Whores of the Court (book)

Whores of the Court: The Fraud of Psychiatric Testimony and the Rape of American Justice by Margaret Hagen, Ph.D., 1997. New York: ReganBooks (HarperCollins).

Who sends BoyLovers to prison? The courts? Well, not exactly. It is the testimony of so-called "expert witnesses" that persuade jurors to convict and sentence BoyLovers to very long prison terms.

And it is these very same "experts" -- the psychologists and psychiatrists -- who then decide which "offenders" have how high a "risk of re-offending", and can, under "civil commitment" laws, order the "offender" to be confined indefinitely (which usually means for life) in mental institutions as "Sexual Predators" -- that is, until they can be judged to be "safe to release into society".

But what do these experts really know? What is their claim to expertise? It turns out that they do not have any real claim to expertise - they are frauds, according to the author!

About the author

Margaret A. Hagen, Ph.D., MBA Department of Psychology Boston University CURRENT POSITION:

Professor of Psychology, Boston University

EDUCATION:

• Ph.D., Developmental Psychology, University of Minnesota
• M.B.A., Simmons College, Graduate School of Management Business Administration
• B.S, Psychology, University of Washington

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

Psychology and the Law: areas of psychological research that is of use to the triers-of-fact in legal cases like eye witness testimony, memory, the suggestibility of children, biasing of potential juries through media coverage, etc., as well as research that differentiates between solid scientific psychology and junk science psychology in order that our courts will be better informed about the difference.

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS:

• American Psychological Society
• American Psychology-Law Society

Book description

In this provocative and well-researched book, Margaret Hagen, Ph.D, reveals how expert psychological testimony is a total fraud, showing how the courts have increasingly embraced not a cutting-edge science but, instead, a discipline that represents a terrifying retreat into fantasy and hearsay; a discipline propelled by powerful propaganda, arrogance, and greed.

Dr. Hagen sounds a clarion wake-up call, offering some startling – and much-needed – recommendations about how we can reclaim our own ability to judge and supplying vital advice on how we can protect ourselves from the ravages of psychological testimony in our own lives.

Book reviews

“A damning indictment of the psychologizing – and undermining – of the American legal system. With righteous wrath and devastating wit, this sweeping critique should stir national debate.”

-- Publishers Weekly

The Boston Globe, City Edition Sunday, March 16, 1997

"Margaret A. Hagen, who teaches at Boston University, picks many bones with the specialists in Whores of the Court: The Fraud of Psychiatric Testimony and the Rape of American Justice (ReganBooks, $ 25). Hagen, who holds a doctorate in developmental psychology, contends that the psychological helping professions have sold out for money by giving false or worthless testimony in court.

Beyond that specific contention, Hagen dismisses clinical psychology generally, from Freud onward, calling it 'junk science,' and argues that 'judges and juries, the people alone, must decide questions of insanity, competence, rehabilitation, custody, injury, and disability without the help of psychological experts and their fraudulent skills'."

The Boston Herald, THIRD EDITION Wednesday, March 19, 1997

HEADLINE: Craziness in the 'Court'; Hub author dismisses 'psychoexpert' testimony as ludicrous BYLINE: By STEPHANIE SCHOROW

"No question psychology professor Margaret Hagen has bitten the hand that feeds her. Not with a nip, mind you, but a full-throttle chomp.

She begins by calling her fellow professionals 'whores'.

Hagen, who has taught psychology at Boston University since the mid-1970s, has published a wide-ranging, no-holds-barred screed against psychiatrists, psychologists and counselors who testify as 'experts' in criminal and civil courts and child custody cases.

Outrage gushes from nearly every page of Whores of the Court: The Fraud of Psychiatric Testimony and the Rape of American Justice, ($ 25, HarperCollins). Hagen, who has a Ph.D. in developmentalsaying.jpeg (63989 bytes) psychology, blasts "psychoexperts" who testify as to a person's past state of mind or motivations in criminal cases. ("There simply is no mental stethoscope, no matter how much our justice system wishes there were.")...

Continue reading this review, and many others, at http://www.bu.edu/hagen/bookreviews.html

Preventive detention under Civil Commitment laws

Instead of being released after serving their sentences, "sex offenders" may be labeled as "sexual predators," and be confined in mental institutions. Click here for a Google search for more information.

Book download

• Whores of the Court by Professor Margaret A. Hagen

Download link: http://whoresofthecourt.com/WotC%20Book.pdf

NOTE: The author of the book has made the book available as a free download to everyone.

External links

Author's book site, describing the book http://whoresofthecourt.com/

• Author's biographical information:

http://www.bu.edu/hagen/hagencv.html