The phenomenon of “senseless” or “motiveless” homicide refers to homicides that lack an objective external motivation. Despite the unique challenges these homicides pose to police, few empirical studies have been conducted on the topic and existing studies are limited to clinical studies using small samples. To overcome existing empirical shortcomings, the current study used a sample of 319 homicide

The current study represents the first investigation into feigned Miranda abilities using an inpatient population. We investigated the use of a very generic measure (i.e., the Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology, or SIMS) as well as two specialized forensic feigning measures: the Miranda Quiz (MQ) and Inventory of Legal Knowledge (ILK). With a quasi‐random assignment, 82 acute inpatients

Over the past several years, an online community of self‐described “incels,” referring to involuntary celibates, has emerged and gained increased public attention. Central to the guiding incel ideology and master narrative are violent misogynistic beliefs and an attitude of entitlement, based on male gender and social positioning, with respect to obtaining desired and often illusory sexual experiences

The Internet and social media have grown increasingly relevant in homicide cases in recent years. Although several recent studies have analyzed the relationship between homicide and the Internet, there is a dearth of rigorous scientific research on the subject to date. Although a statistically rare event, Internet‐related homicide may be increasing, and forensic mental health professionals may experience

The current study examines data extracted from revocation files of a national youth‐serving organization (YSO) involving 7819 revoked individuals and 12,254 alleged child victims to better understand victim selection patterns of community‐residing child molesters. These data demonstrate consistent patterns of victim selection based upon the age, gender, and YSO affiliation of each victim. We created

This heuristic study examined potential serial sexual homicide offenders (SSHOs), an unacknowledged offender group comprised of aspiring and probable SSHOs, and compared them with successful SSHOs. Data were collected on six aspiring SSHOs who each failed a single homicide attempt, 16 probable SSHOs who committed 17 homicides in separate events, and 13 successful SSHOs who killed 90 victims in separate

As efforts to develop models for suicide prevention and intervention in the juvenile justice (JJ) system continue to grow, research to understand the feasibility and acceptability of implementing these models is critical. Examining organizational readiness for implementation, ensuring leadership and staff buy‐in for delivering the intervention, and planning for sustainability of staff participation

This study describes the results of an evaluation of a holistic defense model for juvenile clients. Longitudinal, retrospective analysis of de‐identified data from clients (N = 308) measured individual variable outcomes, relationships, and project performance. Bivariate and multivariate analyses examined the strength of association and interrelationships among client and defense team variables. Findings

The jail‐based competency treatment (JBCT) model has become an established forensic practice across the country. From the perspective of implementation science and the three core elements of the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Service (PARiHS) framework, the JBCT model is a remarkable example of how context (an unrelenting and overwhelmingly strong demand for forensic beds) has

No abstract is available for this article.

Many jurisdictions are currently transforming their juvenile probation systems to reflect research‐informed, developmentally based case management approaches. Training, developed through a community‐based, participatory action research (CBPAR) framework and guided by a community–academic partnership, may promote probation staff's readiness for such change. This paper examined whether such training

The risk–need–responsivity (RNR) model suggests several key practices for justice‐involved populations under correctional supervision. Behavioral health treatment planning aligned with RNR principles for offender populations with co‐occurring mental health and substance use disorders (CODs) could be one method for integrating RNR into clinical care. To explore a unique approach to working with behavioral

With a sample of 125 adults under community supervision (71.20% male, 76.00% White, mean age = 33.17 years), this study evaluated need‐to‐service matching using an evaluation framework from implementation science. Need‐to‐service matching is a case management strategy intended to align service referrals in case plans with justice‐involved persons' criminogenic needs. The results indicated that need‐to‐service

There is emerging evidence that the performance of risk assessment instruments is weaker when used for clinical decision‐making than for research purposes. For instance, research has found lower agreement between evaluators when the risk assessments are conducted during routine practice. We examined the field interrater reliability of the Short‐Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability: Adolescent Version

Filicide is the purposeful killing of one or more children by a parent, step‐parent, or other parental figure. Revenge filicide is a poorly understood, rare form of filicide in which a parent murders their child to cause emotional harm to the child's other parent. This descriptive study presents an international case series consisting of 62 revenge filicide cases from nine countries. Perpetrators were

