Psychiatric Criminology: A Roadmap for Rapid Assessment / Edition 1

by John A. Liebert, MD, William J. Birnes, JD, PhD

Overview

Since the shutdown of our public psychiatry system, the seriously mentally ill are now mostly managed by public safety officers, school officials, emergency first responders and social workers with little experience in recognizing symptoms, triggers and issues. This book addresses the need to recognize the psychiatric component of criminological issues and the methodology of dealing with it on a practical as well as academic basis. It provides a roadmap for training in rapid assessment built on evidence-based emergency psychiatry protocols.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781498714174
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	08/19/2016
Pages:	423
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

John A. Liebert, MD, William J. Birnes, JD, PhD

Table of Contents

Through a lens darkly. A brief history of managing the mentally ill. The misleading statistics of violence and crime. The drivers of violence-related crime statistics. The Tarasoff Decision. The importance of informed consent. Police and psychiatric patient encounters. Protecting our greatest natural resource: Our youth in schools. Special problems of our veterans. Corrections psychiatry. Special problems of the homeless. Role of occupational psychiatry for frontline public safety and health officers. Innovations in psychiatric criminology. Special forensic issues. Suicidal pilots in the aviation industry. Prevention in the era of optimized patient flow, criminalization of serious neuropsychiatric disease and anemic occupational and student health services. The terrorist and the suicide cult.

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Steven T Herron, MD (CPI/Assurance Health and Wellness)
Description: Using case examples from numerous high profile defendants, these authors attempt to highlight the need for more comprehensive screening of individuals in acute-care settings to identify those in need of mental health services and decrease future acts of violence.
Purpose: The authors produced this book to provide a "conceptual framework" for putting in place services and appropriately trained clinicians capable of providing acute assessment of individuals to identify mental health issues and address them adequately.
Audience: One of the authors of the foreword suggests this book "should be a first step for both college departments responsible for educating our new clinicians and public safety officers, as well as public health and safety officials in active roles." I have not read the previous works by these authors, but their names are mentioned numerous times throughout the book, presumably as a way of reminding readers of the prognostications they have made about this subject before.
Features: The early chapters help readers understand some of the history of the mentally ill, and discuss various forensic matters in mental health law, before veering into other territory, such as school violence, veterans' affairs, suicidal pilots, and the homeless population. Chapters generally end with a short list of references. There are a few copied slides, mostly in black and white, and a limited number of diagrams found intermittently throughout the book.
Assessment: Although the idea for this book is interesting and worthwhile, it does not meet its lofty goals. For example, though numerous high-profile cases are mentioned, none are ever explored in depth. Most are used only to illustrate specific points vital to the author's supposition. Additionally, there are virtually no practical solutions offered for how to move forward with training clinicians to better identify the danger associated with these individuals early enough to prevent the unfortunate incidents. All told, this work is disappointing.

Doody's Review Service