When the Supreme Court agrees to decide a case, the litigants make an (usually one-hour) oral presentation to the Court. In all the steps in the Court's decision, this is the only public part. As such, it provides an important window into the Court's decision-making processes. Using original transcripts from the last 8 sessions of the Supreme Court, Wrightsman's empirical research is the first of its kind. The purpose of this book is to examine how the oral arguments work, and their effect on the Court's decisions. It also draws the important distinction between ideological cases (i.e. hot-button issues such as the death penalty, affirmative action, abortion, and the environment) and non-ideological cases (bankruptcy, tax code, civil litigation), and shows the different ways in which they're treated.

This open access book provides insights into the everyday lives of long-term prisoners in Switzerland who are labelled as 'dangerous' and are preventatively held in indefinite, probably lifelong, incarceration. It explores prisoners' manifold ways of inhabiting the prison which can be used to challenge well established notions about the experience of imprisonment, such as 'adaptation', 'coping', and 'resistance'. Drawing on ethnographic data generated in two high-security prisons housing male offenders, this book explores how the various spaces of the prison affect prisoners' sense of self and experience of time, and how, in particular, the indeterminate nature of their imprisonment affects their perceptions of place and space. It sheds light on prisoners' subjective, emplaced and embodied perceptions of the prisons' various everyday time-spaces in the cell, at work, and during leisure time, and the forms of agency they express. It provides insight into prisoners' everyday habits, practices, routines, and rhythms as well as the profoundly existential issues that are engendered, (re)arranged, and anchored in these everyday contexts. It also offers insights into the penal policies, norms, and practices developed and followed by prison authorities and staff.

This book is a timely re-introduction to the work and life of one of criminology's most respected theorists, Jack Katz, exploring the current relevance of this important author and highlighting his work to a broad audience. The scholarship of Jack Katz, as evidenced in his seminal Seductions of Crime and otherwise, has over the past three decades offered an alternative philosophical perspective to the study of crime and criminal behavior that is not defined by quantitative method or approach. Katz has radically altered the focus and range of contemporary criminology in a way that few if any other scholars have done and his work been foundational in the development of cultural criminology, itself now a high-profile alternative criminological perspective. Through a diverse range of chapters from recognized authors in the field - including a major new interview with Jack Katz himself, in which he describes the development of his ideas, work, and growth as a researcher - contributions take up aspects of his work from a variety of perspectives and discuss and expand its contemporary relevance to the discipline of criminology. This book will appeal to postgraduate students and scholars in the areas of criminology, cultural criminology, critical criminology, phenomenology, and sociology.

From a barrage of photons, we readily and effortlessly recognize the faces of our friends, and the familiar objects and scenes around us. However, these tasks cannot be simple for our visual systems--faces are all extremely similar as visual patterns, and objects look quite different when viewed from different viewpoints. How do our visual systems solve these problems? The contributors to this volume seek to answer this question by exploring how analytic and holistic processes contribute to our perception of faces, objects, and scenes. The role of parts and wholes in perception has been studied for a century, beginning with the debate between Structuralists, who championed the role of elements, and Gestalt psychologists, who argued that the whole was different from the sum of its parts. This is the first volume to focus on the current state of the debate on parts versus wholes as it exists in the field of visual perception by bringing together the views of the leading researchers. Too frequently, researchers work in only one domain, so they are unaware of the ways in which holistic and analytic processing are defined in different areas. The contributors to this volume ask what analytic and holistic processes are like; whether they contribute differently to the perception of faces, objects, and scenes; whether different cognitive and neural mechanisms code holistic and analytic information; whether a single, universal system can be sufficient for visual-information processing, and whether our subjective experience of holistic perception might be nothing more than a compelling illusion. The result is a snapshot of the current thinking on how the processing of wholes and parts contributesto our remarkable ability to recognize faces, objects, and scenes, and an illustration of the diverse conceptions of analytic and holistic processing that currently coexist, and the variety of approaches that have been brought to bear on the issues.

