MULTICULTURAL RESEARCH IN FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY: WHERE ARE WE NOW?

Introduction: Forensic psychology is one of the fastest-growing areas in psychology. Over the past few decades, forensic psychology research has had significant impact on legal outcomes and clinical practice. Further, the population served by forensic psychologists has become increasingly diverse. However, past reviews of forensic psychology research indicates cultural factors are not always prominent variables of interest. Accordingly, this study examined how cultural variables are captured within forensic psychology research, and identified the proportion of articles in major forensic psychology journals focused on multicultural research. This study aimed to extend previous work by examining the incorporation of cultural variables capturing a number of sociocultural groups, as well as trends in multicultural considerations within forensic psychology. The primary methodology that was applied – content analysis – is frequently used to study scholarly work and trends within psychology. As was intended here, content analysis often provides insight, reflection, feedback, and critique, and highlights areas for growth and continued development. Methods: Given the present study’s focus on forensic psychology research, journal selection was confined to outlets that exclusively or primarily address forensic psychology topics. Eight specialist journals were selected as they are among the most frequently cited within the field of forensic psychology, suggesting that articles published within these journals are considered to be influential and relevant to psychology and law scholars. All original articles from the above eight identified journals published from 2015 to 2017 were pooled for article selection. As the present study was interested in examining the incorporation of cultural variables into forensic psychology research, theoretical, review, and research articles were selected for inclusion in the sample. Sixty articles were randomly selected to create the subset of articles from the eight journals to create the dataset of articles to be coded. This random selection process provided an equally distributed, likely representative, and sufficiently large sample of 480 articles comprising the total data base for the analyses. To examine how culture is captured in these articles, this study focused on the presence of the following cultural groups as they are used as topic areas or variables within forensic psychology research: age/generation, race/ethnicity, religion/spirituality, language, sexual orientation, gender identity and diversity, socioeconomic status, ability/disability status, neighborhood, immigration, and indigenous heritage. Articles were coded by four researchers who used a coding sheet and accompanying codebook designed for the purposes of this study. Acceptable interrater reliability was achieved as reflected in kappa coefficients ranging from .84 to .98 for items. All sections of articles were coded to examine inclusion of cultural variables. Additionally, articles were categorized as multiculturally-focused when: 1) theoretical and review articles had cultural variables mentioned in the title and/or in the stated aims/purpose of the article; or 2) research articles had cultural variables present in the title and/or aims and hypotheses of the study. Coding sheet items were designed to collect categorical data and descriptive analyses, specifically frequency statistics, were conducted to address study aims. Results: The final sample was comprised of 462 articles; 76 articles were classified as theoretical or review papers (2015, n = 22; 2016, n = 24; 2017, n = 30), and 386 as research articles (2015, n = 118; 2016, n = 148; 2017, n = 120). Results revealed a mean of about three cultural variables incorporated into articles as a whole, with a standard deviation of 1.6, and a range of 0 to 9. Almost all articles (96%) incorporated at least one cultural variable. Out of the study sample of 462 articles, 44% (n = 203) were classified as multiculturally-focused. Areas of notable strengths include high rates of cultural inclusion within sample demographics and common incorporation of certain variables, specifically for age/generation, gender identity, and race/ethnicity. Findings suggest that forensic psychology research has a limited and selective focus of cultural inclusion. General inclusion of cultural variables in any section of articles was notably higher than rates of multiculturally-focused articles. Additionally, results suggest a disproportionate representation of cultural variables within reporting of participant demographics and an overrepresentation of majority groups. Conclusions: It is hoped the present study serves as a call to action for the field of forensic psychology. The current findings have identified a number of areas for improvement of cultural research within forensic psychology; mainly, that the field needs to better incorporate culture into all aspects of its research. This study generated both positive outcomes but also areas of concern, and it is hoped that in particular, identifying areas requiring attention will challenge the field to grow, adapt, and develop in its approach to conducting cultural research.

variables incorporated into articles as a whole, with a standard deviation of 1.6, and a range of 0 to 9. Almost all articles (96%) incorporated at least one cultural variable.
Out of the study sample of 462 articles, 44% (n = 203) were classified as multiculturally-focused. Areas of notable strengths include high rates of cultural inclusion within sample demographics and common incorporation of certain variables, specifically for age/generation, gender identity, and race/ethnicity. Findings suggest that forensic psychology research has a limited and selective focus of cultural inclusion. General inclusion of cultural variables in any section of articles was notably higher than rates of multiculturally-focused articles. Additionally, results suggest a disproportionate representation of cultural variables within reporting of participant demographics and an overrepresentation of majority groups. Conclusions: It is hoped the present study serves as a call to action for the field of forensic psychology. The current findings have identified a number of areas for improvement of cultural research within forensic psychology; mainly, that the field needs to better incorporate culture into all aspects of its research. This study generated both positive outcomes but also areas of concern, and it is hoped that in particular, identifying areas requiring attention will challenge the field to grow, adapt, and develop in its approach to conducting cultural research.
v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I wholeheartedly thank Dr. David Faust for his mentorship and dedication to my professional development. Over the past six years, he has worked tirelessly to make me a better writer, scholar, clinician, and person. David has shown such kindness and caring for my family and personal well-being. He never doubted me, even when I doubted myself. He challenged me to develop my intellect and pushed me to explore topics I may have otherwise avoided from fear of failure, and in doing so has made me a little more fearless. His unwavering support and encouragement has meant everything to me. I will forever consider it an honor and a privilege to have had the opportunity to learn from one of the greatest scholars in the field. have done anything to support my career, but you are so wrong. Thank you for always understanding when I had to work on nights and weekends, and for making me feel like I was a good parent, especially at times when I felt like I was not doing enough vii for you. Thank you for humoring me every time I told you to trust me because I was going to be a doctor. Most of all, your love, joy, and humor carried me through even the darkest days and reminded me truly the most important thing in life is my family.
Finally, to my husband and life partner, Brianwords cannot express how thankful I am for everything you have done over the past eight years. I don't think you really understood what you were getting into when I told you I wanted to get a doctorate degree, but you gave me unending love and support. I could not have done this without you. You held me when I cried, you celebrated every milestone, you encouraged me to work hard, and you kept me sane and grounded. I am so grateful to have you as my partner and I will love you always.

