immediately by a second perception under conditions of full attention. Within each of these broadclasses of explanation of deja vu there are various individual accounts which are reviewed in detailby the author. He does not come out in favour of any one explanation for the phenomenon, as the aimof the book is to consider the many possible explanations of deja vu that contemporary psychologicalresearch has to offer and act as a stimulus for future research on this topic. The book ends with asummary of the existing findings on deja vu reviewed in the earlier chapters, and he identifies somefuture issues for research on the topic including suggestions for improved survey research on deja vu,and possible laboratory-based studies based on the dual process, memory and double perceptionapproaches to deja vu.

Overall this book is an interesting and enjoyable read. The author has done a fine job ofassembling and summarizing such a large and diverse body of work covering a long period of time.He demonstrates that the phenomenon is by no means beyond the reach of mainstream cognitivepsychology and this book will be an invaluable source for those interested in researching thisintriguing phenomenon.

KEVIN CROWLEYUniversity of Glamorgan, UK

Published online in Wiley InterScience(www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/acp.1118

An accessible text for forensic psychology undergraduates

INTRODUCTION TO FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY. C. R. Bartol and A. M. Bartol. Sage Publica-tions, California, 2004. No. of pages 500. ISBN 0-7619-2606-2. Price £28.99 (hardback).

Bartol and Bartol’s Introduction to Forensic Psychology undertakes an ambitious task, seeking toprovide both a historical and a contemporary perspective of forensic psychology, to introduce thereader to relevant psychological research and theories, to describe the application of this knowledgeto specific issues within those systems and to inform the interested reader of the various training andcareer paths open within these fields (albeit with a strong US bias). The latter may be of particularuse to the student readership (both under- and post-graduate) at which the book is primarily aimed,and is something that seems to be considered only rarely in psychology textbooks—althoughwhether this is sufficient to qualify as a unique selling point will depend on the individual reader.

Whilst the authors recognize that the focus of many forensic psychology courses within the UStends towards ‘clinical’ forensic psychology (a focus also reflected within some courses in the UK),their intent within this book is to offer a far broader approach considering psychology’s applicationto all aspects of ‘the criminal and civil justice systems’. To this end the book opens with a concise,but quite comprehensive, introductory chapter outlining the many areas of application of psychologywithin the forensic context from offenders and offending, through the investigative and judicialprocesses (including victim support issues), to assessment, treatment and rehabilitation of offenders.The book is then subdivided into five further chapters, considering specific domains of psychologicalapplication, each of which is briefly described separately below.

The chapter entitled ‘police and investigative psychology’ covers the application of psychology toboth police officers themselves and the work they do. The former has much in common withoccupational psychology (not something which I had previously associated with forensic psychol-ogy, so it offered me an interesting new perspective), whilst the latter considers investigativeelements such as offender profiling, deception detection and suspect identification as well as morecontroversial techniques such as ‘forensic hypnosis’ and the use of ‘psychological autopsies’. It isthis chapter which is perhaps of most relevance for applied cognitive psychologists, although thecoverage of memory, cognition and perception in terms of witness (verbal and visual) evidence is notespecially extensive. The chapter ‘criminal psychology’ describes various types of offender andoffending, including various demographic, personality and behavioural factors associated withoffenders both ‘normal’ and disordered (although with much more weight given to the latter). The

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Copyright # 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Appl. Cognit. Psychol. 19: 375–381 (2005)

chapter ‘victimology and victim services’ covers a broad variety of issues relating to victims ofcrime from a number of psychological standpoints including cognitive (e.g. the recovered memorydebate) and clinical (e.g. post-traumatic stress disorder) and relating to a number of offence types(e.g. domestic violence; sexual assault; property crime). The chapter ‘psychology and the courts’ isthe section of the book most strongly biased towards a US perspective. In addition, this chapter’sfocus is more on the psychological expert’s interaction with the court process (for example, thesection ‘surviving the witness stand’ provides the testifying expert with tips to maintain professionalcredibility in the face of lawyers!) and so may fall somewhat outside the student remit. The finalchapter, ‘correctional psychology’, is most in keeping with the current tendency towards ‘clinical’forensic psychology as it deals primarily with the assessment, treatment and rehabilitation ofoffenders (both ‘normal’ and disordered, and split between adult offenders and juveniles). Althoughthis chapter is grounded heavily within the US penal system, much of the material covered is likelyto translate internationally in a way that the courtroom psychology perhaps does not. This chapteralso gives some consideration of the application of psychology to those working within the penalsystem (e.g. counselling services for prison staff), although this appears as yet to be a relativelyunder-researched area.

It is worth noting that there are, of course, various areas of overlap between these domains. Wheresuch crossovers occur these are generally made explicit within the text, for example betweenbehaviours and testing of criminal psychopaths within the ‘criminal psychology’ chapter andassessment and treatment of the same within the ‘correctional psychology’ chapter. Nonetheless thechapters, and the sections within them, also read well on a standalone basis.

Overall the book is well-written at a suitable level for students and, I suspect, would also beaccessible to the non-psychologist with an interest in the areas covered (I am sure there are many USattorneys who would be very interested to read the courtroom chapter for example). Despite thisaccessibility the authors generally manage to avoid over-simplification, with the few populistillustrative examples (e.g. the Columbine high school killings) not over-stressed, and maintain asuitably discursive and critical style throughout. Perhaps the best method of assessing anyintroductory text is to ask oneself ‘would I recommend this to my students?’ For this book myanswer would be a qualified ‘yes’. I think the book is written in such a way that it would provide agood framework for undergraduate studies, would inform students of many issues within forensicpsychology and would provide a good launch pad for their further reading. Also, as a non-clinicianand someone who always tries to express to students the immensely varied nature of forensicpsychology, I very much like the broad approach taken. However, I would feel the need to direct mystudents elsewhere for a consideration of psychology in the courtroom, as Bartol and Bartol’scoverage is both too narrowly American and seems to be focused on the work of the already-qualifiedforensic psychologist. For instance, there is little coverage of issues such as intra- and inter-personalfactors within jury decision-making, jurors’ perceptions of evidence and/or witnesses, or biaseswithin the courtroom—all of which I would expect my undergraduate students to cover. In addition,although this is purely a personal bias, I would have liked the section on investigative psychology tobe more extensive. However, breadth must often come at the expense of depth and the range ofmaterial covered compensates well for the occasional lack of detail.

JIM TURNERThe Open University, UK

Published online in Wiley InterScience(www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/acp.1119

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Copyright # 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Appl. Cognit. Psychol. 19: 375–381 (2005)