Thomas Grisso Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Applied Research C itation
“Thomas Grisso has made seminal contributions to the field of forensic psychology and psychiatry through his interna tionally renowned program of research, which has directly impacted juvenile justice reform worldwide. His research contributions to juvenile forensic assessment and to the study of the interface between youth development and the law are unparalleled. Grisso’s work exemplifies how to diffuse and translate knowledge from psychological science and assessment into forensic assessment practices and na tional policies in the United States. His research has raised the global standards for juvenile legal rights and screening for mental health procedures.” B io g ra p h y
Thomas Grisso’s father and mother—a Brethren Church minister and a special-education teacher, respectively— moved from Ohio farmland to Arizona desert shortly after World War II when Grisso was seven years old. His early years were unusually diverse. Before he was 15, he had seen 47 states and eight European countries while traveling with the Tucson Boys Chorus on two-month annual concert tours. He spent summers at the choir’s camp learning to ride horses, herd cattle, and handle firearms. His jobs during his adolescent and college years included lawn care, home delivery for a bakery, stadium concessions, forest-fire November 2014 • American Psychologist © 2 0 1 4 American Psychological Association 0003-066X/14/$ 12.00 Vol. 69, No. 8, 797-799 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0037972
fighter, ambulance driver, dishwasher, funeral assistant, and professional folk singer. He attended a small liberal-arts college (Ashland College in Ohio), intending to eventually enter the seminary there. He took every course available in cultural anthropology, sociology, creative writing, and drama, but very little in theology, and majored in psychol ogy as an afterthought. Grisso was accepted to only one of the graduate schools to which he applied, the University of Arizona, admitted as an alternate when another applicant did not show up. He applied in clinical psychology, but his essay about his interests in social influences on personality and social de viance got him assigned to a mentor in social psychology. Reassigned to the clinical track, he found that assessment suited him best, but primarily to test hypotheses about coping and defense mechanisms rather than to diagnose patients. He was accepted by only one of his five predoctoral internship bids, but it was a good one (Connecticut Valley Hospital). Grisso received his PhD in 1969 without a clear sense of direction. Buying time to decide, he returned to Ashland College because it offered half-time teaching (three courses every semester) and half-time psychotherapy experience in the student clinic. He was adequate at both but excited about neither. An aftemoon-a-week consulting job revealed a way forward. Grisso assessed delinquent boys entering an Ohio Youth Commission facility, using a placement system he devised for matching boys with facility pods that varied in their environments and treatment modes. With neither budget nor time, he performed a few studies on how youths’ anxieties about returning home influenced their behavior in ways that sabotaged their release. Acceptance of his work for publication in good journals suggested that research on delin quent youth in a sociolegal context might be in his future. Grisso began applying for faculty positions where he would have research time. A two-year search produced only rejections until Paul Handal at Saint Louis University took a chance on him, saying “If he can publish in the best journals under those circumstances, think what he could do here.” Arriving in St. Louis in 1974, Grisso introduced himself to the local juvenile court clinic. A few weeks later, the court clinic director called him: “We’ve got a problem. Defense attorneys want us to start evaluating whether kids can understand their Miranda rights. You’re the only aca demic who’s set foot in this place. Can you help us?” For this project, Grisso developed a process he used in later work throughout his career: (a) Translate what the law wants to know into things that psychology can measure, (b) use psychological theories and develop “psycholegal mea sures” to test the law’s assumptions about people’s legally relevant capacities, and (c) translate the results to change law and society and to improve clinicians’ service to the courts. His study of adolescents’ capacities to waive their Miranda rights was his first funded work—supported by the 797
