Psychological Evaluations for the Courts, Third Edition: A Handbook for Mental Health Professionals and Lawyers,   ISBN:9781572309661

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I won't lie, this book was a tough read, but it covers EVERYTHING. In my graduate program I frequently return to this text when my other texts fail (and they do), as well as for competent references. For anyone going into the field, either on the law or forensic psychology side, I would highly recommend this text.

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For any forensic psychology practioner or student, this will be your bible. It is a terrific reference book that covers every aspect of psychology and the legal system. Not a lot of people realize that forensic psychology is not CSI! it is more like a psychology and a law degree in one. And this book is the best point of reference for any practicing forensic psychologist, which includes every situation one could possibly be orderd to evaluate.

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I'm new to the forensic arena. I was solicited to help with a unique criminal case involving a clinical area in which I have a lot of expertise, but didn't have forensic experience. I needed help with report writing (formatting, wording) and an overall crash course in dealing with the legal system from this perspective. I purchased several books, and this one by far was the most helpful in meeting my needs as a novice in this area.

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The book is very informative and precise on the way psychological evaluations are conducted for the courts.

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Melton et al's Psychological Evaluations for the Courts has been an impressive text since the first edition; with this (3rd) edition, I and am surprised to see an error in the description of the RRASOR on p. 314. The Rapid Risk Assessment for Sexual Offense Recidivism is one method used to evaluate sexual offenders for risk of rearrest or reconviction for a new sexual offense; therefore is used in many legal cases where the liberty interest of a person for years to come may be the main issue. This warrants an accurate review of the instrument, even if the review is only a few sentences. Melton et al state correctly that the instrument is composed of only four items, then list these as being prior offenses, gender of victim, age at release, and marital history. While marital history is an item of the Static-99 (a different but related method for estimating risk of sexual offenders), it is NOT an item of the RRASOR. The fourth item of the RRASOR is the offender's relationship to the victim.

The item "relationship to victim" is scored positive if the victim was unrelated to the offender, and negative if the victim was a close relative. This is in keeping with research that generally shows that a sexual offender who has offended only against a family member - incest - is less likely to commit and get caught for another sexual offense than is an offender who commits a sexual offense against an unrelated victim.

This is an unfortunate error, as the Static-99 item regarding marital history has been found to be the least reliable item to score and is the one most frequently left out of research studies and is being left out of the next version of the Static-99, the Static-2002.

Another point is that the "prior offenses" item refers to prior SEXUAL offenses, not to any criminal offense.

Sexual predator statutes were not yet enacted when Melton et al's first edition of this book came out and the methods often used today to estimate risk for future sexual criminal arrest and reconviction were not yet developed, so this section in the third edition is not one that has been extensively dealt with in previous editions.

I do have Melton's previous books and have, as others in my profession generally do, consider the volume on Psychological Evaluations for the Courts to be an indispensable resource; which is why this cursory and inaccurate treatment of a subject is so surprising. The authors have been contacted and although they cannot correct the error in this edition, they will address it in the next supplement.

The book is definitely worth having.