Broadly defined, forensic psychology is the application of clinical and experimental psychological methods to the legal arena. With increasing frequency mental health professionals are being called upon to offer opinions on psychological issues pertaining to legal matters such as fitness for trial, mental state at the time of the offense, competencies, sentencing, and more. Based on their training, knowledge, and expertise, these evaluators are entrusted with conducting comprehensive psychological evaluations and offering their informed opinions, which have the potential to impact the legal fate of matters related to civil or criminal proceedings.
Modern forensic psychology has been a viable professional field for the last half-century so it would seem that defining forensic psychology should be a straightforward task; however, this is not the case. The difficulty stems from the fact that the professionals who work in forensic psychology come from a wide range of graduate and professional backgrounds. This article provides an overview of the various ways in which forensic psychology has been defined.