With the media spotlight on the recent developments concerning the Supreme Court, more and more people have become increasingly interested in the highest court in the land. Who are the justices that run it and how do they make their decisions?
The Psychology of the Supreme Court by Lawrence S. Wrightsman is the first book to thoroughly examine the psychology of Supreme Court decision-making. Dr. Wrightsman's book seeks to help us understand all aspects of the Supreme Court's functioning from a psychological perspective. This timely and comprehensive work addresses many factors of influence including, the background of the justices, how they are nominated and appointed, the role of their law clerks, the power of the Chief Justice, and the day-to-day life in the Court. Dr. Wrightsman uses psychological concepts and research findings from the social sciences to examine the steps of the decision-making process, as well as the ways in which the justices seek to remain collegial in the face of conflict and the degree of predictability in their votes.
Psychologists and scholars, as well as those of us seeking to unravel the mystery of The Supreme Court of the United States will find this book to be an eye-opening read.

A groundbreaking book founded on extensive original research, designed to determine how restorative dialogue works, and the role of forgiveness within it. The research involved interviews with 20 victims who went through a Victim Offender Dialogue (used in crimes of severe violence), and documents how the shifts in energy during the course of their dialogue moves the toxicity associated with the crime to a different place. This study explores the role of bilateral forgiveness in restorative work and addresses key questions about the role of forgiveness in restorative justice, such as how it can be measured. It also outlines a model which explains how the energy flow of dyadic forgiveness in restorative justice dialogue is formed. Rich in data and in findings, this book will deepen understanding of how restorative justice works, and will inform future research and practice in the field.

'[A] real-life Midsomer Murder ... it's chilling, but [David Wilson's] explanation of how a psychopath thinks is masterly' The Times Two deaths. Three doors apart. An unsuspecting community about to realise there's a killer in their midst. In October 2015, Peter Farquhar was found dead in his house in Maids Moreton, lying on the sofa next to a bottle of whisky. An inquest was made, and Peter's death was quickly ruled an accident. But after the death of another elderly neighbour, the dreadful truth began to emerge: both victims had been groomed, seduced and mentally tortured by a young man, Benjamin Field, who had used his position of power in the community to target and exploit the elderly. He almost got away with it. Very little shocks criminologist David Wilson, but this extraordinary case in his sleepy hometown astounded him. Wilson felt duty-bound to follow its trail, discovering how his tightknit community failed to intervene, how a psychopath went undetected for years, and how Peter unwittingly supplied the blueprint for his own murder. A Plot to Kill is a chilling, gripping account of a callous murder in the heart of middle England, a fight for justice, and a revealing insight into the mind of a killer.

Though widely regarded as a founder of the modern field of psychology and law, German-American psychologist Hugo Munsterberg now century-old ideas and research approaches continue to thrive. In fact, the discipline still grapples with many of the issues raised by Munsterberg in his seminal 1908 book, On the Witness Stand. Hugo Munsterberg's Psychology and Law: A Historical and Contemporary Assessment makes Munsterberg's enduring insights available to a new generation of scholars and students and presents the "state of the science" on the very concepts that Munsterberg was one of the first to investigate. These include eyewitness memory, deception detection, false confessions, suggestibility, hypnotism, and the causes of criminal behavior. Opening with a brief biography of Munsterberg and a historical overview of the field, the book's organization closely follows that of On the Witness Stand, with each chapter providing a summary of Munsterberg's work followed by a contemporary perspective on the topic. Each chapter asks the reader to consider what we have learned since Munsterberg's time and whether subsequent research has shown him to be right or wrong. The final chapter asks what Munsterberg may have missed, and what we may be missing today. Hugo Munsterberg's Psychology and Law will be of interest to a broad range of scholars, practitioners, and professionals in the legal and mental health fields.

