Introduction to Forensic Psychology: Issues and Controversies in Crime and Justice

Introduction to Forensic Psychology is an original approach to understanding how psychologists impact the research, practice, and policy of crime, law, and justice. Written specifically for students, lay professionals, and practitioners, the text systematically examines police, court, and correctional aspects of forensic psychology. By further subdividing the text into the adult, juvenile, family, and civil components of forensic psychology, the author brings interdependence and overlap among these dimensions and the three broad thematic areas themselves into sharp, clear, and compelling focus. Contained within each of the 12 substantive chapters are series of timely issues or controversies that provocatively capture the significance of these relationships. Selected topics include incarceration of the mentally ill, the police as mediators in prison, competency to stand trial, treatment refusal rights, police stress and suicide, and sex offender treatment.
Introduction to Forensic Psychology: Issues and Controversies in Crime and Justice presents the debates about psychology, crime, law, and the intersections in an accessible, jargon-free fashion. It is a cross-disciplinary text relevant to the fields of psychology, law, criminal justice, social work, and public policy.

Key Features
* Integrative approach to the study of psychology, crime, and law
* Systematically focuses on police, court, and correctional dynamics of forensic psychology
* Canvasses the adult, juvenile, family, and civil aspects of forensic psychology with "cutting edge" issues or controversies
* A comprehensive sweep of important and provocative topics throughout the field, based on reader-friendly prose
* Relies heavily on case illustrations to guide the reader throughout each topic presented

Bruce A. Arrigo is Professor of Criminology and Forensic Psychology and Director of the Institute of Psychology, Law, and Public Policy at the California School of Professional Psychology-Fresno. Prior to his career in academe, he was a community organizer and social activist for the homeless, the mentally ill, the working poor, the frail elderly, and the chemically addicted. He is the author of more than 60 journal articles, academic book chapters, and scholarly essays exploring theoretical and applied topics in critical criminology, criminal justice and mental health, and the sociology of law. His recent scholarship has appeared in such periodicals as Criminal Justice and Behavior; Crime, Law, and Social Change; Justice Quarterly; International Journal of Law and Psychiatry; Critical Criminology; Journal of Offender Rehabilitation; Social Justice; Law and Psychology Review; and the International Journal for the Semiotics of Law. He is the author, co-author, or editor of four books. His most recent book-length projects include Madness, Language, and the Law (1994); The Contours of Psychiatric Justice (1996); Social Justice/Criminal Justice: The Maturation of Critical Theory in Law, Crime, and Deviance (1998); and, with T.R. Young, The Dictionary of Critical Social Science (1999). Professor Arrigo is also the editor of the peer-reviewed quarterly Humanity and Society and the founding editor of the periodical Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice.