Psychological professionals’ expected role in judicial and criminal contexts according to police investigators

Abstract

This study discusses three psychological support techniques used by professionals in forensic science laboratories affiliated with the prefectural police in Japan. First, it reviews the education and training of investigative interviewing techniques that began nationwide in 2013. The history of education and training related to investigative interviewing for police officers, provided by psychological professionals, is relatively short yet undeniably groundbreaking. Second, the study reviews the offender profiling technique—a psychological prediction method for unknown offenders widespread in police investigations since approximately 2000. The author introduces several instances in which this support methodology was applied. Third, the study considers the polygraph examination, which has been utilized in police investigations since the early 1950s in Japan. This examination was conducted on suspects who were under police investigation. The study introduces common cases of innocent suspects. In conclusion, these three techniques share the common feature of discovering the psychological patterns of suspects or persons involved in incidents and applying them to individual cases.