No. I am not a professional in the field, nor am I close to it. I am a mere fourth-year college student of Psychology (with a minor in Sociology and Philosophy). The rest about me can be found in my biography.

If you still have questions for a fourth-year college student who is somewhat knowledgable about the field, read on.

2. What could I do to prepare myself for studying criminal psychology in college while I'm in high school? Are there any courses I should take? Anything extracurricular I could do?

Being as oppressive as high school is, there isn't too much you could do. However, if you happen to go to a really expansive high school that offers courses such as Psychology, Law, Criminology, Sociology and so forth, I do recommend that you take those. If your high school hosts an AP (Advanced Placement) program, I do recommend that you take Psychology AP, take the AP exam and score high enough to opt out of Introductory Psychology your first year in college. APs are also good for stacking up college credits so that you may get a headstart in your first year.

One thing that is possible, if you care to go the extra length, is outside research. If there is some kind of program outside of school that allows you to do your own research and that also allows you to compete and participate in conferences and local/state science fairs, I'd say go for it. Do your own kind of research that allows you to learn a bit about what research is like, and also allows you to expand your knowledge about the topic that you choose. But that (and everything else I have suggested) is definitely not a necessity, and if anything, I recommend that you have fun in high school and enjoy yourself. I realize now that I put myself under a lot of unnescessary stress in high school for reasons that prove to be trivial today.

Enjoy yourself. Be young, have fun, and don't get arrested.

3. What is the difference between criminal psychology and forensic psychology? Is there a difference?

As far as I know (and know that this is coming from an amateur), the main difference between forensic and criminal psychology has to do with occupation.

A forensic psychologist is responsible for determining whether or not a defendant is Competent to Stand Trial (CST). Their service is usually provided for the courts and defense lawyers when dealing with a defendant who has a questionable mindset. The forensic psychologist is trained to lead through these evaluations and determine if the defendant is fit to go through with his/her trial or not. The forensic psychologist does not usually deal with only one area of criminology but usually a wide range of criminal types.

On the other hand, a criminal psychologist's main focus is on supporting investigations. The criminal psychologist is the one who is sent in to develop a profile for the suspect being pursued. After evaluating crime scenes, the various documentations, and witnesses, the criminal psychologist integrates all the material connected with the suspect and tries to develop a psychological profile that would aid the investigative team with apprehending the suspect.

As far as I know, both occupations are not limited to those tasks I have stated above. A lot of them go into consulting, research, and various other activities that my little mind has no clue about. It's a very wide-ranged field where not a lot of things stand coherently. Everything just sort of binds together in the end through connections and whatnot.

4. Do you have any idea how the money is in either fields?

Honestly? No. I have absolutely no idea how the money is, but if that decides your decision of whether or not you want to go into the field, I suggest you look elsewhere or atleast find better reasons. One thing for sure is, you won't be living in the gutter, and you may actually do plenty of traveling.

5. What should I major in when I go to college?

The best thing to include in your studies is Psychology. The next thing would be Sociology and/or Criminology and/or Criminal Justice. I do not recommend that you limit yourself to a major in Criminal Justice because without the background of Psychology your job opportunities will be limited.

6. How likely is it that I'll have the chance to be employed by the FBI?

Well... There are certain obstacles you'll have to hurdle over to get into the Bureau. First of all, to be employed as a criminal psychologist by the Bureau, I'd have to say that anyone's chances are slim. The Bureau currently employs only roughly 30 profilers, and the reason for that small number is not because the number in that occupation is scarce. It's hard. Let's just say that their standards for employment especially in that area are extremely high, and they want to keep the program/team as prestigious as ever. They're very picky.

But, to be employed by the FBI as a special agent in general, I'd have to say I wouldn't know what your chances are, however I do know that it is important to keep your record as spotless and impeccable as ever. Don't get arrested, pay your parking and speeding tickets, don't do illegal substances, don't drink underage, don't do anything really extremely dumb (attempt robbery, hurt or kill somebody, commit some artistic vandalism) and manage to get good grades in college. You also have to be 23 (and under 35) before applying to the FBI and you must have three years of full-time work experience before you can be applicable (this is to show them that you're financially independent) unless you go to graduate school (then I think the number of years are down to only one).

7. Are there any good journals or articles that I could get my hands on for research/interest purposes?

Sure. Go to www.ncjrs.org and join their mailing list. They also have tons and tons of articles you can choose from that can be delivered to your home for private leisure viewing for absolutely FREE!

8. Are there any good books you recommend that deal with the field?

Oh yes, tons. However I haven't had the time to type them all up. How's this? Give me a couple weeks and I'll put up a page that lists everything on my bookshelf, including genre, title, author and publishing date and company. As for now, if there are any book questions please email me for titles and suggestions.

