Clinical Forensic Psychology

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a common psychiatric disorder that frequently presents to both mental health experts and general health practitioners. Generally, BDD for the most part, goes unrecognized and undiscovered in clinical settings. It is critical to perceive and precisely analyze BDD in light of the fact that this often secret disorder might be crippling. Patients with BDD have impaired functioning, poor quality of life, a high rate of self-destructive ideation and suicide attempts. In this way, it is essential to screen patients for BDD and abstain from misdiagnosing it as another disease. Non-psychiatric treatments (e.g., medicinal and / or surgical) which most patients look for and get inadequate for BDD. This article presents a clinically engaged outline of BDD symptoms, causes and analyses long term effects of psychotherapy on it. A somatoform disorder, wherein the afflicted individual is concerned with body image, manifested as excessive concern about and preoccupation with a perceived defect of their physical appearance and a fear of being evaluated negatively by others (F45.22 of ICD-10) WHO [1]. According to DSM-IV American Psychiatric Association [2]. Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) is a condition where the individual spends a lot of time being worried and concerned about their looks and appearance.

This paper is a reflection of the circumstances when things are not ideal in a therapeutic session. Focus will be on a case study representative of the conditions you may encounter in the prison service of many third world countries. Here the focus is on security and risk threat and not the well-being or confidentiality of the client (prisoner). With this in mind we need to review the problems that need to be faced and overcome by the therapist to do their best to support the client in difficult circumstances.

Mutuality between handwriting and individual's inclination toward crime is an area of profound fascination. It is challenging to enter the most hidden corners of an abnormal mind in order to discover, understand and explain its resorts, and also to provide clues regarding the way of approaching, treating and planning rehabilitation. In India and other common law countries, insanity is exempted from punishment even if insanity leads to the person committing heinous crimes; because they are considered incapable of deciding the rightness or wrongness of an act. Therefore, it is crucial and imperative to understand the reason behind the antisocial crime and associated factors influencing personality of the offenders especially psychopaths. Forensic graphology and psychiatry are the two major disciplines involved in assessment of psychopathic tendencies and criminality. Both the approaches follow projective nature to analyse and get into deepest of the personality of an individual. Forensic is a punitive science concerned with the passing judgement on human conduct while psychiatry is a therapeutic and reformative science followed for the benefit of society, human rights and psychopaths. Though the two approaches assess personality from different perspectives, when applied together can give a more effective and holistic explanation of criminal behaviour. The present paper describes some important techniques of handwriting analysis and highlights common handwriting patterns of psychopaths.

Over the years, a significant number of Rorschach studies have been conducted with forensic adult and adolescent samples, partly motivated by the use of the test in forensic psychological evaluations. Could the Rorschach, as a performance-based personality assessment tool, provide unique information that is not as vulnerable to distortion on the part of the examinee as self-report measures are? This article provides a review of Rorschach studies on relevant Rorschach variables, including those with different forensic samples. Empirical findings are mixed; there is not a one-on-one relationship between certain Rorschach variables and forensically relevant traits, such as psychopathy or hostility. This does not mean the Rorschach cannot provide useful information in answering psychological questions before the court. A case illustration of a male college student, who committed a (first) violent offense, illustrates the unique contribution of the Rorschach for understanding the psychological dynamics behind a violent act that was seemingly out of character.

Bu hafta, Dr. Nilay Pekel Uludağlı, bizlere adli psikoloji alanındaki etik problemlerden bahsetti. Kendisi cezaevlerinde çalışmış bir psikolog. Cezaevlerinin klinik psikologlar için adeta bir fuar alanı olduğunu; depresyon, antisosyal kişilik bozukluğu ve psikotik vakaları görebileceğimiz bir çalışma alanı olduğundan bahsetti. Adli psikoloji, klinik psikolojinin bir alt dalı olduğu için de, bizlerin ilerde dilersek bu alanda çalışma yürütebileceğimizi de ekledi.

