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Introduction
Humans are social beings that form part of a culture wherein social
psychology plays a paramount role by dealing with social factors,
which influence the behavior of each person. Social psychology is
a basic science that studies the human being as a social entity. This
branch is related to society, mass movements, and social issues as it
approaches the development and the attitude changes, group dynamics,
competitions, cooperation, difficulties, and social influence. All of
this is reflected in the relationships between individuals, and also in
the relationship individual-society. Social psychology is particularly
interested in describing
the characteristics of people, such as their
values, behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, habits, expectations, cognitions,
among others.
1
Moscovici (1994) and Martín-Baró (1987) agree on the
fact that what concerns social psychology is the study of the ideological
and communication elements of social beings both as individuals and
as part of a group. These phenomena are characterized because they
comprise behavioral and attitudinal systems wherein the individual
is integrated. As an example, we can mention families,
industries,
hospitals, prisons, among many others, within which exist social
interaction and the exchange of signals, symbols, emotions, feelings,
and cognitions, assigned by contents historically referred and valued.
Thereby, these components become part of the psychosocial factors
that affect the development of the construction and the behavior of
people (In Porras, 2009).
One of the application areas of social psychology that presents
a higher specialization is the one applied to law. Muñoz, Bayés y
Munné
2
consider that psychology and law are social and human
behavior sciences. Therefore, they converge
on the fact that both
share the same intervention object: human behavior. Historically,
we can highlight the works of Stern, Binet & Münstererg
3
related to
the truthfulness of testimony, where psychology was used to provide
elements for legal procedures. Subsequently, we can refer to the
insertion of psychology into the work of judges, who established the
importance of the juridical psychologism due to the extensive number
of terms and psychological behaviors that were described on the laws.
And finally, the development of forensic psychology in the 1970s,
which resulted in an increase in the number of publications related to
the creation of personality profiles of criminals, juridical evaluations
of mental weaknesses, the crime and testimony psychology, and the
insertion of psychology professionals into the penitentiary sectors.
The application of psychology into the
juridical area gave rise to
Legal Psychology, defined as the study, explanation, promotion,
evaluation, prevention, counseling and treatment of the psychological,
behavioral and relational aspects which impact on the legal behavior
of people through the use of scientific methodology for the assistance,
improvement, and justice application.
4
Garzón
5
mentions that Legal Psychology is a philosophical
conceptual framework that establishes the
psychological and social
procedures of the law, allowing its understanding and application
into the real criminal behavior field. However, the applied branch of
legal psychology is the forensic one, which functions are to provide
support for law enforcement by assisting the judge, and helping to
clarify the judicial facts and acts. Urra & Vásquez
6
define Forensic
Psychology as the science that studies the psychology application into
the justice-related problems and that cooperates with its management
for a better law enforcement. Forensic psychology goals are to find
out the reasons which induce a person to commit a crime, what are
the meanings of the criminal’s behavior, the lack of concern in being
punished, and the inability to give up those behaviors. Therefore, its
main function lies in drafting forensic reports, which according to
Muñoz, Bayés y Munné
2
are objective and unbiased opinions issued
by
the legal experts, specialized in their science and skills, who
through their scientific, artistic, or practical knowledge, attest the
existence of a fact and its nature. The forensic report issued by the
legal expert concerning its main expertise field is a piece of evidence
within judicial procedures (legal, civil, family, or labor law) that needs
to be examined by a judge who will enter a judgment. Thus, we can
say psychology professionals are critical in assessing
human social
behaviors, their motivations, and consequences according to the
litigation process.
7
Forensic Res Criminol Int J.
2023;11(1):5
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7.
5
©2023 Robles. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially.
Legal psychology from social psychology. historical
introduction of forensic psychology
Volume 11 Issue 1 - 2023
Alba Luz Robles Mendoza
Faculty of Higher Studies Iztacala, National Autonomous
University of Mexico, Mexico