This study examined the effects of pre‐trial preparation and pre‐recorded cross‐examinations on the linguistic complexity of recognition prompts (i.e., option‐posing or suggestive questions) used when questioning child victims in English criminal courts. The study also compared the linguistic complexity of recognition prompts that did and did not contain suggestive content. Analyses compared 43 cases

Offender motivation for child abduction determines both the nature and final outcome of the abduction. Research has identified victim characteristics, offender characteristics, and sexual motivations as factors influencing child abduction and child abduction homicide. We examine 565 child abductions identified through the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to determine the characteristics of victim

Pathological fixation – preoccupation with a person or a cause that is accompanied by deterioration in social and occupational functioning – has been found to precede most cases of targeted violence. It is clinically observed and theorized to have three different cognitive‐affective drivers: delusion, obsession, or extreme overvalued belief. Each driver is explained, and case examples are provided

No abstract is available for this article.

Detected or reported (“observed”) rates of sexual reoffending have long been recognized as underestimating the occurrence of actual sexual recidivism. Past attempts to bridge the gap between the two rates have been unsuccessful. Scurich and John try to reverse this course by presenting a simulation model to estimate the predicted actual sexual recidivism rates among individuals convicted of sexual

Studies of the dark figure of sexual offending using federal correctional clients reported significant evidence of previously unknown or hidden sexual violence, often among clients with no official criminal history. Unfortunately, research has produced variable estimates of how large the dark figure is. The current study sought to replicate recent studies of federal sexual offenders about the dark

A review of empirical studies of offenders—particularly sex offenders, and more particularly those who offend against children—demonstrates that denial of offenses and minimization of offending behavior are quite common at every stage of the criminal justice process. This is true during police interviews, during pretrial and presentencing mental health evaluations, among incarcerated offenders, among

Disclosure rates of child sexual abuse (CSA) to both social supports and law enforcement are concerningly low, although more research is needed to understand factors that impact disclosure. Thus, the present study examined rates of informal (i.e., to a social support) and formal (i.e., to law enforcement) disclosure of CSA, as well as victims' self‐reported experiences with telling others about their

One common and unfortunately overlooked obstacle to the detection of sexual abuse is non‐disclosure by children. Non‐disclosure in forensic interviews may be expressed via concealment in response to recall questions or via active denials in response to recognition (e.g., yes/no) questions. In two studies, we evaluated whether adults' ability to discern true and false denials of wrongdoing by children

The New Jersey Supreme Court held in New Jersey v. J.L.G. (2018) that experts can no longer explain to juries why sexually abused children might deny abuse. The court was influenced by expert testimony that “methodologically superior” studies find lower rates of denial. Examining the studies in detail, we argue that the expert testimony was flawed due to three problems with using child disclosure studies

The issue before the New Jersey Supreme Court in the Frye hearing New Jersey v. J.L.G. (2018) was whether the scientific community agreed that Summit's (1983) Child Sexual Abuse Accommodation Syndrome rested on a firm scientific foundation. Lyon et al. (this issue) critique our approach to describing child sexual abuse disclosure, which involved extrapolating rates from children who came to the attention

The current article aims to examine the performance of two brief, dynamic risk measures – the Brockville Risk Checklist (BRC4) and one of two versions of the Hamilton Anatomy of Risk Management [HARM‐FV and electronic HARM‐FV (eHARM‐FV)] – scored at regular clinical case conferences for forensic psychiatric patients in two different settings. The eHARM represents a first‐in‐class dynamic risk assessment

Severe mental illness, especially psychotic disorders that are worsening, acute or complicated, normally require intensive psychiatric care and treatment that is most appropriately provided in a mental hospital. For criminal defendants, transfer to a forensic security hospital has traditionally been the means of achieving hospital care for mentally disordered defendants who have been found incompetent

After being found not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI), individuals are typically admitted to a secure forensic hospital for evaluation and treatment. This patient population can pose a challenge to clinicians in the hospital setting due to significant violence risk, complex psychiatric presentations, and scrutiny from oversight boards and the public. This article reviews the scientific literature

Previous research has shown that forensic psychiatric treatment reduces reoffending, rehospitalization and premature mortality. Treatment outcome varies with diagnosis, but little is known about the influence of sex, psychosocial adjustment and aftercare.

