Conducting Insanity Evaluations

Reviews / Votes

Rogers and Shuman have done a masterful job. This updated and expanded second edition addresses clinical and forensic needs in detail, combining recent scientific data with practical experience at the interface of mental health and criminal law. The book goes a long way toward clarifying the complex relationship between forensic professionals, lawyers, and the judiciary. I am particularly impressed with its treatment of how forensic professionals can communicate their knowledge to attorneys and courts in ways that are legally useful, while retaining their accuracy and objectivity. Forensic evaluations are not the same as clinical ones, and conducting them well is not an intuitive exercise. All mental health professionals who evaluate defendants or consult to courts on criminal matters should have and read this book. It will serve as an excellent text for graduate-level courses in forensic psychology and psychiatry. Criminal defense attorneys, prosecutors, criminologists, and specialists in mental health law will also find it a useful resource. --William H. Reid, MD, MPH, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of Texas Health Science Center, Past President, American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law

This is a great resource for both psychologists and lawyers. The material on legal standards and their applications to clinical work offers the best example I have seen of what forensic psychology is all about--making clinical work relevant to legal processes, and vice versa. The text is coherent, logical, and relevant. In an area where balance is sometimes difficult to achieve, the authors show no evidence of defense or prosecution bias. Beyond its excellent coverage of its central topic, this book provides a breadth of information about conducting fair and competent forensic evaluations. --William E. Foote, PhD, ABPP, Forensic and Clinical Psychologist, Albuquerque, NM

Rogers and Shuman have done an impressive job with the second edition of Conducting Insanity Evaluations. Comprehensive yet easy to read, scholarly yet also practical, this volume is requisite reading for those involved in assessment, decision making, legislation, or research on the insanity defense. --Kirk Heilbrun, PhD, MCP, Hahnemann University

This volume attempts to assist psychological and legal professionals to understand each other as they seek to find truth and justice within an adversarial system. Rogers and Shuman succeed in explaining the legal standards of the major insanity defense in terms clear enough for both forensic experts and first-year law students. Also explicated are the competing ends of 'best possible defense' versus the protection of client and public. --Kathleen Price, JD, Professor and Library Director, New York University School of Law

Written primarily for forensic psychologists and psychiatrists, this book is also a valuable tool for prosecutors and defense attorneys. It offers helpful insights into such issues as formulating voir dire jury questions, fostering successful expert-attorney relationships, and recognizing the most important issues influencing the jury in an insanity defense case. Very readable and informative. --William VanLonkhuyzen, JD, Criminal Defense Attorney, Boston, MA
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