Working within the Forensic Paradigm Cross-discipline approaches for policy and practice

Forensic work occurs across the criminal justice sector and the legal and health professions and intersects with work in a range of areas, such as child protection, family welfare, mental health, offending, disability and addictions, family violence programmes, juvenile justice and sexual assault centres. This book offers contemporary perspectives on forensic policy and practice from the range of practitioners working with people within the forensic domain and canvasses ideas about risk and offending behaviours together with ideas about effective responses to rehabilitation and recovery. The contributors to this proposed book are drawn from the practitioners, policy contributors, advocates and researchers in mental health, welfare, law, criminology, policing and health. Negligible attention has been paid to forensic policy and practice; this proposed book offers cross-national attention to how mental health, welfare and justice systems intersect, who they affect, and how practitioners structure effective responses for vulnerable people within the forensic domain. A particular strength of the book is its international focus, making it relevant to academics and practitioners who work in this field around the world.

Introducing the Forensic Domain, Rosemary Sheehan and James Ogloff Part one: the forensic domain1. Practising in the forensic context: Cross-disciplinary perspectives, Rosemary Sheehan2. Implementing the risk paradigm: evidence and values, Andrew Carroll3. Beyond the risk paradigm: maintaining the place of the client in criminal justice interventions, Chris Trotter4. Risk management and challenges for workers and services, Gloria Kirwan5. Sexual offending, Chris Lennings, Rima Nasr, Katie Seidler and Emma Collins Part two: Care, control and community6. Neoliberalism and the criminalisation of welfare, Paul Michael Garrett7. Solution-focussed justice in the time of ‘Law and Order’, Jelena Popovic8. From care to the community: leaving forensic care and the challenge of inclusion, Grant Burkitt , Daniel Kinston, Ronan McLoughlin9. Policing young people with mental illness, Stuart Thomas10. Child sexual abuse: giving protection and turning away from future offending, James Ogloff Part three: Justice, welfare and mental health11. Significant harm: the application of the law in practice with vulnerable children, Anna Gupta12. Policing, custody and mental illness, Ian Cummins13. Mental health and the courts, Ronald Francis14. Vulnerability and resilience in the criminal justice system, Peta Barry Part four: Rehabilitation and recovery15. The recovery environment: health, homelessness and criminal justice, William Holt and Jacqueline Blatt16. Mental health services in prison, Sheila Howitt and Lindsay Thomson17. After prison: managing re-integration, mental health and desistance from offending, Flora Matheson, Amanda Brazil and Pamela Forrester18. Substance abuse and offending: risk factors and addiction recovery, David Best and Michael Savic19. Balancing legal, cultural and human rights with the forensic paradigm, Rosemary Sheehan and James Ogloff.

Rosemary Sheehan is Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work, Monash University, Australia. Her published research has looked at child welfare and the law, mental health and judicial and corrections responses to offenders, with particular reference to women offenders. Her recent research developed a specialist list project in the Children’s Court of Victoria to hear matters involving child sexual abuse; she recently completed a major study of women exiting prison. James Ogloff is the Foundation Professor of Forensic Behavioural Science at Swinburne University and Director of Psychological Services and Research at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health (Forensicare). He is trained as a psychologist and lawyer, a Fellow of the Canadian, American, and Australian psychological societies. His research addresses violence risk prediction, psychopathy and jury decision making, and long-term outcomes for children who have been sexually abused.