Psychological Evaluations for the Courts: A Handbook for Mental Health Professionals and Lawyers, Second Edition
- Book Review,
by Gary B. Melton, et al
Review
"This book is a valuable guide for the mental health professional anxiously preparing to testify for the first time and for the seasoned forensic psychologist or attorney....The authors provide guidelines on how mental health professionals can conduct themselves ethically, cautiously, and effectively....a comprehensive, clearly written, and interesting reference text. Fine-tuning, updating, and expanding on the first edition, which was itself a well respected guide to forensic work, this book is an indispensable asset to the library of any professional who practices in the forensic arena. It can also serve as a textbook for graduate courses and training courses for forensic evaluators." --Criminal Justice Review
"This is an exceptionally good handbook for mental health professionals, lawyers, and other practitioners who work within, for, or in conjunction with the courts. Two populations will likely benefit from this book, the legal representation and clinical evaluators involved in civil or criminal matters....This book is very informative and undoubtedly would be an extremely useful teaching text. It includes case studies and practical tips for clinicians. I strongly recommend it to clinicians writing examinations for the court. It would be a superb resource for school counselors, social service workers, attorneys and others working within the court system to use in working with agencies in a effort to sort fact from inference." --The Masters Advocate
"The book provides comprehensive guidance on both substantive and procedural law as well as their application. The contents are accessible, practicable and enlightening....The book is an invaluable referral source for American practitioners, whose work concerns mental health issues. Its use, however, extends to other professionals, such as doctors, social workers, etc., who would find the book a readable and informative practical guide in the daily course of their work....this book is highly recommended for both its essence and its exemplification of the complementary, and not conflicting combination of legal academia and practice. There should be a copy of it in every legal, medical and health authority library." --Social Welfare Law Quarterly
"Given our litigious society, every client should be viewed as a potential litigant; and consequently, every mental health practitioner, regardless of type of practice, can expect to be called into a legal case involving a client....Self-study of professional books and articles is the most common way of meeting the challenge to be adequately prepared for forensic services....Psychologists can gain a wealth of knowledge and skills from the contents of Psychological Evaluations for the Courts: A Handbook for Mental Health Professionals and Lawyers (2nd ed.)....[It] should be on every pracitioner's bookshelf....Suitable for graduate training, especially for students in clinical, counseling, and school psychology....The excellent contents...effectively blend research and practice that call for supplemental lectures and seminar discussions." --Contemporary Psychology
"Only a handful of textbooks have achieved essential or core status in that they are found in every forensic library and used in every forensic fellowship. The first edition of this text was one of those few. The second edition, therefore, has, figuratively, large shelves to fill. I suggest that it fills them....Overall, this second edition is every bit as valuable as the first and, similarly, deserves a place on every forensic bookshelf for its comprehensiveness, clarity, utility, and soundness." --American Journal of Psychiatry
John Monahan, PhD, Doherty Professor of Law, Professor of Psychology and Legal Medicine, University of Virginia
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
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 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
Review
"This book is a valuable guide for the mental health professional anxiously preparing to testify for the first time and for the seasoned forensic psychologist or attorney....The authors provide guidelines on how mental health professionals can conduct themselves ethically, cautiously, and effectively....a comprehensive, clearly written, and interesting reference text. Fine-tuning, updating, and expanding on the first edition, which was itself a well respected guide to forensic work, this book is an indispensable asset to the library of any professional who practices in the forensic arena. It can also serve as a textbook for graduate courses and training courses for forensic evaluators." --Criminal Justice Review
"This is an exceptionally good handbook for mental health professionals, lawyers, and other practitioners who work within, for, or in conjunction with the courts. Two populations will likely benefit from this book, the legal representation and clinical evaluators involved in civil or criminal matters....This book is very informative and undoubtedly would be an extremely useful teaching text. It includes case studies and practical tips for clinicians. I strongly recommend it to clinicians writing examinations for the court. It would be a superb resource for school counselors, social service workers, attorneys and others working within the court system to use in working with agencies in a effort to sort fact from inference." --The Masters Advocate
"The book provides comprehensive guidance on both substantive and procedural law as well as their application. The contents are accessible, practicable and enlightening....The book is an invaluable referral source for American practitioners, whose work concerns mental health issues. Its use, however, extends to other professionals, such as doctors, social workers, etc., who would find the book a readable and informative practical guide in the daily course of their work....this book is highly recommended for both its essence and its exemplification of the complementary, and not conflicting combination of legal academia and practice. There should be a copy of it in every legal, medical and health authority library." --Social Welfare Law Quarterly
"Given our litigious society, every client should be viewed as a potential litigant; and consequently, every mental health practitioner, regardless of type of practice, can expect to be called into a legal case involving a client....Self-study of professional books and articles is the most common way of meeting the challenge to be adequately prepared for forensic services....Psychologists can gain a wealth of knowledge and skills from the contents of Psychological Evaluations for the Courts: A Handbook for Mental Health Professionals and Lawyers (2nd ed.)....[It] should be on every pracitioner's bookshelf....Suitable for graduate training, especially for students in clinical, counseling, and school psychology....The excellent contents...effectively blend research and practice that call for supplemental lectures and seminar discussions." --Contemporary Psychology
"Only a handful of textbooks have achieved essential or core status in that they are found in every forensic library and used in every forensic fellowship. The first edition of this text was one of those few. The second edition, therefore, has, figuratively, large shelves to fill. I suggest that it fills them....Overall, this second edition is every bit as valuable as the first and, similarly, deserves a place on every forensic bookshelf for its comprehensiveness, clarity, utility, and soundness." --American Journal of Psychiatry
Book Description
Considered the definitive resource and text on forensic psychiatry and psychology since the publication of the first edition, Psychological Evaluations for the Courts, Second Edition, continues to be the most comprehensive discussion of legal, research, and clinical issues for both mental health and legal professionals. Fully revised and updated, the volume covers a broad range of topics in forensic mental health, including insanity, child abuse, sentencing, personal injury claims, and civil commitment. Less traditional subjects such as federal antidiscrimination and entitlement laws, competency to testify, workers' compensation, and a new section on the clinical evaluation of witness credibility have also been added. Throughout, the authors summarize and analyze legal issues, offer suggestions for evaluation procedures, and review appropriate research on both clinical opinions and the legal process.
New to the Second Edition
Completely updated to reflect current research and practice, the volume contains four entirely new chapters and has been revised throughout to include analyses of new case law and clinical techniques; important research on competency and dangerousness from the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Mental Health and Law; and new ethical rules developed by the American Psychological Assocation and the American Psychiatric Association. Also new to this edition are exercises and case studies for students in each chapter (see below).
Book Info
Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia. Comprehensive guide to the topics asked of physicians by the legal system. For mental health professionals performing psychological evaluations for the courts. Previous edition: c1987.
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.
Excerpted from Psychological Evaluations for the Courts: A Handbook for Mental Health Professionals and Lawyers, Second Edition by Gary B. Melton, John Petrila, Norman G. Poythress, Christopher Slobogin. Copyright © 1997. 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
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