This book addresses and reviews progress in a major innovative development within police work known as evidence-based policing. It involves a significant extension and strengthening of links between research and practice and is directed to the task of increasing police effectiveness in the field of community crime prevention. This volume provides an international perspective that synthesizes recent research results from the United States and other countries - including systematic reviews of large bodies of evidence - to illuminate several of the most challenging issues currently confronting police departments. It examines recent advances in research-based models of policing and the expanding base in outcome evaluation. Key areas of coverage include: Managing the nighttime economy. Supervising sex offenders. Tackling domestic/intimate partner violence. Addressing school violence and the formation of gangs. Reducing victim and witness retraction and disengagement. Responding to mental disorders, safeguarding vulnerable adults, and providing victim support. Leveraging public awareness campaigns. In addition, each chapter presents an overview of key issues within a designated area, synthesizes existing reviews, and examines the most recent research. The book clearly and concisely presents major concepts, theories, and research findings, thereby providing both conceptual and analytic tools alongside an integrated presentation of principal findings and messages. The volume concludes with a discussion of current directions in research, key developments in policing strategies, and identification of effective operational structures for facilitating and sustaining research-practice links. Evidence-Based Policing and Community Crime Prevention is a must-have resource for researchers, clinicians and other professionals, and graduate students in forensic psychology, criminology and criminal justice, public health, developmental psychology, psychotherapy and counseling, psychiatry, social work, educational policy and politics, health psychology, nursing, and behavioral therapy/rehabilitation.

This book analyses the experiences of prisoners in England & Wales sentenced when relatively young to very long life sentences (with minimum terms of fifteen years or more). Based on a major study, including almost 150 interviews with men and women at various sentence stages and over 300 surveys, it explores the ways in which long-term prisoners respond to their convictions, adapt to the various challenges that they encounter and re-construct their lives within and beyond the prison. Focussing on such matters as personal identity, relationships with family and friends, and the management of time, the book argues that long-term imprisonment entails a profound confrontation with the self. It provides detailed insight into how such prisoners deal with the everyday burdens of their situation, feelings of injustice, anger and shame, and the need to find some sense of hope, control and meaning in their lives. In doing so, it exposes the nature and consequences of the life-changing terms of imprisonment that have become increasingly common in recent years.

Cybercrime is a growing problem in the modern world. Despite the many advantages of computers, they have spawned a number of crimes, such as hacking and virus writing, and made other crimes more prevalent and easier to commit, including music piracy, identity theft and child sex offences. Understanding the psychology behind these crimes helps to determine what motivates and characterises offenders and how such crimes can be prevented. This textbook on the psychology of the cybercriminal is the first written for undergraduate and postgraduate students of psychology, criminology, law, forensic science and computer science. It requires no specific background knowledge and covers legal issues, offenders, effects on victims, punishment and preventative measures for a wide range of cybercrimes. Introductory chapters on forensic psychology and the legal issues of cybercrime ease students into the subject, and many pedagogical features in the book and online provide support for the student.

Forensic psychology has mushroomed into a diverse and increasingly complex field that is equal parts law and psychology. Psychologists act as expert witnesses in legal cases - sometimes without knowing much about the laws involved, and legal professionals rely on the assessment of psychologists sometimes without knowing much about how such assessments are made.
The purpose of this handbook is to provide professionals with current, practical, and empirically based information to guide their work in forensic settings, or to better their understanding of the issues and debates in forensic psychology.
Divided into four sections, the Handbook of Forensic Psychology covers basic issues, assessment, mental disorders and forensic psychology, and special topics. The basic issue chapters present a primer on law for the psychologist, a primer on psychology for attorneys, an overview of ethical issues relevant to forensic psychology, and a chapter on forensic report writing. The assessment section discusses factors and measures relevant for assessing a variety of behaviors, propensities, and capabilities, including dangerousness, violence, suicide, competency, substance abuse, PTSD and neuropsychological evaluations, as well as discussing interviewing children and child custody evaluations. Additional chapters discuss eyewitness testimony, recovered memory, polygraphs, sexual harassment, juror selection, and issues of ethnicity in forensic psychology.

Juvenile offending and anti-social behaviour are enormous societal concerns. This broad-reaching volume summarizes the current evidence on prevention, diversion, causes, and rates of delinquency, as well as assessment of risk and intervention needs. A distinguished cast of contributors from law, psychology, and psychiatry describe what we know about interventions in school, community, and residential contexts, focusing particularly on interventions that are risk reducing and cost effective. Equally important, each chapter comments on what is not well supported through research, distinguishing aspects of current practice that are likely to be effective from those that are not and mapping new directions for research, policy, and practice. Finally, the volume provides a description of a model curriculum for training legal and mental health professionals on conducting relevant assessments of adolescents for the courts. Effectively bridging research and practice, this will be an important resource for legal and mental health professionals involved in the juvenile justice system, policy makers seeking humane but effective interventions in the context of society's need for safety, and those involved in teaching about and training in juvenile delinquency.

