The Science of Identifying Burned Human Remains
Examine forensic odontology, the limitations of dental identification, and how investigators combine dental records, skeletal evidence, and...
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Forensic Psychology
Dr. Carlos is an adjunct Professor in Forensic Psychology and Criminal psychopathology. He discusses concepts in the world of forensic psychology. He discusses legal issues pertaining to for...
Episodes
20 of 1,028 episodesPsychopathy vs. Antisocial Personality Disorder: What Actually Predicts Criminal Behavior?
Explore the differences between ASPD diagnostic criteria and psychopathy assessment instruments such as the PCL-R. Examine how forensic psyc...
The Psychology of Destroying Evidence: Fear, Control, and Criminal Decision-Making
Why do offenders sometimes believe they can eliminate every trace of their actions? Explore panic, motivated reasoning, overconfidence, cogn...
Why Gang Loyalty Can Become Stronger Than Personal Safety
What psychological forces lead individuals to remain loyal to groups even when membership increases their risk of harm? Explore social ident...
The Psychology of Forced Recruitment and Cartel Coercion
Examine how threats, isolation, coercive control, and fear may influence individuals recruited into criminal organizations. Distinguish volu...
The Psychology of a Gangland Execution: Inside the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
What psychological processes allow multiple offenders to participate in a coordinated mass killing? Using the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre a...
Measuring Psychopathy: Inside the Hare Psychopathy Checklist
How do forensic psychologists assess psychopathic traits when an interview alone is insufficient? Explore the Psychopathy Checklist–Revised,...
The Psychology of Suspicion: Murder Behind a Respectable Victorian Family
What happens when a murder investigation challenges society's assumptions about who is capable of violence? The 1860 Road Hill House murder...
The Princes in the Tower: How Power and Bias Shape a Murder Investigation
The disappearance of two royal children in 1483 illustrates the difficulty of evaluating allegations when evidence is incomplete and politic...
The Fertility Doctor Who Was Secretly the Donor
Patients thought their fertility doctor was helping them conceive using carefully selected anonymous donors. Years later, some discovered so...
Psychopathy Without Crime: What the Research Actually Tells Us
Does being high in psychopathic traits mean someone will become violent or criminal? The relationship is much more complicated than popular...
Beyond the Binary: What Modern Research Says About Organized and Disorganized Offenders
The organized-disorganized typology shaped how generations of investigators and students were trained to read a crime scene — careful planni...
ADHD and Criminal Responsibility: When the Brain Struggles with Self-Control
Can a neurodevelopmental disorder influence criminal behavior without eliminating legal responsibility? This episode examines the forensic i...
The Boy in the Box: How Philadelphia Finally Gave a Name to Joseph Augustus Zarelli
For more than six decades, he was known only as the "Boy in the Box" — one of America's most haunting unidentified murder victims, his batte...
Justice Delayed: The Science and Psychology of the Teresa Ann Houck Cold Case
Teresa Ann Houck, 23, left her job at a Baltimore club in October 1986 and was found shot to death in Druid Hill Park hours later, leaving i...
The Psychology of the Getaway Driver: How Responsible Is Someone Who Never Commits the Violence?
The getaway driver may never enter the building, hold a weapon, or physically harm anyone—yet they can play an essential role in a violent c...
The Psychology of Lawful Deception: How Interrogation Tactics Walk the Legal Line
Courts have long allowed detectives to use certain deceptive tactics during interrogations — falsely claiming an accomplice confessed, or th...
Can a Brain Injury Turn Someone Into a Criminal? The Forensic Psychology of the Injured Brain
Can damage to the brain actually change someone’s personality enough to contribute to criminal behavior? From impaired impulse control to ag...
The Poison That Left a Trail: Forensic Science and the Litvinenko Case
When Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian security officer, fell inexplicably ill in London in 2006, doctors initially had no explanation...
What a Body Still Knows: The Stephen Smith Exhumation Case
When 19-year-old Stephen Smith was found dead on a South Carolina road in 2015, investigators initially attributed his death to a vehicle st...