Publications


Forensic Neuroscience and Violence book cover

Now Available: Forensic Neuroscience and Violence

Edited by John Matthew Fabian, PSY.D., J.D., ABPP

Forensic Neuroscience and Violence offers a contemporary, rigorous, and comprehensive examination of the intersection of neuroscience, violence, and the law. Drawing on current empirical research, the book explores neurodevelopmental, psychiatric, and neurological conditions, as well as evidence-based risk factors associated with violent and sexually violent behavior, while translating those findings into meaningful forensic and legal applications.

Through case examples and relevant caselaw, this volume addresses the forensic use of neuropsychological assessment and neuroimaging in criminal legal proceedings, presenting forensic neuroscience, neurocriminology, and neurolaw in a coherent and practical manner.

Highlights include:

  • Empirically grounded analysis of violence, aggression, and brain dysfunction
  • Case examples and caselaw illustrating courtroom application
  • Discussion of neuropsychological assessment and neuroimaging in forensic settings
  • A practical resource for clinicians, attorneys, judges, researchers, and graduate students

“Dr. Fabian has pulled together the most comprehensive review and analysis of the current state of our understanding of violence and its progenitors available in any single source.”

— Cecil R. Reynolds, PhD

Book Details:
Publisher: Wiley Blackwell
Print ISBN: 978-1-118-83225-7
E-book ISBN: 978-1-118-83224-0
Publication: April 2026

Use code PSY20 at Wiley for 20% off.

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Selected Recent Writings

Dr. Fabian’s chapter, “Forensic Neuropsychology and Violence: Neuroscientific and Legal Implications”, in the Wiley Blackwell Handbook of Forensic Neuroscience, explores neuropsychiatric disorders as well as neuropsychological and neuroimaging correlates of violence within a legal framework.

Another chapter by Dr. Fabian, “Malingering”, in the ABA book Representing People with Mental Disabilities: A Practical Guide for Criminal Defense Lawyers, addresses malingering in criminal forensic psychological and neuropsychological contexts.

Forensic Neuropsychology & Neuroscience

  • Forensic Neuropsychological and Neurological Evaluation of Violence: Scientific and Legal Perspectives
    In The Litigator’s Handbook of Forensic Medicine, Psychiatry, and Psychology. Ed. Demosthenes Lorandos. West Group, 2019
  • Forensic Neuropsychology and Violence: Neuroscientific and Legal Implications
    In Handbook of Forensic Neuroscience. Eds. Anthony Beech, Adam J. Carter, Ruth Mann, and Pia Rotshtein. Wiley Blackwell, 2018
  • Neuropsychological and Neurological Correlates in Violent and Homicidal Offenders: A Legal and Neuroscience Perspective
    Aggression and Violent Behavior, Volume 15, Issue 3, May–June 2010, Pages 209–223
  • Neuroscience, Volitional Impairment and Sexually Violent Predators: A Review of the Literature and Its Application to Civil Commitment Proceedings
    Aggression and Violent Behavior, 17, 1–15

Capital Litigation / Death Penalty

  • Mitigating Sexual Homicide in a Capital Murder Case
    Cornerstone
  • Mitigating Murder at Capital Sentencing: An Empirical and Practical Psycho-Legal Strategy
    Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice, 9:1–34, 2009
  • Methamphetamine Motivated Murder: Forensic Psychological/Psychiatric Assessment in Capital Litigation
    Journal of Psychiatry & Law, Winter 2007
  • State Supreme Court Responses to Atkins v. Virginia: Adaptive Functioning Assessment in Light of Purposeful Planning, Premeditation, and the Behavioral Context of the Homicide
    Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice, Volume 6, No. 4, 2006
  • Death Penalty Mitigation and the Role of the Forensic Psychologist
    Law and Psychology Review, 27, 55, Spring 2003
  • Life, Death, and IQ: It’s Much More Than Just a Score. Understanding and Utilizing Forensic Psychological and Neuropsychological Evaluations in Atkins Intellectual Disability Cases
    Cleveland State Law Review, 59(3), 2011

Forensic Psychological & Neuropsychological Assessment

  • Malingering in Criminal Forensic Psychological and Neuropsychological Contexts
    In Representing People with Mental Disabilities: A Practical Guide for Criminal Defense Lawyers. Ed. Elizabeth Kelley, 2018
  • Forensic Neuropsychological Assessment and Death Penalty Litigation
    The Champion, April 2009
  • Rethinking “Rational” in the Dusky Standard: Assessing a High-Profile Delusional Killer’s Functional Abilities in the Courtroom in the Context of a Capital Murder Trial
    Quinnipiac Law Review, Volume 25(2), 2006

Juvenile

  • Applying Roper v. Simmons in Juvenile Transfer and Waiver Proceedings: A Legal and Neuroscientific Inquiry
    International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, June 2010
  • Considering Roper v. Simmons in Waiver / Bind-Over Proceedings
    Cuyahoga County Bar Association, March 2007

Sexual Offender

  • Assessing the Sex Offender With Asperger’s Disorder: A Forensic Psychological and Neuropsychological Perspective
    Sex Offender Law Report, August/September 2011
  • The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act: Legal and Psychological Aspects of the New Civil Commitment Law for Federal Sex Offenders
    Cleveland State Law Review, 59(3), 2011
  • Sex Crimes: How to Utilize Forensic Psychological Evaluations Within Internet Online Solicitation and Pornography Sex Crime Cases
    Voice for the Defense, June 2007
  • Current Standards and Practices in Violence Risk Assessment and Communication at a Maximum Security Forensic Hospital Following a High-Profile Sexual Homicide
    Aggression and Violent Behavior, Volume 13, No. 5, October 2008
  • Megan’s Law and Sexual Violence Risk Assessment
    Cuyahoga County Bar Association, Volume 83, Issue 1, January 2007
  • Getting Tough on Sex Offenders: The Adam Walsh Act & Ohio SB 10
    John Matthew Fabian, PSY.D., J.D., and Ian Friedman, Esq., 2006
  • A Literature Review of the Utility of Selected Violence and Sexual Violence Risk Assessment Instruments
    Journal of Psychiatry and Law, Fall 2006
  • The Risky Business of Conducting Risk Assessments for Those Already Civilly Committed as Sexually Violent Predators
    William Mitchell Law Review, Volume 32, No. 1, 2005
  • Examining Our Approaches to Sex Offenders and the Law: Kansas v. Hendricks, Crane, and Beyond — “Mental Abnormality” and “Sexual Dangerousness”: Volitional vs. Emotional Abnormality and the Debate Between Community Safety and Civil Liberties
    William Mitchell Law Review, Volume 29, No. 4, 2003

Civil Law

  • The Law & Psychology in Workers’ Compensation Claims