Increasing numbers of people with autism and other developmental disabilities are being convicted of sex offences, resulting in draconian and public punishment. Yet even when evidence shows that people with these conditions often pose little threat to society, or lack a core understanding as to why their actions break the law, the "sex offender legal regime" doesn't allow any room to take the disability into account.This ground-breaking book offers a multi-disciplinary examination ...

The metaphor of the monster or predator—usually a sexual predator, drug dealer in areas frequented by children, or psychopathic murderer—is a powerful framing device in public discourse about how the criminal justice system should respond to serious violent crimes. The cultural history of the monster reveals significant features of the metaphor that raise questions about the extent to which justice can be achieved in both the punishment of what are regarded as "monstrous crimes" and the tr...

"This book brilliantly tracks the reformulations of public discourse about sex offenders . . . [with] a rigorous examination of incarceration patterns." —Jonathan Simon, author of Governing Through CrimeFrom Megan's Law to Jessica's Law, almost every state in the nation has passed some law to punish sex offenders. This popular tough-on-crime legislation is often written after highly-publicized cases have made the gruesome rounds through the media, and usua...

New York Times bestselling author Sam Harris’s first book, The End of Faith, ignited a worldwide debate about the validity of religion. In the aftermath, Harris discovered that most people—from religious fundamentalists to non-believing scientists—agree on one point: science has nothing to say on the subject of human values. Indeed, our failure to address questions of meaning and morality through science has now become the primary justification for religious faith...

**In this landmark work, a preeminent scholar establishes a revolutionary model for understanding and treating trauma survivors“One of the most important psychiatric works to be published since Freud.” ―New York Times**Trauma and Recovery is the foundational text on understanding trauma survivors. By placing individual experience in a political frame, psychiatrist Judith L. Herman argues that psychological trauma is inseparable from its social and politica...

Praise for Forensic Psychology and Law"In Forensic Psychology and Law, three internationally known experts provide exceptional coverage of a wide array of topics that address both the clinical applications of forensic psychology and the role of psychological science in understanding and evaluating legal assumptions and processes."—Norman Poythress, PhD, Research Director and Professor, Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institu...

How does the situation we're in influence the way we behave and think? Professors Ross and Nisbett eloquently argue that the context we find ourselves in substantially affects our behavior in this timely reissue of one of social psychology's classic textbooks.

Most mental health professionals and behavioral scientists enter the field with a strong desire to help others, but clinical practice and research endeavors often involve decision-making in the context of ethical ambiguity. Good intentions are important, but unfortunately, they do not always protect the practitioner and client from breaches in ethical conduct. Academics, researchers, and students also face a range of ethical challenges from the classroom to the laboratory. Now in a new exp...

Introduction to Forensic Psychology, Third Edition, has been completely restructured to explain in greater detail how courses on forensic psychology are taught, making it more applicable as a textbook than previous editions. It also features more figures, tables and text boxes, making it a true textbook. What this book has that others do not is equal representation of criminal behavior, the court systems, and law enforcement/prisons. It also has equal representation of criminal and civil f...

Lie detection, offender profiling, jury selection, insanity in the law, predicting the risk of re-offending , the minds of serial killers and many other topics that fill news and fiction are all aspects of the rapidly developing area of scientific psychology broadly known as Forensic Psychology. Forensic Psychology: A Very Short Introduction discusses all the aspects of psychology that are relevant to the legal and criminal process as a whole. It includes explanations of ...

The written report is central to the practice of psychiatry in legal settings. It is required of mental health professionals acting as expert witnesses in criminal cases, civil litigation situations, child custody proceedings and risk assessments. This book provides a theoretical background to psychiatric writing for the law and a practical guide to the preparation of the report. The first section addresses practical and ethical concerns, including the conduct of the forensic psychiatric e...

Children are the most criminally victimized segment of the population, and a substantial number face multiple, serious "poly-victimizations" during a single year. And despite the fact that the priority emphasis in academic research and government policy has traditionally gone to studying juvenile delinquents, children actually appear before authorities more frequently as victims than as offenders. But at the same time, the media and many advocates have failed to note the good news: rates o...