Forensic psychiatry is alive and well. The Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (AAPL) has almost 2,000 members, and there are 1,467 board-certified psychiatrists who have added qualifications in forensic psychiatry. The American College of Forensic Psychiatry has 250 members, and the American Academy of Forensic Sciences section on forensic psychiatry has 171. These numbers tell us that there are...

Training in general and forensic psychiatry in the assessment and treatment of sex offenders is in need of considerable improvement. Although most sex offenders are not mentally ill, many are subject to substance misuse, abnormal personality traits, personality disorder, learning disability or dysphoric mood, and in some organic factors will be involved. Comprehensive assessment of sex offender...

Forensic psychiatry has come under mounting criticism from the press and other medical professionals, largely for its participation in the insanity defense. The author argues that the expertise available from the specialty is of increasing importance to psychiatry as a whole, as more and more legal issues become relevant to the practice of general psychiatry, and should be actively encouraged a...

Countertransference is a clinical term introduced by Freud in 1909. For years, despite mounting criticism, forensic psychiatrists borrowed this clinical concept to explain their emotional experiences and responses to examinees' emotions and behavior. The authors describe the impact of examinee and nonexaminee factors during evaluations and beyond, including during trial and while providing fore...

Even as forensic psychiatrists have increasingly contemplated the role of culture in forensic psychiatry, practical cultural evaluations remain an under-theorized area with scant research. Older conceptions of cultural competence may risk stereotyping the evaluee on the basis of perceived group characteristics. This article offers a revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Di...

As forensic psychiatry has matured into a well-recognized subspecialty, considerable agreement about the format and content of reports has emerged. Griffith et al. now turn their attention to the art of forensic writing. Their description of the forensic report as "performative narrative" may help to refine professional practice so long as the ethics-related pitfalls are identified and avoided.

The authors surveyed a sample of American forensic psychiatrists who work in state institutions. As a group, their respondents tended to be middle-aged, white men, who had little formal training in forensic psychiatry, felt somewhat alienated from their peers, yet who were Board certified in general psychiatry. They tended to be involved primarily in the direct treatment of patients, and most o...

The rise of modern neuroscience is transforming psychiatry and other behavioral sciences. Neuroscientific progress also has had major impact in forensic neuropsychiatric practice, resulting in the increased use of neuroscientific technologies in cases of a psychiatric-legal nature. This article is focused on the impact of neuroscientific progress in forensic psychiatry in relation to criminal l...