Prisoners sentenced to death must be competent for execution before they can actually be executed (Ford v. Wainwright, 1986). The decision for many mental health professionals whether to conduct competence for execution evaluations may be fraught with complex ethical issues. Mental health professionals who do not personally support capital punishment may have a particularly difficult decision to make in this regard but should seriously consider the consequences of their decisions. This article applies Bush, Connell, and Denney’s (2006) eight-step ethical decision-making model to the ethicality of deciding to or abstaining from conducting competence for execution evaluations. This article does not propose what decisions an individual evaluator should make regarding this work, but rather presents a systematic guide for mental health professionals (particularly those who do not support capital punishment) to consider.

CO-AUTHORS: Christina A. Pietz, Ph.D., ABPP (Thesis Chair) & Renae M. Courtney, Psy.D. (Committee Member)

ABSTRACT Juvenile sex offender registration and public notification policies have been deemed by some as unconstitutional and unethical.  It has been claimed that legislation regarding this issue has been enacted by policy-makers who have not taken certain aspects into account.  The statutes that they have created over the last several decades are referred to by some researchers as a method of creating a distorted sense of security for an emotionally reactive society.  Moreover, several different types and subtypes of legality are inconsistent from state to state and are further inconsistent among jurisdictions within states.  This inconsistency is a substantial contribution to a large problem within the justice system while we fail to differentiate sexual deviancy from normal sexual development or innocuous sexual curiosity of the naturally sexual beings of which humans are comprised.  Although it is clear what the costs are for implementing these acts, it remains unclear what benefits are gained.  More importantly, we are able to estimate the financial costs but less able to justify the emotional cost and general effectiveness to the juvenile and possibly including society.  This literature review will reflect the current state of research and controversy regarding the lifetime registration and community notification of convicted juvenile sex offenders.  The lack of universality of definitions, classifications, and legal procedures are significant attributes of the controversy.  This general lack of consistency maintains the consequential issue of the lifetime registration and public notification for juvenile sex offenders.

KEYWORDS: juvenile sex offender legislation, registration and public notification, controversy, jurisdiction, states, requirements, unintended consequences

Handwriting, like all other behavior, is regulated by the brain. This is typically an unconscious mechanism that is closely related to brain impulses. Any mental disorder can impair the forearm's kinetic motions, as can be seen in the subject's handwriting. It's crucial to focus on how a subject write rather than what a subject write if you want to understand health and mental issues. The aim of this analysis study is to learn about the changes that occur in an individual's handwriting characteristics during psychological problems, or when the subject is in a troubled state of mind. Calligraphy The study and analysis of handwriting, especially in relation to human psychology, is known as graphology. It has been discovered that features related to motion, time, and pressure are very useful and could be used to diagnose health and mental disorders using a manual or digital handwriting analysis approach.

