Day 1 :
Keynote Forum
Jacqui Saradjian
Director, 1,2,3 Working Together, UK
Keynote: Working with schema therapy to make significant therapeutic breakthroughs for forensic patients in a service for men with a diagnosis of severe personality disorder: Recognising the frozen child and strategies to ‘thaw’ him/her
Time : 09:30-10:15
Biography:
Jacqui Saradjian is a Consultant Clinical and Forensic Psychologist, formerly the Clinical Director of The Fens Offenders with Personality Disorder Pathway Service within a high secure prison which she ran for more than 10 years. She has worked effectively for over 25 years with offenders, both within prisons and within health services, in both hospitals and the community. She has created therapeutic programmes with a strong evidence base from which has had excellent outcomes. She has presented her work nationally in the UK and internationally in Europe, Canada and in the USA.
Abstract:
Purpose: Schema therapy has gone through various adaptations, including the identification of various schema modes. This workshop suggests there may be a further dissociative mode, the ‘frozen child’ mode, which is active for some patients, particularly those that have experienced extreme childhood trauma.
Design/methodology/approach: The workshop is based on a participant observer case study including the personal reflections of a forensic patient who completed a treatment programme which includes schema therapy. This is backed up by various clinical case studies in which this concept has been used therapeutically.
Findings: The proposed mode, “frozen child”, is supported by theoretical indicators in the literature. It is proposed that patients develop this mode as a protective strategy and that unless recognised and worked with, can prevent successful completion of therapy. Using this concept therapeutically has led to significant therapeutic progress with those patients.
Research limitations/implications: Based on a single case study, this concept is presented as a hypothesis that requires validation as the use of the case study makes generalisation difficult. Nevertheless, supported by the clinical case studies it raises many interesting issues for consideration and discussion.
Practical implications: It is suggested that if validated, this may be one of the blocks therapists have previously encountered that has led to the view that people with severe personality disorder are “untreatable’. Suggestions are made as to how patients with this mode, if validated, can be treated with recommendations as to the most appropriate processes to potentiate such therapy. This will be discussed with regard to several clinical cases, including any cases brought by those attending the workshop.
Originality/value: The suggestion of this potential “new schema mode” is based on service user initiative, arising from a collaborative enterprise between service user and clinician, as recommended in recent government policies. The workshop will give a unique opportunity to have dialogue with an ex-offender who has completed the UK Offender with Personality Disorder Pathway from High Security to the community and, having genuinely changed, is now able to articulate the process of that engagement and change and what had previously stopped him and his peers from genuinely engaging with psychological services, along with a highly-experienced therapist who has written and delivered these programmes with outstanding results.
Keynote Forum
Patrice Renaud
Philippe-Pinel Institute, Canada
Keynote: Using immersive virtual reality in Forensic Psychology: The Philippe-Pinel Institute experience
Time : 10:15-11:00
Biography:
Patrice Renaud is the director of the Virtual Reality Applications in Forensic Psychology (VRAFP) laboratory at the Philippe-Pinel Institute of Montreal, a maximum security psychiatric hospital based in Canada. He is the first researcher to have developed and tested a method to assess sexual preferences using virtual reality. VRAFP is the first virtual reality lab built for forensic clinical and research purposes.
Abstract:
Virtual reality and related simulation technologies might change the way we do research and clinical forensic practice in the near future. Assessment of sexual preferences and of self-regulation processes, for instance, can be addressed through virtual reality (VR). VR can be used to track cognitive distortions and planning process of sexual aggression; daily life situations, elements of relapse cycle and stressing events can be simulated in VR to probe into these aspects of sexual aggression as if they were lived in real-time. In the same way, emotional regulation problems, empathy, cognitive distortions and social difficulties in antisocial individuals can be addressed in context, in complex simulated social interactions. Furthermore, the coupling of this kind of VR-based methodology to neurofeedback and real-time brain-computer interface is about to give rise to new therapeutics for deviant behavior in the emerging field of neurorehabilitation. Realistic computer-generated stimuli (CGS) are central to all these uses of VR in the field of forensic psychology research and clinical practice.
Keynote Forum
Felice Carabellese
University of Bari, Italy
Keynote: Closing Italian high security hospitals: A new treatment’s model
Time : 11:15-12:00
Biography:
Felice Francesco Carabellese, is an Italian Psychology Professor working in University of Bari at Italy. Achievements include research in Forensic Psychiatric. Carabellese, Felice Francesco was born on August 24, 1959 in Molfetta, Bari, Italy. He completed his degree in Medicine, University Bari, 1986. He started his carrier as a Professor Forensic Psychiatry, University Bari, since 2002 with Italian Army.
