In psychopathology courses, students learn about the psychiatric disorders that some criminals exhibit. This could include schizophrenia in which a person hears voices, or paranoia in which a person might think others are out to get him. A person could also have antisocial disorder in which he eschews social norms. A person suffering from any of these disorders may be more likely to commit crimes. Someone hearing voices, for instance, might say the voices told him to kill someone.
In these classes, a student will learn the social and biological factors that can lead to a person developing a psychiatric disorder. A child who suffers abuse could grow up to have an antisocial disorder. Sometimes, the neurotransmitters in a person's brain won't flow efficiently, leaving him depressed or with another disorder.
Students taking Social Science as Evidence in Court will learn about the ways expert testimony can influence court cases. Psychology can be a subjective field, which means that two different psychologists could diagnose an individual two different ways. Lawyers can seize on subjective testimony and work to convince a judge or jurors that an expert's testimony isn't true. Sometimes, a person charged with a crime will plead insanity, and expert testimony would be necessary to back up the plea. Students taking this class would learn the ramifications of that testimony and discuss the criminal psychologist's responsibilities in testifying.
Students studying criminal psychology should learn about the personality traits of killers. They will learn about what motivates people to kill and which sorts of behaviors can lead investigators to believe a person will kill or kill again. This class will draw on theories learned in psychopathology, in which students studied about the psychiatric disorders that many criminals suffer from.
Students taking criminal psychology courses will also learn about how victims deal with their feelings. Victims often repress their emotions after suffering from a trauma. Some crimes, like rape, reap lasting consequences and victims can need years of therapy to regain some semblance of normalcy. A student criminal psychologist should learn during his coursework how to understand the victim mentality just as he understands the intricacies of the criminal mind.