Nobody's Child ★★★★☆

Nobody's Child: A Tragedy, a Trial, and a History of the Insanity Defense (Click Here To Buy)

★★★★☆

Nobody’s Child: A Tragedy, a Trial, and a History of the the Insanity Defense by Susan Vinocour is a non-fiction book about a woman charged with killing her grandson and a forensic psychologist hired to conduct a mental health evaluation of her.

I read this as an audiobook checked out from the library.

The author is called to assess a grandmother who is charged with second-degree murder after her three year old grandson falls from a chair while trying to get into the sugar jar. Upon deeper investigation, Vinocour discovers the defendant is intellectually disabled, severely depressed, and had told CPS she could not care for the child. Despite these findings, Vinocour must still determine if the woman was mentally competent at the time of the incident. To come to her final conclusion, Vonocour digs deeper into the woman’s past, while at the same time teaching us readers about the history of the insanity defense.

On one hand, this was a very valuable book for me to read as the author is a forensic psychologist conducting forensic mental health assessments to determine competency of the accused and I literally just submitted 4 PhD applications to pursue this career (keep your fingers crossed!). On the other hand, I felt like the author was way too judgmental towards individuals accused of child abuse and individuals living below the poverty line. It is a difficult story to read about how broken our system is but it was worth reading.

If you liked Nobody’s Child, I also recommend Insane by Alisa Roth, While the City Slept by Eli Sanders, The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo, and The Beauty in Breaking by Michele Harper.

Happy reading ⚖️

Ms.Bjork