Statement of the Problem
Forensic psychology is one of the fastest-growing areas in psychology. Over the past few decades, forensic psychology research has had significant impact on legal outcomes and clinical practice. Further, the population served by forensic psychologists has become increasingly diverse. However, past reviews of forensic psychology research indicates cultural factors are not always prominent variables of interest. Accordingly, this study examined how cultural variables are captured within forensic psychology research, and identified the proportion of articles in major forensic psychology journals focused on multicultural research. This study aimed to extend previous work (e.g., Carter and Forsyth, 2007;Padilla, Miller, & Broadus, 2008) by examining the incorporation of cultural variables capturing a number of sociocultural groups, as well as trends in multicultural considerations within forensic psychology.

Review of the Literature
Forensic psychology focuses on the intersection of psychology and law and addresses psychological questions and issues that arise in legal proceedings (Heilbrun & Brooks, 2010;Otto & Heilbrun, 2002). Forensic psychologists serve as consultants, experts, evaluators, and treatment providers at almost every point of the legal process.
In addition to professional and clinical practice, forensic psychology also includes research that examines aspects of human behavior related to the legal process and the criminal justice system (Bartol & Bartol, 2017).
Over the past few decades, forensic psychology has experienced tremendous growth. Although psychologists and other mental health professionals had been involved in issues within the legal system for many years, forensic psychology did not begin to emerge as a formal field with distinct clinical and research interests until the early 1970's (Heilbrun & Brooks, 2010 Forensic psychology research has become increasingly important to a range of legal issues. Such research helps to inform crucial decisions and activities from the beginning to the end of the legal process, such as determining possible transfer of adolescents to adult criminal court, assessing individuals' potential danger to society, and designing treatment that increases the likelihood of rehabilitation and lowers the chance for future offending. As this research is applied to important psycholegal questions that have significant real-world effects, it is crucial to ensure that the methodology used to conduct these studies reflects sound practice and careful consideration of the issues at hand.

Diversity within Forensic Psychology
Multicultural considerations are of particular concern within forensic psychology research because the criminal justice system is comprised of individuals with diverse backgrounds and cultural identities, including race, ethnicity, age, gender, and socioeconomic status (Carson, 2015;Carter & Forsyth, 2007;Kaeble, Maruschak, & Bonczar, 2015). There has been increased awareness, both scholarly and socially, that racial and ethnic minority groups have become disproportionately represented within the criminal justice system through decades of discriminatory policies, procedures, and practices (Sampson & Lauritsen, 1997;Pettit & Western, 2004).
Research suggests that racial and ethnic minority groups account for 43% to 59% of all individuals that forensic psychologists serve (Carson, 2015;Kaeble et al., 2015).
Moreover, research indicates that the number of other cultural minority/marginalized groups such as women, LBGTQ individuals, and individuals with differing abilities (i.e., cognitive and physical), has been rapidly growing over the past two decades (e.g., Brewer & Heitzeg, 2008;Mogul, Ritchie, & Whitlock, 2011). It is evident that the population of interest for the field is inherently diverse and has individuals from multiple and intersecting sociocultural identities. Moreover, it stands to reason that aspects of culture would impact the application of research broadly and in such key areas as policy development and intervention design. As such, the field of forensic psychology should be interested in, and committed to, routinely incorporating culture into scholarly works.

Multicultural Research in Forensic Psychology
Although forensic psychology intrinsically focuses on multicultural populations, it appears that multiculturally-focused considerations have not been emphasized in many forensic studies (Carter & Forsyth, 2007;Padilla, Miller, & Broadus, 2008;Edgar, 2012). Carter and Forsyth (2007) conducted a content analysis examining research articles from forensic psychology journals from 1997 to 2003, and found that 47% of articles made no mention of race or ethnicity at all, and that a significant proportion of those that did (43%) mentioned race or culture only when describing the demographics of the sample. Additionally, the researchers were interested in examining the number of articles that included race and culture in-depth; that is, issues related to race and culture were addressed in all sections of the article.
Less than 10% of all 493 articles (n = 47) addressed these issues in-depth.
For the small group of articles examining race/culture in-depth, additional coding was conducted to subdivide them into three categories: cultural deprivation, cultural difference, or race-based studies. Carter and Forsyth (2007) found that over 75% of these articles used a cultural deprivation paradigm, which the researchers referred to as studies focused on cultural deficits or disadvantages present in racial/ethnic minority groups in comparison to White normative groups. Further, 22% relied on a cultural difference paradigm where differences between racial/ethnic minority groups and the White majority group are related to cultural factors (e.g., values, experiences) and not a result of some deficit or inadequacy. Finally, none of the articles in which race/culture were examined in-depth used a race-based paradigm, which includes research focused on understanding the influence of within-group differences in racial/ethnic identity on various outcomes (Carter & Forsyth, 2007).
Finally, an unpublished doctoral dissertation sought to extend Carter and Forsyth's (2007) work by examining the extent to which forensic psychology journals address race/ethnicity and culture within juvenile populations (Edgar, 2012). Using methodology similar to that of previous studies (Carter & Forsyth, 2007;Padilla et al., 2008), Edgar (2012)  shown that about half of articles report culture as sample demographics, and that cultural variables are not typically infused into other or all aspects of research studies (Carter & Forsyth 2007;Padilla et al., 2008). Moreover, the research indicates that racial/ethnic cultural variables are rarely the focus of studies, but when they are, the research treats or conceptualizes racial or cultural background as the underlying issue rather than considering potential systemic racial-cultural bias inherent in the legal system. Further, based on these research findings, it could be inferred that other important cultural identities (e.g., gender identity, sexuality, nation of origin) that influence experiences, treatment, and outcomes within the criminal justice system may also be under-studied. Given the disproportionate representation of diverse and marginalized groups within the criminal justice system, the dearth of literature centered on cultural identities and multicultural methodology within forensic psychology research is particularly concerning.

