Both of us have been teaching forensic psychology for a number of years and have constantly been invigorated by the wide range of fascinating theories and evidence-based research that the field has uncovered. There are many textbooks that cover a range of this material and do it exceedingly well. However, all of these usually come from American and British writers. Often we found that although the theoretical and research material that was given in these texts were generally just as relevant and applicable for students in this country as it was in the UK or USA, the perspective that antipodean students sometimes needed was an Australasian one. Indeed, we could find no text that gave such a perspective and we believe that such a direction is important for students here.

We are not implying that the field of forensic psychology is somehow different in this part of the world than elsewhere because clearly that is not the case. Our discipline belongs to a universal body of knowledge which is generally grounded on evidence-based psychological research, research that transcends national boundaries. But there are differences between the legal and criminal justice systems across nations and indeed, in the Australian context, differences across States. We do not attempt to deal with these differences in detail but it seemed important that at least the general tenor of how forensic psychology interacts with the legal system in the Antipodes should be illustrated in this textbook.

In addition, there are now a great number of Australasian studies and perspectives that are either in the published psychological literature or in law reports. At least some of these are covered in this book as are the experiences and advice of practitioners who deal, on a day-to-day basis, with the legal system. Indeed, it was our intention from the start to balance the work of academic forensic psychologists who were primarily interested in research and teaching with the understanding of practitioners who spend time in prisons, psychiatric hospitals and facilities and other such relevant institutions and organisations.

We also wanted to include those practitioners who spent time at the coalface of the criminal justice system in courts and tribunals. We have not, however, attempted to produce a manual on how the practitioner should write reports or present expert evidence in court. The chapter by Freckelton and Appendix foreword by Coyle provide some guidelines as do also the actual reports contained within the Appendix but we do not aim to be prescriptive or comprehensive in this text, a task better suited to those who wish to author such a manual.

Like other good textbooks on forensic psychology we wanted to reach widely across the field of psychology as a whole and incorporate all relevant aspects of the discipline. As well, we recognised the close relationship between criminology and forensic psychology and have attempted to give relevant perspectives from the former discipline. It increasingly appears to us that both areas of learning can benefit by closer collaboration not only in terms of research but also by way of theory construction.

The fields that forensic psychology covers are diverse and we have attempted, within the limits of what can be incorporated in such a book as this, to cover the major areas of interest. Undoubtedly we have not included every possible area and any suggestions on what else should be in a book of this type will be seriously considered in future editions. There are, of course, many new emerging areas in forensic psychology and two of them-terrorism and Aboriginal offenders and offences-are dealt with here. While the former topic clearly crosses national boundaries there are some unique Australian features that surround the Indigenous population in this country. Similarly, we have included profiling as a separate chapter not so much because it is new, but more because controversy surrounds the issue of whether such an area should ever be included as subject matter for the discipline given that many see it more as an art than as an evidence-based science.

There are substantial issues of professional ethics and client conundrums in forensic psychology that we would have like to have covered but could not because of lack of space. For example, the American and the Australian Psychological societies have recently been embroiled in a heated debate regarding the role of psychologists in working with investigatory and intelligence agencies that engage in practices (such as sleep deprivation) that some have defined as torture. This debate raises some fundamental issues about the neutrality and objectivity of psychologists working with criminal justice and security agencies worthy of serious discussion by practitioners. That debate, however, is probably better raised in a wider survey of what pressures and forces impinge on psychologists working in government institutions and the criminal justice and legal systems generally.

Our authors were all given the same chapter template to work from. They were asked to aim their chapters for audiences of fourth year undergraduates and beginning Masters/Doctors students and to provide “boxes” within the context of their chapters illustrating recent case applications or focussing on a particular specialist topic within the general area they were writing about. However, as well as students, we believe this book also provides a useful source for academic forensic psychologists and practitioners in the field. The book overall has a practical focus, emphasising the assessment and treatment of offenders, rather than providing expansive discussions of mainly theoretical or conceptual issues. We recognise that the majority of forensic psychologists work in contexts in which they are required to work with offenders directly, rather than for example, assisting the police or other legal decision makers.

The first two chapters in the book deal with topics often not covered in other texts on Forensic Psychology, namely outlining the field of Forensic Psychiatry (Sullivan) and discussing the victim perspective (Smith & Stewart). We deliberately did not include a chapter specifically on Forensic Psychology, because as stated previously several useful texts have defined the field and there are no real differences here between the Australian context and other international perspectives.

An issue which remains as relevant today as it was in 1997 when the Government published the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, is that of suicide and self-harm by offenders both within prison and in the community. The chapter by Barton introduces a risk assessment instrument which is used within NSW to make decisions about the management of offenders with self-harming / suicidal behaviours.

Part II of the book deals with specific categories of offences and offenders, and includes chapters on Juvenile offenders (Lennings & Collins), Female offenders (Lennings), Aboriginal offenders (Lincoln), Violent offenders (Polaschek), Sexual offenders (Collie, Ward, & Vess), Arsonists (Doley & Fritzon), Offenders with mental illness (Chappell) and Offenders with Intellectual Disability (Duff & Sakdalen). The authors of these chapters have specialist knowledge of working with particular offender categories and in some cases have been instrumental in the development of specialist treatment programs for particular offending behaviours.

Part III describes various methodological issues within Forensic Psychology. No text in the field would be complete without a discussion of risk assessment (Davis & Ogloff) which is particularly pertinent with the recent introduction of legislation across several states in Australia designed to minimise risk to the community from offenders considered to be particularly ‘dangerous’ (Chapter 20 McSherry) and with an ever growing range of actuarial instruments being developed to assist the practitioner in making decisions about risk. One of the few chapters in the book to focus more on the Investigative side of Forensic Psychology, Gozna’s Deception Detecting techniques does also provide useful information to clinicians assessing for malingering and other non-genuine response patterns. With the growing number of students who are taking courses in Forensic Psychology, we felt that the time has come for a chapter dealing with Research Methods (Fritzon & Kebbell) to assist in the planning, design and implementation of research topics related to the forensic field. Finally, two chapters by Wilson, and Rombauts and Wortley, focus on methodologies relevant to the sorts of forensic settings (mental health and corrections) in which the focus is on implementing treatment and programs designed to reduce recidivism in offenders.

In the final Part IV of the book, we provide an overview of areas of forensic psychology either considered to be new or emerging, with particular relevance to the presentation of psychological findings in Court. Freckelton provides a summary of the rules of Evidence pertaining to psychologists appearing as Experts in Court, whilst McSherry discusses the ethical and human rights issues around the new legislation aimed at detaining high risk offenders beyond their original Court sentence. Wilson and Petherick, as discussed previously, deal with topics that hold particular international appeal.

Finally, we felt that students might benefit from the opportunity to be provided with some examples of de-identified Court Reports written by Forensic Psychologists with extensive experience of giving evidence in Court. The Appendix introduction written by Coyle provides personal and legal insight into the process of preparing reports and testifying in Court, and this is followed by two examples of pre-sentence reports, i.e. reports that are requested to assist the Court in making decisions around sentence length.

We asked our authors to provide appropriate summaries and concluding sections within each chapter and also discussion questions and a short but focussed reference list. They all have done this and we believe both the references and the questions provide a useful teaching tool for class discussions. Taken together the chapters reflect the major areas that forensic psychologists work in and give a real sense of the underpinning knowledge base that the profession works from. If nothing else we hope that readers will obtain a real sense of the complex and challenging tasks that forensic psychologists face on a day-to-day basis and the implications that the field has for psychology as a whole as well as related disciplines.