PG DIPLOMA IN INVESTIGATIVE & FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY

An Insightful Program at JDSOLA's Department of Psychology

Why study Investigative and Forensic Psychology?

Find out why people break the law and how vital Psychology is to criminal investigations. This diploma program will teach you how psychological theory and research applies in forensic settings like police investigations, the court room, and the prison service.

‘Investigative forensic psychology’ means helping to uncover the motivation behind the crimes and how they are investigated. You'll develop analytical techniques to evaluate different kinds of criminal behaviour. From what makes serial killers tick to whether children are reliable witnesses, you’ll find out how to apply psychology to forensic scenarios.

About the Program

Post Graduate Diploma in Investigative and Forensic Psychology is a high-quality diploma program providing academic and research knowledge of forensic practice. This includes crime reduction and intervention; psychological investigative procedures, forensic interviewing, court processes, custody and rehabilitation.

This is a course specialising in examining the theoretical and investigative aspects of Forensic Psychology to prepare you for the entire criminal justice process, from crime scene to courtroom.

This diploma program strikes a balance between Investigative and Forensic Psychology topics and skills to widen career options for graduates. The primary goal of Investigative and Forensic Psychology as a discipline is to contribute to the understanding of why individuals engage in criminal behaviour and how they can be managed and rehabilitated back into society.

The teaching team have expertise across a wide range of Investigative and Forensic topics, both in research and practice. These topics relate to offenders and victims (with the recognition that many offenders have also experienced victimisation/adversity).

Our small by design cohort size of just 30 students provides the opportunity for you to work closely with your peers and teaching faculty, and have sufficient support to progress successfully through your degree.

Key features:

• Learn about the underlying theories regarding the psychology of investigations and consider areas such as how face-processing can assist identification of individuals
• Explore different offence types – sexual offending, murder and violent crime, group offending, and different forms of cyber-crime
• Investigate and scrutinise violent mock crime scenes to provide investigative evidence and learn how to present expert witness testimony in a mock court
• Evaluate victims, witnesses, suspects and offenders as well as the environment, geography and time to create fieldwork and case studies based on real experiences
• Benefit from the expert knowledge of our academicians and guest speakers
• Develop transferable skills like writing grant proposals and how to publish research as well as working closely with a member of staff for your research topic, perhaps linked to your future career aspirations. 

Eligibility: Graduate in any field of Psychology, Forensic Science/Pharmacy/ any discipline of Science/Journalism/Media/specialization in Clinical Psychology/Forensic Psychology/Cognitive and Behaviour Science/MD in Psychiatry/MBBS/Police or Military Personnel from a recognized college/University with 50% merit

Duration:  1 year

Program Outcomes:

• Classify the key psychological determinants of the impact of crime on victims
• State the major theories of personality that have been applied to forensic settings including
• Describe the traumatic psychological impact of violence, child abuse and victimisation
• Define theories of aggressive behaviour and criminal psychopathy
• Classify the psychological factors which impact upon eye-witness testimony
• Apply how criminal psychology can be useful to criminal investigation
• Recognize developmental risk factors related to criminal behaviour
• Describe the process of profiling and apply this to specific areas including sexual offenders, homicide and terrorism
• Correlate the relationship of mental disorder to crime and violence
• Explain the approach to treatment, rehabilitation and correction
• Identify the factors that influence the effectiveness of treatment for offenders
• Classify the methods of offender’s profiling

Academic Calendar

Course Structure: