Review
"Psychological Evaluation for the Courts is a splendid resource for mental health professionals who come into contact with the legal system. Relevant law is presented concisely, and its application illustrated with thorough reviews of empirical research. Clinicians are guided carefully through the essentials of the evaluation process. This second edition is even more comprehensive than its excellent predecessor. It is an indispensable aid for all forensic evaluators, and an indispensable tool for students in forensic training programs from the undergraduate to the postgraduate levels." --Paul Appelbaum, MD, Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical Center
"This is a brilliant synthesis of law, policy, theory, practical wisdom, and clinical knowledge, integrated in such a way as to make this book absolutely essential reading for any forensic evaluator or examiner working today. It is a tour de force of law and the behavioral sciences, and will set the standard against which other efforts in this area will be assessed for the indefinite future. The authors' treatment of the insanity defense is, simply, the best that I have ever seen in this type of context." --Michael Perlin, JD, Professor of Law, The New York Law School
"This is a brilliant synthesis of law, policy, theory, practical wisdom, and clinical knowledge, integrated in such a way as to make this book absolutely essential reading for any professor of, or student in, forensic mental health law. It is a tour de force of law and the behavioral sciences, and will set the standard against which other efforts in this area will be assessed for the indefinite future. The authors' treatment of the insanity defense is, simply, the best that I have ever seen in this type of context." --Michael Perlin, JD, Professor of Law, The New York Law School
"With this fresh edition, Melton, Petrila, Pythress, and Slobogin have made another landmark contribution to forensic practice. Comprehensive in legal coverage and rigorously empirical in analytic approach, this lucidly written book is packed with astute suggestions for conducting clinical assessments. Any psychologist or psychiatrist who gets on the witness stand without carefully having read Psychological Evaluations for the Courts, Second Edition should be committed as 'dangerous to self.' This is an immensely impressive work, one of the few in the field that deserve to be called authoritative." --John Monahan, PhD, Doherty Professor of Law, Professor of Psychology and Legal Medicine, University of Virginia
About the Author
Gary B. Melton, PhD, is Director of the Institute for Families in Society, Professor of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Science, and Adjunct Professor of Law, Pediatrics, and Psychology at the University of South Carolina.
John Petrila, JD, LLM, is Professor and Chair, Department of Mental Health Law and Policy, Florida Mental Health Institute, at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
Norman G. Poythress, PhD, is Professor and Research Director, Department of Mental Health Law and Policy, Florida Mental Health Institute, at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
Christopher Slobogin, JD, LLM, is Professor, Alumni Research Scholar, and Associate Dean of Law at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
I. General Considerations
1. Law and the Mental Health Professions: an Uneasy Alliance
2. An Overview of the Legal System: Sources of Law, the Court System, and the Adjudicative Process
3. The Nature and Method of Forensic Assessment
4. Constitutional, Common-law, and Ethical Contours of the Evaluation Process: the Mental Health Professional as Double Agent
5. Managing Public and Private Forensic Services
II. The Criminal Process
6. Competency to Stand Trial
7. Other Competencies in the Criminal Process
8. Mental State at the Time of the Offense
9. Sentencing
III. Non-criminal Adjudication
10. Civil Commitment
11. Civil Competencies
12. Compensating Mental Injuries: Workers' Compensation and Torts
13. Federal Anti-Discrimination and Entitlement Laws
IV. Children and Families
14. Juvenile Delinquency
15. Child Abuse and Neglect
16. Child Custody in Divorce
17. Education and Habilitation
V. Communicating with the Courts
18. Consultation, Report Writing, and Expert Testimony
19. Sample Reports
20. Glossary
