Quick Reference to Adult and Older Adult Forensics: A Guide for Nurses and Other Health Care Professionals

2010 AJN Book of the Year Award Winner in Gerontologic Nursing!

"[This book] is a wonderful guide to adult and elder forensics, and an important reference for all health care providers who care for adults and the elderely...Highly recommended.

--CHOICE

It's about time this book was written! While excellent instructional texts exist, this book fills a niche for the nonspecialty health professional encountering victims of violence in the routine course of careÖThis book should not only be on the shelf in every ED, but also in the armamentarium of providers working in the outpatient setting; public health clinics; residential facilitiesÖand student health clinics."

--AJN

Nurses and other health care professionals who work with victims and perpetrators of violence are often confronted with issues that they may not have prior training in, such as identifying and managing victims of violent crime. This book is designed to serve as a quick resource for practicing health care providers treating adults and older adults, as well as students or practitioners new to the field.

The book not only has full descriptions of principles of evidence, but also offers detailed guidelines on how to conduct a forensic assessment of adults and older adults. Additionally, the authors examine the concepts of competency and guardianship, and provide guidelines for navigating the justice system. The authors provide current, concise, and easy-to-use information in short chapters that assist practitioners with the prevention of crimes and the identification and management of both victims and offenders.

• Presents general principles of forensics, such as assessment and documentation, principles of evidence, and expert witness testimony

• Covers a wide range of classes of adult victims, including victims of intimate partner violence, human trafficking, stalking, and sexual assault

• Discusses various types of offenders, such as long-term offenders, those in correctional facilities, abusive parents, and female offenders

• Includes a section on unnatural deaths, covering suicide, homicide, and medicolegal death investigation

Kathleen M. Brown, PhD, APRN-BC,is Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing as well as a practicing Women's Health NP and a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner for the Northampton County, PA, Sexual Assault Response Team.

Mary Muscari, PhD, MSCr, CPNP, PMHCNS-BC, AFN-BC, is a pediatric nurse practitioner (NP), psychiatric clinical specialist, forensic nursing clinical specialist, and a criminologist, who combines her unique educational background with over 40 years of experience working with a wide variety of children and adolescents.