Planning, writing, and editing forensic psychiatric reports

Forensic psychiatric reports are often the final product of a psychiatrist's work in a particular case because most cases do not go to trial but instead are settled through negotiation or plea bargaining. This article addresses the planning, writing, and editing of forensic reports. Planning a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of law and psychiatry Vol. 35; no. 5-6; pp. 412 - 417
Main Authors Resnick, Phillip J., Soliman, Sherif
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Netherlands Elsevier Ltd 01.09.2012
Subjects
Bargaining
Documentation - methods
Editing
Ethical dilemmas
Ethics
Evidence
Forensic opinion
Forensic Psychiatry
Forensic reports
Humans
Negotiation
Plea bargaining
Psychiatric reports
Report organization
Report writing
United States
Writing
United States
Report organization
Forensic opinion
Forensic reports
Report writing
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Summary:Forensic psychiatric reports are often the final product of a psychiatrist's work in a particular case because most cases do not go to trial but instead are settled through negotiation or plea bargaining. This article addresses the planning, writing, and editing of forensic reports. Planning a report requires thorough data gathering, and thoughtful organization of the report into specific subheadings. Throughout the report there should be a clear separation of factual data from professional opinions. Ten pitfalls of report writing are identified. The most important part of the forensic report is the opinion section. The evidence for the opinion should begin with the strongest points and the reasons supporting the opinion should be completely explained. Finally, ethical issues are addressed.
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ISSN:0160-2527
1873-6386
DOI:10.1016/j.ijlp.2012.09.019