Ashley B. Batastini - Forensic Mental Health Evaluations in the Digital Age: A Practitioner’s Guide to Using Internet-Based Data

Use of the Internet, and social networking sites (SNS) in particular, has steadily increased in the United States and throughout the world. In fact, a 2018 poll from the Pew Research Center showed that 68% of American adults are using SNS such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Snapchat (Smith and Anderson ). Never before have people been so readily able to communicate their immediate thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, or access those of other people. Often SNS users share personal information on these sites several times a day across multiple outlets, creating an in-the-moment electronic footprint on an almost daily (or even hourly) basis. Furthermore, it is becoming commonplace to maintain and make available other types of records and reports via online databases and websites, some of which can be uncovered with a simple Google search (i.e., so-called Internet stalking). Information that is merely a few clicks away has clear implications, both direct and indirect, for the practice of forensic mental health. In particular, this information is relevant to forensic practitioners who conduct evaluations of psycho-legal issues for the courts. Currently, there is minimal guidance on how to appropriately use and incorporate Internet-based data into such evaluations.

Forensic Mental Health Evaluations in the Digital Age: A Practitioners Guide to Using Internet-Based Data is the first compilation to directly address the manner in which forensic practitioners can rely on social media and other Internet-based information as important collateral data to inform their psycho-legal opinions. Although there are several practitioner-focused books available that address various aspects of forensic mental health evaluations, ranging from how to conduct them to legal implications of forensic evaluations, there are no resources tailored to the unique aspectsboth challenges and benefitsregarding the use of SNS and other personal online information as data sources. Given the increasing popularity of these sites, their availability to forensic evaluators, and potential clinical relevance to both criminal and civil psycho-legal questions, this book provides clinicians with best practice guidelines about the practical and ethical uses of data obtained from the Internet, with particular focus on the information posted to SNS of legally involved parties.