Book Review: Forensic Psychology: Concepts, Debates, and Practice

• Date: 01 March 2007
• Published date: 01 March 2007
• DOI: 10.1177/1057567707299373
• Author: Daniel B. Wright,Kamala London
• Subject Matter: Articles

Book Reviews
73
Overall, Policing Scotland is a fine book. The descriptions of police organization, law, and reform
are first rate, even if the tables could have been more readable. The main problem I have with the
book is the same problem I have with many of the books on policing I have read lately. In terms of
Scottish police reform, the human rights law and the philosophy of communitarianism can help lead
to a brighter future. Unfortunately, however, the usual ideas and reforms (involving professional, pri-
vate, and community policing; the increased use of corporate management; and the view of citizens
as consumers), to which most of the book is devoted, threaten the chances that the police can indeed
become champions of human rights in Scotland. The United States and other countries have been
down this road already. Professionalism and community policing have failed to transform policing,
and assuming that these same strategies can work elsewhere (such as Scotland) is wrongheaded. A
human rights–centered policing that is democratic (open, accountable, subordinate to civil authority,
legitimate, and committed to the rule of law and human rights) and communitarian is needed, and
this requires a transformation of police organization and culture. As Pennycook points out in this
volume, change will always be slow, but if genuine change is not collectively discussed and explored
by scholars, practitioners, and the citizenry, the usual refinements that do not actually transform
policing will continue in Scotland and elsewhere, and we will continue to have contradictions in
police roles and troubled relationships between the police, citizens, and other public and private sec-
tor actors.
Nathan W. Pino
Texas State University–San Marcos
Adler, J. (Ed.). (2004). Forensic Psychology: Concepts, Debates, and Practice. Cullompton,
Devon, UK: Willan.
DOI: 10.1177/1057567707299373
Forensic psychology is a growing subdiscipline within psychology and has important impacts in
courts, police investigations, prisons, and all areas of the judicial system. Joanna Adler has brought
together 27 prestigious researchers from within this field...