There is growing recognition that sexual offending is a multi-determined phenomenon requiring a multi-disciplinary perspective. The significant contribution of psychology and psychiatry, but also sociology, gender studies and anthropology to the study of sex offending and perpetrators of sex offenses has played a key role in the development of a distinct field of research. In recent years, however, there has been an increase in criminological research on the topic, introducing criminological theory and concepts, scientific evidence and observations, and new methodologies to the field. This book brings together international leading scholars to consider key topics on sex offending and, where possible, compare and contrast criminological viewpoints with those of other disciplines, such as psychology and psychiatry. This book considers the following questions: Are the key explanatory factors of sex offenses completely distinct and different from those of non-sex crime and delinquency? Are current models explaining adult sex offending also applicable to explain sex crimes on college campuses, female sex offending, sexual exploitation, sexual homicide, or child luring over the internet? Are today's youth involved in sex offenses tomorrow's adult perpetrators of sex crimes? What is the risk of sexual recidivism and are risk assessment tools effective to identify individuals at-risk of committing another sex crime in the future? Are current legal measures used to prevent sex crimes effective? What are the known effects of such measures? What are the issues and challenges related to the criminal investigation of sex offenses? This book is essential reading for students and researchers from disciplines such as criminology, psychiatry, psychology, sexology, social work and sociology, as well as criminal justice professionals and practitioners such as police investigators, prosecutors, judges, probation/parole officers, and treatment providers/counsellors involved with individuals having perpetrated sex offenses.

Violence Assessment and Intervention: The Practitioner's Handbook, now in its third edition, provides a proven methodology, grounded in the current empirical research and the authors' experience in successfully assessing and managing thousands of cases in a variety of contexts and environments, for analyzing concerning behaviors and potential threatening situations, and taking action in these challenging, dynamic environments before tragedy occurs. Threat and violence assessment and management is an essential process in reducing violence and its consequences. The ongoing challenge for those assessors, particularly in common workplace environments (e.g., educational settings, public agency settings, and business settings), is applying the applicable behavioral science research in a practical and effective manner to maximize safety. The book begins by demonstrating the threat and violence assessment process from the point of the initial call and proceeds through the steps that quantify the situation and determine the appropriate response. The next section covers information gathering, victimology, and formulas and tools for risk assessment. Finally, the book explores organizational influences, school violence, ethics, security and consultation issues; the formation and running of threat management teams, and relevant laws related to violence assessment. This book is a valuable reference for human resource professionals, security professionals, mental health practitioners, law enforcement personnel, and lawyers who are members of threat assessment teams, provide threat and violence assessment and management consultations, as well as expert witnesses in cases involving workplace violence, school violence, security negligence; or wrongful termination or disputed school disciplinary actions related to aggressive, threatening, or violent behavior.

Psychological Aspects of Crisis Negotiation, Third Edition, explores the methods and strategies for confronting the nine types of subjects typically encountered in hostage/suicide sieges by correctional staff and law enforcement crisis negotiators. Strentz, an experienced negotiator who designed and directed the FBI's hostage negotiator program, lays out the critical elements that are required for a successful encounter with a hostage taker or other malfeasant. This book highlights psychological dynamics of negotiations as they apply to the negotiator, the hostage, and the subject. It discusses the predictors of surrender versus the need for a tactical intervention and examines the phases of a hostage crisis and the changing focus as the crisis develops. Referencing historical events such as the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Challenger and Columbia incidents, this text demonstrates how faulty group decision making can spell tragedy. Enhanced with case studies to put the material into context, this third edition also includes new chapters on the SWAT team/crisis negotiator interface and on the genesis of the increased incidence of mentally ill hostage takers. Based on decades of experience in the fi eld and practical advice from a national expert, this volume arms negotiators with the knowledge and tools they need to defuse crises and increase the odds that hostages will survive.

The notion that women lie about rape is a prevalent belief with pervasive influence. This book is unique in combining police file data with interviews obtained from both rape survivors and detectives in order to critically explore how this belief affects police officers' responses to women who report rape. Examination of this material is located within a broader analysis of the historical and socio-cultural environment, and illustrates how rape investigations continue to be conducted within the context of pervasive beliefs and stereotypes regarding both the nature of rape and the nature of women.

