Forensic Psychology, a History

Forensic psychologists are often asked to provide testimony, assessments or evaluations in both civic and
criminal trials. Although viewed as a relatively recent psychological specialty, forensic psychology was
introduced well over a hundred years ago. In 1873 Wilhelm Wundt founded the first psychology laboratory in
Leipzig, Germany. It was his work that refined and established the experimental method as it applied to
psychology. He conducted experiments in the legal arena in areas such as witness testimony and criminal
evaluation that are still being used today.

Hugo Munsterberg was one of the earliest psychologists to foresee how forensic science could benefit the legal
system. He studied under Wilhelm Wundt in Germany before relocating to the United States in 1892. He then set
up a laboratory at Harvard University for the purpose of conducting experiments on how psychology could be
applied to the legal system. His research included experiments on false confessions, the role of hypnosis in the
courtroom and witness memory.

In 1895 while he was the Department Head of Psychology, Anthropology and Philosophy at Columbia
University, James McKeen Cattell began conducting experiments that are now considered the root of today’s
forensic psychology. He asked various students a series of questions, tracking their responses and rating their
accuracy. Surprisingly the outcome demonstrated a high degree of inaccuracy. This study strongly influenced the
psychology of testimony. As a well-known psychologist of the time, and the co-founder of the Psychological
Review, one of Cattel’s goals was to establish psychology as a bona fide science.

In 1908 Munsterberg published a book on the subject of applying psychology to legal trials. Hs book, On the
Stand, was a major step forward for forensic psychology. In 1917 a student of his, William Marston, discovered
the correlation between blood pressure and lying, which was a key factor in the development of the polygraph
detector.

It was early in the 20th century when psychologists first began to act as expert witnesses during trials, a
precedent established by Marston in 1923 when he testified in the case of Frye vs. United States. It wasn’t until
after World War II that psychologists were fully acknowledged as credible witnesses. Up until that point doctors
with medical degrees were seen as superior witnesses even though they did not have the degree of knowledge
about mental conditions possessed by trained psychologists.

Since that time, and especially in the past thirty years, forensic psychology has come into its own. In 2001
forensic psychology was recognized by the American Psychological Association as a specialization in the field
of psychology. Many quality graduate programs now offer specialized degrees in forensic psychology.