The Parkland School Shooter: Foetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder or Feigning?

ANZAPPL Victoria Annual Lecture 2023

This lecture is based on Prof. Scott’s clinical assessment of Nikolas Cruz, a young man recently sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after he was convicted of killing 17 people and seriously injuring 17 others in the deadliest high school shooting in US history. Drawing on a series of videotapes of his assessment and the trial, Prof. Scott will provide insights on how foetal alcohol syndrome disorder is being considered by the defence in criminal trials in the USA.

This event will be held on Wednesday 29 November 2023 at Zinc (Federation Square), Cnr Princes Walk and Russel St Ext, Melbourne VIC 3000. We warmly invite you to join us for canapés and drinks from 5:30 pm (AEDT). The lecture will follow at 6:30 pm. The lecture will be livestreamed for those who unable to attend in person.

Attendance is free, but registration is essential.

All attendees will have access to a recording of the lecture after the event.

Charles Scott, MD, is Chief, Division of Psychiatry and the Law, Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship Training Director, and Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the University of California, Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, California. He is Board Certified in General Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and has Added Qualifications in Forensic Psychiatry and Addiction Psychiatry. Dr. Scott is a Past-President of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (AAPL) and is also Past-President of the Association of Directors of Forensic Psychiatry Fellowships. He has served as a member of the AAPL national task force to develop guidelines for the evaluation of criminal responsibility and competency to stand trial. Dr. Scott is one of four national AAPL Forensic Psychiatry Review Course Faculty instructors and in 2008 received the AAPL award as the most outstanding forensic psychiatry fellowship program instructor in the United States.

Dr. Scott has served as a forensic psychiatric consultant to jails, prisons, maximum security forensic inpatient units, California Department of State Hospitals, and as a consultant to the National Football League (NFL) providing training on violence risk assessment for NFL counselors. He has performed suitability evaluations for NASA’s Astronaut Selection Board. His academic subspecialty is child and adolescent forensic psychiatry. Dr. Scott has authored book chapters on juvenile violence, mental health law, and co-authored chapters on child psychiatry and the assessment of dangerousness. He has served as editor or co-editor for numerous books and is co-editor of the Third Edition of Principles and Practice of Forensic Psychiatry.

His research interests include the relationship of substance use to aggression among criminal defendants, on the quality of forensic evaluations of criminal responsibility, child witness testimony, malingering, and assessment of posttraumatic stress disorder. He lectures nationally on the topics of malingering, violence risk assessment, juvenile violence, substance use and violence, the assessment of sex offenders, correctional psychiatry, DSM-5 and the law, and malpractice issues in mental health.

Click here to register for this event.

The Annual Lecture will be preceded by the Annual General Meeting of ANZAPPL Vic. Click here for further information.