MSc Forensic Psychology

This module will introduce you to key issues in forensic practice, specifically assessment, formulation and intervention with a range of client groups, including victims and perpetrators, both adults and children. You'll explore work across a range of settings, including police, courts, prison, probation and health services. You'll specifically address evidence-based approaches to interventions with offending behaviour and the organisational and political context in which these are delivered in forensic practice.

This module will introduce students to the legal framework for civil and criminal cases. Psychological theories and underlying causes of the origins of offending will be introduced and applications discussed. Appropriate methods of working with witnesses and victims, especially vulnerable individuals will be described. The role of the expert witness in civil and criminal cases will be explained and illustrated. Students will learn about the requirements of expert report and for giving evidence in court. The effectiveness of the range of sentencing options will be examined.

To provide understanding and critical skills related to research design and analysis for quantitative and qualitative studies.

Lecture topics will include: psychology as science and the hypothetico-deductive account, basic concepts (e.g., validity, reliability, sampling, and measurement), experimental designs, quasi-experimental and specialised designs, survey design and analysis, single-case designs, introduction to key concepts of qualitative research, thematic approaches and methods of qualitative research (including , thematic analysis, grounded theory and IPA), and discursive approaches to qualitative research (incl. narrative analysis and discourse analysis).

A student-led seminar series, consisting of 10, two-hour seminars on design and statistics as principled argument will run alongside the lectures.

This module covers the primary statistical analyses used in psychology including multivariate data screening and cleaning; power and sample size determination; factor analysis; multiple regression; analysing contrasts; univariate and multivariate repeated measures; and ANCOVA and MANCOVA.

This module will introduce you to the key professional issues involved in practising forensic and clinical psychology and related health professions. It aims to develop critical and reflective thinking in relation to issues that arise in the professional practice of psychology. The lectures will be supplemented by weekly seminars in which you are expected to debate and discuss in a more practical way the issues raised in lectures. You'll also be expected to complete independent reading in order to do so.

The lectures and workshops cover the following topics:

National and regional organisation of mental health services; commissioning arrangements and Payment by Results; clinical governance and service user involvement; organisational leadership in health settings; cultural and diversity issues; the role of supervision in forensic and clinical practice; careers in the health service; ethics, confidentiality and record keeping; risk assessment and child protection; and professional regulation.

The module will provide you with knowledge relating to the measurement of crime, theories of crime and other currently under-represented topics (e.g., victimology and crime prevention) relevant to the MSc in Forensic Psychology drawing upon the knowledge and expertise of members of the Forensic Psychology Unit.

The provisional module timetable covers the following topics across the 10 weeks:

1. Defining and measuring crime
2. Social and psychological theories
3. Biological and cognitive theories
4. Theory integration and application
5. Crime prevention
6. Victimology
7. Cyber and cyber-mediated crime
8. Youth crime
9. Punishment and restorative justice
10. Revision

The aim of the project is to give some practical 'hands-on' experience of addressing a particular research question. Such experience, by confronting students with the conceptual, methodological, logistical and logical problems faced by all researchers, should help to give a deeper understanding of the existing research literature as well as some useful experience for carrying out research in the future. A secondary aim of the project is to familiarise students with the task of structuring their ideas around the standard framework of research reporting used by scientists. This framework is not some arbitrary formula but a logical ordering of the progression of ideas from initial research questions, through methods used to obtain answers, to presentation of results and discussion and interpretation of findings. The research must be an empirical research project with a strong forensic focus. This may take the form of a service evaluation as long as there is an empirical element. The project may utilise existing data gathered by the service to describe demographic, clinical and functional characteristics of the service and to evaluate the outcomes for the client group. In some cases, and subject to feasibility in the setting, you may gather some additional data from staff and/or clients. You will analyse and interpret these data in the context of relevant empirical literature pertaining to services for that group, and will draw out the implications for future service developments. It should be noted that programme staff cannot guarantee that it will be feasible for every student to carry out their research project in an applied forensic setting.