In "Developmental Theories of Crime and Delinquency," Terence P. Thornberry and his contributors show that criminal behavior is not a static human attribute, but ebbs and flows over the life course of the individual. Criminal behavior tends to follow a distinct psychological pattern. It is relatively uncommon during childhood, is initiated by most offenders during adolescence, flourishes during late adolescence and early childhood, and usually diminishes or disappears by the mid-twenties. This pattern is not characteristic of all people--some never commit crimes and others become career criminals--but it is a general description of the developmental pattern of criminal offenders. This pattern has profound implications for theories of crime and delinquency. Not only does it explain initiation into, maintenance of, and desistance from involvement in crime, it offers insight into why crime flourishes during adolescence. Traditional theories of crime and delinquency have often failed to distinguish among different phases of criminal careers. They tend to ignore developmental changes that occur across a person's life course, changes that coincide with and can explain the causes and patterns of criminal behavior. This paperback edition of the seventh volume of the distinguished series Advances in Criminological Theory moves us from static identifications of the criminal by presenting a broad range of developmental explanations of crime. Each contributor articulates a developmental or life course perspective in explaining how people become involved in delinquency and crime. Each covers a wide range of theoretical territory and reveals how a developmental perspective enhances the explanatory power of traditional theories of crime and delinquency. This volume is an invaluable tool for criminologists, sociologists, psychologists, and other professionals seeking to teach how crime and violence can be understood in our culture.

The literature on domestic violence will often treat homicide as its most extreme outcome. The reality is more nuanced, with many domestic homicides occurring within a history of abusive behaviour. This book offers a much-needed synthesis of the literature on domestic homicide, covering its history; the theories supporting it; its various forms such as filicide, intimate partner homicide, parricide, siblicide and familicide; and its prevention. The authors explore the predominant theories that have been used to explain domestic homicides in general, as well as specific subtypes of domestic homicide. Each chapter then takes a chronological approach in examining relationships between victim and perpetrator in the most prominent types of domestic homicide. Drawing on the empirical evidence, it offers a unique insight into the dynamics of domestic homicides, and debunks some of the common stereotypes surrounding it. The book concludes with an overview of the main areas of prevention of domestic homicide and offers recommendations for professionals working in domestic violence services, medical practitioners and mental health services. This book will be of interest to criminologists, psychiatrists, psychologists and sociologists alike, and will be key reading for a range of courses on violence, abuse and aggression.

"Forensic Reports & Testimony: A Guide to Effective Communication for Psychologists and Psychiatrists" provides a roadmap for the mental health professional who wants to provide consistently accurate, defensible, and useful reports and testimony to the legal system. Authors Randy K. Otto, Richart L. DeMier, and Marcus Boccaccini, recognized experts in the field, cover all aspects of the process, including preparing affidavits and reports, preparing for depositions, and testifying.

Every written or spoken communication for the courts must be clear and precise, and distinguish between facts, inferences, and opinions. This book uniquely:

-Shows the critical differences between forensic psychological reports and the clinical reports psychologists and psychiatrists are accustomed to writing

-Includes and explains important maxims of forensic report writing, including separating facts from inferences, focusing on offering expert opinions, explaining why you think what you think, and connecting the dots between facts and conclusions

-Provides numerous examples of experts' testimony, affidavits, reports-with commentary and critiques

Expert forensic work deserves to be presented in a clear, precise, and understandable way so that it is useful to attorneys, judges, and juries. "Forensic Reports & Testimony" provides the guidelines and models forensic psychologists and forensic psychiatrists need to make that happen.

This treatment program targets the criminal, behavioral, and mental health problems of inmates in segregated housing that prevents them from living prosocially and productively within the general prison population. The program makes use of a bi-adaptive psychoeducational and cognitive-behavioral treatment model to increase inmates' understanding about the psychological and criminal antecedents that contributed to their current placement, and to teach them the skills necessary for managing these problem areas. This flexible intervention assists inmates with significant problem behaviors by reducing psychological impairment and improving their ability to cope with prison life. This book includes a program introduction and guide for clinicians, the inmate workbook, and accompanying eResources to assist clinicians in both successful program implementation and evaluation of treatment outcomes. Designed to account for the safety and physical limitations that make the delivery of needed mental and behavioral health services difficult, this guide is essential reading for practitioners working with high-needs, high-risk inmate populations.