Abstract:
In the past, in Italy the treatment of mentally ill offenders at risk for recidivism (“dangerous to the society”) was entrusted by the Judicial Psychiatric Hospital (OPG). The OPG facilities were High Security Hospitals, directly managed by the Ministry of Justice. The six Italian OPG hospitals accommodated about 1,000 patients collectively. These patients were offenders who, with regard to our penal code, were adjudicated not guilty (or partially guilty) by reason of insanity for their criminal offense because they suffered from a severe mental disorder at the time of the crime and were found to be “dangerous to the society”. A recent law (Law n.9, February the 17th 2012) ratified the closure of the OPG hospitals (March the 31st 2015), which have been replaced by rehabilitation communities placed across all Italian regions, controlled by the National Health System on the model of what occurs in Italy for all the other mentally ill individuals, This presentation explains all the steps that have been made in the transition to this new program.
Keynote Forum
Grace Skrzypiec
Flinders University, Australia
Keynote: How important are moral norms in adolescents’ intentions to engage in Criminal activity?
Time : 12:00-12:45
Biography:
Abstract:
Keynote Forum
Kim A. Dilati
Sydney Clinical and Forensic Psychology Services, Australia
Keynote: Hip-Hop Therapy: An approach to working with young offenders with severe mental health conditions
Time : 12:45-13:30
Biography:
Kim Dilati is a Clinical and Forensic Psychologist with the Justice Health and Forensic Mental Health Network (JH&FMHN), Australia as well as in private practice. She has worked with young offenders and at-risk youth in various Australian Government organisations for 12 years. Kim is currently undertaking her PhD at Western Sydney University where she is examining the effects of Hip Hop Therapy in young/adult offenders with mental health disorders. In 2016, she was the recipient of the NSW Health Award for the Rhythm & Rhymes Program (Hip Hop Therapy) and continues to present nationally on the therapeutic effects of hip-hop therapy in young people.
Abstract:
Rap music emerged over four decades ago as a struggle for self-determination following North American slavery and oppression. The Hip-Hop culture was founded on this adversity and illustrates a form of social protest, promoting messages of social awareness, personal consciousness, activism, pleasure and power (Miller et al., 2013). Research to date has supported the therapeutic efficacy of rap music for at-risk young adults (Levy, 2012; Alvarez, 2011; Elligan, 2000). Although, Hip-Hop Therapy is a relatively novel and unconventional mode of therapy for young people, engagement with rap music programs have found to be increasingly high compared to Treatment as Usual (TAU; Elligan, 2000). As such, Hip-Hop therapy remains an effective but underutilized treatment approach targeting at-risk youth and currently, there are few similar programs in the community or correctional settings in Australia or worldwide. The Rhythm & Rhymes Adolescent/Adult Program (RRAP) or Hip-Hop therapy, is a therapeutic group program for young and adult offenders with severe mental health disorders. The objectives of the group is to utlise rap music and song writing to increase prosocial activities, facilitate positive behaviour change, increase engagement in therapeutic programs, improve coping skills, depression, anxiety and hopelessness in young people with severe mental health disorders. Thirty-five adolescent and adult patients from a high secure Forensic Hospital in Sydney, Australia completed a voluntary 12 week Hip-Hop Therapy group. A mixed methods study design was utilised. Pre and post group measures were collected, individual lyrics were qualitatively analysed and post group interviews were conducted.Results found that there were improvements in prosocial behaviours, engagement in therapy, depression, coping skills, anxiety and hopelessness. Overall, this study illustrates how rap music has the potential to promote prosocial behaviour, increase engagement in treatment, improve empowerment, self-efficacy and distress tolerance skills in correctional and forensic settings.
- Forensic Psychology| Forensic Psychiatry | Anthropology | Digital and Cyber Forensics
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Session Introduction
Jacqui Saradjian
1,2,3 Working Together, UK
Title: Proven strategies for engagement, Effective change and enduring risk reduction with offenders
Biography:
Jacqui Saradjian is a Consultant Clinical and Forensic Psychologist, formerly the Clinical Director of The Fens Offenders with Personality Disorder Pathway Service and who is currently working with adolescent offenders.
