Psychology and Law Careers Outside of Academia

Adele Quigley-McBride, Experimental Liaison
​2017-2018 Student Committee

​The vast majority of psychology graduate students think that a career in academia is the only way to continue to produce and publish research. However, many other career paths can offer this opportunity, particularly for research focused on applied outcomes such as psychology and law. The criminal justice system is realizing more and more that their departments and legal personnel require exactly the kinds of skills that graduate students acquire during their studies—analytical thinking, the ability to critique and apply research in efficient ways, and explaining complex experimental findings and statistics in a way that is easy to digest. In fact, psychology students are particularly well suited for the criminal justice field. All our research is on different aspects of individuals, their relationships with others, and their environments.
 
I am certainly not an expert in career advice for graduate students, nor do I have any experience working in industry or law enforcement as a psychologist. The purpose of this blog post is not to impart my (non-existent) wisdom. Rather, the purpose is to provide other students like me with some resources and places to start looking if you think that this kind of career path might be right for you. In other words, I will do some grunt work on this topic so that you don’t have to.
 
So, what does a career in psychology and law outside of academia look like? The truth is, that this area of work can be extremely varied. The breadth of expertise a psychologist is expected to demonstrate in both psychology and the law can be very different depending on the area of the criminal justice system and the role the psychologist is expected to play. Also, how much research and what kind of research a psychologist might get the opportunity to be involved in throughout their career will vary considerably.
 
Before embarking on a career in forensic psychology, it is important to introspect about the importance of different aspects of the psychological discipline to you. In all forensic psychological professions though, your broad role will be to assess and critique systems and procedures in the real world, and the behavior of offenders and other legal actors, in an attempt to improve the outcomes of the criminal justice system. 
 
To give people a taste of the kinds of jobs out there for psychology graduates in the area of psychology and law, I have provided brief explanations of some career directions. I have tried to focus on some careers that are may be less well-known, or misunderstood due to inaccuracies in the media.
 
Forensic Psychiatry or Forensic Clinical Psychology (Evaluation)
 
Typically, a forensic psychiatrist or clinician’s responsibility is to present written assessment of a criminal offender, and potentially deliver their findings at trial as expert testimony (for other clinical roles, see the section on correctional psychology below). Some assessments that may be conducted in criminal cases include assessments of a person’s danger to society or themselves, an assessment of their likelihood of recidivism, or whether they should be found criminally responsible in this case. They can also be conducted in a civil setting, for example psychological assessments are common in negligence cases, personal injury claims, or child and family court issues. The most common assessment requested is an assessment of competency to stand trial. In the USA, a criminal defendant has a constitutional right to a competency evaluation before a trial if the issue is raised by any actor at any point in the proceeding including pre-trial, during the trial, pre-sentencing, and pre-execution. Clear standards are set by the SCOTUS on what competency means (Dusky v. United States, 1960).  Of course, this role within forensic psychology requires specialized doctoral degrees in a clinical field.
 
Jury and Trial Consultants
 
Jury or trial consulting from social psychologists is extremely useful to attorneys, for criminal and civil suits. Social psychologists can offer specialized advice on how to select members of the jury. Lawyers want the jury to be sympathetic to their side of the argument, and social psychologists can help to select persons who might be more sympathetic to the issues in the case or the background and experiences of the plaintiff or defendant. In addition, social psychologists can help prepare witnesses for court and teach them how to communicate clearly and make the best impression on a jury. The advice that consultants give in this capacity can be supported by evidence-based methods, such as attitude surveys on the issues in the case for the locality in which the trial will take place, or arranging focus groups or mock juries to help the witness and attorneys to practice delivering their testimony and arguments. Finally, social psychologists might also have some expertise that would help to bolster the arguments or communication strategies for the lawyers themselves. Many trial consultants still hold academic positions and perform these duties on the side. However, there are also firms that are dedicated purely to trial consulting all over the United States, as well as conferences and societies for those in this field (http://www.astcweb.org).
 
Government-based Policy Advisors
 
There is a place for psychological expertise in the formation of government policy—at a county level, state level, or federal level. In fact, world-wide, there is growing recognition of what psychology can offer in a political setting that economists and other experts cannot (https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/applying-psychology-to-public-policy). Psychologists can help to conduct surveys to discover what people want concerning a particular issue or whether a solution implement to fix a problem has been successful. Psychologists can conduct research, in the laboratory and in the field, to discover ways to make it easier for people act in a desirable way.
 
For example, if a government body wants to improve the environmental impact on their area, they need to figure out the best ways to get people to take part. How far apart should trash cans be if we want people to use them rather than throwing their garbage on the ground? What kind of system will successfully encourage people to recycle products more often? Would a rewards system help? What kind of rewards system will produce the desired results in an efficient way? These are all questions that psychologists are well placed to research and answer, as they are all about how people behave, what their motivations are, and why people do or do not perform tasks. For more information on how psychology can help shape environmental policy, refer to https://www.humansandnature.org/can-psychology-help-save-the-world.
 
Other examples include formulating strategies to prevent behavior that is bad for the individual and society as a whole. Take, for instance, underage drinking and drug use. Simply making drinking illegal below a certain age has clearly not been successful at deterring underage persons from drinking, both moderately and heavily.  Psychologists already have a wealth of knowledge on adolescent development and this research can extend to the more applied question of how an underage person becomes a drinker, why they decide to become a drinker, and form strategies to deter adolescents from taking part in these behaviors. For example, when there are safe areas and activities that adolescents can take part in, that are also entertaining and social, maybe some adolescents will be tempted to drink less. If adolescents are taught to use alcohol responsibly early on, and enjoy it in a moderate fashion, maybe this will reduce problematic teen binge drinking even though it does not remove the illegal behavior (for research based summary of work relating to these issues, refer to https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh26-1/5-14.htm).
 
Corrections
 
The United States, as well as many other countries, has growing prison populations that are already over-loaded. This has caused governments to seek better strategies for keeping individuals out of prison and prevent offenders from re-offending once they are released. The question of how to do this is two-fold. Which types of offenders need more attention from corrections and which offenders could be punished in another, less punitive way? What are the best strategies for rehabilitation with the aim of reducing recidivism? Some psychologists who work in corrections study criminal behavior with the goal of developing profiles of behavior and linking these to types of crimes. Others study offenders who have been released from prison and assess factors that predict success after release and those that predict bad outcomes or recidivism. Psychologists also develop rehabilitation programs and study the outcomes of different types of offenders after a rehabilitative intervention.
 
This type of work is not always easy, as it typically involves a lot of exposure to violent offenders and barriers within the corrections system. However, the work is also rewarding when someone’s life is changed or rehabilitation techniques prove to make a difference. A concrete example of psychologists working in corrections is the development of risk assessments prior to releasing offenders from prison. Psychologists have studied the characteristics of offenders that predict reconviction using longitudinal studies in an attempt to classify offenders as low, moderate, or high risk. Some things that can reduce the risk of recidivism include rehabilitation or therapeutic programs, development of an understanding of their patterns of behavior, and the creation of detailed plans for post-release (https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44087.pdf).
 
Again, I would like to stress that these are only a few ways that a PhD in psychology could be applicable in a non-academic setting. But for those of you who are unsure about what you would like to do with your psychology education, hopefully this has helped you to see that there are plenty of options out there.