Forensic Applications

Cary Stacy Smith & Li-Ching Hung

Forensic counseling may be defined as the application of counseling values and philosophy to persons involved in the legal process. In order for this to occur, one of four processes must take place. The first is concerned with the counselor's intellectual comprehension of criminal behavior, including sexual crimes, spousal abuse, behavioral problems indicating an antisocial outlook, and continuous criminal offenses. Second, counselors should be aware of deterrence issues and have the ability to diagnose various disorders; moreover, the counselor should be very familiar with the factors that are likely to precipitate illegal behavior. Third, a counselor should be familiar with assessment instruments used in diagnosis and should be able to establish a personalized treatment plan for the offender. Last, the counselor should know how to initiate a counseling intervention that has a primary goal of eradicating the client's problematic behavior. Family courts frequently use forensic counselors. For instance, when former ...

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