Abstract:
Research indicates that at least 70% of offenders reach criteria for personality disorder other than antisocial. The focus of forensic psychology is on assessment and reduction of risk.To fully assess and reduce the risk an offender poses, the underlying drives to offend must be understood and addressed. To do this an offender must be genuinely engaged however, it is notoriously difficult to fully engage and work therapeutically with offenders with a diagnosis of personality disorder. This workshop is presented by a consultant clinical and forensic psychologist with a long standing proven record of establishing and running a service for, and working therapeutically with, men with severe personality disorder with outstanding results in risk reduction (Saradjian et al, 2013). This workshop will be co-facilitated by an expert by experience who has in-depth personal insights into the both the processes needed for effective engagement and change ( Asad Ul Lah & Saradjian, 2016a & 2016b ).
Based on schema therapy, a highly accessible intervention which is gaining an increasing evidence based for effectiveness with this client group, this interactive workshop will give useable strategies as to how to successfully engage offenders and the interventions needed to bring about real change and risk reduction. Importantly it will also explore a significant block to treatment and a possible reason why so many offenders drop out of interventions.
This is a unique opportunity to have dialogue with an ex-offender who has completed the UK Offender with Personality Disorder Pathway from High Security to the community and, having genuinely changed, is now able to articulate the process of that engagement and change and what had previously stopped him and his peers from genuinely engaging with psychological services, along with a highly-experienced therapist who has written and delivered these programmes with outstanding results.
Natalia Sypion-Dutkowska
University of Szczecin, Poland
Title: Land use impact on a spatial distribution of Crime
Biography:
Natalia Sypion-Dutkowska, Ph.D. – works as a Professor assistant in the Spatial Management Unit at Faculty of Geosciences, University of Szczecin (Poland) where she has been a faculty member since 2004. She received an MSc. in geography from University of GdaÅ„sk (Poland) in 2002, and an MSc. in GIS from Jagiellonian University (Poland) and University of Salzburg (Austria) in 2008. She received her Ph.D. in Geosciences in the discipline of geography from the University of Szczecin (Poland) in 2013. Her research interests are environmental criminology, geography of crime, GIS and crime mapping. She is a member of International Association of Crime Analysts (IACA).
Abstract:
The purpose of this workshop is to identify a spatial pattern of urban crime (residential crimes, car crimes, commercial crimes, robbery and fights, and drug crimes) and to evaluate the relationship between aspects of place and clustering of crime. The study focuses on the point incident mapping of (ca. 40.000) urban crimes by address, committed in the years 2005-10 in the Polish large city of Szczecin (ca. 400.000 inhabitants). Hypothetical spatial (punctual, linear or areal) conditions of particular types of urban crime are divided into: generators (i.e. malls, commercial centers and streets, markets, traffic nodes, high schools, sport and entertainment centers etc.), attractors (alcohol shops, night clubs, discotheques, pawnshops etc.), enablers (public housing, youth concentrations, poverty areas, demolished and abandoned areas etc.), distractors (safeguarded buildings and areas, monitored public spaces, churches, cemeteries etc.), and crime-neutral areas. Relationships between the concentrations of particular types of urban crime and the individual and common impact of generators, attractors, enablers, and distracters will be quantitatively evaluated using the GIS and crime mapping methods and techniques (overlapping, buffering, distance), as well as statistical tests.
Rodrigo Dresdner
Public Forensic Institute, USA
Title: Arsonist behavior pattern: A qualitative model
Biography:
Dr. Rodrigo (Santiago, Chile, 1956). Psychiatrist and couple therapist. He has been a forensic psychiatrist in the Legal Medical Service (SML) since 1998. There he has focused his work on expertise and investigations in people accused of violent crimes. He has been working since 2008 as medical coordinator of the Adult Psychiatry Unit of the Metropolitan SML.
In the year 2010 he published the work Forensic Psychiatry in Criminal Matters (Editions of the Chilean Society of Neurology, Psychiatry and Neurosurgery, SONEPSYN). The year 2014 published the Manual of forensic psychiatry for lawyers (Editorial Libromar Ltda.). It has forensic investigations published in Chile and abroad, and papers at the biannual congresses of the International Association of Mental Health and Law. He obtained the academic degree of Doctor of Medical Sciences with mention in Forensics with a thesis investigation in incendiary population, developing a model of patterns in this type of criminal behavior. He teaches in different metropolitan universities, in regions and abroad. He has taught training for the Public Ministry, Public Criminal Defense and Judicial Academy. Since 2008 he is the coordinator of the Forensic Psychiatry Working Group of SONEPSYN. He has participated as an expert guest in inter-institutional work tables by the Ministry of Health.