Psikopat ve sosyopat kelimelerini kullanırken doğru kullandığınızdan emin olmadığınız oluyor mu? Eğer öyleyse yalnız değilsiniz. Birçok psikiyatrist, adli psikolog, kriminolog ve emniyet mensubu da bu kavramları yanlış yerde kullanmaktalar. Önde gelen birçok uzman her iki kavram arasında anlamlı bir farkın olup olmadığı hususunda tartışmaktadırlar. Oysa psikopati ve sosyopati kavramları arasında belirgin ve anlamlı ayırımlar mevcuttur. Amerikan Psikiyatri Birliği'nin yayımladığı Ruhsal Bozuklukların Tanı Ölçütleri kitabının beşinci baskısında (DSM 5) hem sosyopati hem de psikopati, Antisosyal Kişilik Bozukluğu başlığının altında listelenmiş durumdadır. Bu bozukluklar, kendilerinin tanımı hakkında kafa karıştıracak birçok ortak özelliğe sahip gözükmektedir. Psikopati ve sosyopatinin ortak olarak paylaştığı ana özellikler şunlardır: a. Sosyal kurallar ve kanunları hiçe sayma b. Başkalarının haklarını umursamama c. Pişmanlık ve suçluluk duygularını hissetmede belirgin problemler d. Agresif ve şiddet davranışları sergileme Fakat bunlara ek olarak her iki bozukluk kendine has davranışsal orijin ve karakteristiğe sahiptir. Sosyopatlar sinirli ve kolayca ajite olmaya eğilimlidir. Genellikle değişken bir ruh haline sahip olup öfke başta olmak üzere duygusal taşkınlıklar yapmaya yatkındırlar. Psikopatlara göre daha az eğitim almış olup toplumsal yaşamın merkezinde yer almazlar. Çoğunlukla sabit bir işte kalma ya da bir yerde uzun bir süre bulunma yetileri bulunmaz. Sıklıkla başkalarına bağlanma güçlüğü yaşarlar. Az sayıda sosyopat bağlanma becerisine sahip olabilir. Bir ilişki geliştirmek içinse çok çaba harcamaları gerekir. Diğerlerinin gözünden sosyopatlar genellikle çok rahatsız edici veya sapkın kimseler olarak görülür. Birçok suç-öldürme suçu başta olmak üzere-sosyopatlar tarafından işlenir. Ancak onlar karıştıkları suçları genellikle gelişigüzel ve plan yapmaksızın işlerler. Sapkın görünümleri yüzünden sosyopatlar hem suç uzmanı olan hem de olmayan kişiler tarafından kolaylıkla kimliklendirilir. Psikopatlar ise sosyopatlardan farklı olarak diğerlerine duygusal bağlanma ya da gerçek bir empati kurma konusunda tam bir kapasite yoksunluğu yaşarlar. Onlar dış dünyada agresif ve yırtıcı olmaya eğilimidir. Diğer insanları genellikle kendi eğlencelerine birer malzeme olarak görürler. Başkalarıyla empati kuramamalarına rağmen sıklıkla kendilerini sevdirmeyi başarırlar. Hatta diğer insanlara çekici gelebilirler. Oldukça manipulatif olduklarından başkalarının güvenini çok çabuk kazanabilirler. Gerçek duyguları hissedebilmede yetersizlik yaşasalar da duygulanımlara ait mimikleri yapmayı öğrenirler ve normal masum bir insan gibi görünmeyi başarabilirler. Bununla birlikte psikopatlar, sosyopatlara göre daha iyi eğitimli ve sabit bir işe sahip olabilirler. Bazıları manipulasyon yapmada ve duyguları taklit etmede o kadar iyilerdir ki onların gerçek doğalarının ne olduğundan şüphelenmeden insanlar bu kişiler ile aile kurabilirler. Bir suça karıştıklarında, psikopatlar her ayrıntıyı dikkatlice planlayarak ve alternatif planlar da kurarak ilerlerler. Kriz anlarında bile oldukça soğukkanlıdırlar.

As the use of drama therapy is becoming common in a wide variety of mental health settings, there remain a limited number of studies pertaining to the use of drama therapy in forensic psychiatric settings. This phenomenological metasynthesis explores the intersection of the criminal justice system with the behavioral sciences that can be found on a forensic psychiatric inpatient unit (FPU), while investigating the use of embodied, dramatic forms to treat complex trauma, vicarious trauma, and the impacts of systemic violence. The author synthesizes literature
from diverse fields—including biopolitics, forensic law, performance studies, arts-based research, acting, trauma studies, critical race feminist theory, drama therapy—with her own
reflections, in order to consider three roles commonly found on an FPU: the Doctor, the Officer, and the Patient/Prisoner.

KASM therapy manual is developed for counselors serving recovery populations.  It is a learning theory that prescribes a four step approach in the delivery of counselling therapy.  It is especially related to Islamic therapy and addiction studies.