Evaluations of a defendant's competence to stand trial (CST) are probably the most frequently performed forensic evaluations, with estimates in the United States ranging from 60,000 to 70,000 annually. In order for CST evaluations to be considered thorough and accurate, examiners must assess for possible lack of cooperation, feigning, or malingering - the intentional production or gross exaggeration of false or grossly exaggerated physical or psychiatric symptoms, motivated by external incentives. Yet, there are accounts that CST examiners often do not assess for negative response bias, and even if they do nevertheless fail to identify a considerable number of examinees that do feign. Assessing Negative Response Bias in Competency to Stand Trial Evaluations provides readers with a comprehensive guide to assessing whether a defendant has feigned mental impairment during a competency to stand trial evaluation, or simply did not put forth his/her best effort. This book reviews the literature on assessing feigning and negative response bias, with particular focus on issues, tests, and data relevant to CST evaluations, and examines proposed criteria and statistical methods of determining and classifying assessment results. It introduces readers to aspects of the vibrant neuropsychological response style literature, an area many forensic psychologists appear to have overlooked. Additionally, it offers recommendations for research and policy regarding the parameters of CST assessment.

THE SENSATIONAL NEW BOOK FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER THE DARK SIDE OF THE MIND. LONGLISTED FOR THE CWA GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION AWARD. 'What Lies Buried is a towering achievement. Kerry takes us deep into the minds of the disturbed and dangerous and challenges our very humanity. As gripping as any thriller. Her dry wit and humour keeps it real.' BARBARA MACHIN, screen writer and creator of Waking the Dead 'Pacy and gripping. Daynes uses her trademark mix of humour and humanity to shine a light on those we rarely get to hear from. A brilliant, important and sensitive book.' SARAH LANGFORD, barrister and bestselling author of In Your Defence 'What Lies Buried is an exceptional book . . . I could not put it down.' FEMALE FIRST, 5 STAR REVIEW 'Kerry's dedication (and impressive ability) to read between the lines and cast aside prejudice, going beyond the question she is so often asked in her profession: "Are they mad or bad?"' DAILY MAIL Kerry Daynes, leading forensic psychologist, opens up the case files of some of her most perplexing clients to uncover what lies buried behind some of the most extreme and disturbing behaviour. For twenty-five years, Kerry has worked on the frontline of violent crime, from working with the police on complex cases and acting as an expert witness in court, to advising the government on how to handle high-risk individuals. Whether she is dealing with a young murderer who says he has heard voices telling him to kill, a teacher who daubs children in red paint, or an aspiring serial killer who faints at the sight of blood, Kerry's quest is to delve beyond the classic question asked of her profession: 'Are they mad or are they bad?' In her new book, Kerry provides an unflinching, enlightening and provocative insight into the minds of her clients, shedding light on the root causes of their behaviour and challenging our notions about who, and what, is dangerous. If you enjoyed The Dark Side of the Mind, Unnatural Causes and The Prison Doctor, you will be captivated by What Lies Buried. 'Kerry is an absolutely brilliant storyteller. I found this book challenging my preconceptions about the criminal mind with the turn of each page.' DAVID ROBSON, author of The Intelligence Trap

Neil Krishan Aggarwal's timely study finds that mental-health and biomedical professionals have created new forms of knowledge and practice in their desire to understand and fight terrorism. In the process, the state has used psychiatrists and psychologists to furnish knowledge on undesirable populations, and psychiatrists and psychologists have protected state interests. Professional interpretation, like all interpretations, is subject to cultural forces. Drawing on cultural psychiatry and medical anthropology, Aggarwal analyzes the transformation of definitions for normal and abnormal behavior in a vast array of sources: government documents, professional bioethical debates, legal motions and opinions, psychiatric and psychological scholarship, media publications, and policy briefs. Critical themes emerge on the use of mental health in awarding or denying disability to returning veterans, characterizing the confinement of Guantanamo detainees, contextualizing the actions of suicide bombers, portraying Muslim and Arab populations in psychiatric and psychological scholarship, illustrating bioethical issues in the treatment of detainees, and supplying the knowledge and practice to deradicalize terrorists. Throughout, Aggarwal explores this fascinating, troublesome transformation of mental-health science into a potential instrument of counterterrorism.

