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Payton Neville

Dr. Guenzel

ENC 1102

Peer Team 1

March 3, 2021

Research Dossier:  
Forensic Psychology in relation to being involved in court military sexual
assault & how the pandemic may have affected the military.

Dossier Introduction

Even before finding out about an upcoming research project, I have always
wanted to do a project relating to forensics in some way. I have always been
interested in the sciences and have been able to handle the tough things in
life relating to crime scenes and other horrible crimes people commit. My
goal one day is to hopefully either go into the Crime Scene Investigation
department (CSI) or the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to become an
agent later on leading to a forensic scientist. I have always been intrigued in
solving crimes and collecting/analyzing evidence around crime scenes, just a
simple fascination if you will. I would say my big motivator for this project
is myself and where it all began, what I am working towards, and retaining
new information for my future profession. I truly realized I wanted to go into
forensics junior year of high school, and this is where my inspiration began. 

In my junior year, my high school surprisingly had a forensic science class

available for enrollment, of course I enrolled as fast as I could and got in.
Throughout the year we learnt about different techniques and statistics
involving forensic science and how to collect evidence. We learnt about
fingerprinting, arson, murder, and practically anything and everything else
covering the general topic of forensic science. The more I learnt the more
drawn in I was by everything and then our midterm comes around. My
teacher had set up an entire crime scene in our room, fake body and all. We
had to team up and analyze the blood, tool markings, fingerprints, and
practically any other piece of evidence we could find. On top of that we had
to determine who the killer was since the midterm case we were given was
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clearly a murder. After completing that midterm, I truly knew that this was
what I wanted to go into and be one day. That experience is what keeps me
going because as forensic scientists say, we help the dead through the living
and if I could just help change one life I would be satisfied. I know the
midterm experience I had of course was not exact to a real crime scene or
crime scene investigation but since then I’ve just wanted to know more and
more about the topic of forensics. I remember how much fun I thought it was
collecting evidence and want to do that again one day, which is what pushes
me. 

Another big motivator was watching real forensics professionals come in

and talk about what they do as their profession last semester in my forensics
class here at UCF. Watching them explain what they do and showing us
photos really helped to motivate me even more. 

The research project is based upon Forensic Psychology in relation to being

involved in court military sexual assault & how the pandemic may have
affected the military. This research will help to show the correlation of what
forensic psychologists do in the court and how that effects the outcome of
sexual assault cases. The research will also come to show how the pandemic
has affected the military, but more specifically the number of sexual assault
cases. I have searched for legitimate government documents reporting sexual
assault in the military and academic journals involving the other topics in
order to correlate them.

So far throughout my research process I have established that I want to look

into specifically forensic psychology, no other forensics will most likely be
involved. With this in mind I started to look for articles and journals about
how forensic psychology works in a courtroom and what their purpose was.
After I found these articles, I started looking for specific ones involving
military sexual assault and forensic psychology in the courtroom, in which
luckily, I found a few articles. I began looking into these articles and start
my research upon how covid-19 may affect these results in which I found
articles for as well. I am now working on my connections and how I will
intertwine the information I have found in order to connect the sources to my
paper.

The issue I found when researching my information was finding more

specific articles. Since my research topic is so specific, I knew from the
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beginning I would have a harder time finding articles that directly related to
my topic. I used the UCF library, google scholar, and more but I had a hard
time finding specific sources. I also struggled with finding different sources
such as videos, but in order to do this I know I must look deeper. I am
hoping to be able to find enough informative videos as to where I can use
them as a point in my research as well. 

Research Proposal

Subject: Forensic Psychology in relation to being involved in court military

sexual assault & how the pandemic may have affected the military.

Topic description: The topic I am researching is focusing upon is forensic

psychology in relation to being involved in court military sexual assault &
how the pandemic may have affected the military. I am researching this in
order to find the correlation between all of the factors I listed above which
are forensic psychology, military sexual abuse, and the pandemic. I will
mainly focus upon how forensic psychology works in the courtroom and in
general just to provide a brief overview for those who are not familiar with
the topic. I will also be focusing on military sexual assault and the statistics
involving that. Plus, with those statistics I will look at how forensic
psychology effects the court trials due to military sexual assault. I will
continue to look at what is most relevant with everybody today, the
pandemic. I will look into articles that provide information regarding
military sexual assault statistics and how the pandemic may have increased
or decreased those said statistics. 

Documentation style: For my project I will be writing in APA format. This

is because usually within the forensic science industry or in any science
related industry APA is the most common use of citation, I would have
chosen MLA but after closer consideration I came to the realization that
MLA format is typically only used by topics closer relating to humanities.

Purpose: Since I am a forensic science major my topic automatically stuck

out to me. I’ve always been invested in statistics involving crime rates and
such so for the scope to be shortened to only military is also very thrilling
because this will hopefully mean the research found will be more precise.
Forensic psychologists help in many ways and can be an extreme benefit to
anybody in the court room so I'd be pleased to help enlighten people as to
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why that is the case, and I am extremely adamant on doing so since this is
possibly the profession I would like to pursue one day.