Present Study
Continued examination of the extent to which forensic psychology research is capturing and incorporating culture is critical as the field continues to grow and develop rapidly. As such, this study sought to extend previous work (e.g., Carter and Forsyth, 2007;Padilla et al., 2008) by examining trends in the inclusion and incorporation of cultural variables within research in forensic psychology, and by broadening the range of variables under investigation. The primary methodology that was appliedcontent analysisis frequently used to study scholarly work and trends within psychology. As was intended here, content analysis often provides insight, reflection, feedback, and critique, and highlights areas for growth and continued development (Donald & Ng, 2014;Eford, Miller, Duncan, & Eford, 2010). Journal and article selection in the current study reflect content analyses procedures used in previous studies examining the inclusion of culture within forensic psychology research (i.e., Carter & Forsyth, 2007;Padilla et al., 2008).
The first aim of this study was to examine the extent to which cultural variables are captured within contemporary forensic psychology research (Aim 1).
Particular attention was directed towards examining how cultural variables are described and conveyed (Aim 1a), and the representation of various sociocultural identities within articles (Aim 1b). Additionally, this study aimed to identify the proportion of multiculturally-focused research articles in major forensic psychology journals (Aim 2) and for research articles, to determine the relative frequency of different study designs, methods, and data analytic techniques (Aim 2a).

Journal Selection
Given the present study's focus on forensic psychology research, journal selection was confined to outlets that exclusively or primarily address forensic psychology topics. Moreover, the significant growth in the field and the rising number of forensic psychology-related journals, as well as feasibility concerns, seemed to argue for narrowing inquiry to leading journals. Top-tier journals tend to apply rigorous evaluative criteria and publish high quality work that has a disproportionately greater impact on the field, future research directions, and policy and procedures in the legal arena. If it was not feasible to examine the literature exhaustively, focusing on the most influential journals in the field, which arguably set a standard for research, appeared to be a sensible choice.
Black ( After multiple number points for random selection were examined, it was concluded that randomly selecting 60 articles from each journal would allow for a total sample (N = 480) nearing half of all available articles. Each article was assigned a number and a random number generator then used to select the subset of articles from the eight journals to create the dataset of articles to be coded. This random selection process provided an equally distributed, likely representative, and sufficiently large sample of 480 articles comprising the total data base for the analyses. Accordingly, this study used the definition of culture detailed above.
Additionally, to examine how culture is captured in these articles, this study focused on the presence of the following cultural groups as they are used as topic areas or variables within forensic psychology research: age, generation, race/ethnicity, religion/spirituality, language, sexual orientation, gender identity and diversity, socioeconomic status, ability/disability status, neighborhood, immigration, and indigenous heritage (Hays, 2009;APA, 2017). Further, the presence of various sociocultural identities within these cultural groups was of interest in order to examine how cultural variables were described or conveyed. Sociocultural identities reflected subcategories commonly used to specify or differentiate an individual's self-ascribed or assigned membership within the larger cultural group. For example, sociocultural identities within the cultural variable of gender included (but was not limited to) women/female, men/male, transgender, gender non-conforming, and non-binary.
Please see Appendix A for all sociocultural identities included in the present study.

Procedure
Articles were coded by five researchers: the principal researcher and four undergraduate research assistants (four White women and one Latina woman). A coding sheet and accompanying comprehensive codebook were developed to assist the researchers in coding articles reliably. The coding sheet was designed to evaluate and address questions within each section of an article. All coding materials were developed prior to coding articles in the sample. The research team received approximately eight hours of training related to the following areas: background information on the purpose and relevance of the present study; content analysis coding procedures; forensic psychology research topics; cultural research and methodology; and data recording and entry. Additional training was provided as needed during weekly, 1-hour long, research team meetings.
The research team assessed all questions on the coding sheet to identify low inference and high inference items. Separately, each researcher was given two random articles from a 2013 issue of each selected journal (n = 16) and completed the coding sheet for these articles, qualitatively noting which items were more difficult, less clear, or took larger amounts of time to complete. Each coder had their own unique set of articles, with no two coders examining the same article at this stage. Through a consensus process, a list of high inference items were created and noted during codebook development to assist in providing coders with adequate instructions and examples. Coders were strongly encouraged to use the "unable to determine" (UD) option whenever rating an item was unclear and might well lead to error. These cases with ambiguous items were determined to require review by the team of coders and resolved by consensus during the entire coding process.
Next, a pool of articles was created by drawing articles from the journals selected for the study, but from the year 2014, and were designated to be used only in the piloting process. This approach ensured that pilot articles would not be needed in the actual study in the event that additional articles from previous years were required to achieve adequate sample size. The initial version of the coding sheet and codebook were piloted with a small number of articles (n = 16). These articles were completed independently, and then reviewed by the research team, which discussed disagreements. Based on the initial piloting results, further editing and refinement of the codebook, and additional training were required before proceeding to further piloting articles and assessing inter-rater reliability.

