{"title":"Determining the Goals Toward Which Forensic Mental Health Practice Should Aspire.","authors":"Jacob M Appel","doi":"10.29158/JAAPL.250016-25","DOIUrl":"10.29158/JAAPL.250016-25","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Forensic mental health professionals (FMHPs) play a crucial role in shaping legal outcomes, necessitating a clear understanding of excellence in the field. Establishing criteria for excellence depends upon first addressing key controversies, including those related to the role for advocacy inside the legal process, the extent to which FHMPs should strive for social justice outside the courtroom, and the allocation of scarce forensics resources. Resolution of these debates will, in turn, determine whether excellence stems primarily from selection or treatment. Only once a clear consensus regarding the meaning of excellence develops can aspirational goals for the professional be established.</p>","PeriodicalId":47554,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law","volume":" ","pages":"193-197"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143989567","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Research Literacy Is Crucial in Training Forensic Psychiatrists.","authors":"Susan Hatters Friedman","doi":"10.29158/JAAPL.250021-25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29158/JAAPL.250021-25","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47554,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law","volume":"53 2","pages":"140-146"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144267625","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Scott A Gershan, Esther Schoenfeld, Declan J Grabb
{"title":"A Pilot Analysis Investigating the Use of AI in Malingering.","authors":"Scott A Gershan, Esther Schoenfeld, Declan J Grabb","doi":"10.29158/JAAPL.240115-24","DOIUrl":"10.29158/JAAPL.240115-24","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Generative artificial intelligence (AI), with its increasing ubiquity and power, will likely transform forensic psychiatry, sparking both advances and new challenges for the field. A possible consequence of the technology is that it will be used to assist malingerers in learning about and feigning psychiatric symptoms. In this study, the AI chatbot ChatGPT was asked to provide information about the insanity defense and psychosis and to use this information to assist the user in simulating a psychotic illness to avoid legal consequences. We found that ChatGPT 3.5 demonstrated a relatively nuanced understanding of typical symptoms of psychosis and that it could translate that knowledge into practical guidance on how to exploit the mental health system for secondary gain. Our findings suggest that, although significant limitations exist with the technology in its current form, forensic psychiatrists should be prepared for its increasing sophistication and the potential consequences in malingering assessments.</p>","PeriodicalId":47554,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law","volume":" ","pages":"147-156"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143473347","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Christin M Ogle, Steven P Nemcek, Jing Zhou, Stephen J Cozza
{"title":"Predictors of Child and Parent Offender Removal in Incidents of Child Neglect in U.S. Army Families.","authors":"Christin M Ogle, Steven P Nemcek, Jing Zhou, Stephen J Cozza","doi":"10.29158/JAAPL.240114-24","DOIUrl":"10.29158/JAAPL.240114-24","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study examined predictors of child and parent offender removal from the home following substantiated incidents of child neglect in U.S. Army families. Case records (<i>n</i> = 390) were coded to identify neglect types and incident characteristics associated with removal in prior studies. Results indicate that the removal of a child and the removal of a parent from the home following an incident of neglect are associated with distinct neglect types and incident characteristics. In bivariate analyses, failure to provide physical needs (FTP), family mental health problems, and co-occurring abuse were each associated with higher odds of child removal. In multivariate analyses, offender substance use, co-occurring abuse, and early parenting, but not FTP, were associated with child removal. Interaction models indicated that high-severity FTP incidents in families with mental health problems were more likely to result in child removal compared with other neglect incidents. In contrast, incidents involving emotional neglect and service member offenders were associated with higher odds of parent removal. Findings advance understanding of the characteristics of neglect incidents associated with family separations, which can improve the judiciousness of legal decisions regarding removal actions and inform prevention efforts that effectively protect children from harm while minimizing disruptions to family integrity.