“Add Women and Stir”?: Lessons Learned from Forensic Psychology in Conducting Equitable Psychological Research

Course Description

Forensic psychology is a quickly growing area of psychology that has captivated students. Why do people engage in criminal conduct, despite social messaging that such acts are wrong? While our understanding of this behaviour has grown over time, for many years, researchers conducted all of their research on male samples (which were often disproportionately composed of White men) and presumed that these results would apply to women and other diverse populations. This approach has harmed researchers’ abilities to build intersectional understandings of human behaviour.
Using examples from the field of forensic psychology, this course will discuss how researchers can perpetuate inequities through their approach to research and reporting of their results. For example, the course will discuss the historic and continued exclusion of specific populations from psychological research, such as populations that were deemed “too small to be of significance”, like justice-impacted women, other gender-diverse populations, and Asian justice-impacted people. Additionally, unethical and/or inequitable behaviours in and influences on the scientific process, like implicit and explicit personal biases and misrepresentation of study findings, will be explored. Last, ethical communication of research findings will be discussed.
In learning about and applying these topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in psychological research, students will learn about prominent theories in forensic psychology, including the general personality and cognitive social learning theory of crime and feminist pathways theory, as well as findings regarding gender and racial differences (and similarities) in criminal conduct. Moreover, students will learn how our understandings of fundamental tenets of forensic psychology, which are frequently studied in empirical research, like the concepts of recidivism (re-offending) and desistance (successful exits from the justice system) are defined by dominant social power structures. This discussion will include an introduction to concepts of disadvantage, discrimination, oppression, and privilege, as well as how these concepts inform the construction of our justice system and how individuals operate within it. The course will combine lecture content with opportunities for discussions and reflections on course content in smaller groups.
Attendance will be mandatory on the last two days of the course as students will be assigned to groups to create and present a research proposal to their class on a topic in the field of forensic psychology that applies the equity, diversity, and inclusion considerations they have learned through the course. Students will be able to vote to fund specific projects, with the winning team being given a prize for receiving the most funding.
Note: this course will cover mature themes involving childhood and adult experiences of abuse and victimization. This content will be covered in an age-appropriate manner.