Abstract:
Aim and method: By taking on account ideological and motivation factors, firesetting proceedings, environment influences and psychiatric and psychological matters related to arson it was possible to classified and design an adult arson model. The research analysis was focused on medical and criminal records and forensic psychiatry reports from an arsonist population (N = 197) referred for mental assessment at the Medical Legal Service in Chile, over a twelve-year period (1999-2011).
Conclusion: Psychological, psychiatric and criminological aspects were useful on describing arsonist characteristics and analysis of their personal meanings given to different steps of firesetting displaying (before, during and afterwards) report clinical and forensic knowledge of different types of fire setter defendants, as well. Eight arson patterns were obtained, including mood and emotional disorders related, revenge motivated, alcohol and substance intoxication associated with neglect or antisocial behavior, ideological and criminal factors, and pyromania. Psychopaths were able to display arson behavior in different ways and seem to be considered as a special category of this clinical, forensic and criminological phenomena.
Biography:
Buddy C. Thornton has completed his doctoral studies and is currently completing his dissertation as required by Grand Canyon University with a focus on cross-cultural competency and conflict management. He is the owner of BCT Mediations PLUS, a conflict management organization aligned with BrÄv, a global online dispute resolution organization, where he functions as a BrÄv global ambassador and mediator. Mr. Thornton is a contributing author for Lawful Talks India, gives mediation-aligned training primarily in the Asia-Pacific area, and is a mediation conference presenter and keynote speaker. The primary topics are aligned with conflict management and peaceful outcomes.
Abstract:
Restorative justice processes have emerged as an effective tool in family and juvenile court environments, but research is lacking on whether the process has merit in non-capital offense criminal court cases. Synthesizing an aligned process that concurrently protects the public while giving substantial consideration for how the victim emerges from the adjudication process should be a primary focus of justice. Up to this point, victims rights and needs have taken a back seat to how courts approach convicted perpetrators. Exploring the benefits mediation and restorative justice processes afford victims after the fact, project lower rates of recidivism for perpetrators, and create social and economic benefits for the public offers pathways to enhancing the criminal legal process overall. Humanizing victims emerges as the primary overlooked factor restorative justice enhances when courts include controlled victim-perpetrator interaction. In violent contexts, online dispute resolution platforms allow victims respite from the fear associated with direct interaction while healing moves forward. Pros and cons of restorative justice processes are discussed at length with suggested action potential for expansion from current levels of utilization. Future research is suggested aligned with a broad continuum of potential criminal contexts.
Biography:
Karin Spenser completed her PhD from Nottingham Trent Univeisty. She is a lecturer in Forensic nad Criminal Psychology at the University of Derby, as well as a UK Justice of the Peace. She has published a number of papers in reputed journals, as well as presenting at international conferences, on a variety of topics relating to the pschology of offending behaviours.
Abstract:
Prosociality is important in the study of offending behaviours. This is explained by the belief that the risk of offending is lowered if a person is possessed of certain cognitive skills. As a consequence several rehabilitative interventions, aimed at improving these skills, have been developed in the UK. However, despite the recognition that psychometric measurements can provide an understanding of individual cognitive abilities, with the exception of IQ, most do not require potential participants to be pre-screened before participation. Evidence relating to the success of these programmes has been mixed. Indeed, for some interventions research has indicated little or no difference in terms of recidivism at the two year mark between those who took part in the programme and those who did not. Yet, the theoretical premise, that programmes aimed at improving cognitive abilities in offenders will have a positive effect on recidivism, remains robust. The overriding aim of this study was to consider the potential benefits of assessing individual cognitive abilities in offenders, prior to programme participation. To do this, 400 male and female, offenders and non-offenders, completed questionnaires measuring a number of cognitive abilities. Significant differences were detected between the offenders and the non-offenders, with the offenders scoring lower than the non-offenders. It is therefore suggested that, like IQ, consideration of cognitive abilities may be of long term benefit. Simply, a more focused intervention, aimed at the specific cognitive needs of an individual, or group of offenders, may have a greater the impact in terms of reducing re-offending.
Larry E. Britton
The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, USA
Title: Examining factors that influence adverse life events and social supports among homeless males
Biography:
Larry E. Britton Jr. is currently a third-year PsyD student at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Los Angeles Campus. He has had the opportunity working amongst Forensic Mental Health inpatient and outpatient settings, with both adolescents and adults. Larry completed his first practicum apart of his clinical training working with homeless adults in the Skid Row located in Los Angeles and is completing the second practicum at an Institute of Mental Disease conducting therapy and psychological testing with Severely Mentally Ill adults. He is interested in continuing working within the forensic mental health field and continuing research.
