Is anyone else interested in criminal psychology?

Question

I was considering changing my mind and going into studying pychopaths on death row. I find it fascinating how they can be so normal yet so disturbed. I know it would take years of school but it may be worth it. Anyone majoring in this or has a career in this please respond. ;)

Answer 1

I was also really interested in this field... and always will be fascinated by it... (I've done my honours in Psychology) but after reading up on it and a book here in South Africa called "To catch a Killer" by forensic psychologist Miki Pretorius, criminal and forensic psychology are fields in which most of the psychologists only can handle app 10 years of doing that type of work... because don't forget you are tapping the minds of the most depraved and "evil" of human beings...some of that is bound to stick with you... and it will start tainting the rest of your life... I think the best thing for you to do is major in Clinical Psychology, do modules in criminology and forensic psych, then you can go into "normal" practice and occasionally consult for the prisons/police/lawyers etc... that way its not the ONLY thing you're doing, but you can still get the mental satisfaction of working on some of those interesting cases... if you want to read some fiction books which would give you a teeny clue as to what may be involved read Jonathan Kellerman novels ... he was a psychologist who now writes some great fiction novels, which deal with death and prison and all those types of people you want to deal with... really good! I hope that helps somewhat?

Answer 2

Just retired a few years ago, criminals are very interesting. Start by reading "Inside the Criminal Mind" by Samenow. Try half.com to buy the book cheap. You better start with criminals of a lesser caliber than death row types. You would not gain anything from starting there. They are way smarter than you and way too devious for a newbie. Now by smarter I don't mean IQ, I mean in deception, you would be a lamb to slaughter. Get connected with an experienced Prison Psychologist and be mentored.

Answer 3

with all forms of psychology, i think it's good to have first hand experience; psych classes expect you to understand how 'abnormal' peoples' minds work by reading it out of a textbook; there is no way what a textbook says could apply to everyone; if you've never felt the way criminals feel (rejected, angry, etc.) it might be difficult to empathize with them and understand how they truly feel; sometimes people act a certain way for entirely different reasons than you'd expect

learn how to understand the significance in people's actions;

the idea about having experience with these emotions versus studying psychopaths for years is kind of like this: if you were going into battle, would you want to go into battle under the leadership of someone who's had tons of experience in battles and knows what he's doing, or, would you rather go under the leadership of someone who's never been in a real battle but has had years of more training

Answer 4

HONEY, WHY ARE YOU STUDYING PYCHOPATHS ON DEATH ROW... TRY STARTING AT THE JUVENILE DELINQUENT DOOR TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE PATTERNS LEADING UP TO THIS PYCHOPATH JOURNEY.... THOSE WHO ARE HEADED IN THE DOOR. MANY TIMES TO TRACK AND FOLLOW THE PROGRESSION OF CRIMINAL HISTORY LEADING UP TO SUCH VICIOUS CRIMES WILL GIVE US ALL A BETTER VIEW... AND POSSIBLY SAVE A FEW LIVES.

Answer 5

If this is what ur interested in I say go for it. The criminal mind is fasinating to me as well. I'm just too old now to make a living out of it. Maybe u could become a FBI profiler --go for it

Answer 6

It is a very thankless and depressing field of study which involves mostly interning at prisons to counsel child rapists and scum of the earth in sub-human conditions and pay incentives slightly lower than a garbageman. You never get to choose your clients, and most of them are such lost cases that one feels their lot to be better off executed and eliminated. Eventually this bleak existance subsides into a state of perpetual depession and self-loathing, climaxing with suicide over the christmas holiday season.

Answer 7

That guy is sturdy. verify along with your counselor, they're going to instruction manual you interior the ultimate path. it will be a large and exciting field for you. you will would desire to be particularly careful nonetheless, basically even via fact of the various sorrowful situations there are

Answer 8

Not really. We're so saturated with criminals on every hand you can see what they're thinking about a block away. I'm not even going for a diploma!