Report Writing for Forensic Evaluation

10 hours | 10 CEs

This on-demand professional training program on Report Writing for Forensic Evaluations is presented by Randy Otto, PhD, ABPP. This badge-earning program can be shared digitally on platforms like LinkedIn or your resume and counts towards various certificates. Enroll to earn credit and share your new digital credentials with prospective employers and colleagues. This program counts as a foundational program in the certificates:

1. Criminal Forensic Assessment Certificate
2. Child Custody Evaluation Certificate
3. Civil Forensic Assessment Certificate
4. Juvenile Forensic Assessment Certificate
5. Violence Risk Assessment Certificate

Conducting well-constructed forensic psychological evaluations is not enough to persuade judges, attorneys, and other referral sources about the adequacy of one’s work and opinions. Reports and affidavits are the primary vehicles by which psychologists communicate to judges, attorneys, and others what data they considered, what actions they took, the opinions they formed, and the underlying reasoning. 

Thus, writing clear and concise reports is critical to most forensic psychologists’ practice. Research on forensic examiners’ report-writing practices is reviewed; how forensic practice guidelines, the ethics code, and rules of evidence and procedure shape reports are considered; principles for the organization and structure of forensic reports are proposed, and elements of good and bad reports are highlighted using multiple real-world examples from redacted reports.

More focused matters such as the use of jargon; specificity in word choice; identifying sources of information; distinguishing between observation and inference; and common report writing errors are also considered. Finally, preparing affidavits and how their structure and substance differ from reports is tackled.