1st Edition

Psychology and Criminal Justice

By Lesli Blair Copyright 2025
242 Pages 11 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

242 Pages 11 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

242 Pages 11 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Psychology and Criminal Justice covers the ways that psychology intersects with the criminal justice system, from explaining criminal behavior to helping improve the three criminal justice pillars of policing, courts, and corrections. The book is divided into two parts. The chapters in Part One describe how different areas of psychology can help us understand why people commit crimes. The... Read more

Chapter 1: Introduction

Part One: Explaining Criminal Behavior

Chapter 2: Biopsychology

Chapter 3: Developmental Psychology

Chapter 4: Behavioral Psychology

Chapter 5: Social Psychology

Chapter 6: Personality Psychology

Chapter 7: Psychopathy and Serial Murder

Part Two: The Criminal Justice System

Chapter 8: Mental Illness, Trauma, and Substance Use

Chapter 9: Police and Public Safety Psychology

Chapter 10: Psychology and Police Procedure

Chapter 11: Psychologist as Court Expert

Chapter 12: Psychology of the Jury

Chapter 13: Psychology of Behavior Change

Chapter 14: Psychology in Prison

Glossary

Biography

Lesli Blair has been interested in both psychology and criminal justice her whole life. When she found her love for teaching while earning her doctoral degree, one of the first courses she taught was called The Psychology of Criminal Behavior. She honed this course over 10 years, never finding a textbook that fully met the needs of the course. Every existing textbook needed to be supplemented with other readings. Eventually, she realized that she needed to write this textbook. Hopefully, it will allow others to learn some of the many ways that psychology can help us understand crime and the criminal justice system.