Assessments in Forensic Practice

About the Editors vii

Contributors ix

1. Introduction 1
Kevin D. Browne, Anthony R. Beech, Leam A. Craig and Shihning Chou

Part One Criminal Justice Assessments 5

2. Case Formulation and Risk Assessment 7
Peter Sturmey and William R. Lindsay

3. Assessment of Violence and Homicide 28
Kerry Sheldon and Kevin Howells

4. Sexual Offenders 52
Franca Cortoni, Anthony R. Beech and Leam A. Craig

5. The Assessment of Firesetters 76
Lynsey F. Gozna

6. Forensic Psychological Risk Assessment for the Parole Board 103
Louise Bowers and Caroline Friendship

7. Behavioral Assessment in Investigative Psychology 122
Eleanor M. Gittens and Kate Whitfield

Part Two Offenders with Mental Disorders 137

8. Assessing Risk of Violence in Offenders with Mental Disorders 139
James McGuire

9. Assessing Mental Capacity and Fitness to Plead in Offenders with Intellectual Disabilities: Implications for Practice 172
Leam A. Craig, Ian Stringer and Roger B. Hutchinson

10. Offenders with 'Personality Disorder' Diagnoses 198
Lawrence Jones and Phil Willmot

11. Offenders and Substance Abuse 217
Simon Duff

Part Three Family Violence 233

12. Community Approaches to the Assessment and Prevention of Intimate Partner Violence and Child Maltreatment 235
Kevin D. Browne, Shihning Chou and Vicki Jackson-Hollis

13. Psychological Assessment of Parenting in Family Proceedings 265
Karen Bailey, Eugene Ostapiuk and Taljinder Basra

14. Perpetrators of Intimate Partner Violence 295
Louise Dixon

Part Four Policy and Practice 317

15. Assessment of Hostage Situations and Their Perpetrators: In the Context of Domestic Violence 319
Carol A. Ireland

16. Assessing the Sexually Abused Child as a Witness 333
Kevin D. Browne

17. Working with Young Offenders 354
Clive R. Hollin and Ruth M. Hatcher

18. The Ethics of Risk Assessment 370
James Vess, Tony Ward and Pamela M. Yates

Index 387

Assessment in Forensic Practice: A Handbook is an interesting compilation of theme-based chapters by British psychologists. It is a wonderful primer on doing criminal assessments and provides an in-depth review of many standard assessment tools, such as the Historical Clinical Risk Management-20 (HCR-20) and the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (VRAG). It also includes informative chapters concerning specific conditions, such as pyromania. The book is very good at covering large concepts that are often discussed in the psychiatric and psychological literature on criminal forensic assessment. Over the course of the book, many important areas are discussed, such as ethical concerns when doing forensic assessments, how to present opinions related to forensic assessment, and some of the inherent problems in forensic assessment, such as unknown base rates for malingering and difficulty with predicting the future.
Journal of Psychiatric Practice
"An eclectic collection of chapters which cover all aspects of scholarly understanding concerning sex offenders, Assessment and Treatment of Sex Offenders: A Handbook will prove invaluable to researchers, practitioners and students interested in furthering their understanding of this often complex offender group.

"This book will prove an essential text to professionals and students who are involved in the study of, assessment, treatment and/or management of sex offenders. A book which covers the area so comprehensively has been a significant omission for some time, and thus this text is timely and fulfils a significant gap in the academic market."
--Professor Jane L. Ireland, University of Central Lancashire

Kevin D. Browne is Professor of Forensic Psychology and Child Health at the University of Nottingham.

Leam A. Craig is Director of Forensic Programmes at Forensic Psychology Practice Ltd, and an Honorary Lecturer in Forensic Psychology at the University of Birmingham.

Anthony R. Beech, D.Phil, FBPsS, C.Psychol (Forensic) is Professor of Criminological Psychology,University of Birmingham.

K. D. Browne, University of Nottingham, UK; A. R. Beech, University of Birmingham, UK; L. A. Craig, Forensic Psychology Practice Ltd, UK