Legal Psychology: the union between Psychology and Law

Psychology and Law share an important similarity; both are human and social sciences and share their object of study and the same area of intervention, human behavior. But this link goes even further.

Psychology in the legal field

The object of study of Psychology are the characteristics of human behavior, for its part, the Law focuses on laws that regulate said behavior. Therefore, we can differentiate three contributions of Psychology in the legal field:

The study of the specificities or peculiarities of behavior On the part of Psychology, it provides the necessary basis from which specific laws can be created that take into account these peculiarities and increase the effectiveness of the laws.

Psychology can help both in social organization and in conflict resolution that the laws may generate, since the path adopted by the judiciary does not have to imply individual acceptance of them.

Evaluates the degree of functionality of the law allowing it to achieve a better adjustment to psychological changes that occur in the application of the laws.

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For all the above, the function of Psychology in Law focuses on studying how different behaviors affect behavior. judicial rulings, analyzing to what extent such rulings manage to regulate society in order to progressively improve the system judicial.

Thus, the first relationships that Law establishes with Psychology are produced through the Social psychology, Attribution and Attribution Psychology Cognitive Psychology.

Social psychology

From Social Psychology it is postulated that the human being behaves according to the different interactions that he maintains within his social environment. Therefore, legislators must take into account the relationships that the person establishes with othersIn this way, it will be able to have the necessary basis in the elaboration of the norms that regulate human behavior.

For example, in the prediction of future behaviors when granting prison permits or provisional freedom since when incorporating the person in the same social environment in which he carried out the criminal behaviors, he is exposed to the same stimuli that could drive him to commit said behaviors.

Attribution Psychology

The Psychology of Attribution provides explanatory mechanisms in the field of judicial decisions, specifically in the decision of guilt and criminal responsibility.

Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive Psychology is related to the field of witnessing, providing explanations of human behavior through information obtained from juries, judges, witnesses and the accused.

The differences between Psychology and Law

However, there are clear differences between the two sciences; the most striking is that Law belongs to the category of "should be" (norms) and Psychology to "be" (behaviors).

As indicated by authors such as Garrido (1994), the main difference between these two sciences is that although both are interested in the same topics, the meaning they give is significantly different. Law regulates and intuits the factors that guide behavior and tells us what to do or avoid. For its part, Psychology analyzes, measures, predicts and modifies behavior.

Therefore, some authors indicate that Psychology shows three approaches to the legal field:

Psychology of Law: focused on analyzing the psychological components for the functioning of the Law.

Psychology in Law: it studies the legal norms that imply the realization of diverse conducts.

Psychology for Law: converted into an auxiliary science of Law, in the establishment of the truth of the facts, the imputability, the interpretation of the conducts, etc.

The concept of Legal Psychology

However, where the union between Psychology and Law is strengthened is in Legal Psychology, within which Forensic Psychology is integrated, since this type of Psychology focuses its area of activity on Law and on specifically applying psychological techniques and knowledge to the interpretation of the entire process judicial.

Thus, Legal Psychology is the area of research and psychological work whose object of study is the behaviors of legal actors in the areas of Law, Law and Justice. It includes the study, evaluation, explanation, prevention and treatment and / or counseling of those psychological aspects, behavioral and relational implicated in the legal behavior of people through the methods of Psychology Scientific

Fields of action of Legal Psychology

There are various classifications of the fields of action of Legal Psychology, and their prevalence varies in different countries. In general, we can talk about the following areas of action:

Psychology Applied to Courts

Also called Forensic Psychology, includes psychology applied to minor, family, civil, labor and criminal law. Different areas in which the psychologist makes technical reports, advice on the measures to be applied, monitoring of interventions, etc.

Prison Psychology

The scope that includes the psychologist's performance within the penitentiary institutions. Its functions involve the classification into modules of the inmates, the study of the granting of exit permits, pardons, the study of the social climate, the general organization of the prison and the performance of individual and group.

Judicial Psychology

Its two most representative areas are Testimony Psychology and Jury Psychology. The first refers to the application of research results from Social and Experimental Psychology in determining the validity of the testimonies that is, the accuracy and credibility of eyewitness testimonies, whether about accidents, everyday events and / or crimes.

In the second, the psychologist is in charge of investigating decision-making processes, of the social influence of the juries as well as of the evaluation of the same.

Police and Armed Forces Psychology

This area refers to the role of the psychologist in the selection, training, organization and relationship with society of this group (Police, Civil Guard, Army, etc.).

Victimology

It refers to the role of the psychologist in caring for victims of various types (mistreatment, sexual abuse, attention to the detainee, etc.). Its functions are focused on the study, planning and prevention of risk groups and informative campaigns of prevention to the general population and in the care, treatment and monitoring of victims and their interaction with the legal system.

Mediation

Understand the scope of the psychologist in solving legal conflicts through negotiation carrying out an intervention that helps to mitigate and prevent the emotional or social damage of those involved. Its functions are focused on preparing a suitable context for the communication of the parties, designing a mediation process and provide the parties with the tools that allow them to manage the conflict.

The functions of Legal Psychologists

In each of these areas, the Legal Psychologist performs various functions:

Evaluation and diagnosis in order to determine the psychological conditions of the legal actors.

The advice that involves guiding and / or advising as an expert to the judicial bodies in matters pertaining to their discipline.

The intervention, design and implementation of programs aimed at the prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and integration of legal actors in their different areas (community, prison environment, etc.), both individually and in groups.

Education and training understood as the training and / or selection of professionals involved in the legal system (lawyers, judges, prosecutors, police, prison staff, etc.) both in content and in psychological techniques useful in their work.

Social prevention campaigns in the media in the face of crime preparing and advising on social information campaigns for the population at risk and the general population.

Investigation of the various problems of Legal Psychology.

Study and research to help improve the situation of the victim and its interaction with the legal system.

Concluding

In conclusion, and in a synthetic way, it could be said that Psychology and Law are united since both share the same object of study human behavior and Legal Psychology allows to contribute the knowledge of Psychology about human behavior in an objective way regardless of the point of view or scope of action where the judicial process is being analyzed and considered by bringing it closer to society.

Although, unfortunately, in those cases in which the political outweighs the social, there is not an effective relationship between Psychology and Law (Law) and produce situations in which the psychological aspects of human behavior are less relevant when making a decision or reaching a resolution definitive.

Bibliographic references:

Jiménez, E.M., Bunce, D. (2010): Concepts of Forensic Psychology: common and divergent assumptions between Psychology and Law. In Sierra, J.C., Jiménez, E.M., Buela-Casal, G, Forensic psychology: manual of techniques and applications. (pp. 70-85). Madrid: New Library.

Cop.es. (2016). Juridic psychology. [online] Recovered from: http://www.cop.es/perfiles/contenido/juridica.htm