Everyday, in courtrooms everywhere, people's lives are touched and shaped by judgments and verdicts influenced
by the testimony of psychologists and other mental health experts. This casebook details 20 high-profile court
cases that turned, at least in part, on the expertise of forensic psychologists and psychiatrists and involved
such psychological issues as insanity, criminal profiling, capital punishment, competence to stand trial, infanticide,
domestic violence, false confessions, and psychological autopsies. The defendents in these cases range from household
names such as Woodly Allen, Mike Tyson, Patty Hearst, Jeffrey Dahmer to others whose brief brush with infamy have
long been forgotten. But regardless of their notoriety or celebrity status, each of these carefully selected cases
teaches important lessons about the role that psychology and the other behavioral sciences play in our legal system.