Forensic Issues in Adolescents with Developmental Disabilities

Adolescents with developmental disabilities are a complex population who require specialised treatment and care. This interdisciplinary text examines the processes involved in working with this client group in forensic settings, and explores the ways in which their needs differ from those of other young people who engage in high risk behaviour or offending. The book covers assessment, intervention and treatment options for adolescents with a wide range of developmental disabilities, including autism spectrum disorders, acquired brain injury, developmental traumatology, and complex comorbidities. It describes the obstacles, challenges and opportunities to consider when working with this population, and the role played by various professionals, including forensic psychiatry and psychology, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, education, art psychotherapy and social work. The book also outlines the issues to consider when working in secure and community settings as well as the legal aspects of working with this client group, and the complex issues surrounding risk assessment. The first comprehensive account of forensic issues in adolescents with developmental disabilities, this book will be an indispensible primary resource for a wide range of professionals, including child and adolescent psychiatrists, community psychiatric nurses, developmental paediatricians, social workers and youth workers, lawyers and advocates. This series takes the field of Forensic Psychotherapy as its focal point, offering a forum for the presentation of theoretical and clinical issues. It embraces such influential neighbouring disciplines as language, law, literature, criminology, ethics and philosophy, as well as psychiatry and psychology, its established progenitors.

Ernest Gralton is Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist in Adolescent Developmental Disabilities and Associate Medical Director for Developmental Psychiatry at St Andrew's Healthcare, Northampton, and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London.