PECULIARITIES OF SOCIAL REPRESENTATION OF FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPERTISE

Abstract

Forensic psychological expertise is at the beginning of its development and establishment, being used rarely in criminal/civil proceedings. The “status” of forensic psychological expertise is undefined, mainly because of the lack of specialists, as well as because psychologists face negative and skeptical attitudes from legal workers. In this context, the purpose of this research is to reveal the social representations of forensic psychological expertise among specialists working in the legal field. The given research has involved 417 specialists in the legal field (officers of criminal investigation, lawyers, attorneys), aged between 24-62, men and women, with different professional experience in the legal field, who have completed a questionnaire (elaborated by the author). The analysis of the results emphasized the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of specialists regarding the forensic psychological expertise integrated in the structure and silent zone of the social representation.

Keywords

• forensic psychological expertise
• social representation
• lawyer
• central core
• peripheral elements
• silent zone.