9. I need help! I don't have any idea how to get into the field! HELP ME!

This tends to be the biggest problem for everyone that emails me. I'd say the best thing to get your foot in the door in this field is to GET CONNECTED. How? Easy. Do some researh around your area. Look at the resources that are available to you. Are you at or near a college that have professors teaching about the field? If yes, what's stopping you? Go to them, ask them questions, ask them to refer you to somebody else. I'm also pretty positive that most of you have a law enforcement agency somewhere near your location. Don't hesitate to go to them for some information. Ask them about employment possibilities, internships, somebody else's phone number who you could call and ask... Make connections. If you're in college, get to know the professors who can possibly get you connected with someone in the field (or perhaps, they may be IN the field themselves, most of them usually are..the ones that teach Criminal Justice/Psychology/Sociology). This is probably the most important thing in terms of working in the field. The more connections you make, the better you'll be recognized within the field and offered something. If you are in high school, don't worry about this problem until you are in college. You have a long way to go. Go have fun.

8. I am about to go to college as an undergraduate and I was wondering which colleges have the best Criminal Psychology programs.

There are a few Criminal/Forensic Psychology undergraduate programs out there (John Jay College of Criminal Justice is one of the few). However, none of them are going to make a Criminal/Forensic Psychologist out of you. The undergraduate programs that immediately focus on Criminal/Forensic Psychology are meant to prepare future law-enforcement officials for general knowledges of the law-enforcement world. When you become an undergraduate the main focus is still on GENERAL KNOWLEDGE (yes, I thought high school was supposed to take care of that too, but apparantly I was wrong). So, in order to study Criminal Psychology in the future you have to have a good sturdy background in Psychology which is why the best idea is to study Psychology while you are an undergraduate. In terms of "good undergraduate schools," I'd have to say it really doesn't matter. It doesn't matter where you go for undergraduate school - where it counts is WHERE you go to get your graduate degree and WHO you're studying under. THAT particular area I'm not very clear on as of now..as I am only a first-year Psych major.

10. Do you know of any good Criminal Psychology graduate programs?

Yes. Mike Decaire has a list of grad programs at his site..so to save space and time, just go see his list here.

11. How good are the job opportunities in this field? What kind of potential does it have?

The field is definitely growing and is full of potential. However, as of now, in terms of education it's still not very coherent. If you talk to anyone in the field, most likely their paths were incredibly incoherent and there wasn't an actual path they followed to get to where they are. They're probably going to tell you, "I didn't know I was going to end up studying sex offenders..(and so forth)" If you find someone who tells you different, and offers you a direct path, AWESOME. Listen to them. But as far as I know, and I have talked to several people in the field, the path is very unclear. If you go into the field you probably don't know where you're going to end up. This is not a bad thing - just keep your mind open to other options. However, it is still quite early, and this is a budding field, so perhaps in a couple years they'll have developed some kind of program for young people who know they want to join. So, in short, there is a lot of potential.

As for job opportunities... The field is always in dire need for more people to fill their little office spaces. The job opportunities are pretty grand. You can practically study anything and specialize in anything to get into the FBI. They'll need you for something. And for those of you who are positive that you only want to do something involving criminal/forensic psychology - Great. But don't limit yourself. Like I said earlier, getting into this field is like a gamble - you don't know what you're going to end up with (like, for those of you who want to become profilers and nothing else..please, open up your options). Criminal and forensic psychology is incredibly important, and there are several things you can go into (consulting work, investigative work, service work, clinical work). But like I said, keep an open mind.

12. If I use one of your articles for reference in a paper, how should I refer to you as in my works cited page/bibiography?

Put Garvey, Delano V. The Title Of My Article Here (or use quotation marks). and the url to the article..As for dates - If I don't have a date on the article, assume that it was written in 1998.

13. Are there any good sites that you recommend?

Absolutely. Go to my links page to see what I recommend.

14. What is Investigative Psychology and where can I go to find out more about it?

Being that I'm pretty clueless about this myself, I asked Dr. Maurice Godwin to help me out..and so..here is Investigative Psychology defined in his own words:
"Criminal Investigative psychology is a scientific, empirical and systematic approach to analysing crimes than previously subjective approaches to police investigations."
The only American school that has an Investigative Psychology graduate program is Vermont College of Norwich University where Dr. Godwin teaches. To find out more information on Investigative Psychology (that originated from the United Kingdom), click here.

Anyway, that's all for the FAQ for now..I will be adding more questions and answers later. If the FAQ did not help you and you still have questions, please email me. Hope this has helped!