Inter-rater Reliability
Inter-rater reliability was assessed by calculating the kappa statistic of agreement (Fleiss, 1971). Fleiss's kappa measures reliability of agreement between three or more raters when coding categorical variables. Possible kappa values range from -1 to 1, with 1 indicating absolute agreement, 0 indicating random agreement, and -1 indicating perfect disagreement. Although there is no consensus in the field for kappa coefficient interpretation, the following suggested guidelines (Altman, 1999;Landis & Koch, 1977)  After additional review of the coding materials and further training was provided, another 16 articles were selected from the pilot article sample and were again independently coded. This set of articles was analyzed for initial inter-rater agreement to determine if the coding sheet and codebook could be finalized. It was pre-determined that the research team would only proceed with the next round of coding when acceptable kappa coefficients had been attained. A kappa coefficient of 0.61 or higher (i.e., substantial agreement) was considered acceptable inter-rater agreement as some research suggests coefficients below 0.60 indicated inadequate agreement among raters and suggests limited confidence in study results (McHugh, 2012). Although 0.61 was set as the minimum threshold for inter-rater agreement, it was anticipated that higher coefficients would be obtained as a number of efforts (i.e., training, practice cases, consensus ratings) would be made to increase the likelihood of achieving reliability coefficients closer to substantial interrater agreement.
Resultant kappa coefficients ranged from .82 to .98 for most items. Two items, however, one related to methodology (i.e., study design) and another to the inclusion of cultural variables in data analyses (e.g., cultural variables as covariates, used to explore between group differences, etc.) achieved moderate agreement ( = .58 and  = .45, respectively). Additional training was provided on these items and information was added to the codebook in an effort to increase accuracy or consistency in coding.
Upon completion of additional training and codebook editing, the coding sheet and codebook were finalized and analysis of inter-rater reliability proceeded.
As noted, kappa coefficients reaching or exceeding 0.61 was set as the minimum standard for items in the main study. Items that continued to have lower coefficient values were eliminated. A final analysis of inter-rater reliability was conducted with researchers independently coding 30 randomly selected articles from the sample database of 480 articles. Kappa coefficients for most items indicated substantial to almost perfect agreement ( = .84 to  = .98). However, despite providing additional training and information in the codebook, the same two items addressing study design and data analyses still fell below the acceptable threshold ( = .58 and  = .50) and thus were eliminated. Fortunately, a number of retained items seemed likely to capture meaningful data on the methodology and reporting of results for multiculturally focused research articles.

Data Coding
After adequate inter-rater reliability was achieved and problem items eliminated, research team members were randomly assigned a subset of the 480 articles to code using the finalized coding sheet and codebook. For all articles, essential tracking information was documented, including the journal, article title, volume/issue, page numbers, and the name of the coder and the date the article was coded. Article type (i.e., theoretical/review, or research), the nation of origin of the article (i.e., international country or United States), and the keywords included in the article (i.e., keywords listed or no keywords provided) were also recorded. Articles were examined to determine if cultural variables were mentioned in the title, To address the second aim of the study, articles were categorized as multiculturally-focused when: 1) theoretical and review articles had cultural variables mentioned in the title and/or in the stated aims/purpose of the article; or 2) research articles had cultural variables present in the title and/or aims and hypotheses of the study. The inclusion of cultural variables in these sections of an article were selected with the rationale that the title and aims of a paper would reflect the intended topic or focus of a research endeavor. That is, if cultural factors were pertinent to the purpose of the article, they would likely be included in the title and/or aims.
For research articles that were classified as multiculturally-focused, data were coded from the method/procedure and the analyses/results sections (see Appendix A).
Sampling methods were of primary interest related to cultural inclusion in the procedures of a study. Descriptions of procedures for selecting study participants were coded to determine if they reflected purposive or convenience sampling. Purposive sampling techniques have been described as the deliberate choice of participant inclusion based on characteristics relevant to the aims of the study, whereas convenience sampling techniques have been characterized as participants that are easier to access (e.g., close proximity) by researchers (Etikan, Musa, & Alkassim, 2016). Items coded related to the results section of articles were examining the inclusion (i.e., yes or no) of all sociocultural identities (e.g., age, gender, and race/ethnicity) in the reported results, both within the text and displayed tables within the article.
Finally, for both theoretical/review and research articles, discussion sections were coded to indicate whether lack of inclusion of culture was noted as a limitation (i.e., yes, no, not applicable for multiculturally-focused articles) and if cultural variables were suggested for inclusion in future lines of review or research. Discussion of culture in the limitations and the need to address culture in future research acknowledges difficulties incorporating culture due to any number of factors (e.g., lack of available data, limited access to relevant participants) and its importance in knowledge development.

