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Name: Jamiah Riddick Date: 10/22/2022 Residency Cohort: Olga Carranza Cohort Leader: Dr. Sandra Caramela-Miller

College/School: Walden University

Specialization: Forensic Psychology

Working Title for your Dissertation (12 words or less): Racial bias among forensic psychologists during competency evaluations.

Problem Statement

Aligned Research Design

Dissertation Prospectus Rubric Quality Indicators

Meaningful, Justified, and Impact

(related to specialization}

Original

Grounded

Feasible and Objective

Research Components to Align

Social Problem of Significance in the Field

What is the social problem? Why is it important to address?

What stakeholders would care?

You can use citations.

Background/Literature Review

List key words and search terms to explore.

Add at least 3 empirical references below.

Meaningful Gap in Research Literature

What researchable problem relates to the broader social problem in column 1?

What might not have been researched about it? (Gap)

Possible Research Question(s)

Theories or Conceptual Framework

Add at least one citation here and reference at end.

Tentative Method of Inquiry List possible method and provide 2-3 sentences justifying the choice.

 Fill in each section as you develop ideas.

Seminar 1

Seminar 2 and 3

Seminar 1 and 4

Seminar 4

Seminar 5

Seminar 5

Initial idea(s) during seminars 1-5

The issue of racism has been an outstanding social problem in forensic psychology. This issue arises in the line of work of forensic psychologists when they conduct competency to stand trial on defendants. Forensic psychologists interact with defendants of different cultural and racial backgrounds.

It is important to address racial bias since it will help eliminate injustice in criminal justice. It will mean that forensic psychologists will enforce equity when handling criminals of any race without prejudice.

The government, activist and human rights groups, the criminal justice fraternity, and, criminal defenders are the key stakeholders who care about such matters since the topic affects them directly or indirectly.

According to Woods (2018), competency evaluation is very crucial in the forensic psychology domain. It dates back to Anglo-Saxon law of the thirteenth century that concluded that it is unfair to allow defendants lacking the right mental capacity to make legal decisions by themselves.

Racial bias is a psychological behavior that disadvantages individuals based on their race. It is founded on the theory of implicit bias. Research has found that implicit bias changes with personal experiences, attitudes, and information obtained from others, and that influence the decision-making capacity of individuals (Ungvarsky, 2019).

Studies have shown that fifty to sixty thousand competency-to-stand trial evaluations are carried out yearly. Due to the huge number of evaluations yearly, forensic psychologists have a high tendency to have a racial bias. (Mulay et al., 2018).

Based on the available information on racial bias in the forensic psychology sector it is evident that research regarding racial bias among forensic psychologists is limited. Therefore, this research aims at exploring areas of racial bias that have not yet been examined in forensic psychology.

A meaningful researchable problem that broadly relates to this topic on racial bias among forensic psychologists when conducting competency evaluations is the strategies that forensic psychologists can take to eliminate racial bias in the competency evaluations. There is no research on the relevant measures that forensic psychologists can take to avoid being biased in their evaluation of defenders.

Possible research questions for the research topic include

1. How do forensic Psychologists understand racial bias when conducting Competency to stand trial evaluation.

2. What personal experiences have forensic psychologists had that have either enhanced or negatively influenced competency evaluation?

3. The impact of racial bias on defenders by forensic psychologists.

Implicit bias theory defines a concept that acknowledges that all people have unconscious bias, which influences their decision-making capabilities and actions. Implicit bias theory affects the way people interact with others and can change based on life occurrences such as education and exposure to different cultures. Implicit bias, therefore, causes forensic psychologists to make prejudicial decisions against defenders. This theory will enable me to answer the research questions, and understand racial discrimination among forensic psychologists (Bahadur & Zhang, 2019).

Hypothetical-deductive approaches

These approaches will be useful, as they will help in deducting the outcome of the research questions. It will allow me to build on the existing theoretical knowledge of the research question that would later be tested and checked for accuracy (Mertens & Recker, 2020).

