NCJ Number
136271
Journal
Law and Human Behavior Volume: 16 Issue: 2 Dated: (April 1992) Pages: 175-183
Date Published
1992
Length
9 pages
Annotation
Parallel forms of psycholegal intervention are beginning to emerge in the same way that the interface of law and psychology has brought about the development of psycholegal assessment methods.
Abstract
What distinguishes these psycholegal interventions is that their administration involves the integration of both psychological and legal knowledge. Examples of psycholegal interventions include divorce mediation and treatment of incompetence to stand trial. In creating a psycholegal intervention, it makes sense to first consider functional abilities, behaviors, or capacities that the patient/client is legally expected to exhibit. In addition, consideration should be given to the environment context in which the client is legally expected to function or in which the intervention is to be administered. A psycholegal intervention also needs to focus on legally specified functional abilities as they interact with legally specified environmental contexts. The systematic development of psycholegal interventions offers forensic psychology the opportunity to complete the circle of progress that has been made with psycholegal interventions. Forensic mental health professionals are urged to approach their specialty more systematically, and a conceptual model for the development of psycholegal interventions is presented. 42 references (Author abstract modified)