Every year, each of us teaches a course in either Forensic Psychology or Psychology and Law. This combined teaching experience—spanning more than three decades—prompted us to write this book and guided our writing process. Our goal was to produce a student-friendly textbook, a book that is both accessible and rigorous. Drawing on research in social, cognitive, clinical, and developmental psychology, we have attempted to show how psychological science can be used to enhance the gathering of evidence, improve legal decision-making, reduce crime, and promote justice. One aspect of this book that makes it a distinctive alternative to existing textbooks is writing style. Of necessity, all textbooks designed for a particular course must be similar in content. Often, it is how content is presented that makes a book appealing to students and instructors. Great care has been taken to write Forensic and Legal Psychology in a lively, engaging style. When presenting research findings, we have tried to portray the research process as a kind of detective story—an effort to unravel a mystery through systematic data collection. We have also made extensive use of real cases and trials to draw students into the material and to illustrate the relevance of research findings. To make sure our writing was clear and engaging, every chapter was reviewed and edited by both students and scholars. Finally, to enhance the visual appeal of the book and to clarify research findings, we have used tables, graphs, photos, and figures throughout the text.