Program Description
The Adult concentration, within the Clinical Forensic Psy.D. program, gives students specialized knowledge to work with adult offenders in the legal system and related fields. Coursework covers such topics as violence and risk assessment, theories of criminology, treatment of the adult offender, and evaluating and treating sex offenders.
Students in the Chicago Campus program gain hands-on experience at The Chicago School Forensic Center and benefit from a range of applied forensic psychology learning experiences rarely available at other schools. The center provides high-quality forensic psychological services and programming to improve the health and well-being of individuals within diverse communities. Through a range of community partnerships, the forensic psychology center provides students powerful opportunities to put classroom learning into practice in real-world settings, including victim-related trauma treatment for women transitioning from correctional facilities into the community, job readiness preparation for adult offenders, psycho-educational training workshops for parents who have abused or neglected their children, and Parent-Child Interaction Therapy to help reduce the risk of future incidents of abuse and neglect. Students also benefit from a range of applied learning experiences rarely available at other schools, such as providing expert witness testimony in front of practicing judges and attorneys during a realistic mock trial experience, and participating in a realistic hostage negotiation simulation.
Graduates are prepared to sit for the national licensure exam for professional practice in psychology and become lead practitioners and senior administrators in both educational and forensic settings. The program provides students with opportunities to do empirical and applied research within a range of forensic settings and populations, and to tailor their coursework to meet particular educational and professional goals. Graduates are equipped with the requisite academic foundation to become head practitioners and senior administrators in both educational and forensic settings, and to conduct criminal competency evaluations, criminal responsibility evaluations, forensic child interviews, fitness for duty evaluations, risk assessments, and clinical interventions for a broad range of disorders and populations.
Department
Forensic Psychology
Concentrations
Licensure
Prepares students to sit for the national licensure exam in clinical psychology
Total Credits
104
Fieldwork Requirements
Sample Courses
Theories of Criminology
Provides an overview of theories regarding crime and criminal justice. Socio-cultural, personality, and environmental factors underlying criminal behavior are examined, including white collar crime, violent crime, organized crime, and sexual violence.
Evaluating and Treating the Sex Offender
Examines the forensic and therapeutic assessment and treatment of juvenile and adult sex offenders. Students learn about the prevalence of sexual offenses, the psychopathology and theories of sexual deviance, and legislative efforts to manage sex offenders. The various treatment interventions employed with this unique population are explored.
Psychology of Law Enforcement
The field of law enforcement has its own unique culture and organizational structure. This course addresses how the dynamics within law enforcement influence decision making and can lead to and/or sustain acute stress disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Students explore major areas of police psychology, such as pre-employment selection, fitness-for-duty evaluation, special unit testing, and psychometric tools utilized in this specialized area. Special attention is paid to critical incident stress debriefing techniques and models used with this population.
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