Legal Psychology is the area of Psychology that studies issues of intercession between Psychology and Law. This area is subdivided into several areas, each with its specific study and place of performance, namely: Forensic Psychology, Criminal Psychology, Prison Psychology and Investigative Psychology.
Forensic Psychology, for example, is related to “forensic” terminology, which means “service rendered to the Court”. Thus, Forensic Psychology will work with the Law Courts, responding to the demands of the judiciary, preparing reports and opinions on various matters, analyzing the right to specific benefits, doing criminological examinations, etc. Judicial Psychology can also be included here.
Criminal Psychology works with the individual in a criminal context, not necessarily or directly related to the Court, carrying out work to analyze the behavior of criminals, studies on the impacts of crimes on victims and on society, etc. (Victimology can also fit in here).
Prison Psychology, as the name makes explicit, works within the prison context, developing programs for incarcerated people, analyzing the relationship between management, employees and prisoners, alternatives to incarceration, etc.
Investigative Psychology, in its turn, works with Justice and the Law to assist Criminal Investigation, in analyzing crime and detecting criminals, here the psychologist acts as a behavioral expert, using techniques and methods of Psychology, analyzing the scene of the crime and identifying the profile of criminals, training police officers in interview techniques with witnesses, victims and suspects, tracing the profile of victims, analyzing the locomotion behavior of criminals, etc.
In addition Legal Psychology joins with other areas of the study of criminality, such as Criminology, Forensic Psychiatry, Forensic Sociology, Criminalistics, Forensic Expertise, Criminal and Forensic Sciences in general.
The themes of Legal Psychology, in their respective areas, are the most varied:
Forensic Psychological Expertise; Judicial Reports and Opinions; Rights of Children and Adolescents; Adoption and Childcare; Parental Alienation; Psychic Damage; Judicial Psychology and Legislation; Criminal Inimputability and Psychology; etc.
Criminal Behavior: Scales and Measures; Victimology; Sexual Violence; Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence; Violence Against Children and Adolescents; Juvenile Delinquency and Minor Offender; Addiction and Drug Addiction; Forensic Psychopathology and Criminal Personality.
Crime, Society and Social Reintegration; Incarceration and Prison: Prison sentences; Prisoning and Its Effects; Penalty and Provision of Service to the Community; Prison and Penal Treatment; Alternatives to Incarceration; Technical Assessments of Prisoners; Criminological Examination and Personality Examination; Incarceration, Public Policies and Social Projects, etc.
Criminal Investigation and Criminal Profiling; Types of Crimes; Profile of Criminals; Crime Scene Analysis; Crimes and Obtaining Evidence; Kidnapping and Negotiation Techniques; Interviews, Testimonies and Interrogations: Victims, Witnesses and Suspects; Decision Making and Influence Factors: Judges, Jurors and Police; The Victim's Profile; Geographical Profile; etc.
Criminal Law basically embraces two aspects, the formal and the material.
In the material aspect, Criminal Law refers to behaviors considered highly objectionable or harmful to the social body, affecting legal assets that are essential to the Society's own conservation and progress. Material Criminal Law is where criminal laws are found, that is, it is the Penal Code itself.
In the formal aspect, Criminal Law refers to the branch of Public Law dedicated to the norms provided by the Legislative Power to suppress crimes by imputing penalties to them in order to preserve the Society by providing its development. In addition to protecting the legal assets vital to society, there is also an understanding that Criminal Law guarantees the rights of the human person in the face of the punitive power of the State. Formal criminal law defines the process ranging from investigations of the crime to the trial of the defendant.
Criminal Law can still be classified as objective or subjective. The objective conception is related to the set of rules, imposed by the State, through coercion, that includes everyone, constituting a pattern of behavior, whereby it will be said whether a conduct is correct or incorrect in the legal plan. And, on the other hand, the subjective conception refers to the State's sole and exclusive right to punish the conduct listed as criminal, thus, the State being the sole holder of the "right to punish".
Criminal law can still be common or special. Common Criminal Law is punished and judged by ordinary people in Society. In Special Criminal Law, people from special spheres of society, such as politicians and the military, are punished and tried.
Over time, new aspects of study in Criminal Law emerge. One face aims to tighten the system and give the criminal tougher treatment, understanding that the established law should be applied in full, without prejudice to alternative penalties, but in a way to signal, to Society, in a pragmatic way, the graduation of the seriousness of the crime by grading the severity of the penalties imposed. Another face, on the other hand, understands that the act of punishing the criminal is inefficient and even generates more violence, defending, instead: the humanization of the law; the definition of responsibilities; reconciliation between aggressor and victim; the repair of damage and the treatment of criminals with more dignity, as explained by the so-called Minimum Criminal Law and Restorative Justice.
Legal Psychology and Criminal Law, in their knowledge, objectives and activities, interact with various related sciences, such as Legal Medicine, Forensic Nursing, Forensic Expertise, Forensic Psychiatry, Forensic Informatics, Criminal Technology and Public Security.
- Forensic Medicine is a medical and legal specialty that uses technical and scientific knowledge of medicine to clarify facts of interest to the justice.
- Forensic Nursing is a specialization in the health area related to the quality of nurses' performance in cases of physical, sexual or psychological violence, whether the person survived or not. It is very new in Brazil, but it has been recognized by the Federal Nursing Council (COFEN) since 2011.
- Forensic Expertise is at the service of justice in the search, identification and interpretation of the so-called technical or expert evidence, through scientific analysis of traces produced and left in the practice of crimes.
- Forensic Psychiatry is an area of Psychiatry serving justice. The forensic psychiatrist has several functions, for example, to assess people's mental health, to provide judicial clarifications on the relationship between the mental state and the laws.
- Computer Forensics is an area at the service of justice that is dedicated to technological solutions aimed at the collection, organization and analysis of digital data for justice.
- Criminal Technology develops technological tools used in criminal investigations. The aid of these technologies in police work has shown important results in the resolution of crimes.
- Public Security aims to guarantee the state of normality allowing the enjoyment of rights and the fulfillment of duties. It cannot be understood as surveillance and repression, but as an integrated system of prevention, justice and defense of rights.