Working Within the Forensic Paradigm: Cross-discipline Approaches for Policy and Practice

Forensic work occurs across the criminal justice sector and the legal and health professions and intersects with work in a range of areas, such as child protection, family welfare, mental health, offending, disability and addictions, family violence programmes, juvenile justice and sexual assault centres. This book offers contemporary perspectives on forensic policy and practice from the range of practitioners working with people within the forensic domain and canvasses ideas about risk and offending behaviours together with ideas about effective responses to rehabilitation and recovery.

The contributors to this proposed book are drawn from the practitioners, policy contributors, advocates and researchers in mental health, welfare, law, criminology, policing and health. Negligible attention has been paid to forensic policy and practice; this proposed book offers cross-national attention to how mental health, welfare and justice systems intersect, who they affect, and how practitioners structure effective responses for vulnerable people within the forensic domain.

A particular strength of the book is its international focus, making it relevant to academics and practitioners who work in this field around the world.

Rosemary Sheehan is Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work, Monash University, Australia. Her published research has looked at child welfare and the law, mental health and judicial and corrections responses to offenders, with particular reference to women offenders. Her recent research developed a specialist list project in the Children’s Court of Victoria to hear matters involving child sexual abuse; she recently completed a major study of women exiting prison.

James Ogloff is the Foundation Professor of Forensic Behavioural Science at Swinburne University and Director of Psychological Services and Research at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health (Forensicare). He is trained as a psychologist and lawyer, a Fellow of the Canadian, American, and Australian psychological societies. His research addresses violence risk prediction, psychopathy and jury decision making, and long-term outcomes for children who have been sexually abused.