Legal Psychology and Offender Rehabilitation

Module code: CR2023

Legal psychology is one of a number of disciplines that applies the psychological insights of human behaviour to matters regarding the law. The main focus of this module will firstly be to explore court room processes, such as jury decision-making, expert testimony and how to protect vulnerable witnesses in court. Then secondly to examine if and how offenders can be successfully rehabilitated in prison, the community and hospital settings.

You’ll be investigating how jurors make decisions, how and when psychologists provide expert testimony, and how we can protect the most vulnerable in our society when they give evidence in court. Class discussion will revolve around topics such as how psychologists seek to rehabilitate dangerous, violent and sexual offenders in a variety of settings, and how they make decisions about whether an offender is safe to be released back into society or not.

By immersing yourself in this discipline you’ll be find out how psychology can contribute to offender rehabilitation and to our understanding of the court room, while using research and theory to evaluate the contribution of psychology to these processes. You’ll have the opportunity to further develop your skills in relation to researching and analysing criminological research and texts, communicating clear, well balanced arguments in written form.