Saturday, 5 October 2013

What One Needs To Know About A Forensic Psychologist In Houston

By Rhea Solomon


Forensic psychologists play a very important role when it comes to assessing offenders and providing support and training to staff. In addition, they also work with victims. Their work also involves a lot of research and presentation of evidence in the courts. This also involves giving pieces of advice to parole boards as well as mental health tribunals. A forensic psychologist in Houston has a host of other functions and responsibilities.

They use expertise based on the theory of psychology for working closely with many other professionals in other careers. The purpose of this is to treat people and for development of institutional policies and working practices. Professionals in this career mostly work in the Prison Service but have employment in various other fields. These include probation services, social services and higher learning institutions.

Depending on the sector in which one is employed, the salaries for the various workers are very varied. People that have a doctorate degree for instance have a starting salary of approximately $60000 or $70000 per year. People with masters or bachelors degrees are called psychological assistants and are paid roughly $40000 yearly. Those in consultancy or private practice are the biggest earners at $950000 and over. This is why after working for a while, most people get into private practice.

Every forensic psychologist needs to get a degree in either clinical or counseling psychology. A number of schools provide degrees that are specifically based on this career. They normally combine the courses with law courses. The number years spent is roughly 7.

Upon attainment of requisite education. Experience and training, what follows is board certification. Certification is normally done by the American Board of Forensic Psychology. After being certified, one is referred to as a Diplomat of Forensic Psychology. In most states, people are not allowed to practice until they are certified. It involves passing an exam and proof that the documents one has are valid.

Before one decides to take a career in this field, there are a number of factors that need consideration. First and foremost, you should be able to enjoy working with others. This is because professionals in this field work with several other professionals. Moreover, they directly work with both clients and criminal offenders. They also need to have patience, commitment and creativity. Also important is the ability to work on challenging problems.

There are very many opportunities in terms of employment. They can work as academic researchers, consultants to law enforcement, evaluators, expert witnesses, trial consultants and treatment providers among others. Evaluators evaluate matters that pertain to competency of defendants to stand trial, what their mental state was at the time of offense as well as any risks of violent acts in future.

There also are treatment providers that serve to offer treatment to not only people with civil but also criminal cases. For the case of criminal proceedings, help is offered to people that look to restore competency. This is especially for those that have been declared incompetent and thus cannot stand trial. Therefore, it is clear that a forensic psychologist in Houston has many opportunities to look forward to.




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