Title: Psychological jurisprudence : critical explorations in law, crime, and society /
Authors: Arrigo, Bruce A.
Publisher: State University of New York Press,
Year: 2004
Subjects: Forensic psychology.; Insanity (Law); Crime Psychological aspects.
Abstract: "Psychological jurisprudence - or the use of psychology in the legal realm - relies on theories and methods of criminal justice and mental health to make decisions about intervention, policy, and programming. While the intentions behind the law-psychology field are humane, the results often are not. This book provides a "radical" agenda for psychological jurisprudence, one that relies on the insights of literary criticism, psychoanalysis, feminist theory, political economy analysis, postmodernism, and related strains of critical thought. Contributors reveal the roots of psycholegal logic and demonstrate how citizen justice and structural reform are displaced by so-called science and facts. A number of complex issues in the law-psychology field are addressed, including forensic mental health decision-making, parricide, competency to stand trial, adolescent identity development, penal punitiveness, and offender rehabilitation.
Contents: The critical perspective in law-psychology research: new directions in citizen justice and radical social change / Bruce A. Arrigo -- Anarchic insurgencies: the mythos of authority and the violence of mental health / Christopher R. Williams -- A critical perspective on Freud's theory of parricide and crime in general / Phillip C.H. Shon -- Media images, mental health law, and justice: a constitutive response to the "competency" of Theodore Kacyznski / Michael P. Arena and Bruce A. Arrigo -- The diminishing sanctity of youth: contributions from general and family systems theory / Jeffrey L. Helms and Bruce A. Arrigo -- Recent perspectives on penal punitiveness / Veronique Voruz -- Is rationalization good for the soul: resisting "responsibilization" in corrections and courts / Shadd Maruna -- Prospects for justice at the law-psychology divide: an agenda for theory, research, and practice / Bruce A. Arrigo.