Psychological Evaluations for the Courts, Fifth Edition

This definitive text and practitioner resource--now in a revised and updated fifth edition reflecting significant developments in the field--comprehensively reviews the legal issues that mental health professionals are most frequently asked to address. The volume demystifies the forensic psychological assessment process and provides guidelines for participating effectively and ethically in legal proceedings. It describes and analyzes legal and clinical concepts and evidence-based assessment procedures pertaining to evaluations of criminal and civil competencies; mental state defenses; sentencing; civil commitment; workers' compensation and mental injury claims; federal education, Social Security, immigration and antidiscrimination laws; child welfare and custody decisions; juvenile justice; and other contexts. Case examples, exercises, and a glossary of legal and clinical terms facilitate learning; 19 sample reports with commentary illustrate how to write up thorough, legally admissible evaluations.

New to This Edition

• Updated empirical research on competency, interrogation practices, risk assessment, the effects of divorce on children, neurological and developmental science, and more.
• Recent court rulings, evidentiary rules, and regulatory shifts.
• Increased attention to race, culture, and culturally competent practice.
• New topics: the rise of remote evaluations, debates over recording evaluations, the trend toward privatization of forensic services, the use of social media data in investigations, implications of artificial intelligence for forensic practice, the “competency crisis,†substance abuse commitment, the Relevancy-Focused report format (including a new sample report), and more.
  

Christopher Slobogin, JD, LLM, is the Milton Underwood Chair in Law and an affiliate Professor of Psychiatry at Vanderbilt University Law School. He is the first and only law professor to receive Distinguished Contribution Awards from both the American Psychology–Law Society and the American Academy of Forensic Psychology. Professor Slobogin has published over 200 works on mental health law and criminal justice, and is currently one of the five most cited criminal law professors in the country. He served as chair of the task force revising the Criminal Justice Mental Health Standards of the American Bar Association (ABA) and as the Reporter for the ABA’s Task Force on Mental Disability and the Death Penalty and its Task Force on Criminal Responsibility.

Randy K. Otto, PhD, MLS, ABPP, is Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, where he serves as Chair of the Division of Forensic Behavioral Sciences. Board certified in clinical and forensic psychology, Dr. Otto has served as president of the American Psychology–Law Society, the American Board of Forensic Psychology, and the American Board of Professional Psychology. His contributions to forensic psychological assessment have been recognized with lifetime achievement awards from the American Academy of Forensic Psychology, the American Psychology–Law Society, and the forensic division of the New York State Psychological Association.

John Petrila, JD, LLM, is Senior Policy Advisor at Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute. Previously, he was Chair and Professor of Health Policy and Management at the University of South Florida College of Public Health. He is a recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship and of the University of South Florida President’s Faculty Excellence Award. Mr. Petrila’s research interests include the diversion of people with mental illnesses from the justice system, coercion, and strategies to reduce recidivism of heavy users of the treatment and justice systems. He is also a national expert on information sharing. Recent papers focus on emergency hospitalizations of people with mental illnesses, national review of emergency civil commitment legislation, the current status of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and use of the sequential intercept model as a tool for enhancing information sharing across the justice and behavioral health systems.

Lois O. Condie, PhD, ABPP, is affiliated with the Department of Neurology at Boston Children’s Hospital and is Assistant Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Condie is board certified in neuropsychology, clinical psychology, and forensic psychology. She has received citations and awards from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the Social Security Administration, the American Board of Forensic Psychology, the American Academy of Forensic Psychology, and the American Board of Professional Psychology. Her research focuses on assessments and entitlement legislation for children with neurodevelopmental and other disorders, services for vulnerable populations internationally, psychological and legal conceptions of privacy, and ethics and standards of practice.