Ethical Code Of Forensic Psychology Essay

Forensic psychology is a sub-domain of clinical psychology, in which aspects of clinical psychology is applied to areas of law, including civil, criminal, correctional, and police contexts and in special types of consultations where the forensic psychologist is not answerable to the person they are interviewing, but rather the legal entity consulting the forensic psychologist, or psychiatrist. Forensic psychologists follow the same ethical code as do other branches of psychology, however they have a series of additional guidelines that apply to them due to the nature of their field. This paper examines in some detail the ethical code and specialty guidelines of forensic psychologists while comparing and contrasting it to the general ethical code, and discussing some of the current trends and case law that are further effecting the practice of forensic psychology.
The general guidelines for the practice of clinical psychology are a series of principles that form a basic ethical code of conduct. According to the American Psychology Association (APA, 2010), these ethical guidelines include the following principles: beneficence and nonmaleficence, fidelity and responsibility, integrity, justice, respect for people's rights and dignity. These five principles form the basis of the ethical codes and are further elaborated within the …show more content…
These responsibilities are codified in the Specialty Guidelines for Forensic Psychology (APA, 2013). This additional set of ethical guidelines addressed the responsibilities of the forensic psychologist that directly relate to the people they interview and to the court system or legal entity that may require their