Forensic Psychology matters

This is the first of a planned series of articles in which Ian Florance asks psychologists to talk about their work within different specialisms and environments. Here, we focus on forensic psychologists.

Our interviewees

Nic Bowes: Nic is a Professor in Practitioner Forensic Psychology and Programme Director for the postgraduate diploma in Forensic Psychology at Cardiff Metropolitan University, 'the largest practitioner forensic psychology programme in the UK.'

Sally Tilt: When we interviewed her, Sally was about to change roles. She is now the Directorate lead psychologist for the South, Central and South West areas. She is Chair of the British Psychological Society's Division of Forensic Psychology.

Dapinder Matharu: 'I'm newly qualified and am working as Establishment Psychology Lead for a category B prison in the Midlands region.'

Our interviewees speak on the sorts of things forensic psychologists do, how they chose the area and trained in it, and the key pressures and influences on forensic psychology. We also consider the future: whether entry points, training, and the discipline itself will need to change to meet future challenges. In particular, we discuss whether psychology should seek a stronger voice to affect policy, to influence public understanding of what forensic psychology can do, and to truly matter to people in their everyday lives.

'Forensic work makes you feel you can make a difference.'

When you ask a forensic psychologist to describe their work, it quickly becomes clear that there is no average day. Dapinder Matharu is an 'Establishment Psychology Lead for a local Category B prison. I qualified recently after 15 years of experience working in the prison service. I'm involved in meetings focused on prison safety, but also individual client work. There's a risk assessment aspect of what we do in terms of completing parole-directed reports and attending parole hearings. There's also work with other staff.' This latter point is a theme that came out in all three interviews: forensic psychologists work with both clients and other staff, the latter often being a larger element in their work than I suspected.

Nic Bowes is a professor at Cardiff Metropolitan University, but describes her work as also involving 'little bits of research and some enterprise work. One day a week, I work with the probation team in the Wales Offender Personality Disorder pathway.'

Before her new job (see below), Sally Tilt's role was 'Regional Lead Psychologist in the Midlands, involving 17 prisons and around 140 psychologists who work in them. At the moment, my day job looks a little bit different to some people who are delivering more of the direct prisoner contact facing work. I'm also Chair of the Division of Forensic Psychology in the Society… but that is based on the experience of working for the prison service for 20 years.'

Sally and Nic both highlighted two issues that help define forensic psychology in England and Wales in contrast to many clinical psychologists who work for individual hospitals, many forensic psychologists are employed in one central hierarchical structure, the HM Prison and Probation Service (though some work in the NHS, universities, and other services). But that central structure probably employs more forensic psychologists than any other organisation in the world.

Forensic Psychology is obviously a demanding job: what are people's motives in committing to it and to the training involved? Attracting trainees and the shape of training is a key issue given the need to diversify the sorts of people who become psychologists and the barriers (financial among others) to recruitment into the profession. Like many psychologists, Nic did not start out with that career in mind. 'I left school at 16 for a YTS scheme at British Gas.' 

Nic's Gran became ill and this got her interested in psychological issues. 'I took voluntary redundancy and did A-levels. The first year of my degree included Sociology and Philosophy. This combination – work experience in other fields and studying other subjects – was invaluable. I was able to put together context, statistics, and personal experience.' Her entry into the forensic area was almost accidental. 

'I was doing youth work and many kids were affected by crime. I was applying for assistant psychology roles and one was a trainee forensic post, which I was offered.' She's clear about her motivation. 'Forensic work makes you feel you can make a difference and when I trained, I enjoyed learning about people who had had to overcome barriers.'

Sally was also influenced by her first degree, which combined psychology and physiology. 'The physiology part was neurophysiology and I was uncertain which route to go down. After finishing university, I worked in secure hospitals for a while and also had some work experience in the prison service. It appealed to me because it made a difference, giving people the opportunity to move their lives in a new direction from a pathway which had perhaps not been so successful for them. I applied for a role as an assistant psychologist in the prison service, I then moved into a trainee psychologist role where I completed my Master's degree and then moved on to the British Psychological Society Stage 2 practitioner course, which is the period of supervised practice to enable me to qualify as a registered psychologist. What I noticed quite quickly was the difference between the pathway that had led me to sit on one side of the table and led another person to sit on the other side of the table. I think a lot of us realise that there is quite a lot of luck involved in that.'

Dapinder initially wanted to train as an accountant. A week at university in Year 10 interested her in psychology and a module on her undergraduate degree interested her in the forensic application. 'I became an interventions facilitator after completing my Master's, delivering treatment programmes in Category C establishments, and gained a lot of experience working with people convicted of sexual offences.'

Developing issues

It seems that studying other subjects and working in different areas helps Forensic Psychologists in their work, in which they feel they can genuinely make a difference in their clients' lives. But like other specialisms, the area has changed.

In talking through these topics, the interviewees developed a number of themes. The first was the importance of the link between research and practice. Forensic psychology research has expanded hugely and increasingly underpins practice. This has led to a change of approach, which both Nic and Sally mentioned, involving a move away from starting points based on diagnostic frameworks to a focus on placing an offence within someone's life story. 

Points all interviewees made include the increasing understanding of the importance of trauma; a greater emphasis on formulation and on the client's recovery before looking at the pain they've caused. Sally commented, 'I think that's probably been the main change: research has given us a much better understanding of what is and what isn't a risk factor for particular offences.'

