APA Handbook of Psychology and Juvenile Justice

The APA Handbook of Psychology and Juvenile Justice consolidates and advances knowledge about the legal, scientific, and applied foundations of the juvenile justice system.

In addition to an overview of the area, it contains chapters in the following sections:

• Relevant Law (focusing on important legislation and on U.S. Supreme Court decisions from Kent and Gault to Eddings, Roper, Graham, and Miller-Jackson, and on the relevant legal theory of preventive justice for adolescents)
• Human Development (describing research on adolescent development and brain development as they apply to behavior in the juvenile justice context)
• Patterns of Offending (including evidence about offending in juveniles and the persistence vs. desistance into adulthood)
• Risk Factors for Offending (evidence about risk factors for juvenile offending including Risk-Need-Responsivity theory, juvenile psychopathy, substance abuse, gangs, and trauma/adverse experience, as well as threat assessment and bullying prevention in schools)
• Forensic Assessment (assessing risk, needs/amenability, and sophistication-maturity as part of legal decisions on commitment, transfer, and reverse transfer, as well as legal decisions on Miranda waiver capacity and competence to stand trial)
• Interventions (evidence on risk-reducing interventions, both in the community and in residential placement, including for specialized offending of sexual offenders)
• Training and Ethics (including the updated MacArthur curriculum on adolescents in the juvenile justice system and an analysis of the ethical issues particular to juvenile justice)

Kirk Heilbrun, PhD, is a professor and interim head of the department of psychology at Drexel University, and codirector of the Pennsylvania Mental Health and Justice Center of Excellence. He received his doctorate in clinical psychology in 1980 from the University of Texas at Austin and completed postdoctoral fellowship training from 1981 to 1982 in psychology and criminal justice at Florida State University. His current research focuses on juvenile and adult offenders, legal decision-making, forensic evaluation associated with such decision-making, and diversion.

Dr. Heilbrun is the author of numerous articles on forensic assessment, violence risk assessment and risk communication, and the treatment of offenders with mental disorders, and he has published 10 books (Principles of Forensic Mental Health Assessment, 2001; Forensic Mental Health Assessment: A Casebook, with Geoffrey R. Marczyk and David DeMatteo, 2002; Forensic Mental Health Assessment: A Casebook, Second Edition, with David DeMatteo, Stephanie Brooks Holliday, and Casey LaDuke, 2014; Juvenile Delinquency: Prevention, Assessment, and Intervention, with Naomi E. Sevin Goldstein and Richard E. Redding, 2005; Wrightsman’s Psychology and the Legal System, Sixth Edition, with Edie Greene, William H. Fortune, and Michael T. Nietzel, 2006; Wrightsman’s Psychology and the Legal System, Seventh Edition, with Edie Greene, 2010; Wrightsman’s Psychology and the Legal System, Eighth Edition, with Edie Greene, 2013; Foundations of Forensic Mental Health Assessment, with Thomas Grisso and Alan Goldstein, 2009; Evaluating the Risk of Violence in Adults, 2009; and The Sequential Intercept Model and Criminal Justice: Promoting Community Alternatives for Individuals With Severe Mental Illness, with Patricia A. Griffin, Edward P. Mulvey, David DeMatteo, and Carol A. Schubert, 2015).

His practice interests also center on forensic assessment, and he directs a clinic in this area in the department of psychology at Drexel University. He is board certified in clinical psychology and in forensic psychology (American Board of Professional Psychology) and has previously served as president of both APA Division 41 (American Psychology-Law Society), and the American Board of Forensic Psychology.

Dr. Heilbrun received the 2004 Distinguished Contributions to Forensic Psychology Award and the 2008 Beth Clark Distinguished Service Contribution Award from the American Academy of Forensic Psychology.