Understanding Female Offenders

Jason M. Smith, PsyD, ABPP has worked in county jails, forensic private practices, and forensic hospitals. He completed an internship in the Kentucky Department of Corrections focusing on assessing, treating, and researching incarcerated offenders (mainly women). Since 2014, he has worked as a licensed Clinical Psychologist for the Federal Bureau of Prisons , where he has continued treating, assessing, and managing incarcerated women. With his co-authors, he has published on female offenders/psychopathy as well as theoretical Rorschach articles. He is on the Board of Assessors for Rorschachiana. He is a member of the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) in Clinical Psychology. Dr. Smith has presented his research and workshops on assessing and treating female offenders in the US and Internationally. Dr. Smith was also awarded the APA Division 18 Criminal Justice Section Outstanding Dissertation Award (2014) and the SPA John E. Exner Scholar Award (2019).

Chief Psychologist, Federal Bureau of Prisons

Carl B. Gacono, PhD, ABAP was the Assessment Center Director, at Atascadero State Hospital (CA), and Chief Psychologist at the Federal Correctional Institution (Bastrop, TX), having worked over 20 years in correctional and forensic psychiatric facilities. He is the co-author of The Rorschach Assessment of Aggressive & Psychopathic Personalities, senior editor of the Handbook of Forensic Rorschach Assessment, author of The Clinical & Forensic Interview Schedule for The Hare Psychopathy Checklist: Revised & Screening Version, editor of the Clinical & Forensic Assessment of Psychopathy: A Practitioner’s Guide (1st & 2nd Editions), and author or co-author of more than 100 scientific articles and book chapters. He received the Samuel J. & Anne G. Beck Award (1984) for excellence in early career research and the Walter G. Klopfer Award (2000). He is a member of the American Board of Assessment Psychology and a Fellow of the Society for Personality Assessment. As a noted artist, Dr. Gacono exhibits his paintings, and he has had several displayed on book covers. Currently, Dr. Gacono maintains a consulting practice in Asheville, NC where he lives with his son, Jackson Carl Gacono (see carlgaconoart.com and carlgaconoart [Instagram]).

Former Assessment Center Director at Atascadero State Hospital (CA), and Chief Psychologist at the Federal Correctional Institution, Bastrop, TX, USA

Ted B. Cunliffe, PhD is a Clinical and Forensic Psychologist licensed to practice in the State of Florida and over the past six years, has been in full-time private practice and provided expert witness services in various jurisdictions and courts within Florida and beyond. He has provided assessment services and worked with forensic populations in a wide variety of settings including juvenile detention centers, adult prisons, juvenile probation, and outreach programs in the community for over 30 years. Specifically, he has served as a Staff Psychologist and Mental Health Director at a wide number of correctional facilities in Florida, California, and Canada. Further, he has provided expert witness services to the Florida, California, and Virginia courts in the areas Competence to Stand Trial, Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity, Dangerousness, Death Penalty, Wrongful Death, Dependency, Mitigation, and Civil Litigation. His clinical and research interests include the forensic use of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, the Rorschach Inkblot Test, trauma related disorders in a forensic context, domestic violence, stalking, criminal decision-making, dangerousness/violence risk assessment, and criminal recidivism.

Licensed Clinical and Forensic Psychologist, Miami FL