The Criminal Mind

A guide for writers, which examines the fundamentals of psychology and law, theories of criminality and character disorders that can lead to criminal behavior. Annotation. Forensic psychologist Ramsland describes the work of forensic psychology with reference to real life cases, literature, and visual media. Her main purpose seems to be to encourage writers to treat forensic psychology with as much accuracy as possible. She illustrates the practice of psychology with examples from fictive media, but points out where they stray from the actual practice of the field. Chapters cover psychology and the law, theories of criminality, types of character disorders, psychological assessment, the psychologist as expert witness, mental states at the time of the offense, crime control, treatment and rehabilitation, juveniles and crime, the psychologist as consultant or investigator, and ethics.