Peer and Faculty feedback and networking: Gather feedback on your idea from at least one faculty and one peer at residency.

For example: Peer in my program suggested x, y, z. The faculty who I met with at advising recommended a, b, c. Due to faculty feedback regarding my methodology I changed it to a quantitative design so it is more aligned to my problem and research question.

My peers confirmed that my idea is authentic and it needs to be addressed accordingly. Some defendants lack the mental capacity needed to make decisions regarding legal proceedings. If this matter of racial bias during competency to stand trial evaluations is not addressed, many defendants may receive unfair convictions..

The faculty concurred with the background of the study but suggested that I find more evidence of racial bias in the past centuries.

A peer in my program suggested that I should research more and identify the research gap of this research.

My peers suggested that I should focus on qualitative research and try to answer the following questions

1. Factors that affect the competency to stand trial evaluation.

2. Potential racial discrepancies in CST evaluations

Peers in my program suggested that I should research other theories that affect racial bias among individuals. This will help me compare a variety of well-established theories on the research topic to develop clear and concise findings.

Deductive method

Since I am doing a peer review, I will utilize the deductive research method. The method allows me to study what my peers have done, obtain feedback regarding my topic, incorporate, and develop knowledge and theories from their findings.

Final Response: Enter your “final response” in each column based on the feedback you received.

If the information did not change enter it here as well so the alignment is clear—do not leave any item blank and do not list “none”.

The issue of racism has been an outstanding social problem in forensic psychology. This issue arises in the line of work of forensic psychologists when they conduct competency to stand trial on defendants. Forensic psychologists interact with defendants of different cultural and racial backgrounds.

It is important to address racial bias since it will help eliminate injustice in criminal justice. It will mean that forensic psychologists will enforce equity when handling criminals of any race without prejudice.

The government, activist and human rights groups, the criminal justice fraternity, and, criminal defenders are the key stakeholders who care about such matters since the topic affects them directly or indirectly.

According to Woods (2018), competency evaluation is very crucial in the forensic psychology domain. It dates back to Anglo-Saxon law of the thirteenth century that concluded that it is unfair to allow defendants lacking the right mental capacity to make legal decisions by themselves.

Racial bias is a psychological behavior that disadvantages individuals based on their race. It is founded on the theory of implicit bias. Research has found that implicit bias changes with personal experiences, attitudes, and information obtained from others, and that influence the decision-making capacity of individuals (Ungvarsky, 2019).

Studies have shown that fifty to sixty thousand competency-to-stand trial evaluations are carried out yearly. Due to the huge number of evaluations yearly, forensic psychologists have a high tendency to have a racial bias. (Mulay et al., 2018).

Based on the available information on racial bias in the forensic psychology sector it is evident that research regarding racial bias among forensic psychologists is limited. Therefore, this research aims at exploring areas of racial bias that have not yet been examined in forensic psychology.

Keywords: implicit bias, competency to stand trial evaluation, forensic psychologists, racial bias

The research gap that I identified was inadequate hence I will carry out further research to find a unique research gap that relates to racial bias in competency evaluation.

Based on the suggestions and feedback from my peers, I will incorporate the suggested research questions into this dissertation. Therefore, the research questions for this topic will include

1. How do forensic Psychologists understand racial bias when conducting Competency to stand trial evaluation?

2. What personal experiences have forensic psychologists had that have either enhanced or negatively influenced competency evaluation.

3. The impact of racial bias on defenders by forensic psychologists.

4. Factors that affect the competency to stand trial evaluation.

5. Potential racial discrepancies in CST evaluations

Implicit bias theory defines a concept that acknowledges that all people have unconscious bias, which influences their decision-making capabilities and actions. Implicit bias theory affects the way people interact with others and can change based on life occurrences such as education and exposure to different cultures. Implicit bias therefore causes forensic psychologists to make prejudicial decisions against defenders. This theory will enable me to answer the research questions, understand the racial bias among forensic psychologists (Woods, 2019).

