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Submissions Open for the Richard Rosner Award

2024-25 Student Travel Grant Recipients

Psychiatry & Behavioral Science Section News—Deadline Reminders

The power of presentation: How attire, cosmetics, and posture impact the source...

Gender stereotypes may negatively affect perceptions of women professionals' credibility, including forensic experts. This study investigated the impact of behavior‐based and appearance‐based factors on women expert witness's credibility. Jury‐eligible adults were shown...

In Memoriam—Paul Fedoroff

Psychopathy among condemned capital murderers

Psychopathy is an important forensic mental health construct. Despite this importance, the research base of psychopathy among individuals convicted of capital murder is limited. Archival data were collected from a sample of 636 persons convicted of capital murder and sentenced to...

Mass murders involving firearms and other methods in school, college, and university...

While mass murders involving academic settings, especially using firearms, are of grave, growing public concern, identifying consistent patterns to aid prevention has proved challenging. Although some characteristics, such as male sex, have been routinely associated with these ev...

Distinguishing lone from group actor terrorists: A comparison of attitudes, ideologies,...

The increasing recognition of the risks posed by lone‐actor terrorists provides the impetus for understanding the psychosocial and ideological characteristics that distinguish lone from group actors. This study examines differences between lone and group actor terrorists in two d...

Female murderers who mutilate or dismember their victims: An exploration of patterns and...

Attributes and behavioral patterns of female homicide offenders have been less explored than those of males, particularly in crimes that involve aggravating factors such as dismemberment and mutilation. This study explored the patterns of female murderers who engage in postmortem...

Criminal mutilation homicides in Japan: Corpse dismemberment and disposal pattern types,...

This study examined the offender characteristics of criminal mutilation homicides in Japan for offender profiling. The current sample (N = 108) showed that the most typical offender was a male, in his 30s (age that observed most often), one‐person, and acquainted with the victim....

An examination of the sociodemographic and psychiatric characteristics of children who...

Penetrative and nonpenetrative sexual abuse can cause short‐ and long‐term psychiatric problems in victims. This study aimed to examine the sociodemographic characteristics and psychiatric diseases of children in Malatya, eastern Turkey, according to whether the abuse was penetra...

A court ruled case on therapy‐induced false memories

We report on a unique Italian criminal case in which a court ruled that a therapist implanted false memories of abuse in a young girl. Using therapeutic excerpts, we show that the therapist used a multitude of problematic interventions that are all linked to false memory creation...

The Forgotten Ones: Post-Tramatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in First Responders

An Overview of the Cultural Defense

2022–23 Nominating Committee Report

The Nominating Committee has announced its list of nominees for 2022–23 officers:

Academy Aperçus—June 2022

The Academy Aperçus is a monthly feature that celebrates 75 years of forensic science by spotlighting the history and anticipating the future of each section of the Academy. Beginning with the Jurisprudence Section and progressing through each section in the order of acknowledgem...

Mapping the neurocircuitry of impulsive aggression through the pharmacologic review of...

Impulsive aggression, in contradistinction to premeditated aggression in humans or predatory aggression in animals, corresponds to defensive aggression in animal models. At the core of the neurocircuitry of impulsive aggression, from murine to feline to human species, it is the m...

Romantic attachment, childhood stability, depression, and PTSD in couples with an...

Incarceration has a multitude of effects on prisoners' finances, health, education, employment, and family relationships. Incarceration complicates the maintenance of attachment bonds between romantic partners. Data from the Multi‐site Family Study on Incarceration, Parentin...

Cognitive Bias in Forensic Decisions

Cognitive Bias in Forensic Decisions | Understanding What It Is, Its implications, And What Can Be Done About It

First, understanding what cognitive bias is, as many confuse it with the everyday notion of bias –cognitive bias is different, as it is often implicit and it impacts hard working, dedicated and competent experts, and thus it is widespread but hard to detect. Second, its implication to forensic decisions making, where experts are heavily relied upon as their decision making is regarded as impartial. In this short webinar I will present how forensic conclusions can be impacted and distorted by irrelevant contextual information, by reference materials, or even by the context in which information is presented or obtained. Third, I will show how understanding what cognitive bias is and its implication to forensic decisions, is important for identifying such weaknesses and for providing practical ways to mitigate them.

This webinar is being offered free as a benefit to all AAFS members and affiliates.