Common topics
- ADHD
- Alcohol
- Child
- Confessions
- Drugs
- Evaluation
- IPV (Intimate Partner Violence)
- Memory
- Online Offense
- Paraphilia
- Pathology
- Personality
- PTSD
- Sex Offense
- Trial
- Victim
- Violence
Browse all topics
PTSD: Malingering
The articles examine feigned or simulated PTSD, assessment challenges, and the distinction between malingering and factitious presentations. A simulation study found that direct trauma exposure was associated with somewhat greater reported PTSD severity than indirect exposure, while symptom-validity profiles showed little difference apart from the total screening score.
PTSD: Memory
Research on PTSD and memory examines both memory impairment and the way traumatic recollections may be fragmented or intrusive. The compilation summarizes studies of trauma-related remembering and forgetting, including dissociation, autobiographical memory, and narrative features associated with PTSD symptoms.
PTSD: Violence
The studies examine reported links between PTSD and aggressive or violent behavior, including cases in which flashbacks involved misidentifying another person as a threatening figure. Other research compares aggression among combat veterans with and without PTSD, illustrating that findings arise from particular samples and study designs.
Race and Alcohol Impact
This collection reviews research on genetic variation in alcohol-metabolizing enzymes and alcohol-related outcomes across several populations. The studies report differing associations involving ADH and ALDH variants, including possible protective effects in particular samples, while emphasizing that these findings do not by themselves explain population-level differences in alcohol problems.
Rape Trauma Syndrome
This resource traces legal and research discussions of rape trauma syndrome, including court decisions about when expert testimony may explain counterintuitive behavior and when it risks bolstering credibility. It also summarizes research on coping and trauma symptoms and presents critiques of using the syndrome as a diagnosis or as evidence that a particular sexual encounter lacked consent.
Review of Current Research on Blackout (2016)
This 2016 review surveys clinical research published from 2010 to 2015 on alcohol-induced blackouts, including their predictors, consequences, and possible cognitive or neurobiological mechanisms. The reviewed studies suggest that individual differences contribute alongside alcohol consumption, and that blackout-related consequences can include psychiatric symptoms and neurobiological abnormalities.
SEX OFFENSE: Age and Perpetration
This research compilation discusses age and sexual recidivism estimates, summarizing studies on age-stratified tables and age-adjusted versions of actuarial tools. It also includes an abstract about using Static-2002R subscales to estimate violent and general recidivism.
SEX OFFENSE: Anogenital Injury
This collection reviews research on anogenital injuries documented in sexual-assault examinations and studies of injury patterns and healing. The cited studies compare adolescent and adult patients, examine injury correlates such as penetration and time to examination, and follow children’s injuries over time, showing that observed findings vary across samples and circumstances.
SEX OFFENSE: Autism Spectrum Disorder and Sex Offense
This resource reviews sexuality and socially inappropriate sexual behavior in people with autism spectrum disorder, alongside research on sexual offending and justice-system involvement. The cited studies discuss social-communication challenges, sexual education, and reported group findings; a systematic review notes that the published evidence on offending was limited to small numbers of case reports and prevalence studies.
SEX OFFENSE: Automatism
Automatism’s possible implications for sex offenses and violent crimes include questions about awareness and voluntary action. The article outlines distinctions among automatism and unconsciousness, discusses proposed causes and legal exclusions, and summarizes research and commentary on the role of expert witnesses.
SEX OFFENSE: Butner Study Critique
The Butner study and its later critique concern reported rates of contact sexual offending among people convicted of child pornography offenses. The source compares the original and Redux studies, reviews methodological and judicial criticisms, and describes the authors’ view that the relationship between online and offline offending needs further empirical study.
SEX OFFENSE: Exhibitionism
The source introduces exhibitionism and summarizes clinical and research perspectives on the behavior. The material describes exhibitionistic disorder, including diagnostic framing, possible subtypes, symptoms, causes, and treatment references, alongside writing that discusses fantasy and inhibition and research describing exhibitionism as non-contact sexual aggression and prevention.