A timely and important contribution to the study of immigration court from a psychological perspective Every day, large numbers of immigrants undertake dangerous migration journeys only to face deportation or "removal" proceedings once they arrive in the U.S. Others who have been in the country for many years may face these proceedings as well, and either group may seek to gain lawful status by means of an application to USCIS, the benefits arm of the immigration system. Mental Health Evaluations in Immigration Court examines the growing role of mental health professionals in the immigration system as they conduct forensic mental health assessments that are used as psychological evidence for applications for deportation relief, write affidavits for the court about the course of treatment they have provided to immigrants, help prepare people emotionally to be deported, and provide support for immigrants in detention centers. Many immigrants appear in immigration court-often without an attorney if they cannot afford one-as part of deportation proceedings. Mental health professionals can be deeply involved in these proceedings, from helping to buttress an immigrant's plea for asylum to helping an immigration judge make decisions about hardship, competency or risks for violence. There are a whole host of psycho-legal and forensic issues that arise in immigration court and in other immigration applications that have not yet been fully addressed in the field. This book provides an overview of relevant issues likely to be addressed by mental health and legal professionals. Mental Health Evaluations in Immigration Court corrects a serious deficiency in the study of immigration law and mental health, offering suggestions for future scholarship and acting as a vital resource for mental health professionals, immigration lawyers, and judges.

Crime and Behaviour: An Introduction to Criminal and Forensic Psychology is the first textbook to provide a detailed overview of criminal psychology in Singapore. The textbook puts together ideas relating to crime, crime prevention, and criminal psychology, as it occurs in the Singaporean context. While leveraging on psychology as an anchor, the book adopts a multidisciplinary perspective and examines the forensic sciences angle, legal issues, and the investigative perspectives of crimes.The chapters cover criminal justice agencies in Singapore, theories of crime, deception and lying behaviors, sex crimes, violent crimes, crime prevention, terrorism, and psychology applied in legal settings. Each chapter contains case studies of actual cases and ends with questions for discussion and research, making this a valuable text for courses in university and in law enforcement settings.This textbook has several unique features, such as:

International Perspectives on the Assessment and Treatment of Sexual Offenders: Theory, Practice and Research provides the first truly global perspective on the assessment and treatment of sex offenders. * Presents a comprehensive overview of current theories and practices relating to the assessment and treatment of sex offenders throughout the world, including the US, Europe, and Australasia * Covers all the major developments in the areas of risk assessment, treatment, and management * Includes chapters written by internationally respected practitioners and researchers experienced in working with sexual offenders such as Bill Marshall, Ruth Mann, Karl Hanson and Jayson Ware

Does trauma spark brazen acts? Are eyewitnesses accurate reporters? Can jurors distinguish truth from lies? Answer these and more in WRIGHTMAN'S PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LEGAL SYSTEM, 9th Edition. Real cases such as Bill Cosby and Dylann Roof illustrate the flesh and blood of the psychological issues considered in the book--from the motivations of offenders to discretion in sentencing. This book gives you an eye-opening overview of psychology's contributions to the legal system--and the many roles available to trained psychologists within the system.

Although stalking is an age-old phenomenon, it is only recently receiving due attention. In a span of just ten years, all fifty states have passed anti-stalking legislation. For the first time, Stalking Crimes and Victim Protection: Prevention, Intervention, Threat Assessment, and Case Management brings together in one source all the research done by professionals in various fields since 1990. It covers all the angles, from the psychological aspects of stalkers to the legal ramifications of stalking.

This comprehensive work emphasizes a multidisciplinary concept and approach. It compiles and assesses studies of law enforcement, legal counsel, medical professionals, forensic mental health professionals, security personnel, and criminologists. These authors combine their academic research and clinical knowledge to provide you with helpful guidelines and suggestions in the areas of victim assistance and predatory stalking including:
o Intervention
o Prevention education
o Risk analysis
o Threat assessment
o Case management.