The main theory that supports my topic is implicit bias. I will conduct further research and try to identify other theories that relate to the research topic.

Since the research is based on personal observations and findings and feedback from peers and faculty members, I will incorporate different methods of inquiry

Hypothetical-deductive approaches

1. These approaches will be useful, as they will help in deducting the outcome of the research questions. It will allow me to build on the existing theoretical knowledge on the research question that would later be tested and checked on accuracy.

Deductive method

2. Since am doing a peer review, I will utilize deductive research method. The method allows me to study what my peers have done, obtain feedback regarding my topic, incorporate, and develop knowledge and theories from their findings.

Reflection & Next Steps:

Reflect on your next steps for each component (column) based on the feedback and what you have learned during Residency 2. What do you need to do to prepare for Residency 3 (e.g. Read, annotate, network, build skills, use resources, etc.}

The topic of racial Bias in the evaluation of defendants is a crucial matter. I will proceed to work on this topic to understand how forensic psychologists are practicing it, its significance in the criminal justice system, and its benefits to the affected stakeholders.

I will continue reading articles and resources that relate to my topic to gain vast knowledge on this matter to develop an impactful dissertation. 

Several studies provide information regarding racial biases among forensic psychologists. Therefore, I will source resources that are relevant to this topic and do more research on this problem area to understand better the background of racial bias in forensic psychology.

I will also build my research skills to equip me with the ability to evaluate and utilize available resources on racial bias to ensure that the research is effective.

 To understand the research gap on this topic, I will continue to read to understand what has already been answered in previous research and what still needs to be answered. Therefore, I will access available resources in the school library and websites to gather relevant information. Through the process of identifying the research gap, I will build my problem-solving skills so that I can provide solutions to the research questions.

My next step in Residency 3 is finding the answers to the research questions of this research topic. I will be focusing on putting my research skills into practice in a bid to find answers.

I will use resources and read them through to understand further the research questions that this research needs to answer. Further analyzing of resources will help reveal what research questions have already been answered, which will then help me to streamline my research questions.

The next step in the theories and frameworks is finding the relationship between implicit bias theory and how it influences forensic psychologist evaluation.

I will use resources and articles that are not biased in impact and find ways to tie them to the research topic. I will take time to read the available resources and gain information that will be relevant to the topic under study.

How you might network to find available data sources or feasible data collection sites?

Google Scholar is a site that offers empirical articles for vast knowledge areas. I will utilize the articles from this site that are relevant to my topic.

The website and the school library are also full of journals, books, and articles which I can source to discover new knowledge relevant to my topic

I will network by meeting up with fellow peers within the faculty to get a deeper understanding of the competency to stand trial evaluation process of defenders and how racial bias come about. Through networking, I will get their perspective and suggestion on this topic.

REFERENCES: (APA Format) At least three empirical articles and one theory book or article.

References

· Bahadur, R., & Zhang, L. (2021). Socratic Teaching and Learning Styles: Exposing the Pervasiveness of Implicit Bias and White Privilege in Legal Pedagogy.  Hastings Race & Poverty LJ,  18, 114.

https://heinonline.org/hol-cgi-bin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals/hasrapo18&section=11

Mertens, W., & Recker, J. (2020). New guidelines for null hypothesis significance testing in hypothetico-deductive IS research.  Journal of the Association for Information Systems,  21(4), 1.

DOI: 10.17705/1jais.00629

· Mulay, A. L., Mivshek, M., Kaufman, H., & Waugh, M. H. (2018). The ethics of empathy: Walking a fine line in forensic evaluations.  Journal of Forensic Psychology Research and Practice,  18(4), 320-336.

https://doi.org/10.1080/24732850.2018.1490682

Ungvarsky, J. (2019). Implicit bias. Salem Press Encyclopedia.

Woods, T. P. (2018). The Implicit Bias of Implicit Bias Theory. Drexel Law Review, (3), 631.

https://heinonline.org/hol-cgi-bin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals/drexel10&section=21