Minds on Trial

Everyday, in courtrooms everywhere, people's lives are touched and shaped by judgments and verdicts influenced by the testimony of psychologists and other mental health experts. This casebook details 20 high-profile court cases that turned, at least in part, on the expertise of forensic psychologists and psychiatrists and involved such psychological issues as insanity, criminal profiling, capital punishment, competence to stand trial, infanticide, domestic violence, false confessions, and psychological autopsies. The defendents in these cases range from household names such as Woodly Allen, Mike Tyson, Patty Hearst, and Jeffrey Dahmer to others whose brief brush with infamy has long been forgotten. But regardless of their notoriety or celebrity status, each of these carefully selected cases teaches important lessons about the role that psychology and the other behavioral sciences play in our legal system.