Editor Joseph A. Davis, Ph.D., a nationally recognized expert in the field of public safety psychology, with a background in both psychology and law, has assembled a team of experienced professionals who have contributed to this comprehensive text, which educates, informs, and raises public awareness of this growing phenomenon. Including several case examples for study and clinical-forensic comparison, Stalking Crimes and Victim Protection will help you provide better services to victims, evaluate the mental state of the stalker, provide assessments of potential threat, and consult on security issues, case management, and safety planning.

Toward the end of World War II, Hitler's many health complications became even more pronounced, making an evil man yet more erratic and dangerous. While the subject of Hitler's health has been catalogued previously, never has it been done so this thoroughly or with this level of up-to-date medical expertise. Tom Hutton's new neurobehavioral analysis of Adolf Hitler draws from a lifetime of medical research and clinical experience to understand how the dictator's particular medical history further warped a deformed personality and altered Hitler's decision making. Dr. Hutton trained under the world-renowned neuropsychologist and father of modern neuropsychological assessment, Dr. Alexander Luria, giving him a uniquely qualified eye to undertake this most difficult assessment. While many books on the subject thumb through the annals of popular psychology to understand history's most famous monsters, Dr. Hutton's latest book uses contemporary clinical knowledge, lucidly synthesizing medical complexities for all audiences. Here Dr. Hutton undertakes a thorough medical history to elucidate a pivotal historical moment, examining how disease impacted Hitler's destructive life.

More violence has been perpetrated in the 20th century than in the two previous centuries combined. Understanding and Preventing Violence: Unmasking the Mentality of Human Destructiveness elucidates the mentality of destructive behavior with the hopes that in the future, the trend may be reversed through enlightenment. But in order to choose to be constructive, rather than destructive, there must first be an understanding.
This book takes a hard look at an alarming trend. It provides a focused view of the new wave of violence - from the individual to the global levels. It. traces the influence of sexuality and the anxiety of death on human mentality and suggests ways to reverse the increase in destructive behavior. It helps criminologists with profiling and spotting trends and aids psychologists by deepening the understanding of their severely character-disordered or sociopathic patients.
The author delves into the reasons and motivations prompting destructive behavior in order to
promote a constructive reaction to what has become commonplace in society - senseless violent acts.
Aimed at forensic and clinical psychologists, sociologists, criminal defense attorneys and criminologists, Leighton C. Whitaker delivers a work that provides an understanding of the psychodynamics of violence and the role it plays in society.

Focus in the media on the risks posed to ordinary people has become increasingly strong in recent years - particularly on those risks popularly perceived to be posed by the mentally ill. But how justified is this concern? How do we best manage so-called dangerous people? In Will They Do It Again? Herschel Prins considers the issue of public protection within a broad context of risk in society generally, examining the concerns arising in contemporary society from dealing with uncertainty. It is argued that public fear over the danger posed by the mentally ill is at odds with the evidence, and that much of the concern is focused on a small number of high-profile cases. Prins goes on to examine such cases where management of the mentally ill has failed and sets out suggestions for improvements in practice. Will They Do It Again? cuts through popular misunderstanding and media hype over risk to give a clear, unbiased picture of the real risks to society from the mentally ill and how best they can be contained and managed, and will prove invaluable to a range of practitioners involved in the fields of criminal justice and psychiatry.

Related link: Free Email Alerting

There is an expectation that women will be nurturers and carers. Women who have been judged violent, destructive and criminal and who are detained in the criminal justice system can find themselves perceived through a distorted lens as unwomanly. This book explains how they become hypervisible in their difference, while the histories of trauma and suffering that are communicated through their offending and other risk behaviour remain hidden, and so are unseen. Bringing together authors uniquely placed as experts in their fields, Invisible Trauma argues that it is essential to trace the traumatic roots of women's violence and criminality. Powerful intergenerational factors perpetuate the cycles of offending and trauma re-enactment that current sentencing practice overlooks. The authors present a psychoanalytically informed account of the development of violence and other offending, identifying pathways for change to address trauma within the lives of these women and their children, and also to create a responsive, effective and sensitive workforce. Invisible Trauma highlights the role of emotional, social and cultural forces in traumatising women who come into contact with the criminal justice system and uncovers areas of their lives that are all too often hidden from view. It will be invaluable to those working in clinical and forensic psychology, mental health nursing, psychotherapy, social work, medical practice and women's health, as well as frontline practitioners in the criminal justice system, the health service and third sector organisations and for anyone with an interest in racism, equality and social justice.

