Abstract
Helen Gavin,
Criminological and Forensic Psychology
, SAGE Publications: London, UK/Thousand Oaks, CA, 2014; 409 pp.: 9781848607019, £34.99 (pbk)
Reviewed by: Shulamith Kreitler, The School of Psychological Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Israel; Psychooncology Research Center, Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Israel
The title of this book is already in itself a recommendation for its contents. The two adjectives in the title indicate the breadth of coverage of the book which deals both with the “crime”, covered by criminological psychology, and the “punishment”, covered by the emphasis on forensic psychology. The domain of criminological and forensic psychology is so very important and salient in our daily life that it is indeed surprising and barely explicable that it has not been dealt with more prominently until recent times. One reason may be precisely the fact that it deals with so many different and complex areas that it may exert a deterring effect on whoever plucks enough courage to deal with the whole domain, especially in terms of a book that is presented as a kind of textbook for a basic course.
The range of domains and aspects dealt with in the book is indeed impressive. Two full sections (2 and 3) are devoted to criminological psychology, focusing on the motivations for the perpetration of crimes. The text provides a precise and inspiring presentation of both the theory and practice of crime. It describes the variety of theoretical approaches for the explanation of crime as well as the variety of crimes, ranging from the sexual to the economic, from homicide to burglary, carving a salient and central area for terrorism. Most interesting is the manner in which the author consistently ties the theory with the specific crime committed. The presented information is described both in general terms and is grounded in empirical studies that add dimensions of depth and breadth to the general theoretical theses.
Three full sections (4–6) are devoted to forensic psychology, focusing on the administrative and institutional procedures of dealing with crime and criminals. These sections deal in detail with the issues of detection and investigation, interviewing witnesses and checking declarations, behavior in the courtroom and life in prison.
However, despite a wide and expert coverage of a lot of material, not a few subjects are missing or have been only very briefly touched upon in this book. Major among these are the issues of rehabilitation of individuals who have committed crimes, the role of the family in providing the background for crime, the relation between the perpetrators of crime and lawyers, the psychology and role of victims, gang or group crimes (not only in juveniles), cybercrimes, moral judgment, the impact of dealing with crime on policemen and other representatives of the law, and issues of assessment of situations and individuals with potentialities for criminal behaviors.
However, this list, which undoubtedly could be extended, does not imply in any way a weakness of the book. Quite the contrary; in order to be able to study all the missing and the emerging topics of criminological and forensic psychology it is necessary to have a reliable and representative text such as this one by Helen Gavin as basis and inspiration. Hence the importance of the chapter on research methods that is included in the introductory section of the book (No. 1). In future editions of this book it is advisable to extend and enrich this chapter to include specific tools of assessment and consideration of research paradigms that would extend the knowledge in this important domain.
Criminological and forensic psychology is undoubtedly an extraordinary book that has long been missing in psychology. To the best of my knowledge, there is no other text at present that can compete with it in breadth, depth and expertise coverage. There remains, however, the issue of how this book could be best used. The recommendation of the author in the introduction is not very helpful in this respect. The author mentions that the book has been designed “to support final-year students in Psychology who are taking modules in criminal psychology” and “postgraduate students in forensic psychology or similar courses” (p. 1). To my mind, the author has been too modest in her recommendations. The book is a basic volume in a developing field, and could be used as a basic text on the undergraduate as well as graduate levels in a variety of domains in the behavioral sciences at large. The clear definition of terms, the glossary at the end of the book, the lists of key terms in many of the chapters, the flow-charts of topics at the beginning of each chapter and the “points for discussion” at the end of most chapters are important devices promoting this book to the level of a basic text. For this purpose it would be advisable to add several examples or case studies for concrete demonstrations of the theoretical constructs discussed in the text.
The book is evidence of the coming of age of criminological and forensic psychology as a distinct and respectable major subdiscipline of psychology.