National Institute of Mental Health’s (NIMH’s) Center for Studies of Crime and Delinquency—and was one of the earliest in psychology and law to use this process. This initial look at a specific problem in psychology and law led him to a broader range of forensic interests in the 1980s, stimulated by his appointment to the Study Panel of the NIMH Center for Studies of Crime and Delinquency. He conceived the notion that all legal competencies—whether criminal, civil, or juvenile—were evolving in mid-20th-century law with similar conceptual structures. Could one con struct a single conceptual model for performing forensic evaluations of any type of legal competency? Answering this question became an NIMH award project, reported in Eval uating Competencies: Forensic Assessments and Instruments (1986), now a classic in its second edition. Grisso received a call in 1986 from Paul Appelbaum, a forensic psychiatrist he had met only once. Appelbaum in vited him to come to the University of Massachusetts Med ical School (UMMS) to help develop a new Law and Psy chiatry Program. He would also work with Robert Fein, then assistant commissioner of forensic mental health in Massa chusetts, to develop new standards and procedures for foren sic evaluations throughout the state’s forensic system. When Grisso arrived in Massachusetts in 1987, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation was developing a research network, chaired by John Monahan, intent on tack ling key questions in mental health and law. Offered mem bership, Appelbaum and Grisso led the team’s study of patients’ competence to consent to treatment. Their transla tions of legal concepts to psychological capacities, their re search on those capacities among persons with mental disor ders, and their clinical/forensic measure called the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool for Treatment con tinue to define the language, concepts, and methods in this area, both nationally and internationally. Grisso was board-certified by the American Board of Forensic Psychology (ABFP) in 1987, leading to a long relationship with ABFP as a board member and, since 2003, as its executive director. During his presidency of the Amer ican Psychology-Law Society in 1990, Grisso published a history of the society and chaired its annual conference featuring U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun as keynote speaker. That same year, Grisso made a controversial academic visit to South Africa. U.S. economic and APA academic sanctions prohibited exchanges with the country, a national strategy designed to force an end to South Africa’s apartheid policies. Nevertheless, Grisso accepted invitations from the mostly White Psychological Association of South Africa and from a group of Black psychologists called the Psychology and Apartheid Committee. This was the year that Nelson Mandela was freed from prison. Visiting both groups, which were not in communication with each other, was a cautious ice-breaker for a process that might lead to future discussion.
798
(South African Blacks and Whites created one psychological association a few years later when apartheid fell.) Grisso traversed South Africa offering an anti-apartheid message at many universities—Black and White—regarding the insepa rable relation between forensic psychology and legal and human rights. The MacArthur Foundation continued to support his work when it developed a Research Network on Adolescent De velopment and Juvenile Justice. Grisso led the group’s groundbreaking research, during 1997-2003, on adolescents’ competence to stand trial. The results helped change law and policy throughout the nation and provided clinicians with concepts and methods for assessing young people’s capaci ties as defendants. The MacArthur Foundation then used the network’s research as a platform to drive a broader reform, in which Grisso participated, that influenced juvenile justice systems throughout the United States to develop policies and practices more consistent with the reality of adolescent devel opment. Concurrent with these MacArthur initiatives, Grisso and a colleague, Richard Bamum, developed and validated a mental health screening tool for use with every youth entering a juvenile detention or corrections facility. Since 2000, it has been adopted for use statewide in all juvenile detention, corrections, or probation programs in 44 states. Grisso identifies his key partners in research across the years as Paul Appelbaum and Laurence Steinberg in the 1990s and Gina Vincent in recent years. Although many mentors steered his career decisions, most important for his early development was Saleem Shah. Grisso’s course of professional development offers a mes sage for students struggling early in their careers. After initial uncertainty and numerous early rejections, Grisso went on to (a) author, co-author, or edit 18 books, (b) provide 27 inter national invited keynote addresses in 12 countries, (c) be awarded 24 federal and foundation grants and contracts, and (d) receive 21 career achievement awards from professional associations and universities, nationally and internationally, in psychology, psychiatry, law, forensic psychology, and correctional health. Early uncertainties and disappointments need not define one’s future. Grisso is now professor emeritus at UMMS but continues full time with teaching, research, consulting, and writing projects. His nonprofessional interests across the years have included music (vocal and guitar), competitive equestrian activities (show jumping), and currently photography. Grisso and his wife Donna were married three weeks after college graduation, and she supported him financially through grad uate school and emotionally well beyond, this year marking their 50th wedding anniversary. Their daughter’s family, which includes their two grandchildren, lives in Atlanta. S e le c te d B i b l io g r a p h y Grisso, T. (1981). Juveniles’ waiver o f rights: Legal and psychological competence. New York, NY: Plenum Press.
