Individual Research: Overview

As a forensic psychology professional, you need to critically analyze statutory and case laws related to psycholegal issues and correctly apply the knowledge from your analysis in your work. The individual research course projects will provide you with the opportunity to analyze the landmark cases related to psycholegal issues.

In Module 1, identify at least one landmark legal case or court decision for each of these important psycholegal areas: CST, criminal responsibility (MSO), the right to mental health treatment, the right to refuse psychiatric treatment, coercion to mental health treatment, and participation in treatment and civil commitment of sex offenders.

Critically analyze the essence of the selected cases.

You may be asking what it means to discuss the "essence" of a court decision. The essence of a court decision involves two things: (1) the issue under dispute and (2) how the court decided that issue. You can usually summarize this information in one or two paragraphs. Remember that you need to identify the final decision by the highest court. Landmark cases are almost always the cases that have been appealed to higher courts for a ruling on an issue of law.

 

Landmark Case Selection

In this assignment, you will research specific cases, describe the essence of each case, and critically analyze how each relates to the practice of forensic psychology.

See attached file. This paper is a graduate level.

Tasks:

• Select one case for each of the following six legal areas:
• CST
• Criminal responsibility (MSO)
• Right to receive mental health treatment
• Right to refuse psychiatric treatment
• Coercion to mental health treatment
• Participation in treatment and civil commitment of sex offenders

Conduct individual research from professional literature to critically analyze the essence of the selected cases in forensic psychology. Note that professional literature may include the Argosy University online library resources, relevant textbooks, peer-reviewed journal articles, and websites created by professional organizations, agencies, or institutions (.edu, .org, and .gov). Present your choices, as well as your critical analysis of the essence of each case, in 2- to 3-paragraphs in a Microsoft Word document.

All written assignments and responses should follow APA rules for attributing sources.

As you are getting started with your first set of assignments, it occurs to me that M1A3 can sometimes be challenging. So here are a few tips.

Remember that you are to choose six landmark cases (see attached screenshot), one from each psycholegal area. (There are seven areas listed, so you don't have to do one.) You should use the links to help you do research on the cases. What you are trying to do is to write a one- to two-paragraph summary of the case that focuses on (a) the legal issue in dispute and on (b) how the highest court decided the issue. Don't over-think it. You really are trying to get at the essence of the cases. 

Sometimes, students get confused by thinking they need to do a full case write up according to the example in the assignment. You do not need to do that! 

Attachments:

• 1507370299-Landmark_Cases_.pdf