Taken from published reviews: "…Dr Blackburn has written a remarkably good book; indeed, the best book on the topic—from either side of the Atlantic—I have read. … the breadth of the author’s knowledge is nothing short of encyclopaedic. Not only psychology—developmental and social, as well as clinical—but also psychiatry, biology, philosophy, and law are addressed in this volume. Finally, the book is written with clarity, economy, and a lucid style. It is as inviting and user-friendly as any work of such complexity can be. … I hope that it will find its way into psychiatry residency training programmes as well. It could do wonders for replacing turf-battles with common ground." Criminal Behaviour & Mental Health "…The scholarly breadth and accuracy of this work are remarkable. There seems to be no important contribution to our psychological understanding of crime which Blackburn has omitted to discuss, including those approaches from sociological and social psychology which are frequently neglected in straightforward psychological treatments. Moreover, all approaches are intelligently and sympathetically discussed." Expert Evidence "…The volume is infused with the author’s enthusiasm for a social cognitive perspective on offending behaviour, but he also robustly defends the utility of the notion of personality traits. …Overall, this book brings together a vast array of research and theory examined from the perspective of the clinician involved with the individual. It will almost certainly become the key background text for post-graduate courses teaching forensic psychology and would be a valuable addition to the bookshelf of any clinician with forensic concerns." Clinical Psychology Forum "…This is undoubtedly an important book. …The end result is a book of excellent quality, which I recommend most warmly to clinical psychologists, and indeed, to anybody who is interested in ‘criminological psychology’." Behaviour Research and Therapy "…This author is to be congratulated for having produced this impressive volume. It provides a comprehensive review which is critical yet well-balanced. It assumes no prior familiarity with the field, and specialists from many different disciplines will learn a great deal from it." Criminal Law Review

This book includes a discussion of the propagation of forensic psychology as a field of specialization, professional preparation issues for training as a forensic psychologist, unique ethical concerns, and an authoritative discussion of issues in several prominent areas of forensic psychology practice.

Psychopathy is a personality disorder that has long captured the public imagination. Newspaper column inches have been devoted to murderers with psychopathic features, and we also encounter psychopaths in films and books. Individuals with psychopathy are characterised in particular by lack of empathy and guilt, manipulation of other people and, in the case of criminal psychopathy, premeditated violent behaviour. They are dangerous and can incur immeasurable emotional, psychological, physical, and financial costs to their victims and their families. Despite the public fascination with psychopathy, there is often a very limited understanding of the condition, and several myths about psychopathy abound. For example, people commonly assume that all psychopaths are sadistic serial killers or that all violent and antisocial individuals are psychopaths. Yet, research shows that most psychopaths are not serial killers, and, equally, there are plenty of antisocial and violent offenders who are not psychopaths. This Very Short Introduction gives an overview of how we can identify individuals with or at risk of developing psychopathy, and how they differ from other people who display antisocial behavior. Essi Viding also explores the latest genetic, neuroscience, and psychology evidence in order to illuminate why psychopaths behave and develop the way they do, and considers whether it is possible to prevent or even treat psychopathy. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

This brief explores the research on psychopaths in various settings and in everyday life. Psychopaths are often predatory by nature but may appear normal to laypersons. Individuals working in health professions, forensic occupations, education and corporate environments are likely to encounter a person with psychopathic traits at some point in their respective careers; this brief highlights the value of being able to identify a person with psychopathic traits, to understand the implications, and to navigate any interactions. With recommendations for assessment and for guiding future interactions, this brief will be beneficial to mental health professionals, practitioners and researchers in psychology, forensic occupations, corrections, education, healthcare, and professionals in corporate environments.

The second edition of Children s Testimony is a fully up-to-date resource for practitioners and researchers working in forensic contexts and concerned with children's ability to provide reliable testimony about abuse. * Written for both practitioners and researchers working in forensic contexts, including investigative interviewers, police officers, lawyers, judges, expert witnesses, and social workers * Explores a range of issues involved with children's testimony and their ability to provide reliable testimony about experienced or witnessed events, including abuse * Avoids jargon and highly technical language * Includes a comprehensive range of contributions from an international group of practitioners and researchers to ensure topicality and relevance

Traditional techniques for detecting deception, such as the 'lie-detector test' (or polygraph), are based upon the idea that lying is associated with stress. However, it is possible that people telling the truth will experience stress, whereas not all liars will. Because of this, the validity of such methods is questionable. As an alternative, a knowledge-based approach known as the 'Concealed Information Test' has been developed which investigates whether the examinee recognizes secret information - for example a crime suspect recognizing critical crime details that only the culprit could know. The Concealed Information Test has been supported by decades of research, and is used widely in Japan. This is the first book to focus on this exciting approach and will be of interest to law enforcement agencies and academics and professionals in psychology, criminology, policing and law.

