Handbook of Psychology in Legal Contexts (2nd edition)
Edited by D. CARSON and R. BULL John Wiley (2003), pp. 670, ISBN 0-471-49874-2 Although this handbook is ostensibly a second edition, one of the first things to note about it is that the vast majority of this volume is different from the first edition. While there are a number of old faces present in this edition, there are also a good proportion of new contributors, representing the great and good in the field. The new authors and material reflect the advances made in this area of study since the first edition was published in 1998-something that itself is likely to have been influenced by the impact of the first edition!
As in the first edition of the handbook, the pairing of a psychologist and lawyer who work at the interface of the two disciplines as editors has led to a volume offering a diverse range of topics in 32 chapters. Despite, or perhaps because of, this diversity the two disciplines are coherently incorporated, showing how psychology can inform and be combined with the law. This tone is set by the first chapter, in which David Carson provides a coherent (and passionate) argument for the development of a project combining psychology and law. He argues that this project should be a broad one, encompassing more than narrow conceptions of psychology and law, and including more than psychologists and lawyers, but also other disciplines and practitioners such as psychiatrists, sociologists, police officers, prison governors, and law reformers. He further emphasises the need to include both research and practice, and to embrace work using a range of methodologies.
After this introductory chapter, Part 1 consists of three chapters that consider how psychology has traditionally been used within courts, that is as a provider of assessments of one kind or another. First, Murphy and Clare review the literature on how psychology can help assess whether adults with intellectual disabilities, mental illness, or dementia have the capacity to make legal decisions, doing so with reference to the issues of consent to treatment, consent to sexual intimacy, and capacity to stand trial. Vrij then considers the assessment and detection of deceit, including the use of behavioural (non-verbal) and speech content cues, and whether the relationship between these factors and deception is accurate enough for it to be used in courts. Finally, using PTSD as an example, Bryant discusses the assessment of individuals in compensation cases, including techniques (e.g. self report v psychometric) and the issue of malingering.
The second part of the volume moves on to consider how psychology is currently used to inform practice within parts of the legal system. Milne and Bull kick this section off with a chapter on police interviewing, describing how psychological research has been used to inform interviewing techniques for witnesses, victims, and suspects (including vulnerable individuals). Wider frameworks such as PEACE and its impact on police interviewing are also examined, along with the contribution made to these by psychology. The