Surveys confirm risk factors for the incarceration of patients with psychosis including homelessness and comorbidity. There is also agreement that severe psychosis can lead to violence. Data describing prisoners with psychosis in Germany are scarce. We aimed to compare patients with psychosis in a prison hospital and patients with psychosis in a community hospital. Demographic data were collected,

In this article, we describe critical epidemiological trends in forensic psychiatric care in the German federal state of Baden‐Württemberg. For some years, there has been a marked increase in the number of patients with psychoses and with a migration background in the high‐security hospitals of Baden‐Württemberg. We present a number of studies exploring hypotheses as to why this is the case. Taking

This article provides a comprehensive review of juvenile adjudicative competence (AC) literature published between 2010 and 2019. Publications included in this article are peer‐reviewed and disseminate original research or provide new commentary on forensic evaluation, policy, or theory. The review is organized in the following sequence: (i) factors associated with juvenile AC, (ii) evaluating juvenile

This research uses experimental methods to gauge how different facets of essentialist thinking toward (1) types of offending and (2) biosocial risk factors for criminality predict lay punishment support. A randomized between‐subjects experiment using contrastive vignettes was conducted with members of the general public (N = 897). Overall, as hypothesized, aspects of essentialist thinking, particularly

Mentally ill and emotionally disturbed offenders comprise a significant component of those whose criminal conduct has swept them into the criminal justice system, including a subset who are tried and convicted of capital murder. The present study employs the population of capital cases advanced to penalty phase in the state of North Carolina (1990–2009) to examine whether presentation to the jury of

A disbelief in alibis is one contributor to wrongful convictions. One reason that triers‐of‐fact may disbelieve alibis is that they lack evidence to corroborate the whereabouts of the suspect at the time of the crime. Contextual factors, such as when the alibi was disclosed and what was the nature of the crime, can also affect alibi believability. This paper outlines two studies where mock jurors evaluated

The risk of violent behavior is known to be higher for patients who suffer from a severe mental disorder. However, specific prediction tools for clinical work in prison psychiatry are lacking. In this single‐center study, two violence risk assessment tools (Forensic Psychiatry and Violence Tool, “FoVOx,” and Mental Illness and Violence Tool, “OxMIV”) were applied to a prison hospital population with

Although risk assessment has increasingly been used as a tool to help reform the criminal justice system, some stakeholders are adamantly opposed to using algorithms. The principal concern is that any benefits achieved by safely reducing rates of incarceration will be offset by costs to racial justice claimed to be inherent in the algorithms themselves. But fairness trade‐offs are inherent to the task

Risk assessment tools driven by algorithms offer promising advantages in predicting the recidivism risk of defendants. Jurisdictions are increasingly relying upon risk tool outcomes to help judges at sentencing with their decisions on whether to incarcerate or whether to use community‐based sanctions. Yet as sentencing has significant consequences for public safety and individual rights, care must

The US Supreme Court has required that death penalty schemes narrow the class of persons eligible for a death sentence. Through the selection requirement, juries must use mitigating and aggravating evidence jointly to select the offenders engaged in the worst of the worst crimes. This study utilized between‐subjects experimental design to test juror's ability to narrow directly. Utilizing the vignette

The National Registry of Exonerations tracks cases of individuals who have been wrongly convicted and exonerated since 1989. Their most recent report revealed that 12% of those exonerated gave false confessions. The current study used data from the National Registry of Exonerations and focused on a sample of 2,378 individuals convicted of felonies with a focus on sexual offenses, as such crimes tend

This article focuses on two aspects of actuarial risk at sentencing, the accuracy of the instrument and the outcome it predicts. For theoretical reasons rooted in the cognitive decision‐making and sentencing literature, there is a danger that judges and other practitioners might come to overly rely on a “high risk” label or designation without appreciating the accuracy of the prediction or the actual

Although actuarial risk prediction tools are widely used in the American criminal justice system, the lawyers, judges, and correctional workers who consult these products in making decisions often misunderstand fundamental aspects of how they work and what information they provide. This article suggests that the best way to ensure risk assessment tools are being used in ways that are just and equitable

