Forensic psychology Psychologists in the field of forensic psychology provide information to the legal system. For example, if the perpetrator of a crime is unknown, they create psychological profiles of potential suspects (Canter, 2011), or if a defendant pleads innocent due to insanity, they assess the defendant’s mental state. Work in forensic psychology also illustrates the distinction between scientific and nonscientific questions. A question such as “What psychological factors predict criminal behavior?” is a scientific question; one can collect scientific evidence to answer it. However, the question of whether or not a given type of behavior (e.g., assault, theft, gambling, drug use) is a crime is not a scientific question; it is a normative question involving social rules that dictate acceptable and unacceptable forms of behavior.