Mad or Bad?: A Critical Approach to Counselling and Forensic Psychology

While the title of the book will either attract or repel potential readers, undertaking a critical review of counselling and forensic psychology is to be welcomed. Contributions by expert psychotherapists and clinical, counselling and forensic psychologists working in a multiplicity of forensic settings alongside academics, many with practitioner experience, ensures that a range of views, disciplines and approaches are fully explored.  With chapters covering issues such as media representations, identities, sexual offending, diagnosis, treatment, therapeutic practice and prevention, this book is a highly recommended read for students, academics and practitioners interested in mental health and its relationship with criminality.
-- Professor Michael Brookes OBE
This collection sheds new light on the problems of people with mental health difficulties in the criminal justice system. It carefully shows that we cannot just label people as "mad" or "bad" but must instead consider a complex set of interacting social, psychological, legal and circumstantial factors, in order to understand how people become caught up in crime. This outstanding book will be essential reading for students or anyone interested in the complicated relationship between mental health, contemporary social life and criminal justice.
-- Dr Joel Harvey

A quite remarkable and very well-researched book, in both its range and depth of exploring how our legal and psychiatric systems are used to control people who are different. The tensions between punishment and treatment are thoroughly examined. Critical socio-psychology at its finest!

-- Dominic Davies