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Forensic psychologists examine crime scene evidence, or other forensic evidence, just like other forensic scientists do. But their aim is a bit different.

A forensic scientist examines the evidence at the scene, in order to determine when, where, how, and by whom a murder was committed. A forensic psychologist, on the other hand, tries to determine WHY the crime was committed. They use the evidence at hand to discern the culprit's motives and state of mind (i.e., was he/she rational, or suffering from extreme emotional disturbance, or completely psychotic, etc.).

For example, if a murderer shows up at his victim's house with the soles of a pair of much smaller shoes superglued to his normal shoes, so that the footprints he leaves will be those of a shoe size much smaller than his own. This is clearly a preemptive attempt to avoid suspicion and detection. It indicates that the man planned the crime beforehand, carefully and rationally.

Thus, if the suspect later tries to argue that he was suffering from extreme emotional disturbance at the time of the crime, and had no idea what he was doing, the forensic psychologist can point to the phony shoe soles as evidence that he DID know what he was doing.

Forensic scientists try to figure out exactly what happened during a crime: who shot first, how many times did they shoot, what angle is the blood spatter pattern, and if the spatter is at this angle, it means the perp had to be standing here...

The forensic psychologist works on the human aspect of the crime: the psychology of both victim and perpetrator.

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