Who's afraid of forensic psychiatry?
R. D. Miller,
Bull. Amer. Acad. Psychiatry & the Law
18(3): 235-47, 1990.
Forensic psychiatry has come under mounting criticism from the press and other medical
professionals, largely for its participation in the insanity defense. The author argues that the expertise
available from the specialty is of increasing importance to psychiatry as a whole, as more and more
legal issues become relevant to the practice of general psychiatry, and should be actively encouraged
and legitimized rather than ostracized. All psychiatrists should be exposed to forensic principles and
practices during their training, and the ability of forensic psychiatrists to serve as transducers
between the clinical and the legal/judicial should be increasingly used to present the clinical
viewpoint effectively in courts and legislatures. [References: 72]