Let's Talk Forensic Psychology
Jun 1, 2026 · 1 hr · 11 segments
We were joined by Emeritus Professor David Wilson to discuss his work in prisons, and more broadly in Criminology.As the Founding Director of the Centre for Applied Criminology at Birmingham City…
David WilsonGuestGeraldine AkermanHostEmily JonesHost
Bryony JonesHostClosing HostHostBut we just wanted to start things off, David, if that's okay, by talking about an issue that's raised with us regularly.
It's, uh, it's one of those questions, isn't it, that has multiple ways to answer it, and some of those answers are quite simple in one sense, and the others take us into the, um, academic subjects that we both love, psychology and criminology.
I think I always try and answer it by pointing out firstly that the title forensic psychologist is a protected title.
You have to go through a specific training and then be registered by a professional body, the British Psychology Society, the B- BPS.
And I remember when I first started doing some of the TV work that, uh, Geraldine was mentioning, people always wanted to call me a forensic psychologist, and I had to say, "Well, I'm not, and, um, I'm a criminologist." Um, and so, uh, so the first thing to say is this is, forensic psychologist is a protected title.
I sometimes say, Emily, to students, especially school students who will say to me, "Should I study psychology or criminology?" I sometimes say to them, "Well, are you any good at maths?" And if they say, "Yeah, yeah, I quite like maths," I say, "Oh, well you should study psychology." And if they say they're not good at maths, I go, "Well, maybe, maybe veer towards criminology," because of course what that, that, that, that question I asked them gets to is so much of psychology is about using tests of statistical significance-
And so I suppose we're now getting into the weeds a bit more, and the, a- and the, the weeds would include, you know, um, psychology is often about individuals, and criminology is much more about society.
And a criminologist would, would be trained to think about problems related to crime and punishment in a way that had a historical view, a legal view, an anthropological view.
Because criminology is really a rendezvous discipline, uh, and it takes therefore its inspiration from a number of academic disciplines.
Um, and I've mentioned a few there, but we could have, uh, mentioned sociology, we could have mentioned history.
Whereas psychology, being very much more about individuals, although it doesn't need to be about individuals, it can be about groups, it can be about attitudes, uh, that, um, whole swathes of populations has.
Uh, but criminology would be very much a rendezvous discipline with a different applied, a d- a different academic theoretical basis from psychology.
Forensic psychology is very much about the relationship between, the intersection between psychology and the legal system, hence the, the label forensic.
Now, this is where it becomes more complex it always seems to me, because how would I label myself? Because by and large, I also deal with the kinds of things a forensic psychologist might deal with in terms of looking at risk, looking at individuals, trying to understand why that person might have committed crime.
I would often base a lot of my research from within prisons, and so forth and so forth.
But we just wanted to start things off, David, if that's okay, by talking about an issue that's raised with us regularly.
It's, uh, it's one of those questions, isn't it, that has multiple ways to answer it, and some of those answers are quite simple in one sense, and the others take us into the, um, academic subjects that we both love, psychology and criminology.
I think I always try and answer it by pointing out firstly that the title forensic psychologist is a protected title.
You have to go through a specific training and then be registered by a professional body, the British Psychology Society, the B- BPS.
And I remember when I first started doing some of the TV work that, uh, Geraldine was mentioning, people always wanted to call me a forensic psychologist, and I had to say, "Well, I'm not, and, um, I'm a criminologist." Um, and so, uh, so the first thing to say is this is, forensic psychologist is a protected title.
I sometimes say, Emily, to students, especially school students who will say to me, "Should I study psychology or criminology?" I sometimes say to them, "Well, are you any good at maths?" And if they say, "Yeah, yeah, I quite like maths," I say, "Oh, well you should study psychology." And if they say they're not good at maths, I go, "Well, maybe, maybe veer towards criminology," because of course what that, that, that, that question I asked them gets to is so much of psychology is about using tests of statistical significance-
And so I suppose we're now getting into the weeds a bit more, and the, a- and the, the weeds would include, you know, um, psychology is often about individuals, and criminology is much more about society.
And a criminologist would, would be trained to think about problems related to crime and punishment in a way that had a historical view, a legal view, an anthropological view.
Because criminology is really a rendezvous discipline, uh, and it takes therefore its inspiration from a number of academic disciplines.
Um, and I've mentioned a few there, but we could have, uh, mentioned sociology, we could have mentioned history.
Whereas psychology, being very much more about individuals, although it doesn't need to be about individuals, it can be about groups, it can be about attitudes, uh, that, um, whole swathes of populations has.
Uh, but criminology would be very much a rendezvous discipline with a different applied, a d- a different academic theoretical basis from psychology.
Forensic psychology is very much about the relationship between, the intersection between psychology and the legal system, hence the, the label forensic.
Now, this is where it becomes more complex it always seems to me, because how would I label myself? Because by and large, I also deal with the kinds of things a forensic psychologist might deal with in terms of looking at risk, looking at individuals, trying to understand why that person might have committed crime.
I would often base a lot of my research from within prisons, and so forth and so forth.
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