Data Analysis
Coding sheet items were designed to collect categorical data (see Appendix A).
Accordingly, descriptive analyses, specifically frequency statistics, were conducted to address study aims. Frequency statistics tally the number of observations in a given category and the percentage of observations in that category out of all observations.
These proportions help to describe and summarize data in a manner that facilitates interpretation.
A series of frequency analyses were conducted. The first set of analyses yielded frequency statistics examining the inclusion of cultural variables in contemporary forensic psychology research (Aims 1, 1a, and 1b). When examining the representation of sociocultural identities of research participants, a total of 21 articles were excluded from analyses as they were meta-analyses, systematic reviews, or incorporated case-level participants (e.g., probation offices) that did not contain sample demographics. Next, analyses included research articles categorized as multiculturally-focused to determine their proportion in major forensic psychology journals (Aim 2). Within this subset of articles, research articles were analyzed to examine methodology and reported results (Aim 2a).
Results generated an abundance of rich information and content that would necessitate multiple manuscripts to thoroughly review and discuss. For the purposes of this dissertation, results reported here will focus on major findings related to the originally proposed primary aims. Results bearing on secondary topics or exploratory analyses will be reserved for inclusion in future manuscripts. All relevant data are included in the tables and can be reviewed for more detailed information.
Initially, overall results are reported for the inclusion of cultural variables within forensic psychology articles (i.e., as a whole and by article type). Results are next reported addressing limited or select inclusion of culture. As such, tables displaying results will not be reviewed in their totality when first referenced in the text. Some elements of the tables will be covered in the first section of the results, with other elements being described later. The reader will be referred back to relevant tables as needed.

RESULTS
An initial sample of 480 articles was pooled from the eight selected forensic psychology journals. However, during coding an additional 18 articles were determined to meet exclusion criteria and were removed from the sample. Therefore,    Table 3 provides results for all articles and for articles divided into subcategories of theoretical/review papers and research articles. Results revealed a mean of about three cultural variables incorporated into articles as a whole, with a standard deviation of 1.6, and a range of 0 to 9. Almost all articles (96%) incorporated at least one cultural variable. When examined by subcategories, the vast majority of theoretical/review articles and research articles included at least one cultural variable (89.4% and 97.2%, respectively). The mean number of cultural variables present was 2.9 for both theoretical/review (SD = 2.0) and research (SD = 2.9) articles. For the total sample of articles, cultural variables had a high rate of inclusion within the introduction section (64%). A little less than half of all articles included cultural variables within the title (34.6%) and aims/hypotheses (42.4%). Lower rates of inclusion were observed in the sections of articles discussing study limitations (9.3%).

Cultural Inclusion in Forensic Psychology
Suggestions for future research efforts were coded to examine the rate at which cultural groups were included in recommendations. Those articles that suggested future lines of cultural research (n = 131, 28.4%) most commonly suggested incorporating age/generation (n = 50), gender identity (n = 48), and race/ethnicity (n = 23).

Participant Demographics
Twenty-one research articles did not report sample demographics, as they had case-level participants (e.g., systematic review articles, probation departments as participants, etc.). Consequently, 365 research articles remained that contained descriptions of participants. The inclusion of cultural variables within reported sample descriptions for all articles and for each of the eight selected forensic psychology journals is presented in Table 6. Among articles with reported sample demographics, 98% (n = 356) reported at least one cultural variable in their participant descriptions.
As seen in the table, the mean number of cultural variables included for this subsample was 3.1 (SD = 1.2) with a range of 1 to 6. Mean number of cultural variables included for each journal ranged from 2.5 to 3.6. Similar to results for the subsample of articles with reported sample characteristics, the vast majority of journals reported participant demographics (85% to 100%).
A primary aim of the study was to examine how cultural variables were conveyed within forensic psychology articles, and in particular the representation of various sociocultural identities within a cultural group. and their representation in sample characteristics. These comparisons will be discussed later within the results section.
The far-right column of

Multiculturally-focused Articles
Out of the study sample of 462 articles, 44% (n = 203) were classified as multiculturally-focused (see Table 4). Within this sample of multiculturally-focused articles, a large proportion of research articles were multiculturally-focused (86.2%).
Although almost 90% of theoretical or review articles contained at least one cultural variable, only 13.8% of articles were multiculturally-focused.   Table 8 for additional journal specific information.

Sampling and Reported Results
Methodological and analytic data from research articles were coded for multiculturally-focused articles. Table 9 summarizes the representation of cultural variables in the method and results sections of these articles. When cultural variables were present in the reporting of participant demographics, data was extracted from the methods and procedures for coding, in an effort to examine if the inclusion of that cultural variable reflected purposive (i.e., selected with intention) or convenience (i.e., easily accessible) sampling. The cultural variables with the highest rates of purposive sampling included, age/generation (63%), ability status (88.9%), language (75%), and immigration status (50%). Multiculturally-focused research articles (n = 175) were also examined to determine the extent to which cultural factors were captured within reported results. The majority of these articles included at least one cultural variable in the reporting of results (n = 160, 91.4%). The most common cultural variables with reported results were age (69%), gender (63.1%), race/ethnicity (26.6%), and education (10.6%). The remaining cultural variables were included in less than 10% of multiculturally-focused research articles. See Table 9 for additional details.

Limited and Selective Focus of Cultural Inclusion
Results revealed that few cultural variables beyond age, gender, and race/ethnicity were usually included in articles. As seen in Table 5, indigenous heritage (9.1%), employment (9.1%), neighborhood (7.4%), language (4.5%), religion (3.7%), and sexual orientation (1.7%) were included in less than 10% of all articles within the sample. Further, results reflect a discrepancy between overall cultural inclusion and the incorporation of cultural variables as the intended focus of cultural research.

