Forensic Assessment

Forensic assessment has grown and advanced significantly during the last twenty years in particular. The present chapter has reviewed and critically analyzed conceptual and empirical developments, as well as the addition of a variety of FAIs and FRIs that are relevant to the legal decision-making process. Despite the important advances that we have described in this chapter, however, there is currently a significant problem with the use of forensic assessment tools that have not been developed and validated through a rigorous process involving empirical investigation and critical peer review. An insistence on strong scientific support guiding the process of forensic assessment and shaping the tools that is employs will allow the mental health professions to provide legal decision-makers with the best-informed basis for legal decisions involving the behavioral sciences.