Applied criminal psychology: A guide to forensic behavioral sciences, Edited by Richard N. Kocsis, Charles C. Thomas Publishers (2009), ISBN 9-780398-078430, 306 pp., (paperback)

✍ Scribed by Michael J. Puniskis

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 42 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1544-4759
• DOI: 10.1002/jip.124

✦ Synopsis

Guide to Forensic Behavioral Sciences

Edited by RICHARD N. KOCSIS Charles C. Thomas Publishers (2009), 306 pp., $45.95 (paperback) Edited by Australian forensic psychologist Richard N. Kocsis, Applied Criminal Psychology: A Guide to Forensic Behavioral Sciences is a comprehensive and informative resource on this fascinating subject. Chapters are drawn together from an internationally 'esteemed collection of scholars' (p. xvii), which includes both experienced practitioners and leading academics, such as Andreas Kapardis, Elizabeth Loftus, and George Palermo to name a few. Additionally, their contributions comprise meticulous and selective work, highlighting core concepts and key research for their respective areas of expertise, which are clearly organised and explained in an understandable language. Overall, 12 chapters divided into three thematic sections embrace a number of intellectually stimulating topics within applied criminal psychology.

Part A broadly covers criminal behaviour and mental disorder. In Chapter 1, Marle provides an overview of forensic psychiatry and psychology, distinguishes between two leading diagnostic manuals and reviews Axis 1 mental disorders and relevant research to demonstrate links with criminality. Palermo, in Chapter 2, begins with psychoanalytic explanations of personality disorders, reviews Axis 2 disorders and connections to offending behaviour, before closing with research on neuroimaging. The various roles of forensic psychologists-experimental, clinical, actuarial, and advisory-is covered in Chapter 3 by Kapardis and Resnick, who provide a comparative perspective of practices and landmark cases in the US, England and Wales, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, and their roles in forensically assessing perpetrators, antisocial personality and psychopathy, malingering, and victims using mental status examinations and clinical and diagnostic interviews. In Chapter 4, Scott and Resnick assess offenders risk of future violence by examining research on various individual risk factors and those related to mental disorders, followed by attention on stalking and murder-suicides within the family, instruments to assess risks of future violence, and methods for handling victims.

Part B covers deceit, memory, and confessions. In Chapter 5, Granhag and Strömwall provide an interesting review of detecting deception in forensic contexts by reviewing various theoretical approaches to objectively identify non-verbal cues, in comparison to how lay people, practitioners, and 'lie-catchers' subjectively detect deception in order to identify common stereotypes and beliefs, with consideration on a number of factors for each. The remaining sections review methods of analysing verbal content, such as statement assessment, reality monitoring, content analysis, polygraph, voice stress, brain scans, and strategic use of evidence technique. In Chapter 5, Laney and Loftus provide an over-