Few things should go together better than psychology and law - and few things are getting together less successfully. Edited by four psychologists and a lawyer, and drawing on contributions from Europe, the USA and Australia,
Applying Psychology to Criminal Justice argues that psychology should be applied more widely within the criminal justice system. Contributors develop the case for successfully applying psychology to justice by providing a rich range of applicable examples for development now and in the future. Readers are encouraged to challenge the limited ambition and imagination of psychology and law by examining how insights in areas such as offender cognition and decision-making under pressure might inform future investigation and analysis.
This essential volume, edited by four psychologists and a lawyer, argues that psychology can, and should be, applied more widely, particularly within the criminal justice system. Psychology and Law has made enormous strides during the last three decades. It now incorporates a much wider range of topics and has seen a marked international growth in specialist journals, books and conferences. The focus, until now, has been on research and academic membership rather than on practical applications and participation by practitioners, psychologists or lawyers, something this volume aims to change.
This book develops the case for successfully applying psychology to law, and criminal justice in particular, by providing a rich range of applicable examples for development, now and in the future. In Applying Psychology to Criminal Justice psychologists are encouraged to challenge the currently relatively limited ambition and imagination of psychology and law by examining, amongst other aspects:
- The relevance of offenders' methods of thinking and concepts to criminal responsibility
- The ways in which psychology might be used to inform analyses of corporate responsibility for systems failure
- How analyses of decision-making under pressure are most effectively undertaken
- How psychological research and insights might be applied to the investigation and analysis of system failure.
This text is an important addition to the bookshelves of forensic, legal, clinical, and occupational psychologists, students, and criminal justice personnel: police, probation, prisons. Also essential reading for investigators, lawyers, law reform agencies, and those government departments concerned with home, constitutional, law reform agendas.
Contributors
Laurence Alison, UK
Ray Bull, UK
Susan Dennison, Australia
Leslie Ellis, USA
Jacey Erickson, USA
Marie Eyre, UK
Ronald Fisher, USA
Edie Greene, USA
John G. D. Grieve, UK
Kirk Heilbrun, USA
Peter van Koppen, The Netherlands
Jenny McEwan, UK
Becky Milne, UK
Francis Pakes, The Netherlands/UK
Emma Palmer, UK
Margaret Reardon, USA
Gary Shaw, UK
Aldert Vrij, UK
Jane Winstone, UK
