Rate My Professor Julie Costopoulos

Julie Costopoulos, Ph.D., serves as Professor and Head of the School of Psychology within the College of Psychology and Liberal Arts at Florida Institute of Technology. Specializing in forensic psychology, her professional career includes prior roles as a senior forensic psychologist for Florida's Sexually Violent Predator Program and at the forensic psychiatric inpatient unit of Florida State Hospital, where she provided therapy, conducted assessments, and testified in court regarding residents' competency to stand trial, commitment for hospitalization, and other forensic issues. She earned her B.A. from the University of Florida, M.S. and Ed.S. from Florida State University, and Ph.D. from New York University. Additionally, she has taught as an adjunct instructor at various universities, delivering courses in psychology, statistics, and research methods to both undergraduate and graduate students. At Florida Tech, Dr. Costopoulos directs the Court Assessment Team, which appoints doctoral students to evaluate defendants' sanity and competence to stand trial at the local jail. She coordinates the Forensic concentration in the Clinical Psychology Psy.D. program and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses including Fundamentals of Forensic Psychology, Forensic Clinical Assessment, Abnormal Psychology, and Statistical and Research Methods.

Dr. Costopoulos's research focuses on forensic evaluations, serious mental illness, quantitative analysis, and psychoanalytic theory. She coordinates studies on the efficacy of community programs managing mentally ill offenders, including evaluations of malingering detection and the impact of psychiatric symptom exaggeration. Her publications include "Mitigating Forensic Risk for Practitioners" with M.A. Jones (2024, Journal of Crime and Criminal Behavior); "Aggression in an Inpatient Psychiatric Facility: A retrospective longitudinal study" (2019, Journal of Forensic Psychology Research and Practice); "The impact of substance arrests on the efficacy of Mental Health Court" with J.M. Swanson et al. (2019, Psychological Injury and Law); "Psychoanalytic understanding of the origins of sexual violence" with S. Juni (2018, Journal of Forensic Psychology Research and Practice); and "The impact of US government assistance on recidivism" with A.M. Plewinski et al. (2017, Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health). Earlier works under her maiden name include "Emotional and persuasive perception of fonts" with S. Juni (2008, Perceptual and Motor Skills). She serves on the editorial board of Psychological Injury and Law and has received the 2016 Kerry Bruce Clark Award for Excellence in Teaching, as well as multiple awards for outstanding contributions during her time at Florida State Hospital.