Dieses Buch befasst sich mit den Problemen der Schuldfahigkeitsbeurteilung beim Merkmal der schweren anderen seelischen Abartigkeit in 20, 21 StGB. Es behandelt die Grundlagen von Schuld und Schuldfahigkeit. Die Autorin stellt verschiedene psychiatrische Diagnostikansatze vor und untersucht, inwieweit diese Ansatze dem Juristen bei der Prufung dieses Merkmals in 20, 21 StGB helfen koennen. Dabei geht es insbesondere um das Problem der Quantifizierung der Schwere und um das Ziel, zu einer objektiven, nachvollziehbaren Schuldfahigkeitsbeurteilung zu gelangen.

A practical and comprehensive survival manual for victims of stalking and related crimes, Surviving Stalking offers sound, realistic and practical advice to victims and guidance through each stage of the criminal justice processes in America, Britain, and Australia. Using case studies, Michele Pathé describes the traumatic effects of stalking, the course of these symptoms, and how best to access psychological care and support. A comprehensive book for a general readership, it provides a contemporary account of victim types, stalker types, stalkers' motives, strategies to prevent and overcome stalking, and a list of resources available to stalking victims. Surviving Stalking will be of great interest not only to those who have been or are being stalked, but also to the health, law enforcement, and legal professionals who work with stalkers and their victims. Michele Pathé is Director of the Stalking and Threat Management Centre and Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist, Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health, Victoria, Australia. Pathé is the co-author of Stalkers and Their Victims (Cambridge, 2000), winner of the American Psychiatric Association's 2001 Manfred S. Guttmacher award for an outstanding contribution to the literature in forensic psychiatry.

This study integrates social science research, social policy, and legal analysis related to children and the law. It provides the most cutting-edge information available on topics such as child abuse, children's eyewitness testimony, divorce and custody, juvenile crime, and children's rights. The volume is an important resource for researchers, attorneys, judges, policy makers, legislators, and mental health, social service, and police professionals.

The idea of peer influence as a cause of delinquency has been around since the 1930s, when Edwin Sutherland offered his theory of differential association. Although that theory and similar ones remain popular and have strong empirical support, more recent theories reject the idea completely. This book surveys the research literature on peer influence, reveals that most offenders are imbedded in a network of friends and accomplices, and describes numerous possible mechanisms of peer influence.

This ground-breaking book is a sequel to John Braithwaite's influential book Crime, Shame and Reintegration. It contributes to our understanding of shame in a theoretical sense, and through its detailed analysis of shame management in cases of drink-driving and school bullying, in a practical sense. Ultimately, the book develops an ethical-identity conception of shame, and a theory of reintegrative shame. Written by the key exponents of restorative justice and presenting important new research, the book will be influential in the often controversial debate about punishing and shaming.

Madness raises intriguing-and complex-criminological questions, not least the famous trio of 'triability, responsibility, and punishability'. Furthermore, law-enforcement agencies frequently face a choice between invoking the criminal law or using mental-health remedies. And if and when sentences are passed, not all mentally disordered offenders receive treatment. That prompts a number of additional questions, such as: how effective are institutions to which these offenders are sent? And: do mentally disordered offenders differ qualitatively from the criminal population as a whole? As serious research on and around madness and crime continues to flourish, this new four-volume collection from Routledge's Critical Concepts in Criminology series addresses these and other questions. Indeed, Madness and Crime provides an authoritative and highly readable anthology of major works, compiled by one of the leading authorities in the field.

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 criminal behaviour and criminality, including the role of mental disorder in crime, and discusses how forensic psychology contributes to helping investigate the crime and catching the perpetrators. It also explains how psychologists provide guidance to all those involved in civil and criminal court proceedings, including both the police and the accused, and what expert testimony can be provided by a psychologist about the offender at the trial. Finally, David Canter examines how forensic psychology is used, particularly in prisons, to help in the management, treatment and rehabilitation of offenders, once they have been convicted. 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.

