ABSTRACT
Forensic psychiatry is the application of psychiatric knowledge to issues related to the courts and law. The principal work of forensic psychiatrists is the assessment of and preparation of psychiatric reports for the court on mentally abnormal offenders and their treatment. In practice, however, nearly all general psychiatrists will have to undertake such work on their own patients from time to time. In addition, forensic psychiatrists are also asked to provide advice on the management of aggressive and other severely behaviourally disturbed patients, who may not have been formally charged with offences or reached the courts, for example very aggressive in-patients in ordinary psychiatric hospitals.