November 2014 • American Psychologist
Grisso, T. (1986). Evaluating competencies: Forensic assessments and instruments. New York, NY: Plenum Press. (2nd edition published 2003) Grisso, T. (1987). The economic and scientific future of forensic psycho logical assessment. American Psychologist, 42, 831-839. doi: 10.1037/ 0003-066X.42.9.831 Grisso, T. (1991). A developmental history of the American PsychologyLaw Society. Law and Human Behavior, 15, 213-231. doi:10.1007/ BF01061710 Grisso, T. (1996). Society’s retributive response to juvenile violence: A developmental perspective. Law and Human Behavior, 20, 229-247. doi: 10.1007/BF01499022 Grisso, T. (1997). The competence of adolescents as trial defendants. Psy chology, Public Policy, and Law, 3, 3-32. doi: 10.1037/1076-8971.3.1.3 Grisso, T. (2004). Double jeopardy: Adolescent offenders with mental disorders. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Grisso, T. (2005). Evaluating juveniles' adjudicative competence: A guide fo r clinical practice. Sarasota, FL: Professional Resource Press. Grisso, T. (2007). Progress and perils in the juvenile justice and mental health movement. Journal o f the American Academy o f Psychiatry and the Law, 35, 158-167. Grisso, T. (2013). Forensic evaluation o f juveniles (2nd ed.). Sarasota, FL: Professional Resource Press. Grisso, T. (2014). Competence to stand trial evaluations: Just the basics. Sarasota, FL: Professional Resource Press. Grisso, T., & Appelbaum, P. (1992). Is it unethical to offer predictions of future violence? Law and Human Behavior, 16, 621-633. doi: 10.1007/ BF01884019
November 2014 • American Psychologist
Grisso, T., & Appelbaum, P. (1998). Assessing competence to consent to treatment: A guide fo r physicians and other health care professionals. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Grisso, T., Barnum, R., Fletcher, K„ Cauffman, E., & Peuschold, D. (2001). Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument for mental health needs of juvenile justice youths. Journal o f the American Academy o f Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 40, 541-548. doi:10.1097/00004583-20010500000013 Grisso, T., & Schwartz, R. (Eds.). (2000). Youth on trial: A developmental perspective on juvenile justice. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Grisso, T., & Steadman, H. J. (1995). Saleem A. Shah: The man and his im perative. Law and Human Behavior, 19, 1-3. doi:10.1007/ BF01499065 Grisso, T., & Steinberg, L. (2005). Between a rock and a soft place: Developmental research and the child advocacy process. Journal o f Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 34, 619-627. doi: 10.1207/ s 15374424jccp3404_4 Grisso, T., Steinberg, L., Woolard, J., Cauffman, E., Scott, E„ Graham, S., . . . Schwartz, R. (2003). Juveniles’ competence to stand trial: A com parison of adolescents’ and adults’ capacities as trial defendants. Law and Human Behavior, 27, 333-363. doi:10.1023/A:1024065015717 Grisso, T„ Vincent, G., & Seagrave, D. (Eds.). (2005). Handbook o f mental health screening and assessment in juvenile justice. New York, NY: Guilford Press. Grisso, T., Cocozza, J. J., Steadman, H. J., Fisher, W. H„ & Greer, A. (1994). The organization of pretrial forensic evaluation services: A na tional profile. Law and Human Behavior, 18, 377-393. doi: 10.1007/ BF01499046
799
Copyright of American Psychologist is the property of American Psychological Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
“Thomas Grisso has made seminal contributions to the field of forensic psychology and psychiatry through his interna tionally renowned program of research, which has directly impacted juvenile justice reform worldwide. His research contributions to juvenile forensic assessment and to the study of the interface between youth development and the law are unparalleled. Grisso’s work exemplifies how to diffuse and translate knowledge from psychological science and assessment into forensic assessment practices and na tional policies in the United States. His research has raised the global standards for juvenile legal rights and screening for mental health procedures.” B io g ra p h y
Thomas Grisso’s father and mother—a Brethren Church minister and a special-education teacher, respectively— moved from Ohio farmland to Arizona desert shortly after World War II when Grisso was seven years old. His early years were unusually diverse. Before he was 15, he had seen 47 states and eight European countries while traveling with the Tucson Boys Chorus on two-month annual concert tours. He spent summers at the choir’s camp learning to ride horses, herd cattle, and handle firearms. His jobs during his adolescent and college years included lawn care, home delivery for a bakery, stadium concessions, forest-fire November 2014 • American Psychologist © 2 0 1 4 American Psychological Association 0003-066X/14/$ 12.00 Vol. 69, No. 8, 797-799 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0037972