Indonesia pada awal februari 2018 mengalami fenomena kekerasan baru di sekolah yaitu kekerasan siswa terhadap murid. hubungan antara manusia di Indonesia diatur dengan norma ketimuran yang khas. Menurut penjelasan dalam bukunya Sosiologi I yang ditulis oleh Drs. Andreas Soeroso. M.S menjelaskan bahwa norma sosial adalah sebuah hukum yang ada ditengah kelompok sosial. Data statistik menunjukan pada tahun 2018 menurut KPAI yang dikutip dari voaindonesia.com menyebutkan pelanggaran hak anak disekolah cenderung meningkat. Ada 446 kasus yang terjadi selama tahun tersebut yang didominasi oleh kasus bullying baik itu secara nyata ataupun cyberbullying dan juga kekerasan fisik yang dilakukan oleh sesama siswa dan juga dilakukan oleh guru kepada siswanya. Lebih mengejutkan lagi lewat situs resminya KPAI pada tahun 2017 juga merilis bahwa Indonesia merupaka negara dengan tingkat tertinggi kasus kekerasan disekolah. Pendapat itu didukung dengan survei sebanyak 84% anak Indonesia mengalami kekerasan dan bullying disekolah, angka tersebut didapat dari survei Komisi Perlindungan Anak Indonesia bekerja sama dengan International Center for Riset on Women (ICRW). The American Psychology Task Force (ATPATF) menyebutkan bahwa guru telah melaporkan sebanyak 80% kekerasan yang mereka alami. Kekerasan tersebut berupa penghinaan, kekerasan fisik, pencurian dan pengrusakan properti. Sedangkan di Turki (Mehmet, 2012) menyebutkan bahwa sering mengalami kekerasan fisik, emosional dan lisan. Bahkan di Finlandia sebanyak 25,6% guru mengalami kekerasan.

Çocukluk Çağı Travmaları’nın, bireylerin ruhsal gelişimi ve ruh sağlıkları üzerinde yarattığı örselenmeler bilinmekle beraber retrospektif ve prospektif çalışmalar devam etmektedir. Özellikle bu dönemdeki ruhsal travmalar ile Antisosyal Kişilik Bozukluğu ya da Dissosiyatif Bozukluklar arasındaki ilintiler yakın dönem bilimsel çalışmalarına konu olmuştur. Araştırmalar göstermektedir ki Çocukluk Çağı Travmaları’nın gerek Antisosyal davranış örüntüleri gerekse Dissosiyatif Bozukluklar ile anlamlı bir ilişkisi vardır. Ne var ki özellikle ülkemizde yürütülen çalışmaların çoğunluğu Klinik Psikiyatri ve Klinik Psikoloji ekseninde sürdürülmüştür. Dolayısıyla çalışmaların amaç ve doğrultusu sağaltım üzerine odaklanmaktadır.  Bununla beraber Dissosiyatif Bozukluk olgularının, doğası gereği adli psikiyatri, adli psikoloji, kriminoloji ve ceza hukukunu ilgilendiren yönleri de bulunmaktadır. Bu çerçevede ülkemizde yapılan çalışmaların da sınırlı olduğu görülmektedir. Bu çalışma ile Dissosiyatif Bozuklukların, kişilerin şuur ve hareket serbestisine olan etkileri, dolayısıyla suça karışmaya hangi oranda sebebiyet verdiği ve cezai ehliyet ile ilgili değerlendirmede nasıl ele alınması gerektiğine dair tartışmalara katkı sağlaması amaçlanmıştır. Cezai ya da hukuki değerlendirmeyi gerekli kılacak adli psikiyatrik ortamlarda bulunan bireylerde dissosiyatif yaşantıların klinik psikiyatrik ortamlara ya da genel populasyona oranla daha yüksek sıklıkta bulunacağı, ayrıca bu durumun “bozukluk” düzeyine (Dissosiyatif Bozukluklar) ulaşması durumunda bu bireylerin adli mekanizmaya dâhil olma risklerinin yüksek olacağı düşünülmektedir.

