must look at are areas that do not refract light, hills, pictures located on wet surfaces and photographs where the subject blends in with the surrounding area in these instances you must choose a special procedure in order to take proper precautions producing the correct lighting balance for the photograph.  Other issues you may have when photographing in dark areas are tight places that do not allow enough space to get the view of the whole subject. In the case of a tight area you may want to take the photograph from a ladder or tripod located close to the object. 

References:

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/vision/isql.html

http://www.geofflawrence.com/photography_tutorial_inverse_square_law.htm

http://www.energybooks.com/pdf/D1150.pdf

http://www.media-wareness.ca/english/resources/educational/lessons/secondary/television_radio/camera_shots.cfm

http://dpanswers.com/content/nikon_flash_use03.php

A History Of Fingerprinting

Early in fingerprint history Herschels was a pioneer in the fingerprinting science he took his own finger prints and never noticed a difference in a fifty year span. Other pioneers that lead in the forefront of the fingerprint included Sir Frances Galton who published a book in 1892 it had an in-depth accurate study of fingerprints Galton and also included an attempt at a system to identify fingerprints. Even though his study was not widely accepted it helped other future pioneers in their studies of fingerprints.

Juan Vucetich an Argentinean Police Officer corresponded with Galton and then devised his own system of fingerprinting called icnofalagomatrico put in practice September of 1891 and in March 1892 Vucetich opened the first fingerprinting bureau at San Nicolas.

Later in 1897 Sir Edward Henry devised a workable solution for fingerprinting and implemented it in India. In 1900 Henry published his book Classification and uses of Fingerprinting.

The history of fingerprinting came with a means to a problem that had existed since the beginning of time how can you hold a person accountable for their actions if you are unable to positively identify who they are.  Other problems creep up when new law enforcement systems like the Bertillon system which identified people by their measurements used a long tedious process of measuring body parts to get a full scope of a person’s dimensions. The Bertillon system had too many flaws to be an accurate account for all persons incarcerated due to untrained personnel law enforcement stopped using the Bertillon. Other studies had to be performed before Edward Henry came up with a working solution to the classification by fingerprinting. Many other pioneers in the law enforcement agencies put forth much effort to make the fingerprint what it is today. Knowing the issues that law enforcement had to overcome fingerprinting is a system that has lasted throughout the 1900^th century.

References

www.policensw.com/info/fingerprints/finger01.html

www.policensw.com/info/fingerprints/finger02.html