fighter, ambulance driver, dishwasher, funeral assistant, and professional folk singer. He attended a small liberal-arts college (Ashland College in Ohio), intending to eventually enter the seminary there. He took every course available in cultural anthropology, sociology, creative writing, and drama, but very little in theology, and majored in psychol ogy as an afterthought. Grisso was accepted to only one of the graduate schools to which he applied, the University of Arizona, admitted as an alternate when another applicant did not show up. He applied in clinical psychology, but his essay about his interests in social influences on personality and social de viance got him assigned to a mentor in social psychology. Reassigned to the clinical track, he found that assessment suited him best, but primarily to test hypotheses about coping and defense mechanisms rather than to diagnose patients. He was accepted by only one of his five predoctoral internship bids, but it was a good one (Connecticut Valley Hospital). Grisso received his PhD in 1969 without a clear sense of direction. Buying time to decide, he returned to Ashland College because it offered half-time teaching (three courses every semester) and half-time psychotherapy experience in the student clinic. He was adequate at both but excited about neither. An aftemoon-a-week consulting job revealed a way forward. Grisso assessed delinquent boys entering an Ohio Youth Commission facility, using a placement system he devised for matching boys with facility pods that varied in their environments and treatment modes. With neither budget nor time, he performed a few studies on how youths’ anxieties about returning home influenced their behavior in ways that sabotaged their release. Acceptance of his work for publication in good journals suggested that research on delin quent youth in a sociolegal context might be in his future. Grisso began applying for faculty positions where he would have research time. A two-year search produced only rejections until Paul Handal at Saint Louis University took a chance on him, saying “If he can publish in the best journals under those circumstances, think what he could do here.” Arriving in St. Louis in 1974, Grisso introduced himself to the local juvenile court clinic. A few weeks later, the court clinic director called him: “We’ve got a problem. Defense attorneys want us to start evaluating whether kids can understand their Miranda rights. You’re the only aca demic who’s set foot in this place. Can you help us?” For this project, Grisso developed a process he used in later work throughout his career: (a) Translate what the law wants to know into things that psychology can measure, (b) use psychological theories and develop “psycholegal mea sures” to test the law’s assumptions about people’s legally relevant capacities, and (c) translate the results to change law and society and to improve clinicians’ service to the courts. His study of adolescents’ capacities to waive their Miranda rights was his first funded work—supported by the 797
National Institute of Mental Health’s (NIMH’s) Center for Studies of Crime and Delinquency—and was one of the earliest in psychology and law to use this process. This initial look at a specific problem in psychology and law led him to a broader range of forensic interests in the 1980s, stimulated by his appointment to the Study Panel of the NIMH Center for Studies of Crime and Delinquency. He conceived the notion that all legal competencies—whether criminal, civil, or juvenile—were evolving in mid-20th-century law with similar conceptual structures. Could one con struct a single conceptual model for performing forensic evaluations of any type of legal competency? Answering this question became an NIMH award project, reported in Eval uating Competencies: Forensic Assessments and Instruments (1986), now a classic in its second edition. Grisso received a call in 1986 from Paul Appelbaum, a forensic psychiatrist he had met only once. Appelbaum in vited him to come to the University of Massachusetts Med ical School (UMMS) to help develop a new Law and Psy chiatry Program. He would also work with Robert Fein, then assistant commissioner of forensic mental health in Massa chusetts, to develop new standards and procedures for foren sic evaluations throughout the state’s forensic system. When Grisso arrived in Massachusetts in 