Education and training in forensic psychiatry

Since the early 1980s, education and certication in forensic psychiatry have grown more uniform and systematic in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Although many forensic psychiatrists continue to practice without formal training in the subspecialty, formal training and certication in forensic psychiatry is the preferred route into forensic psychiatry. In this chapter, the authors, who are educators and practitioners, describe the educational programs and methods of certication in their respective countries. A reader curious about education and certication in any other country should contact its national psychiatric association or national association for psychiatry and the law.