All Webinars

“I found this seminar fascinating. I have taken some of Dr Shapiro's other seminars and will seek him out for others, I enjoy his approach. His real world examples are invaluable.”-Dawn Z., Social Worker, New York

This webinar is designed for those clinicians moving into forensic assessment from more traditional clinical settings. It will consider the important similarities and differences between clinical and forensic work, including critical legal and ethical issues regarding the concept of informed consent in different kinds of evaluations. The focus will then shift to what are called functional legal capacities, and cover in depth the way different assessment instruments may be reconceptualized in order to use them in forensic settings. Special consideration will be given to the development of instruments for assessment of trauma and malingering.

The manner in which mental illness has been dealt with in the criminal justice system especially regarding capital punishment has been described as “the shame of the states. “However the death penalty is not the only area in which we see misuse of psychological theories and research. We see this frequently in such areas as competency to stand trial, the insanity defense, involuntary medication, and failure to recognize the impacts of traumatic brain injury on cognitive functioning.Many of these areas are totally ignored in the law due to two forces: sanism and pretextuality.Sanism represents a bias against mentally ill individuals much like racial or gender bias.  Pretextualism refers to performing some forensic function in a careless or slipshod manner, but presenting it to the court in a manner suggesting that it is scientifically valid.