Intended audience: The audience I am reaching is the forensic society

along with those involved in the military to help show the statistics of my
research, although the intended audience of my paper will be my ENC 1102
class. 

Research question / Preliminary Thesis / Argument: The forensic science

industry relating to forensic psychology has a great effect on the court
system when they are involved in a court hearing therefore influencing the
jury and the case outcome. During recent times the pandemic has been a
leading factor as well.

Types of research areas: So far I have found a few scholarly sources

relating to my topic, one of which is titled "why forensic psychology in
military courts?" and I have also have found websites as well some of which
relate to how forensic psychology relates to sexual assault. I will also be
searching for articles that show a relation between the military and how the
pandemic may have affected their activities.

Keywords: 
 Forensics
 Psychology
 Military sexual assault
 Sexual assault
 Covid-19
 Pandemic effect on military
 Military court hearings
 Forensic psychology in court

Annotated Bibliography

Beauregard, E. (2010). Rape and sexual assault in investigative psychology:

the contribution of sex offenders’ research to offender profiling. Journal of
Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 7(1), 1–13.
[Link]
Content: This research provides insight on investigative psychology, more
commonly referred to as forensic psychology. Although, this research does
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not just focus on the basics of forensic psychology, it also relates the
information to rape and sexual assault cases. Although these rape and sexual
assault cases are not specifically in the military, I believe that the
information provided can help to give a general understanding of what my
research might somewhat pertain to or look like.
Author: The author is an associate professor at the school of criminology.
He is also the Co-Director of the Centre for Research on Sexual Violence at
Simon Fraser University
BEAM: The research article provides the perspective of forensic
psychologists and how they are affiliated within sexual assault and rape
cases throughout. The article also discussed various different perspectives
forensic psychologists use in order to conduct their work in sexual assault
cases.
 
Pinto, B. (2019, June 20). What role does forensic psychology play in a
sexual assault case? Insight Digital Magazine.
[Link]
sexual-assault/
Content: This article helps to represent the difference between forensics and
forensic psychology. The article also helps to represent what a forensic
psychologist may do in court 
Author: Blake Pinto has written many articles regarding psychology,
forensics, and everything in between. He has also been writing on the
chicago school of professional psychology’s website since 2019.
BEAM: The research article helps to provide multiple different perspectives
of forensic psychology due to the fact that within the article the author
provides multiple different ways forensic psychologists get involved in
sexual assault court cases.
 
Sexual Assault/Sexual Harassment in the Military. (n.d.). Psychological
Health Center of Excellence. [Link]
guidance/sexual-assaultsexual-harassment
Content: This article specifically refers to military sexual assault and the
statistics involving it. The article also provides aftereffects and exact number
statistics of reports and such
Author: Sadly, there is no specific author but the website, the Psychological
Health Center of Excellence, has been known to be extremely reliable and
credible. They frequently write about statistics involving sexual assault and
use credible sources such as the department of defense.
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BEAM: This article provides both evidence and perspective. The writer
takes the time to write the different effects people experience in the military
who have been sexually assaulted, they also explicitly state exact numbers
and statistics about how many cases of sexual assault and harassment were
reported and such.
 
Kenny, Caitlin M. “Pentagon: Reports of Sexual Assault, Harassment in the
Military Have Increased.” Stars and Stripes, 30 Apr. 2020,
[Link]/news/us/pentagon-reports-of-sexual-assault-harassment-
in-the-military-have-increased-1.627966. 
Content: This article provides information about relatively recent sexual
assault cases within the military and how they have increased, having
information from the pentagon and exact percentages of the increase
experienced.
Author: The writer joined Stripes in 2018 and has covered the military for
several years across the United States. She is also a graduate of the
University of Massachusetts, Amherst earning a degree in journalism.
BEAM: The writer of this articles provides extensive evidence regarding the
increase of recent sexual assault cases within the military. She does this by
providing exact percentages and numbers, as well as dates and sources. 
 
Gooding, Mike. “Military Continues Sexual Assault Prevention and
Response despite COVID-19.” [Link], 21 Aug. 2020, 
[Link]/article/news/national/military-news/military-continues-
sexual-assault-response-despite-pandemic/291-405a38fb-5b89-4bee-9a01-
7a848d4beb5e
Content: This article helps to share what the military has been doing since
the pandemic begun in relation to the sexual assault going on within the
military. The article also includes an interview with higher up military
personnel. 
Author: Gooding is a political and senior military reporter, although he
mainly focuses on the military instead of politics. He has been a credible
reporter all of his career, reporting since 1985.
BEAM: The writer helps to provide insight to what the plan was with the
military’s action regarding sexual assault and the pandemic, also providing
evidence with numbers in regard to military sexual assault.
 