This article recommends the development of broad policies of preclusion regarding the use of incarceration for offenders who are highly unlikely to commit a violent crime in the future. The proposal builds on the new Model Penal Code: Sentencing's provision on the limited utilitarian purposes of incarceration. Such low‐violence‐risk‐preclusion strategies (LVRPs) would stand on the most powerful predictive

In this article, we focus on two highly problematic issues in the manner in which the First Step Act of 2018 is being implemented by the Bureau of Prisons: an uncritical separation of “dynamic risks” and “criminogenic needs”; and a spurious reliance on “evidence‐based” interventions to reduce recidivism risk. We argue that if the Act is to live up to its promise of being a game‐changing development

The growing utilization of actuarial risk assessment instruments (RAIs) in the American criminal justice system may potentially lead to more restrained, better‐targeted uses of incarceration. However, critics have raised a variety of concerns regarding RAIs and suggested, among other things, that their incorporation into court procedures may tend to dehumanize defendants and exacerbate, rather than

As criminal justice actors increasingly seek to rely on more evidence‐informed practices, including risk assessment instruments, they often lack adequate information about the evidence that informed the development of the practice or the tool. Open science practices, including making scientific research and data accessible and public, have not typically been followed in the development of tools designed

Penile plethysmography (PPG) is an objective measure of male sexual arousal in response to the presentation of a series of erotic and neutral stimuli. This measure is now widely recognized as the most reliable means of objectively measuring male sexual arousal to specific stimuli. Many clinicians and researchers consider PPG to be a vital contribution to the assessment and treatment of adult men with

The Sixth Amendment right to an “impartial jury” should guarantee fundamental fairness that in capital cases may literally be a matter of life and death. For ecological validity, the current study focuses on capital jury questionnaires (CJQs) employed in actual death‐penalty cases. Study I examined 248 undergraduates and their responses to death‐penalty relevant questions. As an MTurk investigation

Several states have recently adopted legislation in support of pre‐arrest diversion programs that give police the authority to refer adults with behavioral health needs to treatment providers instead of placing them under arrest and booking them into local jails. The Adult Civil Citation program has been operating since 2013 to divert adults accused for the first time of a misdemeanor offense to a

The staggering rate at which incidents of child pornography (CP) are increasing highlights the need for proactive approaches to this problem. Improving the efficacy and accessibility of interventions designed for individuals who view CP provides one means of addressing this growing concern. This article explores the self‐identified motivations underlying the onset and maintenance of viewing Internet‐based

At various points in the trajectory through the criminal justice system, a person may be encouraged by the hope of legal benefit to consent to medical treatment. This benefit may consist of diversion from prosecution, a favorable sentence, or parole. This form of legal encouragement has been referred to as legal leverage, quasi‐coercive, or quasi‐compulsory treatment. In this article, we analyze interviews

Research on the treatment and programs for people who have committed sexual offenses has greatly increased in the past decade. The aim of this review is to discuss research that has been published over that period (2010–2019) that is relevant for treatment providers. The articles included in this review were found through PsycINFO and PubMed (Medline) using the keywords “treatment or therapy” and “sex

Following the advent of sexually violent predator (SVP) legislation in the early 1990s, forensic evaluators began to apply diagnostic labels related to a paraphilic interest in rape as a mental condition predisposing individuals convicted of sexual offenses to recidivate. The most recent iteration of the concept, other specified paraphilic disorder (non‐consent) (OSPD (non‐consent)), is a commonly

Individuals with intellectual disabilities (IDs) – and specifically those with genetic disorders – are more prone to medical and psychological challenges that affect their sexual development, experiences, and fertility. In this review paper we first provide an overview of the biopsychosocial (BPS) model and then explain how the model can guide and improve the assessment and treatment of challenging

Competence to stand trial (CST) evaluations are a critical part of certain criminal proceedings, and competence‐related evaluation and treatment are an increasing part of public mental health services. Whereas more research describes the defendants undergoing competence evaluations, less research has examined the actual reports detailing those competence evaluations. This study reviewed 3,644 court‐ordered