Ethical Issues In Forensic Assessments

Ethical issues in Forensic Assessments Forensic experts strive to assist those they work with and ensure they do not cause harm. As they carry out their evaluations, forensic psychologists should seek to safeguard the rights and well-being of those they interact with professionally and those affected by their actions. Whenever conflicts occur during the assessments, it is imperative that the forensic experts solve them a professional and scientific manner. This is because of the fact that their judgments have a significant impact on the well-being of other members of the society, hence the need for them to be extra careful while performing their duties. Therefore, the uniqueness of forensic psychology requires the application of ethical standards

This aspect ensures they are in a great position to provide credible expertise in judicial proceedings and administrative systems. Here, forensic psychologists need to integrate integrity in their work. Here, the practitioner needs to ensure that he is honest and truthful to the client. The forensic expert needs to have sufficient information about the client before meeting him or her. In this case, Dr. Smith did have any information about his client Mr. Doe. The situation was brought about by the aspect of the attorney mediating the arrangement for the forensic psychologist to meet the client. This ought not to have been the case as disclosure and informed content in forensic assessments determine how the expert would reveal the assessment report before any decision is arrived at. Informed consent ensures that the autonomy of the party to the assessments is respected. For this reason, there was supposed to be a meeting between Dr. Smith and Mr. Doe before the evaluation was conducted. The meeting would have set the type of information the report needs and the confidential limits during the

Here, confidentiality is needed to protect the privacy of the clients. Therefore, forensic experts should ensure that they do not reveal the information to third parties without their consent or court orders. However, this is not always the case. There are numerous instances when experts’ failure to reveal the findings of the assessment would violate their ethical code of conduct. In such situations, forensic experts have to break the confidentiality principle so as to safeguard the interests of both their clients and those of the society at large (Sadoff, 2013). Here, we need to comprehend that psychologists’ activities are governed by certain regulations which determine what to do and not to do. The limitations of secrecy as outlined by the civil rights accord psychologists with the privilege of not revealing the findings of their evaluations to other members of the society. However, the limitations to confidentiality end the moment the client claims that he or she would commit a crime once released into the