ABSTRACT
How does one go about evaluating criminal defendants in order to determine their state of mind, dangerousness, or competency, or — in the case of a sexual murderer — to simply understand the criminal act? In Chapter 1, the Cain-Abel murder case was used to illustrate the distinctions between a clinical assessment (as routinely performed in hospitals, mental health centers, and private offices) and a forensic evaluation. In this chapter, a more detailed comparison of the two types of evaluations will be presented as this is critical in understanding the sexual murderer.