With the development of technology, digital tools have become an important part of our current lives. Cyber psychology, which emerged as a new but increasingly important sub-field of psychology; in addition to mainstream psychology, conducts interdisciplinary studies with other fields such as clinical psychology, criminology, philosophy, sociology, media, communication and security. Cyber psychology is a discipline that explores the impact of digital technologies and the internet on people and communities. Cyber psychology uses theories in mainstream psychology and explains new interactions with other disciplines to explain how individuals interact with each other online and to what extent these interactions can affect their lives outside the offline area. In the light of these theories, a new definition of "cyber self" and "cyber society " including individual, social and cultural transformations are made. Clinical cyber psychology conducts studies for the psychological integration of individuals with online and offline life. Cyber dissociation produced by Öztürk & Çalıcı, a new concept, is predicted to be one of the most important subfields where clinical and forensic cyber psychology will work. Cyber dissociation emerges as a defense in the initial stage in order to ensure the integration of individuals' offline and online lives due to the widespread use of social media tools and the fact that the current life forces people to create cyber selfs in the cyber environment and creates a duality in the psychological structure of the individuals in the process. The subfields of cyber psychology, which conducts interdisciplinary studies, range from clinical cyber psychology to forensic cyber psychology. Most studied areas in cyber psychology are; online relationships, online dating, online crimes, cyber victimization, cyber revictimization, cyber bullying and cyber harassment. Conducting interdisciplinary studies within the scope of cyber psychology, identification and control of interactions in cyber space, which is an unlimited space and changing and transforming from day to day, and all kinds of actions taken in this environment, effective intervention/prevention programs and legal arrangements should be done. Professionals working in the fields of clinical and forensic cyber psychology have important duties.

"The clinical bacteria of multi-drug resistant to some antibiotics are
considered a common problem in the world wide. Alternative
antibacterial strategies are urgently needed, and thus this situation
has led to a re-evaluation of the therapeutic use of ancient
remedies, such as plants and plant-based products, including
Nigella sativa (N. sativa). This study aimed to evaluate the
antibacterial activity of Yemeni N. sativa oil against some Clinical
Bacterial Isolates (CBI) and Control Strains of Bacteria (CSB) in
comparison with Augmentin® (Amoxicillin and Clavulanic Acid).
This study was carried out in Sana’a city during the period of one
year from May 2012 to April 2013. The antibacterial activity of oil
with different concentrations was determined by using disc agar
diffusion technique against CBI (Staphylococcus aureus and
Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and CSB (Staphylococcus aureus
ATCC25619, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC29737), also the
Minimum Inhibition Concentration (MIC) of oil extract was
determined. The results indicated that, the highest significant
antibacterial activity was at the maximum concentration of the oil
against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in
comparison with Augmentin ® discs (p < 0.05) respectively. This
study observed that, there was strong positive correlation between
the diameter zone (DZ-mm) and oil concentrations (%). In
addition, the DZ (mm) of the oil for CSB was higher than CBI.
Also the oil activity was found to be more effective against
Staphylococcus aureus than Pseudomonas aeruginosa. On the
other hand, the MIC of the oil against CBI were ranged between ≥
0.5% and 4%. Whereas, the CSB particularly Staphylococcus
aureus were sensitive to low concentrations of oil. It could be
concluded that, the oil had high antibacterial effect against CSB
and CBI with high concentration and more effective than
Augmentin® discs."

Mutuality between handwriting and individual’s inclination toward crime is an area of profound fascination. It is challenging to enter the most hidden corners of an abnormal mind in order to discover, understand and explain its resorts, and also to provide clues regarding the way of approaching, treating and planning rehabilitation. In India and other common law countries, insanity is exempted from punishment even if insanity leads to the person committing heinous crimes; because they are considered incapable of deciding the rightness or wrongness of an act. Therefore, it is crucial and imperative to understand the reason behind the anti-social crime and associated factors influencing personality of the offenders especially psychopaths. Forensic graphology and psychiatry are the two major disciplines involved in assessment of psychopathic tendencies and criminality. Both the approaches follow projective nature to analyse and get into deepest of the personality of an individual. Fore...