Abstract:
Homelessness continues to be one of our countries most overlooked topics in which has started to gain some attention from legislatures and mental health professionals. One of the most significant populations in urban areas that are known to be homeless is the black male. In this study, 25 Black Male participants were pooled from the Los Angeles Mission, a Christian-Based rehabilitation program that houses men and women struggling with co-occurring disorders. Adverse life events, number of arrests, and social supports; were analyzed amongst all 25 Black Homeless Males; within this study. Within the Homeless Black Males, all of the participants were over the age of 25; 28% were 25-34, 40% were 35-49, 24% were 50-64, and 8% were 65 and older. Of the 25 Black Male participants, it was found that 64% were a Non-Veteran and 36% were a Veteran. 72% of the Black Males endorsed that they have been diagnosed with a Mental Disorder. Data Analysis indicated that the top three adverse life events that are seen amongst the Black Male Homeless population were Mental Health Problems; Physical, Emotional, and Sexual Abuse; and Marital and Family Problems. When looking at the number of arrests, it was found that 52% of the Black Males endorsed that they have been arrested 0-3 times throughout their lives. Finally, results show that Significant Others, Family, and Friends are critical social supports for both Non-Veteran and Veteran Homeless Black Male populations. Clinical implications and future directions are discussed.
Quianna Glapion
Clark Atlanta University, USA
Title: FB Eye files: The psychology of real-life and literary serial killers
Biography:
Quianna Glapion is an English PhD candidate at Clark Atlanta University. She has served as an instructor of English at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas; and Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia. Ms. Glapion is a member of the Black Doctoral Network, the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education, and the International Association of Forensic Linguists. Her research interests includes: Forensic Linguistics (The Speech Pattern of Psychopathic Killers); the Criminal Anatomy of Serial Killers; and the Psychosis of Serial Killers.
Abstract:
This study examines the psychology of fictional and real-life serial killers and the behavioral similarities between them. Three fictional murderers, mainly Macbeth (William Shakespeare’s Macbeth), Buffalo Bill (The Silence of the Lambs), and Victor Frankenstein’s creature (Frankenstein), as well as real-life killers such as Charles Manson, Edward Gein, and Edmund Kemper were researched in depth. The data for this study was gathered from a variety of sources such as biographies, television interviews, personal interviews, published novels, articles, and documentaries. This investigation also focuses on predispositional factors and personality traits that led these killers to a life of crime. While no single behavioral trait was found to be present in every murderer studied, some of the psychological factors, that led them to murder, that were found to have predictive value included: abusive upbringings, mother hate, adoption, pornography, and brain damage were also reliable predictors in the lives of fictional murderers and their real-life counterparts.
Gemma Hamilton
RMIT University, Australia
Title: The effects of face-to-face versus live video-feed interviewing on children’s event reports
Biography:
Dr. Gemma Hamilton is a sessional lecturer and researcher at RMIT University (Justice and Legal Studies). She holds a Bachelor of Arts with first class Honours, and a Ph.D. in forensic psychology from Deakin University. Her research focuses on investigative interviewing as well as gendered violence.
Abstract:
Purpose: Recent advances in technology have raised a potentially promising service to overcome difficulties associated with remote witnesses: live video-feed interviews. The efficacy of this mode of interviewing, however, lacks empirical evidence, particularly with children in an investigative context.
Methods: This study explored the effects of live video-feed compared to face-to-face interviewing on the memory reports of 100 children (aged 5-12). Children participated in an innocuous event and were interviewed 1 to 2 days later by experienced interviewers.
Results: Analyses indicated that live video-feed interviewing was just as effective as face-to-face interviewing in terms of the accuracy and informativeness of children’s accounts. Video-feed interviews, however, required a higher number of clarification prompts compared to face-to-face interviews. These findings were not influenced by children’s familiarity with technology.
Conclusions: An initial test of live video-feed interviewing indicates it is a safe and effective method for interviewing children about an innocuous event.
Joao Pedro Lourenco
North Lisbon Hospital Center, Portugal
Title: Nature vs nurture on criminology – A review of genetic contribution to violent behavior
Biography:
João Pedro Lourenço has completed his Master´s degree in Medicine at the age of 23 years old (2012) from Lisbon University – Medical College. He is in his final year (5Th year) of Psychiatry residency, after which he will become a Psychiatry consultant. During his residency, he made an internship in Forensic Psychiatry settings (Forensic Psychiatry Service of the Psychiatric Hospital Center of Lisbon). He has completed a post-graduate course (70 hours) on Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology promoted by the Institute of Legal Medicine of Portugal.