1987, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation was developing a research network, chaired by John Monahan, intent on tack ling key questions in mental health and law. Offered mem bership, Appelbaum and Grisso led the team’s study of patients’ competence to consent to treatment. Their transla tions of legal concepts to psychological capacities, their re search on those capacities among persons with mental disor ders, and their clinical/forensic measure called the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool for Treatment con tinue to define the language, concepts, and methods in this area, both nationally and internationally. Grisso was board-certified by the American Board of Forensic Psychology (ABFP) in 1987, leading to a long relationship with ABFP as a board member and, since 2003, as its executive director. During his presidency of the Amer ican Psychology-Law Society in 1990, Grisso published a history of the society and chaired its annual conference featuring U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun as keynote speaker. That same year, Grisso made a controversial academic visit to South Africa. U.S. economic and APA academic sanctions prohibited exchanges with the country, a national strategy designed to force an end to South Africa’s apartheid policies. Nevertheless, Grisso accepted invitations from the mostly White Psychological Association of South Africa and from a group of Black psychologists called the Psychology and Apartheid Committee. This was the year that Nelson Mandela was freed from prison. Visiting both groups, which were not in communication with each other, was a cautious ice-breaker for a process that might lead to future discussion.
798
(South African Blacks and Whites created one psychological association a few years later when apartheid fell.) Grisso traversed South Africa offering an anti-apartheid message at many universities—Black and White—regarding the insepa rable relation between forensic psychology and legal and human rights. The MacArthur Foundation continued to support his work when it developed a Research Network on Adolescent De velopment and Juvenile Justice. Grisso led the group’s groundbreaking research, during 1997-2003, on adolescents’ competence to stand trial. The results helped change law and policy throughout the nation and provided clinicians with concepts and methods for assessing young people’s capaci ties as defendants. The MacArthur Foundation then used the network’s research as a platform to drive a broader reform, in which Grisso participated, that influenced juvenile justice systems throughout the United States to develop policies and practices more consistent with the reality of adolescent devel opment. Concurrent with these MacArthur initiatives, Grisso and a colleague, Richard Bamum, developed and validated a mental health screening tool for use with every youth entering a juvenile detention or corrections facility. Since 2000, it has been adopted for use statewide in all juvenile detention, corrections, or probation programs in 44 states. Grisso identifies his key partners in research across the years as Paul Appelbaum and Laurence Steinberg in the 1990s and Gina Vincent in recent years. Although many mentors steered his career decisions, most important for his early development was Saleem Shah. Grisso’s course of professional development offers a mes sage for students struggling early in their careers. After initial uncertainty and numerous early rejections, Grisso went on to (a) author, co-author, or edit 18 books, (b) provide 27 inter national invited keynote addresses in 12 countries, (c) be awarded 24 federal and foundation grants and contracts, and (d) receive 21 career achievement awards from professional associations and universities, nationally and internationally, in psychology, psychiatry, law, forensic psychology, and correctional health. Early uncertainties and disappointments need not define one’s future. Grisso is now professor emeritus at UMMS but continues full time with teaching, research, consulting, and writing projects. His nonprofessional interests across the years have included music (vocal and guitar), competitive equestrian activities (show jumping), and currently photography. Grisso and his wife Donna were married three weeks after college graduation, and she supported him financially through grad uate school and emotionally well beyond, this year marking their 50th wedding anniversary. Their daughter’s family, which includes their two grandchildren, lives in Atlanta. S e le c te d B i b l io g r a p h y Grisso, T. (1981). Juveniles’ waiver o f rights: Legal and psychological competence. New York, NY: Plenum Press.
