Forensic Psychology Reconsidered ─ A Critique of Mental Illness and the Courts

Forensic psychology is where psychology meets the criminal justice system. An understanding of the intersection of criminal law and psychological issues relating to criminal responsibility is critical for criminal justice students. This accessible text focuses on the criminal law implications of forensic psychology as it relates to topics such as competency to stand trial, state of mind at the time of the crime, suicide by cop, and involuntary psychiatric medication administered in custody. Unlike more traditional texts on this topic, which are primarily concerned with the clinical practice of forensic psychology, this book focuses on critical thinking as it relates to these topics. Each chapter presents a critical analysis of the topic under study, going beyond merely identifying the legal parameters of criminal responsibility to explore the ethical, philosophical, and theoretical foundations of that concept.

David Polizzi, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice at Indiana State University and a licensed clinical addiction counselor. He is the co-editor of Transforming Corrections: Humanistic Approaches to Corrections and Offender Treatment and Surviving your Clinical Placement: Reflections, Suggestions and Unsolicited Advice, and the editor of the Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Criminology, an e-publication focused on alternative theoretical and methodological perspectives related to criminology, criminal justice, and offender treatment. He has also published numerous book chapters and journal articles related to the phenomenology of strain, deviance, restorative justice, desistance, suicide by cop, addiction, and the phenomenology of the "criminal body," as well as a variety of articles related to the theory and practice of offender treatment. Prior to joining the faculty at Indiana State University, he worked as a forensic psychotherapist with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, and in a variety of community mental health settings. He has worked clinically with offender populations for nearly twenty years and has used that experience in his integration of theory and practice both in his published writing as well as his work in the classroom.

Matthew R. Draper, PhD, is Associate Professor of Behavioral Sciences at Utah Valley University. Before working at Utah Valley, he served as the Director of Clinical Training and the Mental Health Counseling Program Director at Indiana State University. His teaching specialization is in the areas of psychotherapy theory and practice, the history of psychotherapy, and philosophy of the behavioral sciences. Draper’s research and scholarship focuses on the philosophy and practice of psychotherapy, particularly the moral philosophy of forensic psychotherapy, from a broadly hermeneutic and dialogic frame. He also examines how these ideas relate to working with marginalized and underserved groups like the currently and formerly incarcerated.