Editorial

Citation

Ireland, C. and Gredecki, N. (2016), "Editorial", The Journal of Forensic Practice, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 253-253. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFP-08-2016-0044

Welcome to the last issue for this year, 18(4). This issue continues to focus on some key considerations for forensic practice. It also introduces the short review section that has been introduced to the journal in this issue, and where authors are encouraged to submit short review or “spotlight” papers on key forensic issues, which add value to the field and the reader. The aim is for up to two of these per issue, yet the current issue introduces four review papers, in order to offer a general overview.

This issue starts with a paper by Ul Lah and Saradjian focussing on schema therapy in personality disordered patients. They carefully argue for further adaptations when working with this client group, introducing the notion of trauma and enforcing collaborative working. This is followed by Coxell et al., who offer an engaging and valuable addition when considering command hallucinations in deaf individuals. They note the lack of literature in this area, and make some helpful recommendations for informed and evidence based assessments. The next two papers progress in to community observations. The first is by Browning and colleagues, examining a community forensic team for people with intellectual disabilities. They note a range of implications, such as the value of evaluating the characteristics of service users within the team, as well as risk and intervention issues. This paper is then followed by Tarpey and Friend, exploring the importance of offender community reintegration. This is a small scale qualitative piece, identifying some key themes towards integration. Importantly they note the value of participating in a housing scheme and its links to positive lifestyle change.

The latter four papers in this issue offer short reviews of key areas. The first is by Alderson, offering a welcome summary of the current knowledge in regard to child sexual exploitation. Their paper offers an overview of the research to date, arguing for the development of theory in this developing field. Following this is a paper by Ireland and colleagues, summarising the current knowledge of working with females who sexually offend. It provides a summary of current knowledge, and where the gaps in this continue to present. A review paper by Birch then follows, utilising a case study when considering person-based crime prevention and noting the integral role the community plays within this. The final review paper is by Johnson and colleagues, offering a helpful summary of the knowledge developed in regard to working with personality disorder patients, looking at the lessons learnt and it is a timely reminder as to how effective clinical engagement can be maintained.