Previous chapters have addressed many of the core issues in the practice of forensic psychiatry and psychology related to the interface and interaction between the expert and the legal system. For the private practitioner of forensic psychiatry or psychology (as opposed to the institutional psychiatrist or psychologist) there are in addition a number of matters that form, as it were, a penumbra around the core. The latter might be called paraforensic issues (1). (Similar issues are also addressed in the last section of this text.) Within that label we might include those “real-life, non-theoretical and practical matters that are as much a part of the work as is achieving a grasp of the psychiatry-law interface” (1, p. 356).

A recent review of those experiences regarded by forensic psychiatrists as especially stressful included the following (1, citing 2):

To aid our grasp of the definition, note that in this particular grouping, numbers 3 and 4 would most closely fit the definition of paraforensic issues as being penumbral to the core; the rest are outgrowths of the core challenges of forensic work itself. This section addresses those paraforensic concerns.