This Handbook provides students and researchers with a broad overview of existing literature in many areas of legal decision-making, including examples of decisions made by different professionals. Inspiring future research and practice, it will interest those in psychology, sociology, criminal justice, and more.

Presenting state-of-the-art research, this Handbook summarises emerging and establishing topics in the area of legal decision-making. Interdisciplinary in its approach, it covers decisions made within the criminal justice system, the trial process, and clinical settings. Chapters, written by accomplished academics and experts in the field, synthesize historical context, identify gaps in existing literature, propose future directions of study, and discuss policy limitations. It also includes 'perspectives from the field' essays written by professionals - a judge, an attorney, a police officer, a trial consultant, and a probation officer - to bridge the gap between academic research and its application to the real world. It is intended as a go-to resource for students and researchers who want to immerse themselves in a body of scientific research to understand its history and shape its future.

The publication incorporates Dauber v. Merrill Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the United States Supreme Court's landmark decision on scientific evidence in addition to new Daubert-based cases cited throughout the book. The book offers an in-depth discussion of the growing use of survey methods to establish damages in mass tort cases. The authors have integrated the latest Web site addresses to aid in further social science and legal research. It includes selections from two handbooks: the Federal Judicial Center Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence and West's? Modern Scientific Evidence.

Areas of professional practice, such as law, psychiatry, and the behavioural and social sciences, overlap at numerous points in terms of underlying concepts and basic research. They also intersect at an everyday level in their work with individuals whose multiple problems simultaneously require attention from legal, mental health, and social services professionals. Behaviour, Crime and Legal Processes explicitly sets out to close the gaps between the professions. It addresses the questions that arise at the meeting-points and cross-roads of different backgrounds and spheres of activity, thereby helping people working in these different fields to grasp the nature and implications of each other's perspectives and adopt a better-informed approach to inter-disciplinary work.

LONGMAN CRIMINOLOGY SERIES Series editor Tim Newburn In Psychology and Crime: Myths and Reality Peter Ainsworth provides an accessible and intriguing introduction to some of the links between the fields of psychology and crime. As such the book offers a number of psychological perspectives on criminal behaviour and the criminal justice process. The author challenges many of the misconceptions and misunderstandings surrounding criminal behaviour while at the same time providing valuable insights into the way in which psychology can help us to make sense of the criminal process. Among the questions addressed in the book are: How easy is it to measure the level of crime in society? Why are people's fears of crime often greater than their level of risk might justify? Why are some people victimized repeatedly while others suffer little crime? What are the psychological effects of victimization? Can psychology help to prevent crime? Are criminals born or made? What are the links between crime and mental illness? Can psychologists help the police to solve crime by providing offender profiles? Are the processes of jury decision making and judicial sentencing objective or subjective? How best can we prevent reoffending? How and why do mistakes occur in the criminal justice system? Undergraduate and postgraduate students in forensic, legal and applied psychology, and those studying law and criminology will find this a useful introduction to the area. In addition, those working within the criminal justice system should find this non-technical guide extremely useful.

1. Psychology and Law: An Ambivalent Alliance. 2. Interrogations, Confessions, and Lie Detection. 3. Profiles and Syndromes. 4. Competence and Insanity. 5. Juries and Judges. 6. Memory as Evidence: Eyewitness Testimony and Child Sexual Abuse. 7. Risk Assessment and Determination of Child Custody. 8. Workplace Law: Harassment, Discrimination, and Fairness. 9. Sentencing, Imprisonment, and the Death Penalty.

Via 100 entries, 21st Century Psychology: A Reference Handbook highlights the most important topics, issues, questions, and debates any student obtaining a degree in the field of psychology ought to have mastered for effectiveness in the 21st century. This two-volume reference resource, available both in print and online, provides an authoritative source to serve students' research needs with more detailed information than encyclopedia entries but without the jargon, detail, or density found in a typical journal article or a research handbook chapter. Students will find chapters contained within these volumes useful as aids toward starting research for papers, presentations, or a senior thesis, assisting in deciding on areas for elective coursework or directions for graduate studies, or orienting themselves toward potential career directions in psychology.