Forensic Psychology

Forensic Psychology And Its Media Portrayal: Primal Fear

Forensic psychology is a part of psychology that deals more with legal matters than academic or clinical materials. For the past century, Forensic psychology has been widespread in the popular culture, particularly in the media due to its role as the intersection between law and psychology. Most people who do not have an experience on the legal system rely on movies and TV shows as their general source of information about legal procedures. Thus, the portrayal of forensic psychology in media creates a massive impact to the beliefs of the public. Primal fear, a movie directed by Gregory Hoblit in 1996, portrays the parallel of opinions of the public and the lawyers on insanity defense,

The public harbours a strong negative view regarding insanity defense because they think that insanity defense endangers the general population by acquitting insane offenders and believes that criminals, sane or not, should receive a fair punishment under the law (Hans, 1986) (Blau, McGinley, & Pasewark, 1993)(Hans & Slater, 1983). In a research conducted by Hans (1986), the respondents feel that most people found not guilty by reason of insanity are mentally stable. The same study accounts for the lack of knowledge of the public about the number of defendant who pleads insanity (Hans, 1986). The public are also not aware that the standards for insanity defense vary in different places and success rates are relatively low (Cirincione, Steadman, & McGreevy, 1995). The definition of success also increases the confusion of the public. Success in insanity defence means that the defendant has carried the plea through the trial but it does not mean that the defendant benefited from the plea or has been acquitted from the crime (Blau et al., 1993). In the movie Primal Fear, the negative response is very evident to the people who have no experience with the justice

In order to convict someone to a criminal act, the prosecutor must prove that the accused have a guilty mind. However, a person with mental disorder cannot form a guilty mind therefore they are not guilty by reason of insanity (Blau et al., 1993). In order to have a successful insanity defense, the accused must provide evidence of insanity on balance of probability (Ferguson, 2015). In the movie primal fear, the defendant did not appeal for insanity but the expert witness reveals that the defendant has a multiple personality disorder. The judge dismisses the jury and acquits Aaron not guilty by the reason of insanity after witnessing his transformation from Aaron to Roy and trying to harm the prosecutor. The judge did not request for a second opinion from another expert regarding Aaron’s condition and immediately granted him an acquittal three months of treatment. Usually, the court uses various test and standards to confirm insanity. As of 2002, some states uses test such as M'Naghten Test, Duram test, ALI and Model Penal Code Test and IIT to determine insanity (Grachek, 2006) (Giorgi-Guarnieri et al, 2001). An expert must attest the insanity and not by the judge as portrayed in the movie. If insanity is proven, the judge must verdict a non guilty by reason of insanity (Ferguson, 2015). However, the success of insanity plea does not mean acquittal or immediate