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Principles of Forensic Mental Health Assessment
Author(s) -
HEILBRUN KIRK
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2003.tb07304.x
Subject(s) - context (archaeology) , forensic science , mental health , psychological intervention , psychology , forensic psychology , plan (archaeology) , forensic psychiatry , risk assessment , engineering ethics , medicine , engineering , psychiatry , computer science , criminology , computer security , paleontology , history , archaeology , veterinary medicine , biology
A bstract : Risk assessment with sexual offenders is generally performed for two purposes: to assist the court in deciding on a relevant legal question (in a legal context), or to plan treatment interventions (in a clinical context). Failure to make this distinction, and to accurately identify the context and purpose for which the assessment is being conducted, can result in significant problems. This chapter will begin by making this distinction. Then, focusing on evaluations done for legal decision making purposes, it will describe 29 recently derived broad principles of forensic mental health assessment and their application to evaluations done to assist legal decision making.