Behaviour, Crime and Legal Processes: A Guide for Forensic Practitioners

The application of psychological principles to research and practice in crime prevention, detection, legal processes and offender treatment is a feature of the growing number of advanced undergraduate courses and graduate courses, and professional training programmes. This book reflects the need to provide an overview of psychological knowledge and its forensic applications and implications, to psychology students and its forensic applications and implications, to psychology students and to related professional disciplines such as psychiatry, nursing, policing, law, prison work and probation.
The Editors are very well known academics and clinicians. The chapters are written by contributors who are recognised leaders in their own fields, and they have provided accessible accounts of the applications and implications of behavioural sciences for their peers, and for professionals and students in other disciplines. Multi–professional case work and innovative approaches to crime and offenders are being supported by research, by poicy and by legislation. There is a growing need to provide a wide range of professionals with a common framework and knowledge base to aid their shared understanding of crime and offenders, and of related interventions.
" Behaviour, Crime and Legal Processes will be of great interest to psychologists, psychiatrists, lawyers and others concerned with understanding and treating offenders. The book is readable, scholarly and wide–ranging, covering legal issues, psychology and the police, witness evidence, decision–making in court, criminological theories, risk assessment and the treatment of mentally disordered and sex offenders." – Professor David Farrington, Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, UK

About the Editors.

About the Contributors.

Foreword by Dilys Jones.

Preface.

PART I: BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES AND LEGAL PROCESSES.

Behavioural Sciences Applied to Forensic and Legal Contexts (J. McGuire, et al.).

The Legal Context: Obstacle or Opportunity? (D. Carson).

Psychology and Police Investigation (P. Ainsworth).

Factors Influencing Witness Evidence (A. Memon & D. Wright).

Psycho–legal Studies as an Interface Discipline (N. Eastman).

Decision–Making in Legal Settings (J. McEwan).

PART II: RESEARCH AND PRACTICE.

Explanations of Offence Behaviour (J. McGuire).

Psychosis and Offending (A. O′Kane & R. Bentall).

Risk Assessment and Prediction (R. Blackburn).

Systems of Services (D. Heywood).

Care and Management in the Community (T. Mason).

Treatment of Sexual Deviation and Aggression (J. Hird).

Treatment Approaches with Mentally Disordered Offenders (A. Grounds).

Effective Interventions, Service and Policy Implications (J. McGuire, et al.).

Index.

"..there is a lot to recommend in this book.." (Legal & Criminological Psychotherapy, February 2002)