"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.

Offender profiling is an investigative tool used to narrow down the range of potential suspects for a crime by predicting the personality, behavioral, and demographic characteristics that an offender is likely to possess, based upon information collected at the crime scene. While offender profiling has been popularized by TV shows and movies such as Criminal Minds, Silence of the Lambs, and Mindhunter, the real-world impact of offender profiling is largely unknown. This book discusses the history of offender profiling, summarizes research on offender profiling methods, and reviews offender profiling evaluations of accuracy and applied impact. This book also describes a promising new offender profiling methodology called evidence-based offender profiling. This new method relies upon empirical data and scientific methods to develop, evaluate, and replicate offender profiles, thereby increasing offender profiling's accuracy and utility for active police investigations. It uses prior information about statistical regularities between types of offenders and types of offenses to predict the characteristics of offenders in unsolved cases. A discussion of the future of offender profiling research and implications for law enforcement is also included. This book also explains how practitioners can benefit from the use of empirically tested and validated profiles in their unsolved investigations and how the use, continued research, and evaluation of evidence-based offender profiling can advance the quality, prestige, and utility of the field of offender profiling.

Offers a new understanding of jailhouse informants and the role they play in wrongful convictions Jailhouse informants-witnesses who testify in a criminal trial, often in exchange for some incentive-are particularly persuasive to jurors. A jailhouse informant usually claims to have heard the defendant confess to a crime while they were incarcerated together. Research shows that such testimony increases the likelihood of a guilty verdict. But it is also a leading contributor to wrongful convictions. Informants, after all, are generally criminals who are offering testimony in return for some key motivator, such as a reduced sentence. This book offers a broad overview of the history and legal and psychological issues surrounding the testimony of jailhouse informants. It provides groundbreaking psychological research to address how they are used, the number of convictions that have ultimately been overturned on other evidence, how such informants are perceived in the courtroom, and by what means jurors might be informed about the risks of this type of testimony. The volume provides a much-needed examination of legal remedies to the impact of jailhouse informants and suggests best practices in dealing with jailhouse informant testimony in court. There is a critical need to understand the influence of jailhouse informants and how their testimony can best be handled in court in the interests of justice. Jailhouse Informants is the first work of its kind that rises to the challenge of answering these difficult questions.

A man kidnaps his two children, murders one, and attempts to kill the other. The prosecution seeks the death penalty, while the defense employs an unusual strategy to avoid the sentence. The defendant's attorneys turn to more than 100 examples of his artwork, created over many years, to determine whether he was mentally ill at the time he committed the crimes. Detailing an outstanding example of the use of forensic art therapy in a capital murder case, David Gussak, an art therapist contracted by the defense to analyze the images that were to be presented as evidence, recounts his findings and his testimony in court, as well as the future implications of his work for criminal proceedings. Gussak describes the role of the art therapist as an expert witness in a murder case, the way to use art as evidence, and the conclusions and assessments that professionals can draw from a defendant's artworks. He examines the effectiveness of expert testimony as communicated by the prosecution, defense, and court, and weighs the moral, ethical, and legal consequences of relying on such evidence. For professionals and general readers, this gripping volume presents a convincing account of the ability of art to reflect a damaged and dangerous psyche. A leading text on an emerging field, Art on Trial demonstrates the practical applications of an innovative approach to clinical assessment and treatment.

"Assessments in Forensic Practice: A Handbook" provides practical guidance in the assessment of the most frequently encountered offender subgroups found within the criminal justice system. Topics include:

• criminal justice assessments
• offenders with mental disorders
• family violence
• policy and practice

Our understanding of criminal behaviour and its causes has been too long damaged by the failure to integrate the emotional, psychological, social and cultural influences on the way people behave. This book offers a concise and accessible introduction to criminal behaviour, examining and integrating perspectives from criminology and psychology. It proposes a range of 'psychosocial' approaches that seek to understand the emotions that surround criminal behaviour, allowing for an exploration of individual differences and social and cultural issues that help to bridge the gap between disciplinary approaches. It offers substantive chapters on a range of topics, including: mental disorder and the relationship between mental health and offending; criminal career research; youth crime and the question of criminal responsibility; gender and crime; and violent crime, including homicide and sexual crime. This new edition has been fully updated, including a revised opening chapter that offers an introduction to psychosocial criminology, up-to-date discussion of changes in the criminal justice system in the context of mental health, and two new chapters on race and crime, and public violence, extremism and terrorism. This book is essential reading for students taking a range of courses on criminal behaviour, criminological theory, criminal psychology and psychological criminology.

