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The Hoffman Report (APA "Independent Review") For the last decade, the American Psychological Association (APA) has been discussing and promulgating policies related to the work of psychologists engaged in national security activities, particularly those providing support for the interrogation of detainees. The first of those policies, issued as the Psychological Ethics and National Security (PENS) Report in 2005, provided guidance to psychologists in order to help assure safe, legal, ethical and effective interrogation of detainees. Despite the work of the PENS Task Force (which developed the report), the involvement of psychologists in interrogation activities has remained controversial. Literally from the moment the PENS report was issued, critics who felt that psychologists should not participate in interrogation or other national security related activities began to attack the report and the guidance it provided. Some critics alleged that the work done by the original PENS Task Force represented an inappropriate quid pro quo relationship between the APA and the Bush Administration’s Department of Defense. Initially, the APA leadership strongly denied this allegation and defended the PENS Report and its recommendations to psychologists working in the field. Eventually, however, the APA yielded to the pressure of outside critics and commissioned a post-hoc review of the work of the PENS Task Force and subsequent actions undertaken by APA staff and governance related to the policies that flowed from it. David Hoffman, a lawyer from the Chicago law firm of Sidley and Austin, was hired to conduct the review. As a result of the Hoffman report, the APA Council of Representatives, in August 2015, enacted a policy to prohibit APA member psychologists from practicing in certain interrogation related settings. Although the impact of this report and policy on psychologists who work in areas where interrogations are conducted remains unclear, there are those who believe that not only will the applied work of psychologists in interrogation related settings be negatively affected, but practice in more general applied areas such as police psychology, forensic psychology, operational psychology and even organizational psychology are now threatened as well. Posted on this website are the Hoffman Report, several documents related to it, and materials raising questions and concerns about the review process undertaken by APA which led to the Hoffman report, as well as concerns about how the APA’s “special committee” handled the report and its aftermath.
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