SEX OFFENSE: Hebephilia
The source surveys hebephilia, a contested term used in discussions of sexual interest in pubescent adolescents. It contrasts proposed definitions of pedophilia, hebephilia, and ephebophilia, reviews debate over diagnostic classification, and summarizes studies assessing sexual-interest indicators and overlap between hebephilia and pedophilia among people who offended.
SEX OFFENSE: Hypnogogic and Hypnopompic
The source describes experiences that can occur while falling asleep or waking and considers their possible relevance to sexual-assault claims. It reviews hallucinations and sleep paralysis, research on interpretations of such episodes, and studies discussing reported associations between sleep paralysis and abuse memories.
SEX OFFENSE: Pedophilia and the DSM-5
The DSM-5 discussion considers how pedophilia and pedophilic disorder are defined and distinguished from child molestation. Berlin argues that psychiatric terminology can blur clinical and criminal concepts, and discusses diagnostic wording, sexual interest, and the separate clinical and legal implications of behavior.
SEX OFFENSE: Polygraph use in Psychosexual Evaluations
The resource describes sex history, offense-specific, and periodic monitoring polygraphs as tools used in some psychosexual evaluations and supervision. It also summarizes National Research Council concerns about test accuracy and field conditions, alongside a review concluding that evidence for post-conviction polygraph effectiveness and deterrence remains limited.
SEX OFFENSE: Sexsomnia
Sexsomnia refers to sexual behaviors that occur during sleep and is discussed as a parasomnia with clinical and forensic implications. The compilation reviews case descriptions, reported features and possible triggers, personal accounts, and challenges in evaluating claims involving abnormal sexual behavior during sleep.
SEX OFFENSE: Sexual Assault vs. Intimate Partner Violence
The article distinguishes chronic battering from discrete physical assaults and sexual assault within intimate relationships. In a population-based study, the authors report modest correlations, co-occurrence, and differing demographic, health, and behavioral correlates across these forms of violence.
SEX OFFENSE: Treatment
The compilation reviews research on cognitive-behavioral and other treatment approaches for people convicted of sexual offenses. Studies summarized examine recidivism outcomes, comparison groups, treatment participation, follow-up periods, and measurement choices, with some findings described as preliminary or inconclusive.
Sleep and Alcohol
The article reviews evidence that alcohol changes the timing and structure of sleep in healthy people. It describes faster sleep onset and more deep sleep early in the night, followed by greater disruption later, and summarizes research linking intoxication with reduced REM sleep and poorer reported sleep quality.
TRIAL: Competence to Plead
Competence to plead guilty involves whether a defendant understands the charge, possible penalties, and rights given up by a plea, and whether the decision is knowing, intelligent, and voluntary. The chapter considers how psychological evaluations may examine reasoning and susceptibility to pressure while leaving the ultimate legal determination to the judge.
TRIAL: Jurors’ Emotions
Research on jurors’ emotions examines how feelings can shape attention, information processing, memory, judgments, and decisions during trials. The chapter reviews theories and psycholegal studies, considers trial events that prompt emotional responses and factors that may moderate their effects, and identifies gaps for further research.
Underestimating Alcohol Consumption
The article examines why drinkers may underestimate how much alcohol they have consumed or how intoxicated they are. Its cited studies report estimation errors associated with heavier drinking and, among bar patrons already above the legal driving threshold, frequent underestimation of breath alcohol concentration, especially among women and people under 21.
VICTIM: Cognitive Interviewing
The cognitive interview is a structured approach to eliciting eyewitness and victim accounts of an event. The resource describes retrieval techniques such as open-ended narration and context reinstatement, reviews interviewer practice and empirical evaluations, and also notes limitations involving accuracy, children, and identification procedures.
VICTIM: Counterintuitive Behaviors
This brief resource directs readers to Simpson’s continuing legal education handout, “Countering Counterintuitive Testimony,” for an in-depth discussion of counterintuitive behavior claims. The handout examines expert testimony about sexual-assault responses, the research offered to support such claims, and strategies for questioning their scientific basis.