Forensic psychologists are concerned with the application of psychology to the criminal justice system, and with understanding the psychological processes related to criminal behaviour.  They can work for academic institutions, prison services, the National Health Service, probation services, police services and social services.

Forensic psychology is often perceived as concerning criminal investigation and profiling.  While this is one aspect it is not the only one, forensic psychology also relates to the assessment and treatment of criminal behaviour.  Forensic psychologists work not only with prisoners and offenders but also other professionals involved in the judicial and penal systems.  The Roles and Responsibilities of a forensic psychologist focus on therapy in correctional settings where tasks typically involve:

• Carrying out one-to-one assessments, often to assess the risk of re-offending (e.g. for those serving a life sentence being released into the community or sex offenders after a treatment programme) or of suicide, self-injury or other high risk behaviour
• Presenting findings from assessments to a wider staff audience
• Advising prison governors on incidents
• Developing and evaluating the contribution of assessment techniques such as psychometrics
• Undertaking research projects to evaluate the contribution of specific service elements, policy initiatives or group programme developments, e.g. exploring probation 'drop-out' rates, investigating the impact of bullying in the prison environment, or evaluating the effectiveness of an anger management group programme
• Participating in delivery or management of nationally recognised cognitive-behavioural group programmes, e.g. enhanced thinking skills or severe personality disorder and sex offender treatment programmes
• Checking and monitoring treatment groups to ensure standards and quality
• Overseeing the training of prison/probation service staff
• Preparing risk assessment reports
• Overseeing the provision of support during serious incidents
• Hostage negotiation
• Liaising with, and providing, consultancy to hospital staff, prison officers, the police, social workers, probation officers, representatives of the judicial and legal systems and university staff
• Attending team and area meetings