In hospital settings, and especially in forensic psychiatric ones, restlessness, aggression, and even violence are familiar issues to healthcare workers. Under these circumstances, the need for restrictive measures (seclusion, mechanical/chemical restraints) is sometimes needed. Although such measures should be considered as exceptional interventions, they continue to be widespread in general, psychiatric, and forensic psychiatric settings. Although there is a great deal of literature on a myriad of issues associated with the use of seclusion, very little research has focused on the lived experience of the seclusion room in forensic psychiatric settings, whether from the patient's perspective or from the perspective of nursing staff responsible for these patients. Such an examination could help ameliorate the experience of secluded forensic psychiatric patients while informing nursing staff about the impacts of seclusion. This article reports the results of a federally funded qualitative , phenomenological research study conducted in a Canadian forensic psychiatric environment. Our results show that the " structure of place " matters for both patients who experience seclusion and nursing staff who work therapeutically in these settings. " Place " is irreducible to the physical " space " in which bodies find themselves; this study of place took into consideration the ways the lived body experiences seclusion and interrelates with others. Although there can be no doubt that many patients who experience seclusion are often-times objectively at risk, with a heightened potential to self-harm and to harm other inpatients and nursing staff as well, as our study participants attested, the bodies secluded in this space are not " objects. "

This is a manually-written transcript testimony of Dr. Shannon Curry, where she goes over psychometric and assessment to diagnose PD’s in legal frameworks and she also describes the pathological symptoms and particularities of two Cluster B PD’s as per the DSM; HPD and BPD. Dr. Shannon Curry is a Forensic Psychologist specialized in Trauma, who was brought into Amber Heard vs. Johnny Depp’s Defamation Trial in 2022 to testify in her findings as to Amber Heard personality traits.

The source of the transcript is the recording of the live streamed deposition made by the Law & Crime Network channel on YouTube.

"An expert in intimate partner violence called to give evidence in Johnny Depp’s defamation lawsuit against Amber Heard has testified that her evaluation of the actor revealed two psychiatric diagnoses – borderline personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder." (The Guardian, 2022).

Mutuality between handwriting and individual’s inclination toward crime is an area of profound fascination. It is challenging to enter the most hidden corners of an abnormal mind in order to discover, understand and explain its resorts, and also to provide clues regarding the way of approaching, treating and planning rehabilitation. In India and other common law countries, insanity is exempted from punishment even if insanity leads to the person committing heinous crimes; because they are considered incapable of deciding the rightness or wrongness of an act. Therefore, it is crucial and imperative to understand the reason behind the anti-social crime and associated factors influencing personality of the offenders especially psychopaths. Forensic graphology and psychiatry are the two major disciplines involved in assessment of psychopathic tendencies and criminality. Both the approaches follow projective nature to analyse and get into deepest of the personality of an individual. Fore...

Manfred S. Guttmacher (1898–1966) was a forensic psychiatrist and chief medical officer at the Court Clinic for Baltimore City's Supreme Bench, who authored America's Last King: An Interpretation of the Madness of George III (establishing his reputation as a medical historian), and numerous other works.

Guttmacher was born in 1898 to a family of rabbis. Like his brother, Alan Frank Guttmacher, his A.B. and M.D. degrees were earned from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, after which Manfred served as an intern at the Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York, then as a resident house officer in medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. After two years an Emmanuel Libman fellow studying neurology, psychiatry, and criminology overseas, he relocated to Boston for psychiatric training at the Boston Psychopathic Hospital.

He was appointed chief medical adviser to the Supreme Bench of Baltimore in 1930, where he served with distinction until his 1966 death. In 1933, he published his first paper, “Psychiatry and the Adult Delinquent” in the National Probation Association Yearbook of 1933 (on forensic psychiatry).

He is seen as a contributor to the development of that field as attested by his books:

* Sex offenses, by Manfred S. Guttmacher, Norton, 1951
* Psychiatry and the law, by Manfred S. Guttmacher (with Henry Weihofen), Norton, 1952
* The mind of the murderer, by Manfred S. Guttmacher, Farrar, Straus, and Cudahy, 1960*The mind of the murderer. by Manfred S. Guttmacher, Grove Press, 1962
* The mind of the murderer, by Manfred S. Guttmacher, Books for Libraries Press, 1973
* The role of psychiatry in law, by Manfred S. Guttmacher, Thomas, 1968
* Isaac Ray Award in 1957
* The Salmon Lectures.