This brief explores the current theories, trends, risk factors, and intervention efforts related to juvenile crime. Although arrest rates for juveniles in the US have declined over the last two decades, the amount of severe crimes warrants increased examination as the US reports higher rates than most other developed countries. The authors examine individual, family, and environmental risk and protective factors for juvenile crime, while considering the need for better integration of treatment into critically at-risk areas of the community. Covering notable topics of interest for researchers and public policy makers alike, this brief provides an overview of factors and trends related to juvenile crime, aiming to support more effective, evidence-based treatment and prevention.

This book analyses the conceptualization of psychopathic personality disorder for criminal/forensic populations and examines in depth the emerging phenomenon of the 'corporate psychopath'. In doing so its authors expose the paradoxical nature of the disorder: while it is frequently associated with antisocial, criminal and predatory behaviour, more recent studies have highlighted examples of creative, visionary and inspiring leaders who are also found to present a high degree of psychopathy. They focus on the nature, behaviours and consequences of psychopathy in executives and across the organization, offering an important contribution to the emerging body of research on psychopathy and other problematic personality constructs in the workplace. The book will appeal to scholars, students and professionals across the discipline, and particularly to those working in workplace, forensic and personality psychology.

This book brings together an international group of experts to present cutting-edge psychological research on crime, policing and courts. With contributors from the UK, Germany, Italy, Norway, Cyprus, Israel, Canada and the USA, this volume explores some of the most interesting and contemporary areas of criminological and legal psychology. The Psychology of Crime, Policing and Courts is divided into three parts. Part I explores crime and anti-social behaviour, including the concentration of offending within families, juvenile delinquency, adolescent bullying, cyberbullying, violence risk assessment, and psychopathy. Part II examines policing and the detection of deception, with chapters on interrogational practices, police interviews of children, and modern detection methods. Part III focuses on courts and sentencing, with chapters exploring wrongful convictions, the role of juries, extra-legal factors in sentencing decisions and an examination of sentencing itself. Representing the forefront of research in developmental criminology and criminological and legal psychology, this book is a comprehensive resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying psychology and criminology, with particular value for those studying forensic psychology. This book is also a valuable resource for psychologists, lawyers, social scientists and law enforcement personnel.

This brief investigates school shootings and their impact on individual, community, and societal levels. It includes professional and personal perspectives from individuals directly involved in and impacted by school shootings. These novel perspectives will help inform best practices necessary to strengthen school safety measures, as well as prevention and response efforts. This brief will serve as helpful guide to mental health professionals, school administrators, psychology students and educators, law enforcement, and threat management and crisis response teams, aiding in better understanding of the many factors surrounding school shootings.

The relationship between offender and criminal justice practitioner has shifted throughout rehabilitative history, whether situated within psychological interventions, prison or probation. This relationship has evolved and adapted over time, but interpersonal processes remain central to offender work. However, little work has critically focused upon the challenging task of developing and sustaining positive relationships with offenders. This book addresses this gap, providing an in-depth exploration of the processes which underpin correctional relationships within probation. Through an innovative methodology, it examines how practitioners can enhance their practice by understanding how relationships form, deepen and end effectively. For the first time, it draws on the experiences of offenders and practitioners to uncover the darker side to relationships, identifying how they can rupture and break down. From this exploration, it presents alternative ways in which relationships can be repaired and safeguarded within correctional practice. In essence, this book assists practitioners in becoming successful supporters of change. In an increasingly competitive and politicised climate, this book outlines how political and organisational tensions can impact upon the flow of relationships across the criminal justice system. Uniquely, this book examines how these tensions can be overcome to produce transformative changes. Lewis suggests that therapeutic correctional relationships can thrive within a number of correctional settings and presents the core principles of relational practice and dynamic model of therapeutic correctional relationships to assist in achieving quality and sustainable practice. This book will appeal to criminological and psychological scholars as well as students studying probation and prison practice, offender rehabilitation and desistance.

This book arises from a research project funded in Australia by the Criminology Research Council. The topic, bail reform, has attracted attention from criminologists and law reformers over many years. In the USA, a reform movement has argued that risk analysis and pre-trial services should replace the bail bond system (the state of California may introduce this system in 2020). In the United Kingdom, Europe and Australia, there have been concerns about tough bail laws that have contributed to a rise in imprisonment rates. The approach in this book is distinctive. The inter-disciplinary authors include criminologists, an academic lawyer and a forensic psychologist together with qualitative researchers with backgrounds in sociology and anthropology. The book advances a policy argument through presenting descriptive statistics, interviews with practitioners and detailed accounts of bail applications and their outcomes. There is discussion of methodological issues throughout the book, including the challenges of obtaining data from the courts.