Saturday, 5 October 2013

Important Details On 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.

The salaries in this field are varied a great deal depending on the sector in which one is employed. However, most of those that have a doctorate degree start at between $60000 and $70000 per year. Those that have bachelors or masters degrees are referred to as psychological assistants or associates. Their starting salaries are in the range of $40000. Professionals that get into private practice or consulting will earn as high as $95000.

In addition to obtaining the traditional degree in forensic psychology, it is always recommended that they also get a degree in clinical counseling or psychology. There are hundreds of institutions that provide degrees in this career. More often than not, psychology courses are taught with law as an added inclusion. A degree course for this career would last 5 or 7 years.

After one gets the required education, training and experience, they can apply for board certification. This is done by the American Board of Forensic Psychology. Every psychologist in this field is certified as a Diplomat of Forensic Psychology. Certification is very important because one would not be allowed to practice unless they have undergone certification.

Prior to deciding to get into this field, there are many factors that should be considered. The most important is that one needs to enjoy working with other professionals. This is because the career involves hand in hand working with other professionals. Furthermore, they work closely with not just clients but offenders as well. The career also need a lot of patience, creativity and commitment to work. Most of the time they will also be required to handle challenging situations.

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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