Social and economic issues have also impacted forensic psychologists' work. As Nic put it, 'The massive reduction between 2010 and 2017 in the number of prison officers and resourcing means they have less opportunity and time to form relationship with prisoners, though officers work very hard at this. This reduction in meaningful interaction contributed to an increase in self-harming and suicide in the corresponding period. In addition, while probation staff do a wonderful job, the area has changed continually and also suffered reductions in resourcing. It is the subject of political and economic pressures and more general public criticism.' 

Dapinder echoed this, but also pointed out that 'attitudes to forensic psychologists amongst other staff have changed for the better. We don't just assess risk; we are involved in a far wider range of areas to support prison environments. We receive requests to support staff in many different capacities. But more needs to be done to help others understand the range of what we do.'

The need for more public understanding of social justice

Has initial and continuing training prepared the interviewees for these changes? Nic stresses that 'psychologists are terrible at looking after themselves and their wellbeing. As a profession, we have been slow to adopt a position of wellness action planning – which is essential because the work we do is very tough and will impact on our wellbeing. We need to shift towards healthier attitudes to wellbeing. Another development is that, as research and practice have contributed to our understanding, training in areas like neurodiversity and compassion-focused therapy have become more important.'

Sally considered whether the question 'Does training prepares forensic psychologists to face every eventuality?' is the right one. To summarise her argument, initial training should be precisely that – initial training. You shouldn't expect a newly trained and registered practitioner to be the same or face the same issues, 20 or 30 years down the line. As Sally says, 'initial training is about learning your own capabilities and being prepared, in turn to learn through CPD and experience.' 

Dapinder pointed out that while her training outlined key areas of working with staff, this was something she wanted to keep developing in her journey as a registered psychologist. 'I hadn't originally realised I'd have to work with staff so much but it's a massive part of what we do. Trainee psychologists should learn more about the impact of prison culture on staff-prisoner relationships to help support prison safety needs.'

Given that forensic psychology has and is changing, what will it look like in the mid-term? What other trends will change it? Many of the key influences reflect changes in society and political/economic pressures. These are being wrestled with by many professions and include issues such as neurodiversity, gender identity, and awareness and action around violence against women and girls. Most people in health and psychological care would echo a concern about the effect Covid has had on people's mental health and the increase in the number of clients presenting with complex conditions. Trainees and experienced practitioners will need to learn more about the environment within which they work – legal, political, and social – to cope with these developments.

Other issues relate to the specific profession and have also been raised by psychologists from different Divisions in my regular interviews for The Psychologist. As Nic points out, 'There's not enough diversity in the profession; far too many of us are white and middle class. By contrast we deal with a prison population in which people of colour are overrepresented.'

Sally feels a number of these issues are already presenting themselves and the profession simply needs to work harder on addressing them. But she stressed: 'If I had a magic wand, I'd wish for more public understanding of social justice to create a better environment within which our work is considered.' Dapinder agrees. 'We need to change the emphasis. The public and media can focus solely on what prisoners did and the risk they posed when they committed an offence. We need more public understanding of the decisions we make in helping to understand risk and the impact of any rehabilitation work or strengthening of protective factors.'

'We are cautious with complexity'

Given these points, how should psychology influence public policy and societal attitudes? Is the profession in a position to lobby and influence effectively? Are there barriers?

Nic pointed out an issue specific to the forensic arena. 'Many forensic psychologists are employed by the Ministry of Justice so are civil servants. There are restrictions on what they can say. This, for instance, affected who could present at our last Division annual conference. Other psychologists in different settings are freer than civil servants. But I do think psychologists are in general overburdened with caution in this area. We are cautious with complexity and so add nuance to everything. I think we could be bolder with some contributions.'

Sally picked up what she'd described as her magic wand issue. 'I see prisons – and I think this is probably a view that I've come to over the course of my career – as every citizen's concern. By their nature prisons are closed and away from public eyes. The public don't necessarily understand them. I doubt whether I would have developed an informed view on whether I was content with our approach without taking this job. Taking someone's liberty away is one of the most serious things that we can do, and we're asking people to do this to others. In my view, society shouldn't allow that unless we're really sure that that's the right thing to do in that circumstance. Once I'd seen inside that world, I found it hard to walk away from. We have a responsibility to address this issue, to communicate what prisons are like. And we need public understanding and support since we can't do what we want – we can't practice true psychology – without it.'

Sally can give examples of where she feels she has contributed. She has a podcast with 200,000 downloads and a Radio 4 programme, 'Behind the Crime'. 'My Professional Doctorate on computers in prison informed debates and policies. There are many ways to influence.'

Psychology matters

The interviewees gave some brief examples of where their work had impacted an individual's life.

For Dapinder, 'it was completing a risk assessment and formulation where we provide a narrative to understand the individual and possible reasons to explain offending behaviour. The individual felt it was an accurate representation of them as it highlighted the impact of childhood experiences that have contributed to problems they have experienced in adulthood and on release. They felt that this may be able to support them in receiving appropriate help from services in the future.'

Sally 'held the role of Clinical Lead on a specialist prison unit. The prisoners had largely completed many years of intensive therapy, and this unit helped to prepare them to apply their new approaches in preparation for release. The most rewarding days were when we received letters from people who had left the prison, and were now in the community, describing how they were successfully living the lives that they'd imagined and prepared for when on the unit.'

Find out more about Forensic Psychology via the Division of Forensic Psychology website.

Explore our Forensic Psychology Collection, and our 'Psychology matters' collection.