Best Clinical Practices for Treating Families in Juvenile and Criminal Justice Systems

Addressing the critical intersection between mental health and the legal system, this book presents a competency-based approach to clinical practice with justice-involved couples and families. Author Corinne C. Datchi demonstrates that couple and family interventions are vital components of rehabilitation for both youth and adults, supporting positive family involvement and enhancing solutions to delinquency and crime. Chapters lay out essential data about juvenile and criminal justice systems, correctional populations, family systems theory, and forensic mental health issues, incorporating an understanding of these factors into the systemic assessment, case conceptualization, intervention, and treatment of clinical problems. A compelling case study brings this foundational knowledge to life, with a focus on systems thinking and scientific knowledge, and illustrates the functional competencies necessary to work effectively with couples and families in the juvenile and criminal justice system. The book outlines evidence on couple and family-focused interventions with justice-involved populations, and demonstrates how to use this information about effective therapeutic models. The volume is the first in the APA Fundamentals of Clinical Practice With Couples and Families Series that illustrates the application of specialty professional competencies in this area.