In 1982, the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (AAPL) was a growing and ambitious professional organization. Its membership was a small but vigorous group united by the desire to develop the emerging psychiatric subspecialty of forensic psychiatry within the larger context of psychiatry. The organization was 13 years old. It was devoted to the goal of uplifting the practice of forensic...

Dutch forensic psychiatry provides services for mentally disordered offenders which centre around a legal measure called the TBS order. Specialised units deal separately with assessment and treatment. The system appears to work in the context of a small and wealthy country and a criminal justice system which differs from the English system. This paper describes the key features of the secure un...

Substance abuse is an increasingly important medical and legal problem in Taiwan. This article reviews limited studies in Taiwan on the prevalence of substance abuse and psychiatric co-morbidity, and assessment of substance use disorder, with emphasis on their relation to forensic psychiatry. Complicated interaction exists among substance abuse, criminal behavior, and various mental disorders (...

The authors describe the development of a curriculum in forensic psychiatry in a general psychiatric residency training program. Educational objectives for both knowledge and skills are presented. The authors detail training experiences at each level of psychiatric residency, including electives available for fourth-year residents. They encourage other training programs to share similar reports...

While general clinicians still conduct most forensic assessments, none of the previously published textbooks targets them. In the Preface, the editors of The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Forensic Psychiatry: The Clinician’s Guide acknowledge that their main goal is to create a forensic textbook primarily for the general clinician. The textbook is designed to educate the reader in...

Objective: The forensic mental health system in Japan changed dramatically with the enforcement of the “Act on Medical Care and Treatment for the Persons Who Had Caused Serious Cases under the Condition of Insanity” or MTS Act, in 2005. The aim of this study is to evaluate the changes in attitude and behavior of general psychiatrists, towards forensic psychiatry. Methods: We conducted a questio...

Gun control legislation is essentially a law enforcement matter and a political device to reduce violent crime; only secondarily a psychiatric concern. It is a volatile issue among citizens and legislators alike. The position of forensic psychiatry toward violent crime has been largely peripheral, since only a minute number of homicides where insanity is pled (about I percent) involves psychiat...

Twenty-five years ago, Alan Stone expressed his skepticism that forensic psychiatry could be practiced ethically. His remarks have proven a useful goad to the field, focusing attention on the importance of an ethics framework for forensic practice. But Stone remains dubious that any system of ethics--including the "Standard Position" on which he focuses his critique--could be of much value in p...

In Iran, department of forensic psychiatry is one of the special units of Legal Medicine Organization concerned with individuals who demonstrate psychological and psychiatric problems. The duties of forensic psychiatrists in the department are, performing psychiatric examinations and determining mental competence of two major groups of referrals: Individuals who are involved in a legal problem ...