Postdoctoral Fellowship Curriculum
Curriculum
Consistent with the descriptions of core content areas in the field of forensic psychology provided by the American Board of Forensic Psychology and APA’s Division 41/The American Psychology-Law Society (2007), the fellowship curriculum includes the following content domains:
Knowledge foundations for the study and practice of forensic psychology:
- Ethical and Legal Foundations in Forensic Behavioral Science
- History of Forensic Psychology
- Forensic Methodology and Minimizing Bias in Forensic Psychological Practice
- Considerations of Safety and Security in a Forensic Setting
- Cross-Cultural Issues in Forensic Psychology
- The Military Forensic Psychological Consultation
- Assessment of Response Style, including detection strategies for feigning
- Evaluation of Mens Rea (2 seminars)
- Criminal Responsibility
Partial Mental Responsibility
Specific Intent
Other Mens Rea Defenses
- Evaluation of Criminal Competencies (2 seminars)
- Competency to Stand Trial
Competency to be Sentenced
Competency to Plead Pro Se
Competency to be Executed
Competency to Confess/Waive Article 31B (Miranda) Rights
- Evaluation of Civil Competencies
- Competency to Care for Self (Guardianship)
Testamentary Capacity
- Duty to Protect
- Violence Risk Assessment (3 seminars)
- Principles and Methodologies of Risk Assessment
Violence Risk Assessment
Domestic Violence Risk Assessment
Sexual Violence Risk Assessment
Assessment of Child Pornography
Offenders and On-Line Sex Offenders
- Threat Assessment
- Civil Commitment
- Death Penalty
- Right to Treatment and Right to Refuse Treatment
- Personal Injury Evaluations
- Personnel Selection/Fitness for Duty Evaluations
- Child Custody Evaluations & Evaluations of Juveniles/Waiver to Adult court/Amenability to Treatment
- Forensic Report Writing
- Expert Witness Testimony
- Treatment of the Forensic Patient and Sex Offenders
- Jury Selection and Factors Influencing Jury Decision Making
- Eyewitness Testimony
- False Confessions
- Memory Distortions and Accuracy
- Hypnosis
- Americans with Disabilities Act and Workman’s Compensation
- Emotional Harm, Discrimination and Harassment
- Liability to Patients and Malpractice
- Police Psychology
- Research with Forensic Populations and Researching Legal Cases
- Utilizing Research (Legal and Psychological) to Help Answer Forensic Referral Questions
- Training and Supervision of Forensic Psychology Interns, and Post-Doctoral Fellows
Additional training in criminal law and foundations of the criminal justice system are provided through a one semester course in Criminal Law taught at Georgetown University or through a month-long program at The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School. Additional didactic topics may be added at the discretion of the Forensic Psychology Fellowship Director.
Didactics are provided an integrated didactic schedule with the forensic psychiatry department at Walter Reed. A tentative summary of the last didactic schedule is provided in Appendix L. First year fellows are expected to attend all of the didactics, with realization that some additional training activities (especially participation in off-post courts martial) will preclude attendance at 100% of the trainings. In additional fellows will be able to access an extensive digital library of the PowerPoint presentations of all didactics. Second year fellows are encouraged to attend didactics as well and will lead or co-lead a number of the didactic presentations during their second year. The main purpose is to provide a teaching opportunity for the second year fellow, to further solidify knowledge, familiarity, and detailed mastery of the components which they learned the first year, and to demonstrate this mastery with faculty present and participating.
Specific knowledge foundations for use of relevant forensic mental health assessment instruments:
Fellows will participate in a forensic mental health assessment lab the first term of the first year of the fellowship. The purpose of the lab is to familiarize fellows with the development, utilization, scoring, and interpretation of a variety of specialized forensic mental health instruments. Cases will be drawn primarily through those fellows are working on.
Participation in forensic service delivery in clinics or units: experiential training
- Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Psychology and Psychiatry Clinics and Hospital
- FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit at Quantico, Virginia (elective)
- Expert Consultancies to JAG Corps members (Defense and Government) throughout the United States and the world.
- Psychological Services unit at the National Security Agency, Ft. Meade Maryland (elective)
- Criminal Investigative Division (CID), Quantico Virginia (elective)
- Paid attendance at a conference sponsored by the American Academy of Forensic Psychology)
- Other Practice Experiences at WRNMMC or through the US Army as may be developed by or requested of the Forensic Fellowship Director.
In order to foster broader development of our Forensic Psychology Fellows, we strongly encourage them to choose at least one of the elective rotations which are in place. Fellows who do not wish to participate in any of the elective rotations will need to have a reasonable justification for alternative use of the additional time that would be made available via not attending any of the available rotations. A reasonable justification might be to attend another practice opportunity. In general, the reasonableness of the request will be judged by the Fellowship Program Director in terms of whether alternative use of the time that would have been devoted to the elective rotation serves to broaden or deepen the Fellows’ overall training experience, forensic knowledge, and forensic skills.