Criminal Psychology Course

Criminal psychology is the study of everything that plays a part in criminal behaviour, the thoughts, emotions and motivations of criminals. It also examines the use of psychology in crime, its detection and prevention. Essentially, criminal psychology is concerned with what makes someone commit a crime and their reactions after the crime has occurred.

This criminal psychology training course provides an overview of the psychology of criminal behaviour and the use of psychology in crime, its detection and prevention. The course covers different research methods and how they can help us research criminal behaviours, the use of psychology in helping to understand why some people turn to crime, how criminal psychology can be useful to criminal investigations and prosecutions, and how criminal psychology can help convicted criminals.

Unit 1 Introduction

    Defining criminal psychology
    Scope of criminal psychology
    Roles of the criminal psychologist


Unit 2 Researching Criminal Behaviours

    The scientific method of psychological research
    Ethical considerations of psychological research
    Designing a research study/experiment:

Focus of the research

The hypothesis

Data collection methods

Analysing the data

Reaching conclusions

Reporting the results

The usefulness of psychological research


Unit 3 How Criminal Psychology can be used to Understand Crime

    Factors that influence the incidence of criminal activity
    The major perspectives that try to explain causes of criminal behaviour:

Biological/physiological theories

Cognitions theories

Behavioural theories

    Developmental theories


Unit 4 How Criminal Psychology can be used in Criminal Investigations

    Investigating a crime
    Witness reliability
    Factors that affect memory acquisition
    Factors that affect memory retention
    Factors that affect memory retrieval
    Interviewing witnesses
    Interviewing suspects
    Detecting lies
    Detecting false confessions
    Offender profiling
    Geographic profiling


Unit 5 How Criminal Psychology can be used in Prosecutions

    An overview of courtroom procedures
    How witnesses can affect a jury’s decision
    How child witnesses can affect a jury’s decision
    How expert witnesses can affect a jury’s decision
    How the judicial system can affect a jury’s decision
    How the juror reaches a decision
    Group decision making
    Group behaviour


Unit 6 How Criminal Psychology can be used with Convicted Criminals

    A Brief history of punishments
    The range of punishments
    Imprisonment
    Problems inmates encounter in prison
    Support available in prisons
    Alternatives to imprisonment
    Rehabilitating prisoners
    Offender behaviour programmes

What Could I Do After Taking This Criminal Psychology Course?

Build your career. If you wish to build your career in criminal psychology, you could continue your training and education in criminology, psychology, psychotherapy, and other related subjects that are essential to this field.

Obtain a degree. To work as a criminal psychologist, you’ll need a psychology degree.

Work as a psychological assistant. If you’ve already earned 5 GCSEs, including maths and English, and have an understanding of IT and statistics, you could apply for a position as a psychological assistant, then use this experience as a step toward becoming a fully qualified psychologist.

There is no experience or previous qualifications required for enrolment on this course. It is available to all students, of all academic backgrounds.