Ethics, Empathy, and Detached Concern in Forensic Psychiatry.

Clinical medical ethics are ruled by the principles of beneficence and non-maleficence. In forensic psychiatry, however, the duty to serve as an agent of the justice system overrules these principles; thus, examination subjects may indeed experience harms incurred by the psychiatrist's testimony. Alan Stone argued more than 30 years ago that the participation of psychiatrists in legal proceedings runs two essential and opposing risks: skewing …