• Question: What is your opinion on fictional crime programmes and how they portray psychologists or forensic psychologists within them?

    Asked by anon-184177 to Tom, sarahhodge, Owen, Nathan, Lorna, Abbie on 7 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Abbie Jordan

      Abbie Jordan answered on 7 Nov 2018:

      I’m not a forensic psychologist although I do find that aspect of psychology fascinating. You are most likely too young to remember Cracker )see here – https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105977/) but it was fascinating viewing. As with many of these types of programmes though I think it sometimes was very unrealistic. Good TV is not made by showing many painstaking hours of analyses or looking at data. So things are sensationalised. But, I do think that it is good to watch and who does not enjoy some great TV.

      I do think that sometimes these crime type programmes can make it seem easier than it really is and does not always show the skills that professionals have in these areas.

    • Photo: Nathan Hook

      Nathan Hook answered on 8 Nov 2018:

      Sherlock is an interesting example of a superhero-level forensic psychologist (among his other talents). You may like to look up Dr Bell, the real life person he was partly based on.

      I’m not sure it’s any worse than how other professionals are portrayed. I’m sure spies are not actually like James Bond. 🙂

    • Photo: Tom Gallagher-Mitchell

      Tom Gallagher-Mitchell answered on 15 Nov 2018:

      Some are better than others. In a Netflix ready streaming world there are some great true crime series to watch which shows more of the systematic nature of this process. Wire in the blood on itv a number of years ago was quite good at capturing the role of forensic psych.

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