Brigham, J.C. What Is Forensic Psychology, Anyway?. Law Hum Behav 23,
273–298 (1999). [Link]
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Content: This article helps to show what forensic psychology is and what
forensic psychologists do in general, not just in military sexual assault cases.
Author: Brigham is a professor at Florida State University. He is currently
involved in the department of psychology and has written multiple articles
throughout his career thus far. 
BEAM: This article helps to provide background to my target audience
since it is to be assumed most do not know what a forensic psychologist is or
does. 
 
 
 
Miller, Laurence. PTSD and Forensic Psychology Applications to Civil and
Criminal Law. Springer International Publishing, 2015, google scholar,
[Link]/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=a3LdBgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=forensic+psycholo
gy+in+the+military&ots=lKPqzUBxTk&sig=T7oNxYcpeipee1QPH9CmEjI
4OK4#v=onepage&q=forensic%20psychology%20in%20the
%20military&f=false. 
Content: This book Provides insight and realistic feedback on how forensic
psychology works in both civil and criminal law, describing the process’
forensic psychologists have to go through in both sides of law.
Author: Miller is a common psychologist who has been working his
profession for many years. He has written many informative books upon the
topic of psychology and forensics.
BEAM: This book helps to provide multiple different perspectives of
forensic psychology due to the fact that it is helping to display both sides of
the law both civil and criminal, plus how forensic psychologists function in
both.
 
Warner, C.M. and Armstrong, M.A. (2020), The Role of Military Law and
Systemic Issues in the Military's Handling of Sexual Assault Cases. Law &
Society Rev, 54: 265-300. [Link]
Contents: This article looks at the failure of institutions to address and
punish cases of sexual assault. The article provides a debate in which how
cases fare in an institution that is perennially accused of gender bias and of
tolerating rape, the US military.
Author: Warner is currently a professor at the University of Nevada Reno,
teaching political science. Although she is extremely qualified, graduating
from Harvard University with a degree in political science as well. Warner
has previously written articles involving military sexual assault as well.
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BEAM: Warner provides extensive evidence regarding the sexual assault

cases and how the military handles sexual assault. She does this by
providing exact percentages and numbers, as well as stating the process the
military goes through in occurrence of sexual assault. 
 
Burgess A., Slattery D., Herlihy P.(2013). Military Sexual Trauma: A Silent
Syndrome. J Psychosoc Nurs Ment Health Serv. 51(2) 20-26. doi:
10.3928/02793695-20130109-03 [link]
Contents: This article looks at sexual assault through the lens of its
occurrence within the military culture. The writer displays both specific
cases as well as U.S. Department of Defense responses to handle the issues
involving the effects and teaching of military sexual trauma (MST).
Author: Ann C. Wolbert Burgess is a researcher. She has mainly focused
upon developing ways to assess and treat trauma in rape victims. She is a
professor at the William F. Connell School of Nursing at Boston College,
and she attended Boston university. 
BEAM: This article was taken from the national library of medicine,
making it an extremely reliable source.
 
 Coyne, K. (2019). The forensic psychologist in the military justice system:
Background, structure, and process. In C. T. Stein & J. N. Younggren (Eds.),
Forensic psychology in military courts (p. 13–38). American Psychological
Association. [Link]
Contents: The writer provides basic insight into the court system and basic
information about the military justice system. Plus, an introduction on how
forensic psychology works specifically within military courts.
Author: Coyne has only written two articles, and little is known about her,
although she seems to be an attorney so has obvious knowledge of the court
system.
BEAM: The writer provides insight and helpful background information of
the court system. She also provides another important piece of information
regarding how the military court system works with forensic psychology.
 
W. Brad Johnson Ph.D. (2008) Top Ethical Challenges for Military Clinical
Psychologists, Military Psychology, 20:1, 49-62, DOI:
10.1080/08995600701753185
Contents: This article helps to display military psychology and the ethical
challenges military psychologists face due to the issues that occur within the
military.
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Author: W. Brad Johnson Ph.D. is a common military psychology writer;

he has also been involved with the United States Naval Academy. 
BEAM: The writer helps to provide a new insight to the topic, ethics. This
article also helps to further display and provide insight into what exactly
happens within the military during psychological or ethical situations.
 
 Brubaker, S. Sexual assault prevalence, reporting and policies: Comparing
college and university campuses and military service academies. Secur J 22,
56–72 (2009). [Link]
Contents: This article examines the differences and similarities between
college and university campuses v.  military service academies regarding
sexual assault issues. Doing this helps to realize the severity level of what is
occurring. The article provides a comparison of rates of sexual assault,
reporting rates and barriers, and policy efforts in each setting.
Author: Brubaker is a current dean at Virginia Commonwealth University
and is familiar with writing, having written 16 other publications. 
BEAM: This article provides an extreme insight to what actually is going on
within the military and sexual assault. It levels up the severity, especially
while comparing sexual assault cases happening within the military to sexual
assault cases happening on college campus’ with people who are just
spreading their wings independently.