PSYC 4300 - Intro to Forensic Psychology (Parsonson)

Forensic psychiatry and psychology involve specialized practice with unique patients, including children, the incarcerated, and involuntary clients, presenting practitioners with specific ethics challenges. Griffith provides a roadmap for specialists in these evolving fields to recognize dilemmas, articulate problems, and create solutions.

Major developments in the field since the publication of Learning Forensic Assessment are integrated in this revised edition, including revised editions of the DSM-5, HCR-20 scale, and child custody guidelines. This textbook is designed for graduate students learning forensic assessment and psychologists coming to forensic practice later in their careers. It is organized around five broad areas: Professional and Practice Issues, Adult Forensic Assessment, Juvenile Forensic Assessment, Civil Forensic Assessment, and Communicating Your Findings. Each chapter begins with a strong teaching and learning foundation. The latter part of each chapter is assessment specific, covering available assessment measures and approaches to assessment. The authors go well beyond simple descriptions of assessment measures and provide a conceptual discussion of the evaluation process that helps the reader understand how assessment measures fit into the overall evaluation process. The evaluation component is geared toward assessing the important aspects of the construct as laid out in the early part of each chapter. Each chapter then concludes with a case example to illustrate the measures and techniques described.

For a myriad of reasons the criminal justice system has become the de facto mental health system. This book explores how and why this is the case. Sensationalized cases often drive criminal justice policies that can sometimes be impulsively enacted and misguided. While there are chapters that examine competency, insanity, and inpatient and outpatient commitment, the primary focus of the book is on the bulk of encounters that clog the criminal justice system with persons with mental illnesses (pwmi). Criminal justice practitioners are often ill-equipped for dealing with pwmi in crises. However, via application of therapeutic jurisprudence principles some agencies are better preparing their employees for such encounters and attempting to stop the inhumane and costly recycling of pwmi through the criminal justice system. Coverage runs the gamut from deinstitutionalization, to specialized law enforcement responses, to mental health courts, to jails and prisons, to discharge planning, diversion, and reentry. Also, criminal justice pratitioners in their own words provide insight into and examples of the interface between the mental health and criminal justice systems. Throughout the book the balance between maintainign public safety and preserving civil liberties is examined as the state's police power and parens patriae roles are considered. Reasoned, collaborative approaches for influencing and informing policies that are often driven by crises are discusses; this book also reflects more psychological underpinnings than the 1st edition, as one of the co-authors new to this edition is a forensic clinical psychologist.

This comprehensive volume summarizes the contemporary evidence base for offender assessment and rehabilitation, evaluating commonly used assessment frameworks and intervention strategies in a complete guide to best practice when working with a variety of offenders. Presents an up-to-date  review of 'what works' in offer assessment and rehabilitation, along with discussion of contemporary attitudes and translating theory into practice Includes assessment and treatment for different offender types across a range of settings Internationally renowned contributors include James McGuire, James Bonta, Clive Hollin, Anthony Beech, Tony Ward, William Lindsay, Karl Hanson, Ray Novaco and William Marshall