MCCCD Program Description

Forensic Psychology

Course: AJS255

First Term: 2005 Spring

Lecture 3 Credit(s) 3 Period(s) 3 Load
Subject Type: Occupational
Load Formula: S

Description: An interdisciplinary course that draws from the fields of psychology, sociology, criminology, and law. Focuses on various psychological constructs including psychiatric assessment and treatment and the nomenclature of mental disorders as well as legal constructs including the medicalization of deviance as embodied in dealing with the mentally ill criminal offender. Explores the interaction between psychology and law in the areas of civil commitment and various civil competencies. Examines legal and ethical issues that face the clinician and his/her patient in such arenas as confidentiality and privilege, the right to treatment, the right to refuse treatment, and the doctrine of informed consent

MCCCD Official Course Competencies
1. Differentiate the various sub-fields subsumed under the broad term forensic psychology. (I) 2. Explain the difference between the three primary ways in which law and psychology interact. (I) 3. Define law and identify the major sources and classifications of law. (I) 4. Explain law`s primary social functions. (I) 5. Define the behavioral sciences and identify their methodologies. (I) 6. Describe the laws of evidence as they relate to the roles of expert witnesses at trial. (I) 7. Define and differentiate deviance, socialization, and social control (II) 8. Explain the medicalization of deviance and its consequences. (II) 9. Explain the three major models of mental illness. (III) 10. Summarize the major methods used in forensic clinical assessment. (III) 11. Describe the structure of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) IV and the basics of the major types of psychiatric disorders that are frequently seen in forensic settings. (IV) 12. Define and explain the processes of determining competency to stand trial. (V) 13. Define and explain the processes of other major criminal competencies including to plead guilty, waive counsel, be sentenced and be executed. (V) 14. Define insanity and explain the major tests for determining it. (V) 15. Define and explain the ways in which the diminished capacity defense is used. (V) 16. Explain the purposes and processes of involuntary civil commitment (VI) 17. Define and explain the special legal rights and responsibilities that exist in the forensic behavioral science setting. (VI) 18. Define and explain the major civil competencies related to establishing guardianship and conservatorship. (VI) 19. Define and explain the special competencies for making contracts, making wills, and parental fitness for child custody. (VI)
MCCCD Official Course Competencies must be coordinated with the content outline so that each major point in the outline serves one or more competencies. MCCCD faculty retains authority in determining the pedagogical approach, methodology, content sequencing, and assessment metrics for student work. Please see individual course syllabi for additional information, including specific course requirements.

MCCCD Official Course Outline
I. Law and Mental Health Professionals A. Defining Forensic Psychology, Forensic Psychiatry, Law and Their Differing Contexts 1. What is Forensic Psychology? 2. The Ways in Which Psychology and Law Interact B. Law: Its Sources, Classifications, and Operation 1. What is Law? 2. Sources of Law 3. The Social Objectives of Law 4. The Evolution of Law 5. The Adversary System 6. The Study and Practice of Law C. Behavioral Science: Its Sources, Classifications, and Operation 1. Defining the Behavioral Sciences 2. The Empirical Methods of Behavioral Science D. The Forensic Psychologist as Expert Witness 1. The Role of the Expert Witness 2. The Frye Test for Admissibility 3. Daubert and Its Impact and Implications for Behavioral Science II. Law, Social Control, and the Medicalization of Deviance A. Social Deviance B. Social Control 1. Socialization 2. Formal and Informal Social Controls 3. Styles and Institutions of Social Control C. The Medicalization of Deviance 1. Medical Social Control 2. The Positive and Negative Social Consequences of Medicalizing Deviance III. Paradigms and Testing in Clinical Assessment A. Approaches to Deviance: Theoretical Paradigms in/of Mental Illness 1. Biological 2. Psychodynamic 3. Behavioral B. Clinical Assessment 1. Psychiatric Examinations 2. Case Histories and Mental Status Examinations 3. Diagnostic Tests for Clinical Assessments IV. An Introduction to the DSM-IV and Psychiatric Diagnoses A. The Multi-Axal Classification System of the DSM B. The Psychoses C. Mood Disorders D. Anxiety Disorders E. Dissociative Disorders F. The Personality Disorders G. Organic Cognitive Impairments H. The Paraphilias V. The Mentally Disabled Criminal Offender A. Competency to Stand Trial 1. The Legal Standard 2. Procedural and Clinical Issues 3. Disposition of the Incompetent Defendant B. Other Competencies in the Criminal Process 1. Confessions 2. Pleading Guilty 3. Waiving Counsel 4. Testifying 5. Sentencing 6. Execution C. The Insanity Defense 1. The M`Naughten Test 2. The Irresistible Impulse Test 3. The American Law Institute (ALI)/Model Penal Code Test 4. The Durham Experiment 5. The Modern Federal Formulation 6. Guilty Except Insane/Guilty But Mentally Ill 7. Disposition of the Criminal Offender D. Diminished Capacity and Related Defenses 1. Diminished Capacity 2. Altered States of Consciousness 3. The XYY Chromosome Defense 4. The Premenstrual Syndrome Defense 5. Toxic Insanity 6. The Battered Women`s Syndrome Defense VI. Forensic Psychology in the Civil Law Context A. Involuntary Civil Commitment 1. Jurisprudential Bases for Commitment 2. Substantive Criteria for Commitment 3. The Role of the Clinician and the Process of Evaluation 4. The Rights of the Civilly Confined Mental Patient B. Special Legal Rights and Responsibilities of the Patient and His/Her Clinician 1. Informed Consent 2. The Right to Treatment and to Refuse Medical Treatment 3. Confidentiality C. Civil Competencies 1. Guardianship and Conservatorship 2. Testamentary Capacity 3. Capacity to Contract 4. Competency and Fitness in Child Custody Cases

MCCCD Governing Board Approval Date: 11/23/2004

All information published is subject to change without notice. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information presented, but based on the dynamic nature of the curricular process, course and program information is subject to change in order to reflect the most current information available.