Having Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can - given certain situational conditions - make individuals more vulnerable to becoming caught up in criminal activity and vulnerable to unfavourable interactions once in the criminal justice system. Guided by empirical research, psychological theory and illustrative case studies involving adults with ASD who have been implicated in crimes, Robyn L. Young and Neil Brewer explain why. They examine the pivotal cognitive, social and behavioural characteristics unique to ASD (such as weak Theory of Mind, restricted interests and acute sensory sensitivities) that - individually or in interaction - may contribute to individuals becoming involved in illegal activities. They then discuss how these same characteristics can result in ongoing ineffective interaction with the criminal justice system. Arguing that the forensic assessment of individuals with ASD requires substantial redevelopment to clarify the key deficits contributing to criminal behaviour, the authors highlight the need for, and desirable nature of, intervention programs to minimize the criminal vulnerability of adults with ASD and to prepare them for interactions with the criminal justice system. A final section raises some major unanswered questions and issues for future research. This book will be of immeasurable interest to criminal justice professionals including probation officers, social workers, clinical and forensic psychologists, police officers, lawyers and judges, as well as students of these professions.

The criminal justice system has devised several procedural safeguards to protect defendants from erroneous conviction resulting from mistaken eyewitness identification. Mistaken Identification: The Eyewitness, Psychology and the Law reviews the empirical research bearing on the adequacy of those safeguards. This body of literature converges on the conclusion that traditional safeguards such as presence of counsel at lineups, cross-examination, and judges' instructions, are ineffective safeguards against mistaken eyewitness identification. Expert psychological testimony on eyewitness memory, designed to educate the jury about how memory processes work and how eyewitness testimony should be evaluated, shows much greater promise as a safeguard against mistaken identifications and erroneous convictions. Mistaken Identification is an invaluable text for advanced psychology students, law students and researchers of memory.

Grendon Prison opened in 1962, originally intended to investigate and treat prisoners whose crimes had recognisable psychiatric causes. Thirty years later, its radical ideas of the rehabilitation of prisoners through psychological or psychotherapeutic treatment have been embraced by the Woolf Report, which clearly committed the Prison Service to a rehabilitation ambition. Based on interviews with prisoners and prison staff, this new study of a `model' prison will be of interest to criminologists, penologists, and prison staff everywhere.

This completely updated second edition provides essential information to psychologists conducting evidence-based forensic consultation and other professionals who deal with sexual harassment cases in the era of #MeToo. The book skillfully integrates relevant research with current case law, presenting a method for comprehensively evaluating sexual harassment claims and providing a science-based approach to causation and credibility. Authors William E. Foote and Jane Goodman-Delahunty acquaint readers with clinical and social scientific literature on sexual harassment and apply it to issues that psychologists must consider in preparing ethically sound and well-substantiated forensic reports and testimony. The second edition is a valuable resource for all professionals working with sexual harassment cases, including psychologists, psychiatrists, lawyers, judges, and human resource professionals. Experienced forensic professionals will learn about the newest developments and most recent research in their field, while novice evaluators are provided with a tested framework fully grounded in research and sound practice. The book will help human resources professionals understand how people's reactions in the workplace may result in harassment, and legal professionals will benefit from the summary of research on the scientific and factual bases for forensic evaluation of sexual harassment plaintiffs.

In recent decades, the remit of forensic psychology has considerably widened. From an original, narrow focus on presenting evidence to the courts, its scope now spreads across the whole span of civil and criminal justice. Forensic psychologists are now intimately involved with suspects, offenders, victims, witnesses, defendants, litigants, and justice professionals. As serious academic and practical thinking in and around forensic psychology continues to develop, this new four-volume collection from Routledge's acclaimed Critical Concepts in Psychology series meets the need for an authoritative reference work to make sense of a rapidly growing and ever more complex corpus of literature. Edited by a leading scholar and practitioner, the collection gathers the foundational major works together with the very best contemporary scholarship. With a full index, and thoughtful introductions, newly written by the editor, Forensic Psychology will be valued by scholars, students, and professionals in the field as a vital and enduring resource.