The Clinician's Guide to Geriatric Forensic Evaluations provides practical guidance to clinicians performing forensic evaluations on older adults. The book begins with how geriatric forensic evaluations differ from those done on non-geriatric adults. DSM-5 criteria for neurocognitive disorders are discussed and differentiated from the previous criteria in DSM-IV. Coverage includes assessing decision-making capacity/competence and evaluating undue influence, elder abuse, and financial exploitation. Each chapter opens with a case study and then highlights specific assessment techniques, best practices, and common pitfalls to avoid. The book additionally covers forensic report writing, court testimony, and when to refer to an outside independent expert. Samples of geriatric forensic reports are provided.
The book includes an examination of sources of law important to addiction and its treatment. The foundations for forensic work in professional legal testimony is explored (e.g., legal system, case law precedent, statutes governing addictions, civil and criminal procedures). The science of addiction is featured including the biology of addiction, addiction as a brain disease, responsibility vs. loss of control, development of addictions, and the role of genetics and environment. Drug testing, its uses with forensic populations, what the tests show and do not show, controversies in using tests in the general population also receives extensive treatment. Addiction and mental illness in forensic populations is highlighted for addiction treatment and continuing care. Case studies and landmark cases illustrate the role of alcohol, drug use, and addictions in legal decisions.
The Psychology of Lust Murder systematically examines the phenomenon of paraphilia (i.e., aberrant sexuality) in relationship to the crime of lust murder. By synthesizing the relevant theories on sexual homicide and serial killing, the authors develop an original, timely, sensible model that accounts for the emergence and progression of paraphilias expressed through increasingly violent erotic fantasies. Over time, these disturbing paraphilic images that, among other things, involve rape, body mutilation and dismemberment, torture, post-mortem sexual intercourse, and cannibalism, are all actualized. Thus, it is the sustained presence of deviant sexuality that contributes to and serves as underlying motive for the phenomenon of lust murder (a.k.a. erotophonophilia). Going well beyond theoretical speculation, the authors (Dr. Catherine Purcell, a forensic psychologist and Dr. Bruce Arrigo, a criminologist) apply their integrated model to the gruesome and chilling case of Jeffrey Dahmer. They convincingly demonstrate where and how their conceptual framework provides a more complete explanation of lust homicide than any other model available in the field today. The book concludes with a number of practical suggestions linked to clinical prevention, diagnosis, and treatment strategies; police training, profiling, and apprehension efforts; as well as legal and public policy responses to sexually violent and predatory assailants. Comprehensive in its coverage, accessible in its prose, and thoughtful in its analysis, The Psychology of Lust Murder is a must read for any person interested in the crime of erotophonophilia and those offenders responsible for its serial commission.