This second edition of Irving Weiner's classic comprehensive, clinician-friendly guide to utilizing the Rorschach for personality description has been revised to reflect both recent modifications in the Rorschach Comprehensive System and new evidence concerning the soundness and utility of Rorschach assessment. It integrates the basic ingredients of structural, thematic, behavioral, and sequence analysis strategies into systematic guidelines for describing personality functioning. It is divided into three parts. Part I concerns basic considerations in Rorschach testing and deals with conceptual and empirical foundations of the inkblot method and with critical issues in formulating and justifying Rorschach inferences. Part II is concerned with elements of interpretation that contribute to thorough utilization of data in a Rorschach protocol: the Comprehensive System search strategy; the complementary roles of projection and card pull in determining response characteristics; and the interpretive significance of structural variables, content themes, test behaviors, and the sequence in which various response characteristics occur. Each of the chapters presents and illustrates detailed guidelines for translating Rorschach findings into descriptions of structural and dynamic aspects of personality functioning. The discussion throughout emphasizes the implications of Rorschach data for personality assets and liabilities, with specific respect to adaptive and maladaptive features of the manner in which people attend to their experience, use ideation, modulate affect, manage stress, view themselves, and relate to others. Part III presents 10 case illustrations of how the interpretive principles delineated in Part II can be used to identify assets and liabilities in personality functioning and apply this information in clinical practice. These cases represent persons from diverse demographic backgrounds and demonstrate a broad range of personality styles and clinical issues. Discussion of these cases touches on numerous critical concerns in arriving at different diagnoses, formulating treatment plans, and elucidating structural and dynamic determinants of behavior.

This book explores the controversial relationship between mental health and offending and looks at the ways in which offenders with mental health problems are cared for, coerced and controlled by the criminal justice and mental health systems. It provides a much-needed criminological approach to the field of forensic mental health. Beginning with an exploration into why the relationship between mental health and offending is so complex, readers will be introduced to a range of perspectives through which mental health and its relationship to offending behaviour can be understood. The book considers the politics surrounding mental health and offending, focusing particularly on the changing policy response to mentally disordered offenders since the mid-1990s. With dedicated chapters concerning the police, courts, secure services and the community, this book explores a range of issues including: * The tensions between the care, coercion and control of mentally disordered offenders * The increasingly blurred boundaries between mental health and criminal justice * Rights, responsibilities, accountability and blame * Risk, public protection and precaution * Challenges involved with treatment, recovery and rehabilitation * Staffing challenges surrounding multi-agency working * Funding, privatisation and challenges surrounding service commissioning * Methodological challenges in the field. Providing an accessible and concise overview of the field and its key perspectives, this book is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in mental health offered by criminology, criminal justice, sociology, social work, nursing and public policy departments. It will also be of interest to a wide range of mental health and criminal justice practitioners.

Prisons have a very distinctive environment, one in which particular psychological problems occur with exaggerated frequency and intensity. If prison staff are to work effectively they must be aware of the influence of this unique environment upon the behaviour of those who inhabit it. This book argues that by applying psychological principles the behaviour of prisons can be better understood, and violence, distress and stress can be limited. The authors show how psychology can be used to increase our understanding of prisoners, how they became involved in crime, and how they adapt to prison life. They explain how psychology can be used and applied to make for more effective day-to-day dealing with prisoners. The authors focus on key areas of tension and particular problem groups, including sex offenders, violent offenders and the issue of AIDS. But the book also considers the effect that working in a prison has on its staff and explores how they can use psychological principles both to reduce the level of stress they undergo in their work and to secure the prisoners' mental well being.