How can I reduce bias in my work? Discussing debiasing strategies for forensic psychological assessments

Bias is an inherent phenomenon of information processing that can occur whenever human brains are involved. In forensic psychological assessments, bias threatens the reliability and validity of the conclusions about, for example, the credibility of witness’ statements, the risk of reoffending, child custody, or the competency to stand trial. Given the far-reaching consequences of forensic psychological assessments for individuals and society, it is important to identify strategies to minimize the risk of bias. In this article, we apply a process-oriented understanding of bias to the context of forensic psychological assessments. In doing so, we bring together theoretical considerations and empirical findings on how to combat bias. We show how debiasing strategies can be implemented in the individual tasks of forensic psychological assessment and evaluate their challenges and limitations in this field of application. We provide five key messages for forensic psychological practitioners that include expert training, transparent documentation, using standardized procedures, masking irrelevant case information, and applying alternative hypotheses approaches, and we discuss the potential of generative artificial intelligence to help debiasing.