Code: | PJD03 | Acronym: | PSJ |
Keywords | |
---|---|
Classification | Keyword |
CNAEF | Psychology |
Active? | Yes |
Responsible unit: | Psychology |
Course/CS Responsible: | Master Degree in Psychology |
Acronym | No. of Students | Study Plan | Curricular Years | Credits UCN | Credits ECTS | Contact hours | Total Time |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
MPSIC | 31 | Plano Oficial do ano letivo 2021 | 1 | - | 6 | 54 | 162 |
MTP | 3 | Official Curricular Structure | 1 | - | 6 | 54 | 162 |
At the end of the UC we expect that students:
1) Acquire in-depth knowledge within the areas of Forensic Psychology, Psychology of Justice, Witness Psychology, among others.
2) Know the Portuguese Justice System and compare it with other justice and penal systems.
3) Know the evolution and current state of the relationships between Psychology and the Justice System. Master the theoretical and practical knowledge necessary to understand the origin and development of the psychologist's main practices in the justice system ant the relatioships between them; the historical continuities and the way they affect the current practices of psychologists working in the justice system; as well as the ethical, scientific and technical challenges thar forensic psychologists face nowadays.
4) Understand the judicial decision-making process and the variables that most influence it.
5) Develop the knowledge about the role of the psychologist in the Justice System. They should have developed competences related to the intervention of the psychologists in the various subsystems of the justice system (e.g., forensic psychological assessment, intervention in prisons, prevention programmes and psycho-educational and psychological intervention, educational centres, promotion and protection, social reintegration)
6) They should acquire in-depth knowledge about forensic psychological assessment/expertises in different domains (criminal, family, victims, perpetrators, child custody, etc).
7) They should have deepened knowledge about the testimony in court, dimensions that affect it and its role in the judicial decisions. To understand the specificities of the contact of particularly vulnerable victims, namely children, with the justice system and the need to implement specific mechanisms for hearing those victims in court that protect them from secondary victimization processes.
At the end of the UC students should:
1. Have the necessary theoretical knowledge to understand the origin, development and practices of the psychology / psychologists in the justice system. To know the current models of restorative justice and of "therapeutic justice".
2. Possess basic skills to:
a) Understand the role of the psychologist in the Justice System, intervene in different subsystems of the judicial system (e.g., prisons, educational centres, forensic psychological evaluation services, police and police investigation, profiling), as well as to network and to work in multidisciplinary teams.
b) Know how a forensic psychological assessment is carried out in different fields (criminal, civil, family, etc.) and with different populations (children, adults, victims, defendants, parents, ...). Have the minimum competences to carry out this assessment and to write a forensic expertise report.
c) Understand the multiple variables that affect the judicial decision and the particular importance of the forensic pertise and of the expert testimony. Have the necessary competences to testify as an expert in court.
d) To know the different types of forensic interview. Understand the child's contact with the justice system and the need to implement specific mechanisms for hearing children (and other particularly vulnerable victims) in court and to protect them from secondary victimisation. Know how to interview child victims in forensic sets.
e) To understand the main contributes of the Investigative Psychology to the work of police officers and to the criminal investigation.
- Contributions of Psychology to the Justice System; historical evolution and current situation / practices.
- Psychology of Justice, Forensic Psychology, Criminal Psychology, Witness Psychology and Investigative Psychology.
- The role of the psychologist in the Justice System. Framework of the psychologist's activities in the Justice System.
- The Portuguese legal and penal system and its comparison with other countries.
- The contact with the justice system and the secondary victimization processes.
- Judicial decision making and the contributions of the Forensic Psychology. Extralegal variables that influence judicial decision.
- Emotions, memory and testimony; emotions and judgment.
- The specific role of the psychologist in Prisons, Educational Centres, Courts, Police, Criminal Investigation, including the Forensic Assessment, the Forensic Interview, the Hearing of particularly vulnerable Victims, the Psychological Support during the contact of the victims (adults and children) with the justice system.
- Forensic psychological assessment in different domains (criminal, civil, family; assessment of victims, of defendants, parents, children, etc.) - characteristics, stages, grids, models and instruments used. Ethical, deontological, technical and scientific implications.
- Current challenges to the Psychology of Justice or Forensic Psychology, such as the forensic assessment of people with disabilities, of people from other cultures or religions, the over-judicialization of the current life, the use of psychology knowledge in the interrogation and torture of prisoners, among others.
- Different models of judicial and psycho-judicial intervention, punishment, and social rehabilitation.
- Theoretical classes.
- Theoretical-practical classes with active participation of students, individually and in groups.
- Some classes with invited lecturers - professionals within the fields of Law, Police and Criminal Investigation, Forensic Psychology, Social Security, etc. – in order to enrich students’ understanding of their professional activity.
- Going to a Court for observation and analysis of a real trial.
- Theoretical-practical work on the different areas of intervention of the psychologist in the judicial system, carried out in small groups, by the students, with tutorial support from the teacher, which will be presented during classes, like if it was a conference / symposium, followed by an extended debate in the class.
- Independent study, including research and literature search, in order to facilitate the assimilation of contents of the Psychology-Justice relationship and the Psychologist’s role in the judicial system.
- Tutorial supervision of the students work.
designation | Weight (%) |
---|---|
Trabalho de campo | 20,00 |
Trabalho escrito | 40,00 |
Participação presencial | 10,00 |
Trabalho prático ou de projeto | 30,00 |
Total: | 100,00 |
designation | Time (hours) |
---|---|
Estudo autónomo | 30,00 |
Frequência das aulas | 42,00 |
Trabalho de campo | 50,00 |
Trabalho escrito | 40,00 |
Total: | 162,00 |
- Students’ attendance in each class will be monitored. Students must attend 75% of the total number of classes taught. In exceptional cases, legally foreseen, the traditional class attendance may be substituted by the submission of a research assignment.
- In accordance with the regulation of evaluation, students must have a minimum grade of 10 points to obtain final approval (none of the assessment components can sum less than 8 points). The failure to achieve the minimum score of 10 points implies non approval in the discipline and the obligation to repeat the evaluation
Final grade expressed on a scale of 0 to 20.
A. 20% of the final grade in this UC results from the fieldwork carried out by students - the establishment of contacts with judicial court, scheduling and going to a court to attend a trial in different Law areas (e.g. criminal, family, civil).
It corresponds to the 'Fieldwork' component (20%).
B. 70% of the final grade results from an individual theoretical-practical work produced by the students along the semester. This work involves a trip to a Court, to attend one or more sessions of a trial, and, subsequently, a written work that involves the description of what was observed at the court, a personal reflection on the experience and a reflective theoretical analysis, that requires a bibliographic review, and the theoretical integration and framework of what was observed (taking in care the theotethical contents of the UC).
It corresponds to the assessment components "Practical work or project" (30%) and "Written work" (40%).
C. 10% of the final grade results from class attendance and participation.
It corresponds to the assessment component "Attendance" (10%).
In the legally provided situations, in which students cannot carry out the same assignments that their colleagues will present, they must negotiate with the responsible teacher the delivery of an alternative work, with the same objectives and an equivalent content.
This alternative should be agreed with the responsible teacher at the beginning of the semester.
In exceptional cases, foreseen in the regulations or in cases duly justified and accepted as valid by the School competent committees, students may be evaluated outside the usual context and regular calendar, through the completion of a written assignment with a content similar to what other students have done.
In these cases, the student should contact the teacher responsible for the discipline at the beginning of the semester to define the rules and methodologies of the alternative evaluation.
There is a possibility of presenting a new written work, once, until the “época de recurso” of the following school year in which the student obtained the approval