Forensic Psychology and Criminology Personal Statement Example

When hearing about crime, the question asked is what possesses someone to do such a thing? A question that seems simple enough yet no one has actually been able to identify what makes a person do what they do.

Arguments are that it must be a mental abnormality that causes people to do what they do. Others believe that it is society's impact on a being that influences them. Both arguments being extremely controversial and interesting to me.

When I started my first college in 2013, I didn't know what I wanted to do career-wise. Psychology was a subject I had never done before but was something that I wanted to investigate and try out. In a media lesson, we were looking at universities and what courses they offered.

Everyone was looking at courses to do with the media but nothing was gripping my attention. I decided to look outside of this section and go onto psychology.

It is then I remember falling in love with psychology courses and what they had to offer within that degree. I also found that I could do psychology alongside another related subject!

From then, I realised that the subjects I was doing weren't beneficial to me so I started the next year at a different college doing psychology, sociology and law.

Within weeks of doing these subjects, I knew that psychology was something that I definitely wished to pursue in for a degree and then a career.

Since studying psychology, I have altered the way that I interpret a person's actions as now I know that there are many different biological factors that affect a person.

What you see of a person isn't necessarily everything; there is a lot underneath the surface. In the first year of psychology, we had a student from a nearby university ask our class to be a part of her study of human interaction and the effect it has on memory.

I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of it and it gave me an insight into the process of an experiment. This intensified my interest in studying psychology as I would love to examine and understand people's behaviour.

As said previously, I wish to study a subject similar to psychology alongside it. Studying law helped give me an insight into the legal system and the way law works.

Alongside this, studying sociology enhanced my understanding within crime. A key topic within sociology was crime and deviance whereby we looked at society's impact on crime.

By studying psychology and sociology, it allowed me to see views on the criminal world and the criminal mind; going into details of whether someone becomes a criminal through biological factors like their genes or if their socialisation had an impact and they see committing crime as the norm.

Within both of these subjects, I very much enjoyed the research methods part as it allowed me to gain a knowledge of different methods used in experiments.

From the age of 14, I have helped out with my aunt's charity - something that is close to my heart. I helped organise events which helped with my communication skills as before I was always shy.

This and my part-time job on checkouts definitely helped me to come out of myself and become a more confident, independent person. Something that I hope to further at university.

I very much enjoy camping; I completed the Silver & Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award and have gone to many music festivals where I have camped at.

Festivals are a great place to become your own person, it's a place to have fun and create some amazing memories! Music is of a great interest to me as I believe it allows a person to express themselves.

I am a committed student that is extremely passionate about psychology and the world of crime and I look forward to continuing my education at university and overcoming the challenges that this degree has to offer.

I feel that university will not only allow me to get into a career that I love and have a great interest in; it will also allow me to become an independent, mature adult who will have the life experience of University.