Jonas R. Rappeport, MD, who grew up in Baltimore and babysat for Manfred and Carola Guttmacher (now [Carola Eisenberg]), retired from forensic practice in 1999, is called the Founding Father of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law

Dr. Jennings provides psychological analysis of the infamous sexual predator, Gary M. Heidnik. In November of 1986, 25-year-old Josephina Rivera's life comes to a devastating halt when she's kidnapped by 43-year-old Gary Heidnik. Over the next four months, Josephina lives shackled in a basement while her captor abducts four more women to hold hostage in his "house of horrors." Josephina recounts a gripping tale of endurance and the shrewd calculations that helped her devise a plan of escape.

All medico-legal cases from the Lancaster County Coroner's Office in Lincoln, Nebraska USA, between 1991 and 1996, were reviewed for deaths which occurred in custody. The leading causes of death, in ranked order include: natural 45.1% (), suicide 33.3% (), homicide 11.8% (), accident 7.8% (), and undetermined 2% (). Each cause of death was explored using the following variables: cause of death, age, sex, and race of the decedents. The findings of this investigation are compared with previous studies in other geographic regions of the country. Many similarities and differences in the frequencies of the modes of death are discussed. In addition, six unusual case studies including one accidental death, one homicide, and four suicides are presented and may serve as a reference for pathologists, forensic physicians and other forensic scientists confronted with aberrant cases.

This study examined the scope and components of mitigation assessments in a first effort to develop some guidelines for conducting mitigation evaluations. Using the mitigation evaluations survey (MES) we developed for this research, we surveyed 266 psychologists about the characteristics and content of mitigation evaluations. A high percentage of participants endorsed each of the 14 content areas presented in the MES as essential or recommended for inclusion in mitigation evaluations. However, when the participants were given a hypothetical open-end referral question regarding a mitigation evaluation, fewer participants included all 14 content areas in their responses. This discrepancy and information regarding the qualifications and expertise of the participants are discussed.

Individuals with mental health problems are considered to be part of a group labeled &#39;vulnerable&#39; in forensic psychology literature and the legal system more generally. In producing witness statements, there are numerous guidelines in the UK, designed to facilitate the production of reliable and valid accounts by those deemed to be vulnerable witnesses. And yet, it is not entirely clear how mental health impacts on reliability and validity within the judicial system, partly due to the diversity of those who present with mental health difficulties. In this paper, we set out to explore how legal professionals operating in the UK understand the impact of mental distress on the practical production of witness testimonies. Twenty legal professionals, including police officers, judges, magistrates and detectives were involved in a semi-structured interview to examine their knowledge and experience of working with mental health problems, and how they approached and worked with this...

In 29 months of operation, the restoration of competency (ROC) program provided treatment services to 192 incompetent to stand trial patients in a jail setting. The ROC restored competency for 55% of the patients in an average of 57 days compared to the state hospital average of 180 days. The average cost of treatment/restoration per admission was $15,568 compared to the state hospital average of $81,000. The ROC model accelerates needed treatment for mentally ill defendants, cuts demand for costly state hospital forensic beds, and assists jails in better managing inmates with severe psychiatric disorders—yielding major cost savings and improved care. In addition to preventing readmissions and negative behavioral episodes, the ROC improved the broader forensic system by eliminating the state hospital waiting list, accelerating access to psychiatric services, promoting local access for lawyers and family, and gaining stakeholder satisfaction.

La mayoría de los suicidios en el mundo ocurren en países en vías de desarrollo, por tal motivo resulta relevante analizar el comportamiento suicida en países latinoamericanos. El presente fue un estudio comparativo entre notas suicidas mexicanas y chilenas. Una primera etapa consistió en el análisis de contenido de las notas con el método de Interjueces. En una segunda etapa, se compararon las muestras vía el Escalamiento Multidimensional (EMD). Las categorías comparadas fueron: razones expresadas para el suicidio, aspectos de personalidad (sentimientos y actitudes), afecto indicado y procesos cognitivos. Se encontraron correlaciones en ambas muestras en algunos conglomerados, como los procesos cognitivos de inconsciente de las consecuencias del acto suicida y pensamiento ilógico, por un lado, y consciente del acto y pensamiento lógico, por otro. Entre las diferencias significativas, la muestra chilena expresó más motivos para el suicidio relacionados con problemas de salud, mientr...