Psychological data has now become central in many areas of legal practice including criminal, health care and child custody domains. This text aims to fill a void in the literature, synthesizing the contributing authors' expertise into a versatile, authoritative and empirically-derived delineation of the current status of psychological practice in each topic area in 2002, the relative strengths and weaknesses of current behavioural evidence of forming legal/forensic opinions, and recommendations for future work. The book includes a discussion of the propagation of forensic psychology as a field of specialization, professional preparation issues for training as a forensic psychologist, unique ethical concerns and an authoritative discussion of issues in several prominent areas of forensic psychology practice.