David L. Shapiro

This timely brief resource introduces a new evidence-based model for treatment of mentally ill individuals in jails, with emphasis on community-based options. Forensic mental health experts review police alternatives to arresting mentally ill persons in confrontations, the efficacy of problem-solving courts, and continuity of care between jail and community. The book's best-practices approach extends to frequently related issues such as addiction, domestic violence, juvenile considerations, and trauma and describes successful programs coordinating judicial and clinical systems. These guidelines for decriminalizing non-violent behaviors and making appropriate services available to those with mental problems should also help address issues affecting the justice system, such as overcrowding. Included in the coverage: The Best Practices Model.Best practices in law enforcement crisis interventions with the mentally ill.Problem-solving courts and therapeutic jurisprudence.Competency restoration programs.A review of best practices for the treatment of persons with mental illness in jail.Conclusions, recommendations, and helpful appendices.With its practical vision for systemic improvement, Best Practices Model for Intervention with the Mentally Ill in the Criminal Justice System is progressive reading for practitioners in the mental health field, especially practitioners working with inmates, as well as for stakeholders in the law enforcement and justice systems.

Mental health professionals have much to contribute to court-related decisions. Forensic work is interesting and rewarding, but it can also be challenging and stressful, even for experienced clinicians. "Forensic Practice for the Mental Health Clinician: Getting Started, Gaining Experience, and Avoiding Pitfalls" walks you through the steps required to navigate most aspects of forensic practice. Each chapter focuses on a different type of assessment and role, including pertinent background, case references, and elements that need to be addressed. Filled with practical information (and checklist summaries) to help keep you on track, Shapiro and Walker's book provides the necessary tools to prepare you for the work ahead.

This book retrospectively analyzes the notorious 1924 case of Leopold and Loeb, in which two college students murder a young boy just to prove they could do it. In the almost hundred years since that trial, the field of neuroscience along with neuropsychology have expanded tremendously, and there are now much more sophisticated tools that could be used to evaluate the perpetrators of this crime. Although deemed mentally ill at the time, there was not much scientific evidence that could be brought to bear on the defendants’ and their behavior. Now a legal psychologist and a neuropsychologist team up to tackle the case from a modern viewpoint. Using contemporary knowledge of the brain and behavior they map out the way the case might be handled today. Not just of historical interest, this volume serves as a case study for students and professionals alike, and a review of procedures used in such difficult cases.

This compact reference makes the case for a middle ground between clinical and actuarial methods in predicting future violence, domestic violence, and sexual offending. It critiques widely used measures such as the PCL-R, VRAG, SORAG, and Static-99 in terms of clarity of scoring, need for clinical interpretation, and potential weight in assessing individuals. Appropriate standards of practice are illustrated--and questioned--based on significant legal cases, among them Tarasoff v.Regents of the State of California and Lipari v. Sears, that have long defined the field. This expert coverage helps make sense of the pertinent issues and controversies surrounding risk assessment as it provides readers with invaluable information in these and other key areas: The history of violence prediction.Commonly used assessment instruments with their strengths and limitations.Psychological risk factors, both actual and questionable.Clinical lessons learned from instructive court cases, from Tarasoff forward.Implications for treatment providers.How more specialized risk assessment measures may be developed. Risk Assessment offers its readers--professionals working with sex offenders as well as those working with the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide and Sex Offender Appraisal Guide--new possibilities for rethinking the assessment strategies of their trade toward predicting and preventing violent criminal incidents.

With combined expertise in psychotherapy and law, David L. Shapiro and Steven R. Smith expertly navigate readers through the unfamiliar territories of professional liability, negligence, informed consent, privacy and confidentiality, HIPAA, defamation, violence and suicide, and malpractice trials and settlements. Through its illustrative case examples and up-to-date discussion of law and ethics, this book will help mental health practitioners enrich and protect their professional practice.

A brave girl's adventurous journey from Bolshevik Russia to the Zionists' settlement in the Holy Land. Sara, a Jewish 12-year-old in 1919 Russia, has spunk, independence, and a deep commitment to her heritage. Suddenly orphaned under mysterious circumstances, her home and shtetl destroyed, Sara begins a daring journey toward Budapest and her eventual destination, Palestine. On this amazing odyssey, Sara meets fascinating people of all sorts. Set against a backdrop of stormy historical events—pogroms, the influenza epidemic, the Bolshevik Revolution, and the struggle to create the State of Israel—this riveting young-adult novel is told with warmth, grace, and subtlety. Through the heart and mind of Sara, young readers will experience a world of connections between generations, genders, cultures, religions, and nationalities. Sara grows into a true follower of her father's wise advice: "Be bold and brave, but not foolhardy."

An exploration of the virtues and defects of federalism as it has developed from a variety of perspectives that include historical, constitutional, economic, social and political considerations. Using the dialectical form adopted by advocates trying a case before a court, the author examines the strongest arguments on the two prinicpal sides of the issue but also probes the potential value of the dialectical process itself.

The establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1933 ushered in a new age for American energy policy in which the federal government supplanted private industry as the primary provider of power for much of the nation. In 1937 the Bonneville Power Administration was established in the Northwest with the mandate of transmitting and marketing power from the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River. Eventually BPA became responsible for all federal power facilities in the Northwest. In this book economist David L. Shapiro exposes the policy disasters caused by the public power system. He shows that the Washington Public Power Supply System (WPPS, or Whoops) default on $2.25 billion worth of municipal bondsóthe largest such default in America's historyówas due to reckless mismanagement by BPA. He also demonstrates how political maneuvering continues to jeopardize the stability of the power industry. Shapiro charges that BPA is a prime example of a federal agency that has grossly exceeded its initial charter and pursued an independent course at the expense of taxpayers and the constituents it was intended to serve. His solution is to privatize the agency and restore the responsibility of energy provision in the Northwestóand throughout the nationóto the private sector. Co-published with the Cato Institute.