Twenty years ago, when I was a registrar in Forensic Psychiatry, the first edition of Forensic Psychiatry by Gunn and Taylor (which came out in 1993) was regarded as a must have for all forensic psychiatry trainees. This second edition, published in January 2014, has been more than ten years in the making. The text has a focus on the UK and Southern Ireland, but does consider interfaces elsewhere. As you would expect, this book has a high calibre international authorship and includes a number of authors who contributed to the first edition. Many of the 28 chapter headings are the same, but the content has been largely completely rewritten and updated and there are new chapters on genetic influences on antisocial behaviour; disorders of brain structure and function and crime; offenders with intellectual disabilities; older people and the criminal justice system, and deviant and sick medical staff.
Gunn and Taylor describe the second edition as a textbook which is intended to be of practical assistance in the assessment, management and treatment of offenders with mental disorder and other victims. Many of the authors who have contributed are from clinical backgrounds. Combining their experience and expertise has helped to create a resource which is accessible, informative and applicable to clinical practice. Bringing together a work of this size and complexity is no mean feat and the fact that this book is both comprehensive yet easy to read, with chapters that complement one another is a testament to good editing. However, as a hardback textbook, which weighs in at 3 kg and is just over 1,000 pages long, the printed version is hardly practical to carry around and is therefore likely to remain in the office or departmental library. However, one of the real bonuses of this book is the VitalSource™ ebook version which purchasers can access at no extra cost (on or off line) using a smartphone, tablet, PC or Mac.
The editors acknowledge that this book has a medical bias (they are both doctors, as are more than half of the 87 contributing authors) and it clearly does. They recommend it as an essential purchase for specialists in forensic psychiatry (including post graduate trainees), general psychiatrists, and clinical and forensic psychologists and suggest that it is an invaluable reference work for other forensic mental health workers such as nurses, social workers and occupational therapists as well as members of the probation service, criminal lawyers, criminologists, sociologists, police officers and prison officers. The editors profess an attachment to a multidisciplinary perspective but acknowledge that it would be disingenuous and unfair to other disciplines to pretend that the prevailing view in this book is anything other than a medical one. I agree – as an example, the chapter on principles of treatment has a longer entry on the use of mood stabilizers (at the end of seven pages on use of medication for violence) than is written about occupational, speech and language and arts therapies in secure settings.
Whilst the overall quality of contributions is high, in my view certain chapters are stronger than others. Chapters on disordered and offensive sexual behaviour, offenders with intellectual disabilities; pathologies of passion and related antisocial behaviours, addictions, and dangerousness are particularly good for the non specialist forensic practitioner. Unfortunately, in my opinion, some chapters place too much emphasis on statistics and references that already beginning to date. Ensuring that information is relevant and up to date is always going to be a challenge for a book like this and unfortunately some of the information provided (e.g. in the chapter on criminal and civil law) is already out of date; web-based references were last checked for availability in December 2011.
More than a quarter of the book is taken up by appendices, references and the index. The text is well referenced, but one thing I would question in the appendices is why include a 50 page appendix on the Mental Health Act 1983 (as amended by the Mental Health Act 2007) when this is readily accessible via the Department of Health and other websites?
So, in conclusion, would I recommend purchasing a copy of this book? If you are a forensic psychiatrist, yes definitely; if you are a forensic psychologist or a psychiatrist with interest in forensic work, possibly; for anyone else, almost certainly not, but do make sure you have access to a copy via the library. At £140 it is much better value and cheaper than many other activities and resources for continuing professional development. With so much useful information now available online this book no longer has quite the same status as the first edition, but it does still represent a reliable and well written source of useful information for clinical practice in forensic psychiatry.
