Free Psychology Books: Forensic and legal psychology (2012) by Costanzo & Krauss

Forensic and legal psychology (2012) by Costanzo & Krauss

Every year, each of us teaches a course in either Forensic Psychology or Psychology and Law. This combined teaching experience—spanning more than three decades—prompted us to write this book and guided our writing process. Our goal was to produce a student-friendly textbook, a book that is both acces-sible and rigorous. Drawing on research in social, cognitive, clinical, and devel-opmental psychology, we have attempted to show how psychological science can be used to enhance the gathering of evidence, improve legal decision-making, re-duce crime, and promote justice. One aspect of this book that makes it a distinctive alternative to existing text-books is writing style. Of necessity, all textbooks designed for a particular course must be similar in content. Often, it is how content is presented that makes a book appealing to students and instructors. Great care has been taken to write Forensic and Legal Psychology in a lively, engaging style. When presenting research findings, we have tried to portray the research process as a kind of detective story—an ef-fort to unravel a mystery through systematic data collection. We have also made extensive use of real cases and trials to draw students into the material and to illustrate the relevance of research findings. To make sure our writing was clear and engaging, every chapter was reviewed and edited by both students and scholars. Finally, to enhance the visual appeal of the book and to clarify research findings, we have used tables, graphs, photos, and figures throughout the text. 

Forensic and Legal Psychology is intended to provide a comprehensive introduction to the varied, expanding field of psychology and law. The chapters that follow explore virtually every aspect of the legal system that has been studied by psychologists. We emphasize how research and theory can deepen our under-standing of key participants (e.g., criminals, police, victims, lawyers, witnesses, judges, and jurors) and basic psychological processes (e.g., decision-making, persuasion, perception, memory, and behavior change) in the legal system. In ad-dition to core chapters on topics such as eyewitness identification, jury decision-making, child custody, and the insanity defense, we have included full chapters on a few topics not well-covered in most textbooks. For example, our chapter on the psychology of forensic identification(DNA, fingerprints, and physical trace ev-idence) explores an increasingly important area of psychology and law. Contrary to media depictions, the process of matching trace evidence to a criminal suspect relies heavily on human judgment and is prone to error based on perceptual and cognitive biases. We have also devoted an entire chapter to the rapidly evolving area of workplace law(a topic that includes issues such as sexual harassment, prejudice and discrimination, and work-family conflicts). Full chapters are also devoted to risk assessment(a key consideration in arrest, sentencing, and parole...........

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Free Psychology Books: Criminal Psychology and Forensic Technology by Helen M. Godwin

Criminal Psychology and Forensic Technology by  Helen M. Godwin

 

When the investigating authorities have identified a search area in relation to a specific crime involving concealment, possibly by burial, the first step has to be the examination of a range of appropriate maps. These must include a geological map, as in some parts of the U.K., outcropping and near surface solid geology of such materials as granite or limestone will, in the former case preclude, and in the second deter, any attempts at digging. Even chalk is immensely difficult to dig into deeply, and the presence of it in an area will almost certainly infer that any burial will be relatively shallow. Similarly, deposits of drift geology such as clay, which tends to be waterlogged, can impede the use of certain investigative methods, such as GPR. Conventional maps will show areas of woodland, settlement, degree of slope, rivers and other bodies of water such as lakes, and roads, tracks, and footpaths which might have been used as access routes. Such knowledge will inform any search strategy, and will document changes over time. Other types of mapping can be useful. Land that is subject to protection as nature reserves or agricultural conservation schemes will almost certainly have been subject to vegetation and land-use mapping, and subsequent vegetation change will be monitored by regular aerial photography. Such data is held in England and Wales by organizations such as English Nature and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, as well as by relevant government departments. It can provide a baseline from which to assess any recent change that could indicate criminal activity.

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Free Psychology Books: Psychotherapy with Suicidal People by A. A. Leenaars

Psychotherapy with Suicidal People by A. A. Leenaars

Death is difficult to understand. Death is mysterious. It is almost universally feared and remains forever elusive. This is especially so with suicide. Almost all of us are bewildered, confused, and even overwhelmed when confronted with suicide. Yet, for some it is a final solution. Perplexing for most, it is actively sought by a few. Paradoxically, these few same people are probably the least aware of the essence of reasons for doing so. Understanding suicide, and death, is a complex endeavour for all. Briefly defined, suicide is the human act of self-inflicted, self-intentioned cessation (Shneidman, 1973). Suicide is not a disease (although there are many who think so); it is not a biological anomaly (although biological factors may play a role in some suicides); it is not an immorality (although it has often been treated as such); and it is not a crime in most countries around the world (although it was so for centuries). It is unlikely that any one view or theory will ever define or explain phenomena as varied and as complicated as acts of human self-destruction. Our own initial definition is fraught with complexities and difficulties. The history of our key word provides only initial assistance. “Suicide”, in fact, is a relatively recent word. According to The Oxford English Dictionary, the word was used in 1651 by Walter Charleton when he said: “To vindicate one’s self from. . . inevitable Calamity, by Sui-cide is not . . . a Crime.” However, the exact date of its first use is open to some question. Some claim that it was first used by Sir Thomas Browne in his book, Religio Medici, published in 1642. Edward Philips, in his 1662 edition of his dictionary, A New World of Words, claimed to have invented the word. The word “suicide” does not appear in Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy (1652 edition), nor in Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary (1755). Before the introduction of the word, other terms, of course, were used to describe “the act”— among them self-destruction, self-killing, self-murder, and self-slaughter. Burton’s phrases for suicide include “to make way with themselves” and “they offer violence to themselves....

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