General Inclusion Versus Multiculturally-focused
Tables 5 and 7 can be used to examine changes in representation rates of cultural variables present in any section of an article (i.e., general incorporation, Table   5) and their inclusion within multiculturally-focused articles (i.e., within the title/aims, Table 7). As observed in Table 7, the limited number of theoretical/review articles classified as multiculturally-focused (n = 28) artificially inflated the percentages reflecting rates of inclusion. For example, Table 5 shows the percentage of articles including language anywhere within the paper was 6.6%. This rate is notably lower than the proportion of multiculturally-focused articles including language (17.9%) as noted in Table 7, despite the same number of articles (i.e., n = 5) capturing this cultural variable. Accordingly, examination of differences in proportions of cultural representation from general incorporation (i.e., Table 5) to inclusion within multiculturally-focused articles (i.e., Table 7) will be limited to the sample of research articles.
The reader is respectfully directed to focus their attention on the final column of Table 5 (i.e., general incorporation) and the second column of Table 7 (i.e., multiculturally-focused research articles). Comparisons of percentages from Table 5 to Table 7 illustrate that rates of inclusion for a number of cultural variables within multiculturally-focused articles were notably lower than their general incorporation.
One stark example of change in proportions of representation can be seen in inclusion rates for race/ethnicity. When examining inclusion within any section of an article (Table 5), race/ethnicity was captured in half of all research articles. However, as seen in Table 7, only 10.3% of multiculturally-focused articles included race/ethnicity, suggesting that although race/ethnicity may be routinely included in forensic psychology articles, it is less often the focus of cultural research.

Disproportionate Cultural Representation in Sample Demographics
As seen in

Overrepresentation of Majority Groups
Despite routine incorporation of some cultural variables, results indicate their inclusion primarily focuses on majority groups. For example as illustrated in Table 7 Table 7). As shown in the table, within education, higher education status had relatively higher representation (some college, 38.2%; bachelor's degree or higher, 47%) compared to lower educational attainment (less than high school education, 23.5%). An additional example can be seen in the incorporation of neighborhood within participant demographics. Results noted higher proportions of urban/city (78.6%) inclusion, compared to rural areas (21.7%) and suburbs (10.7%).

Convenience Sampling
Within multiculturally-focused articles, the rates of convenience sampling for cultural variables were examined (See Table 9). Despite being routinely included in participant demographics, study procedures reflected high rates of convenience sampling for gender identity (67.9%) and race/ethnicity (91.4%). Relatively higher rates of convenience sampling were observed for cultural variables with disproportionately lower representation in sample characteristics, including: education level (93%), indigenous heritage (90%), socioeconomic status (85%), and neighborhood (85%). Similarly, sexual orientation and employment within sample demographics reflected convenience sampling in 100% of those research articles, likely due to their minimal inclusion within research articles (n = 3 and n = 12, respectively).

Minimal Cultural Inclusion in Study Limitations and Future Directions
For research articles that did not incorporate culture in major sections of the publication, data was extracted from the discussion section of the article to determine if this was acknowledged as a study limitation. Multiculturally-focused research articles were excluded from this analysis as they already captured culture in their articles (n = 175). Of the 211 research articles that did not incorporate culture in depth, most did not mention the lack of cultural inclusion as a study limitation (n = 169, 80.1%). All research articles (n = 386) were coded to examine if suggestions for future research endeavors included cultural groups: the vast majority (n = 331, 71.6%) did not.

DISCUSSION
The present study is the first to examine the incorporation of culture within forensic psychology research, utilizing a thorough and extensive list of cultural identities and groups. This study sought to examine the prevalence of cultural variables and varying approaches to their inclusion within forensic psychology research. Further, this study extends previous work by not only identifying the proportion of multiculturally-focused research articles in major forensic psychology journals, but also by examining methodological and data analytic techniques used in cultural research within the field. The primary aims of this study served a broader purpose, which was to create an opportunity to reflect on strengths within the field, as well as to highlight areas for growth and continued development.

