Find a Supreme Court decision that affects psychologists’ practice (such as Tarasoff) or forensic psychologists’ practice (such as Atkins v. Virginia, Estelle v. Smith, Ake v. Oklahoma, or Daubert v. Merrill Dow Pharmaceuticals). A more comprehensive list of each type of Supreme Court decision can be found in Course Info.

This will be two part essay.

Part 1:

Discuss your Supreme Court case (Washington v. Harper). You can assume that you know more about it than your colleagues, so please provide a short summary, and a discussion of the ramifications of this decision on psychologists’ or forensic psychologists’ practice.

Part 2:

Address your thoughts and ideas about this course (Mental Health Law). What have you learned?

Learning Objectives:

•Discuss conflicts between psychological and legal approaches to behavior;

•Describe potential conflicts in roles that psychologists could experience with involvement in the justice system;

•Contrast restorative and retributive justice systems;

•Describe psychological contributions to civil matters;

•List issues of informed consent, confidentiality of records, liability in professional practice/malpractice of psychology

•Discuss fundamental areas of criminal forensic psychological practice, that is, the law regarding competency, criminal responsibility, and sentencing, including the death penalty

What concepts are still too confusing or vague to you?

What areas of mental health law appeal to you?

Please use your response to Discussion Topic 2 to wrap up the experience of this course, and talk about your future directions in forensic psychology.