</p>","PeriodicalId":47554,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law","volume":" ","pages":"160-171"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143473348","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"AI-Assisted Deception and the Emerging Challenge of LLMs in Forensic Psychiatry.","authors":"Jason G Roof","doi":"10.29158/JAAPL.250022-25","DOIUrl":"10.29158/JAAPL.250022-25","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Generative artificial intelligence (AI), including the large language model ChatGPT, has introduced potential new opportunities and challenges to the practice of forensic psychiatry. These powerful AI-based tools may offer substantial benefits in administrative tasks, report generation, and record summarization yet simultaneously present areas for further consideration, such as aiding evaluees in feigning psychiatric symptoms. Additional ethics and legal considerations exist regarding privacy, bias within AI models, and the introduction of fabricated or misleading AI-generated content into forensic assessments. Legislative efforts, privacy safeguards, and professional guidelines essential for responsible AI use are being developed. Forensic psychiatrists are uniquely positioned to influence responsible AI integration through education, advocacy, and development of best practices within psychiatry.</p>","PeriodicalId":47554,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law","volume":" ","pages":"157-159"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144162875","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Toward Aspirational Forensic Mental Health Practice.","authors":"Julie Goldenson, Stanley L Brodsky, Terry Kukor","doi":"10.29158/JAAPL.240123-24","DOIUrl":"10.29158/JAAPL.240123-24","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Forensic mental health professionals are often provided with aspirational guidelines to inform their practice; however, disparities exist between what such professionals should strive to do and what they actually do. This article considers pathways to improving practice not only in terms of knowledge base but also in terms of ethics, skills, and intellectual, dispositional, and interpersonal qualities. Obstacles are identified that could prevent forensic mental health professionals from practicing at higher levels of excellence.</p>","PeriodicalId":47554,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law","volume":" ","pages":"183-192"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143568447","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Artificial Intelligence Use in Forensic Academic Writing Does Not Necessarily Compromise Integrity.","authors":"Margarita Abi Zeid Daou","doi":"10.29158/JAAPL.250020-25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29158/JAAPL.250020-25","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47554,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law","volume":"53 2","pages":"136-139"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144267624","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Forensic Science-Based Model for Identifying and Mitigating Forensic Mental Health Expert Biases.","authors":"Melinda DiCiro, Shoba Sreenivasan","doi":"10.29158/JAAPL.250019-25","DOIUrl":"10.29158/JAAPL.250019-25","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In 2020, cognitive neuroscientist Itiel Dror developed a cognitive framework to address biases influenced by cognitive processes and external pressures in decisions made by forensic experts. Dror's model highlights how ostensibly objective data, such as toxicology or fingerprints, can be affected by bias driven by contextual, motivational, and organizational factors. Forensic mental health evaluations, often more subjective than physical forensic evidence analysis, are particularly vulnerable to these cognitive biases. Dror identified six expert fallacies, such as the belief that bias only affects unethical or incompetent practitioners, and proposed a pyramidal model showing how biases infiltrate expert decisions. This article adapts Dror's model to forensic mental health, exploring how biases influence data collection and interpretation and proposing mitigation strategies like Linear Sequential Unmasking-Expanded (LSU-E). We emphasize that mitigating cognitive biases requires structured, external strategies, as self-awareness alone is insufficient. By applying Dror's concepts and framework, we offer a practical approach to reduce biases and improve the fairness and accuracy of forensic mental health assessments.</p>","PeriodicalId":47554,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law","volume":" ","pages":"172-182"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144054566","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Challenges and Opportunities for Forensic Mental Health in Immigration Courts.","authors":"Richard Rogers, Kamar Y Tazi","doi":"10.29158/JAAPL.240084-24","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29158/JAAPL.240084-24","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47554,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law","volume":"53 1","pages":"2-10"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143558344","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Michael A Norko, Susan Hatters Friedman, Jacquelyn T Coleman
{"title":"Our Thanks to Reviewers.","authors":"Michael A Norko, Susan Hatters Friedman, Jacquelyn T Coleman","doi":"10.29158/JAAPL.250007-25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29158/JAAPL.250007-25","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47554,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law","volume":"53 1","pages":"132"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143558347","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}