Personality-Guided Forensic Psychology


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Book filled with clinical advice
(March 2007 Issue)

“Personality-Guided Forensic Psychology”
By Robert J. Craig
American Psychological Association
Washington, D.C., 2005

By James K. Luiselli, Ed.D., ABPP, BCBA

Forensic psychology professionals bring clinical expertise to the legal arena. Understanding the intersection between psychology and the law encompasses matters of assessment, diagnosis, risk management and prediction. In this book, author Robert J. Craig writes about "the central role of personality and personality disorders in the assessment of patients within the context of court-related issues and problems."

Craig begins the book with a chapter titled "Introduction to Forensic Psychological Practice." He gives the reader a useful, albeit condensed, summary of salient practice considerations, most dealing with legal formalities and basic principles of assessment. Although informative, the chapter seems better suited at the end of the book.

As anticipated, the author examines various models of personality, their theoretical underpinnings and how they impact forensic evaluations. This discussion is grounded in trait theory with most models dismissed as having limited application in forensic practice. Craig has a more favorable impression of Millon's bioevolutionary model, which he suggests is "a parsimonious model of personality development, anchored by both evolutionary and ecological theory that offers taxonomy of both normal and disordered personality types."

Craig concentrates on assessment throughout the book, offering detailed and expansive descriptions of standardized instruments. He covers projective testing, clinical interviewing and psychopathology screening as they relate to specific forensic domains. For example, the intricacies of assessment are included in chapters on police psychology, child custody determinations, personal injury, harassment, sexual offending and interpersonal violence.

With his focus on personality as the basis for forensic assessment, the author admonishes professionals to consider instruments that have strong empirical support and meet the legal standard of court admissibility (rules of evidence). In this regard, he endorses the Minnesota Muliphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) and the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) as the most dependable protocols. Admirably, the book contains a wealth of research data supporting the author's claims. Some of the psychometric explication in the book, although certainly pertinent, makes for heavy reading. However, the author also provides many narrative case examples that illustrate the assessment process at the level of the practitioner. In fact, the book is replete with clinical advice and "take away" recommendations.

My guess is that not all readers will embrace personality as a defined construct or place it at the forefront of forensic assessment. But with this in mind, I think the book gives comprehensive coverage to forensic psychology in a way that will appeal to professionals with different theoretical perspectives. Craig is a proponent of multi-method assessment that must be analyzed in the context of the immediate test situation, incorporate base rate (actuarial) data, consider the extant literature and gather all known sources of information. These and most of his conclusions are well reasoned, making the book a valuable companion volume to other forensic texts within academic and professional libraries.

James K. Luiselli, Ed.D. is senior vice president, applied research, clinical training and peer review at the May Institute in Norwood, Mass.