Fernando Vieira is an Assistant senior graduate of Psychiatry in the Forensic Psychiatry Service of the Lisbon Psychiatric Hospital Center. He is a member of the Installing Commission of the Forensic Psychiatry Sub-specialty College of the Order of Physicians of Portugal and the National Commission for Follow-up on the Mental Health Law, which he presided from 2006 to 2008.
Abstract:
Objectives: The classical view of sociology and criminology is that we should look upon social forces to understand criminal behavior. But since several adoption studies in the 1970s and 1980s suggested that having an incarcerated birth parent raised one´s own risk of earning a criminal conviction as an adult (even if educated by law-abiding foster parents), the idea that inherited genetic dispositions may elevate the risk for engaging in criminal behavior gained strength. In this work we will discuss the data that has emerged from recent research that has focused on identifying which specific genes confer risk for antisocial behavior.
Methods: Revision of scientific literature through, using search terms including genetics, epigenetics, violent behavior, MAO-A, CDH-13.
Results: More than 100 behavioral genetics studies report that there is a significant genetic basis to antisocial and aggressive behavior. Several meta-analyses even suggest that the contribution to criminality that is attributable to genetics is between 40-60%. Some studies have identified individual genetic variants that are associated with violent behavior, being the most prominent MAO-A (monoamine oxidase A) and CDH-13 (cadherin-13) polymorphisms. In a recent study, it was suggested that at least 5-10% of all serious crime in Finland is attributable to MAO-A and CDH-13 genotypes.
On the other hand, a meta-analysis showed that no variant was associated with aggression at the 5% level of significance, concluding that the contribution of any single gene is likely to be minor. Recent research in epigenetics has also shown that environmental circumstances have a crucial role on how genes are functionally expressed in the individual.
Conclusions: Although there is a growing body of evidence revealing an important genetic influence on criminal/antisocial behavior, research in epigenetics has undermined traditional arguments of biological determinism. Better understanding of the role of genetics may change society´s approach to punishment, prediction and prevention of criminal behavior.
Eve Maram, Jenny E. Aguilar
Orange Psychological Services, California Baptist University, USA
Title: Psychopathy Within
Biography:
Eve Maram, Psy.D., is a licensed clinical and forensic psychologist and a Jungian-oriented psychotherapist in private practice in Orange, California, and author of Psychopathy Within (2016). She served on the California Department of State Hospitals (DSH) Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) panel of evaluators for eight years. She is currently a Candidate in Jungian analytic training through the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts (IRSJA), C.G. Jung Institute of Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Jenny Aguilar PsyD, holds a doctoral degree in clinical forensic psychology and a Master’s degree in forensic psychology. She is currently completing her post-doctorate (pre-licensure) hours at Orange Psychological Services (OPS) where she provides outpatient psychological treatment and evaluation to parolees and probationers convicted of sexual offenses, as well as private and pretrial clients. Additionally, she is director of the graduate forensic psychology program at California Baptist University.
Abstract:
PSYCHOPATHY WITHIN presents a unique synthesis of forensic and clinical psychology, infused with personal story.
Dr. Eve Maram’s book, Psychopathy Within (Maram, 2016), offers a new, gradated definition of psychopathy that challenges our assumptions about the topic and its meaning. The book presents a unique synthesis, including detailed material from Dr. Maram’s personal, forensic/clinical, and depth psychology professional perspective. Defining psychopathy as a human characteristic on a continuum, which the book posits, is both timely and relevant to forensic assessment and treatment. In a world more blatantly polarized than ever, those most disenfranchised among us, including those caught up in the legal system, are impacted with amplified intensity.
Dr. Jenny Aguilar will amplify this idea of a gradated definition of psychopathy using illustrative clinical case examples. Historically, the term psychopath has been reserved for individuals with expressed, extreme depravity, evidenced by behavior. Extreme psychopathy is a strong predictor of future risk, but forensic risk assessment tools often fail to identify the majority who commit violent crimes. These instruments are categorical and do not address the continuum of personality, specifically the characteristics of psychopathy that are broad and nuanced. Redefining psychopathy enhances our perceptions about specific types of criminal behavior, to identify most effective treatment and intervention strategies.