areas
  • Mental state at the time of the offense (insanity and diminished capacity)
  • Competence to stand trial
  • Violence risk assessment
  • Psychiatric disabilities
  • Psychological and emotional injuries
  • Testamentary capacity
  • Decisional capacities and competencies
  • Correctional psychiatry
  • Sentencing evaluations
  • Capital mitigation
  • Fitness for duty
  • Former Director, Division of Forensic Psychiatry, Bellevue Hospital, NYU School of Medicine
  • Former Chair, American Psychiatric Association Council on Psychiatry and Law
  • Consultant to MacArthur Foundation Network on Mental Health and the Law, 1989-96
  • Board Certified, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN)
  • Board Certified, Forensic Psychiatry, ABPN
  • Former Member of the ABPN Committee on Certification in Forensic Psychiatry
  • Work Group Advisor, APA Task Force on DSM-IV
  • Author of multiple peer-reviewed papers, book chapters, and other publications
  • Developed the MacCAT-CA, a structured, validated assessment of competence to stand trial

In The News

Correctional Psychiatry and Treatment Needs of Incarcerated Mentally Ill


Antisocial personality disorder or schizophrenia combined with substance abuse is common among inmates. Over time these difficult patients have been transferred from the public mental health system to the penal system. more...

Security Clearance


Although some psychiatrists express concerns over their participation in security-clearance investigations, others view their role as a service to their patients.

Psychiatrists who are contacted as part of government security-clearance background checks on current more...


Insanity Defense


States have the right to restrict testimony from experts about the characteristics of a mental illness because those experts often disagree about the "controversial character of some categories of mental disease," the Supreme Court says. more...

Gun Registration Laws and the Mentally Ill


Some psychiatrists fear that the law will further stigmatize people with mental illness and divert attention away from the need for a broader law that would result in a real reduction of gun-related violence. more...


Commitment of Sex Offenders


New York's governor initiates an administrative program to commit sexual predators to public psychiatric hospitals indefinitely. It follows on the heels of similar changes in the laws of other states. more...

Dearth of Data Doesn't Slow Rush to Commit Sexual Offenders


Some psychiatrists fear that the law will further stigmatize people with mental illness and divert attention away from the need for a broader law that would result in a real reduction of gun-related violence. more...


Privacy of Health Information


In the second day of hearings on the Freedom of Information Act, committee members heard testimony about three pieces of legislation: H.R. 1281, S. 1090, and a draft bill about private medical records. more...