Strengths within Forensic Psychology
The vast majority of articles (96%) within the sample included at least one cultural variable. Cultural variables were more prevalent in the introduction section of publications where content generally focuses on reviewing existing literature, covering pertinent information from other data sources (e.g., census data), and summarizing past research findings. Results indicate that cultural variables appear most often within descriptions of study samples, with such descriptions referencing at least one cultural variable 98% of the time.
The inclusion rate for cultural variables within sample demographics in the current study appears to represent an increase compared to findings of previous studies. For example, Carter and Forsyth (2007) found that only 43% of articles in their sample identified the race/ethnicity of participants, compared to 54.5% in the present study. Furthermore, in the present study, almost half of all articles were classified as multiculturally-focused. Previous research has examined the extent to which culture, specifically race/ethnicity, has been examined in-depth within forensic psychology research and found lower rates than the current study. Padilla and colleagues (2008) found Hispanics were only discussed as the variable of interest in 5.6% of articles, compared to rates of 44% across theoretical/conceptual articles and 11% across research studies in the present study. Comparing the results of previous research to the current study reflect improvement in the incorporation of cultural variables within forensic psychology research. Additionally, across the entire sample of articles in the current study, a mean of three cultural groups were included per publication, indicating higher rates of cultural inclusion will likely be obtained when culture is examined from a broader lens using a more extensive list of cultural groups.
Altogether, these results reflect notable progress toward increased inclusion of culture within forensic psychology research.
Finally, the current study found a trend suggesting high rates of inclusion for certain cultural variables. The most prevalent cultural variables in forensic psychology articles were age/generation, gender identity, and race/ethnicity. These variables were commonly included in both types of articles and their incorporation could be seen throughout various sections of articles, from the title and aims to suggestions for future lines of research. Such cultural variables as age, gender, and racial/ethnic minority groups have important impact within forensic psychology. For example, extensive research shows Black American adults are incarcerated at significantly higher rates than White Americans (Bobo & Thompson, 2006) and are disproportionately more likely to received harsher punishments, such as the death penalty (Baldus, Woodworth, Zuckerman, Weiner, & Brofitt, 1998). Moreover, Black adolescent offenders who are transferred to adult court for trial and sentencing, receive significantly more punitive sentences than their White counterparts (Eberhardt, Davies, Purdie-Vaughns, & Johnson, 2006). Additionally, gender identity groups such as transgender individuals, face unique challenges and discrimination within the criminal justice and legal systems (James et al., 2016). Transgender women, especially women of color, frequently report being profiled by police as suspected sex workers ("walking while transgender;" Ritchie, 2017). Additionally, transgender and nonbinary individuals also may be housed in shelters or correctional facilities that do not match their gender identities, leaving them vulnerable to assault (Spade, 2006).
Rates of purposive sampling found in the current study may help explain higher rates of cultural inclusion for some variables. For example, age/generation was one of the most frequently incorporated cultural variables and when included in participant samples, had one of the highest rates of purposive selection. Similarly, the cultural variable of ability status (88.9%) had relatively high rates of purposive sampling compared to other cultural variables included in sample demographics. This is a promising finding given literature highlighting the relevance of these cultural groups within psychology and law. Individuals with serious mental illness are classified as having a psychiatric disability and are overrepresented in the U.S.
criminal justice system (Prins, 2014). Further, their contact with the criminal justice systems can intensify social marginalization and fuel stigmatization, exacerbating chronic incapacitation well beyond the effects of mental illness (Drucker, 2011;Prins, 2014).
A final example of the effects of purposive sampling can be seen for the cultural variable of language. Notably in the current study, language (4.5%) was one of the least incorporated cultural variables, yet it had one of the highest rates of purposive sampling (75% Problems, 2012). These results provide evidence that researchers' inclusion of cultural variables in articles can reflect their overall or primary study objectives, rather than occurring by mere happenstance.
Overall, the routine inclusion of these cultural variables, such as age and gender identity, may be due to increased awareness of the prevalence and relevance of specific cultural groups prominent in forensic psychology. The frequent and growing inclusion of these cultural variables is a hopeful sign that other important cultural variables will also be included more often in future research. Further, a notable proportion of forensic psychology articles incorporated culture, thereby suggesting growth in research addressing culture over the past few decades. Given the centrality of cultural factors in the psychology-law interface, such promising results and trends bode well for the field. These positive outcomes serve to reinforce efforts to further advance the quality and quantity of forensic psychology cultural research.

Areas for Growth
Positive health symptoms, and past trauma, which have been found to be associated with increased contact, as well as length of involvement, with the juvenile justice system (Maschi, Hatcher, Schwalbe, & Rosato 2008).
The current study also found differences in rates of inclusion by type of article, suggesting that some cultural variables may be viewed as more relevant in certain areas of scholarly works than in other areas. More specifically, only a small percentage of theoretical or review papers were classified as multiculturally-focused.
Additionally, findings suggest that cultural variables such as ability status and socioeconomic status had notably higher rates of inclusion in theoretical and review articles than in research articles. Conversely, research articles were more likely to include age, gender, and race/ethnicity compared to theoretical or review articles.
Inclusion of cultural variables in both types of articles is critical for the advancement of cultural research in forensic psychology. Theoretical or conceptual articles generally reference abstract principles rooted in science, in order to develop a new theory or framework, or to explore theories in innovative ways. Further, the current study found high rates of convenience sampling for most cultural variables included in sample demographics. Similarly, results indicate a notable discrepancy between the cultural group identified as the primary focus of the study (i.e., captured in the title or hypotheses) and their representation in sample demographics. For example, even when children and adolescents were described as the intended focus, the respective studies often had lower rates of inclusion in participant samples compared to other sociocultural identities within age, such as adults or university students. Altogether, results such as these suggest that higher rates of cultural inclusion may be due to convenient access to this cultural data, rather than an intentional focus on a cultural group.
Another important area of growth is research addressing the overrepresentation of majority groups within cultural variables frequently incorporated into articles.
Results showed that for many cultural groups the inclusion of minority group members was lower than majority groups. Examples include the observed higher rates of inclusion for adults compared to older adults, for men and women with almost no articles including other gender identities (e.g., transgender, gender non-conforming, non-binary), and for White rather than other racial/ethnic or indigenous heritage minority groups such as Native populations. Although the incorporation of cultural variables in general is critical for forensic psychology research, the beliefs, attitudes, and values that would influence or interact with outcomes of interest in the field, are inherent in minority cultural groups.
Finally, an additional area of need is to increase the incorporation of cultural variables in the discussion section of articles. Most articles in the current study did not include cultural variables when addressing limitations or suggesting lines of future were not due to chance and would provide quantitative values (e.g., p values or effect sizes) that could speak to the magnitude of differences between observed frequencies for cultural variables.
Another study limitation was the selective focus on prevalence rates for cultural variables in research studies, without coding the quality of cultural inclusion.
Carter and Forsyth (2007) employed a classification system designed to capture the quality of cultural inclusion (e.g., cultural-deprivation vs. race-based) in articles.
Additionally, the present study did not examine intersectionality of cultural identities within articles. This level of in-depth assessment was not feasible for the current study given such factors as limitations in resources and the need to restrict the scope of the undertaking. However, future research aimed at examining the quality of cultural research for a diverse list of intersecting cultural groups would be an important contribution.

