A welcome contribution to a growing field, Forensic Psychology is the only ground-up Canadian text written by Canadian professors for undergraduate courses. It has been class-tested at Carleton U. Topics covered include eyewitness testimony, jury decision-making, and police procedures–as well as topics that are clinical in nature, such as the meaning of being unfit to stand trial, mentally disordered offenders, and psychopathy. Ideas, issues, and research are presented in an attractive format and style that students will understand, enjoy, and find useful in their professional careers.
Required reading for Carleton PSYC2400. I really liked this textbook as it provided real life cases to give further insight about criminal topics. It also gave lots of comparisons of the criminal justice system in Canada and America which was interesting.
Rather informative, especially on Canadian context. There was a lot of stuff I either didn't know, or thought I did but was only familiar with the American version, not even aware that the Canadian version was different. The psychopathy chapter seemed way too short in relation to content covered and length compared to the other chapters, but the majority of the topics are really interesting. A lot of it is stuff I would never have considered looking into on my own. Well explained, in simple language, so my teacher was able to spend class time adding onto the base concepts rather than explaining the base concepts, which was a nice change.
First half of the book is an overview the Canadian legal system. As I psych student, I found that boring. The second half, with chapters on domestic abuse, mass murder, psychopathy, etc., was much more intriguing.
Was very glad I took a course in forensic psychology. This was a great textbook however, I did notice a few instances of bias, but that is normal for a textbook.