November 2014 • American Psychologist
Grisso, T. (1986). Evaluating competencies: Forensic assessments and instruments. New York, NY: Plenum Press. (2nd edition published 2003) Grisso, T. (1987). The economic and scientific future of forensic psycho logical assessment. American Psychologist, 42, 831-839. doi: 10.1037/ 0003-066X.42.9.831 Grisso, T. (1991). A developmental history of the American PsychologyLaw Society. Law and Human Behavior, 15, 213-231. doi:10.1007/ BF01061710 Grisso, T. (1996). Society’s retributive response to juvenile violence: A developmental perspective. Law and Human Behavior, 20, 229-247. doi: 10.1007/BF01499022 Grisso, T. (1997). The competence of adolescents as trial defendants. Psy chology, Public Policy, and Law, 3, 3-32. doi: 10.1037/1076-8971.3.1.3 Grisso, T. (2004). Double jeopardy: Adolescent offenders with mental disorders. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Grisso, T. (2005). Evaluating juveniles' adjudicative competence: A guide fo r clinical practice. Sarasota, FL: Professional Resource Press. Grisso, T. (2007). Progress and perils in the juvenile justice and mental health movement. Journal o f the American Academy o f Psychiatry and the Law, 35, 158-167. Grisso, T. (2013). Forensic evaluation o f juveniles (2nd ed.). Sarasota, FL: Professional Resource Press. Grisso, T. (2014). Competence to stand trial evaluations: Just the basics. Sarasota, FL: Professional Resource Press. Grisso, T., & Appelbaum, P. (1992). Is it unethical to offer predictions of future violence? Law and Human Behavior, 16, 621-633. doi: 10.1007/ BF01884019
November 2014 • American Psychologist
Grisso, T., & Appelbaum, P. (1998). Assessing competence to consent to treatment: A guide fo r physicians and other health care professionals. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Grisso, T., Barnum, R., Fletcher, K„ Cauffman, E., & Peuschold, D. (2001). Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument for mental health needs of juvenile justice youths. Journal o f the American Academy o f Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 40, 541-548. doi:10.1097/00004583-20010500000013 Grisso, T., & Schwartz, R. (Eds.). (2000). Youth on trial: A developmental perspective on juvenile justice. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Grisso, T., & Steadman, H. J. (1995). Saleem A. Shah: The man and his im perative. Law and Human Behavior, 19, 1-3. doi:10.1007/ BF01499065 Grisso, T., & Steinberg, L. (2005). Between a rock and a soft place: Developmental research and the child advocacy process. Journal o f Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 34, 619-627. doi: 10.1207/ s 15374424jccp3404_4 Grisso, T., Steinberg, L., Woolard, J., Cauffman, E., Scott, E„ Graham, S., . . . Schwartz, R. (2003). Juveniles’ competence to stand trial: A com parison of adolescents’ and adults’ capacities as trial defendants. Law and Human Behavior, 27, 333-363. doi:10.1023/A:1024065015717 Grisso, T„ Vincent, G., & Seagrave, D. (Eds.). (2005). Handbook o f mental health screening and assessment in juvenile justice. New York, NY: Guilford Press. Grisso, T., Cocozza, J. J., Steadman, H. J., Fisher, W. H„ & Greer, A. (1994). The organization of pretrial forensic evaluation services: A na tional profile. Law and Human Behavior, 18, 377-393. doi: 10.1007/ BF01499046
799
Copyright of American Psychologist is the property of American Psychological Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