Potential Implications
Despite these limitations, study outcomes have important potential implications for improving the incorporation of culture within forensic psychology research. Notably, the current study underscores the critical need for intentional inclusion of culture in order to promote the generation of cultural research within the field. It can be highly beneficial to make intentional decisions at the outset of designing a research study or when considering the purpose of an article.
Psychological research seeks to describe, explain, or predict psychological phenomena through implementation of the scientific method, in an effort to approximate truth as closely as possible. Such efforts are often intended with the ultimate goal of utilizing enhanced knowledge to create evidence based strategies or approaches that solve problems and in turn, improves lives (Cacioppo et al., 2004;van der Vijver & Matsumoto, 2010).
Many posit that it is impossible to understand psychological processes and phenomena without considering the cultural backgrounds and influences in which they are embedded (Grossman & Ng, 2013;Shweder & Borne, 1984). Such a viewpoint speaks to the notion that good cultural research is good science. In psychology, good science is produced by competent research methodology that aligns with the scientific method and delineates specific steps followed in the research protocol. One of those critical steps is creating a clear definition for a variable or topic of interest, as it supports strong methodology and ensures the reproducibility of the results (Cacioppo et al., 2004). Therefore, quality cultural research is that which explicitly details the  (Hancock, 2007;Helms et al., 2005;Rouhani, 2014). As evidenced in the current study, culture is predominantly captured within sample demographics.
However, demographic data collection is typically not theoretically based.
Instead the vast majority of research collects data for demographic variables using conceptualizations based on government census data (Hancock, 2007). Census data are intended to count and quantify representation in various sociocultural groups.
When census data are reported, it is strictly relegated to reporting frequencies and percentages meant to place sociocultural groups in nominal, ordinal, or frequency order (APA, 2017). Census data were not designed for the purposes of examining, understanding, or inferring complex inner cultural workings. Accordingly, the aim was not to create items or variables that would capture, reflect, or incorporate meaningful cultural facets or aspects. The concern is that this approach can result in researchers using the concept of culture (i.e., sociodemographic groups) within their research rather than studying cultural aspects or dynamics (James, 2001). This is especially important for studies aimed at studying and understanding culture. When demographic variables are used as proxies for culture, it suggests that single categories provide broad or even all-encompassing explanations for relationships between culture and a psychological construct. This approach can limit our understanding human behavior and impedes efforts that help elucidate the complex ways in which individuals experience life (James, 2001;McCall, 2005).
Moving toward studying culture from a dynamic viewpoint is critical for the field as other disciplines within psychology have made concerted efforts to advance the state of cultural research. For example, other areas of psychological research such as feminist, counseling, and cultural psychology have called for cultural research to move away from using sociocultural demographic variables to study culture (Helms, Jernigan, Mascher, 2005;Hancock, 2007;Smedley & Smedley, 2005). These fields have cited the critical need to instead use cultural constructs (e.g., perceived oppression; racial/ethnic identity) and to increase the use of intersectional research methods and analytic approaches (Hancock, 2007;James, 2001). They posit that concepts related to cultural values, customs, beliefs, and attitudes have more inherent meaning than categorical labels used for sociocultural groups (Helms et al., 2005;Phinney, 1996). This approach calls for shifting away from using categories as independent variables, towards identifying the underlying concepts related to these cultural groups. Cultural constructs could be identity attitudes, levels of racism, gender roles, stereotype threat, or perceived discrimination.
Additionally, across all disciplines, psychologists are encouraged to consider the intersecting cultural contexts that contribute to an individual's diverse identities (APA, 2017). Intersectionality incorporates the multiple contextscultural, structural, sociobiological, economic, and socialthat shape individuals. For many individuals, the social groups they belong to have inherent structural inequalities, resulting in marginalized identities that experience oppression, prejudice, and discrimination (APA, 2017;Crenshaw, 1991). Conversely, cultural identities also have majority groups within social categories that will afford experiences of privilege (e.g., White men). Intersectionality as an approach aims to capture the extensive within-in group differences in identities that can be found in both majority and minority group members, and argues the importance of considering the multiple, interacting and intersecting social and cultural identities within a single individual. Generating cultural research from the framework of intersectionality can advance the state of research within forensic psychology and elucidate the role and influence of culture on key concepts related to psychology and law.
There is a unique opportunity for the field to consider the above implications to increase the quantity and quality of cultural research within forensic psychology.
Intentional decisions to include cultural groups and constructs as the primary interest of an article will increase the prevalence of cultural research significantly. Further, incorporation of culture throughout an article signifies the importance of these cultural topics and may create a long-standing trend to routinely address multicultural considerations. Such efforts would likely enhance the quality of cultural research from mere minimal inclusion toward in-depth examination.

Practical Applications and Future Directions
The findings of the current study highlight a number of practical applications that could facilitate the continued growth of cultural research in forensic psychology.

CONCLUSION
It is hoped the present study serves as a call to action for the field of forensic psychology. The current findings have identified a number of areas for improvement of cultural research within forensic psychology; mainly, that the field needs to better incorporate culture into all aspects of its research. Identifying potential areas for improvement should not be viewed as a negative agenda. Rather, it is meant to invigorate researchers, and to highlight the importance of focusing significant efforts and energy into contributing sound cultural methodological research within forensic psychology. This study generated both positive outcomes but also areas of concern, and it is hoped that in particular, identifying areas requiring attention will challenge the field to grow, adapt, and develop in its approach to conducting cultural research.
When the population we serve is predominantly diverse, our research must reflect that diversity in the groups studied, the methods implemented, the analyses utilized, and the future generation of culturally-driven research questions.