Criminal Psychology Diploma

Course Description

This Criminal Psychology course can be studied without any prior knowledge or can be studied as a follow-up programme from our original level 3 Criminology course. In this field of study there are a number of different terms: Forensic Psychology; Criminological Psychology; Legal Psychology; Police Psychology; and the course you are taking here, Criminal Psychology. These are all branches of Psychology which independently deal with different aspects of the psychology of the criminal, including criminal behaviour and the law, punishment and rehabilitation.

Criminal Psychology takes very much a broad overview of the discipline and is, quite simply, the psychology of criminal behaviour. There can be some overlap between the terms Criminal Psychology and Forensic Psychology. In fact, it is argued that they should be regarded as inseparable, rather than two separate fields of study.

For this reason, in this course we will attempt to understand each aspect of a criminal’s life and provide you with an introduction to start thinking about aspects of Forensic Psychology. The course will start with possible bio psychosocial and developmental causes of criminal behaviour to the nature of the crime itself; the role of psychology in the investigative process; finishing with a brief discussion of the impact of psychology within the criminal justice system.

The topics covered range from theories of crime to a detailed examination of the various types of crime (e.g. serial killing, arson, terrorism), and a look at profiling techniques and other investigative tools such as interviewing and lie detection. The last part of the course covers various topics within legal psychology, considered a sub-discipline of both Forensic Psychology and Criminal Psychology. Our aim is to provide you with the best deal available when purchasing your Criminal Psychology course, therefore registration fee, certification fee and full tutor support is included in the course price for you.