Michael
Welner is associate professor of psychiatry at New York University
School of Medicine. He has consulted to defense and prosecution in 26 states,
and is typically sought out for complex civil and criminal psychiatric-legal
questions at the cutting edge that require both interview and independent
investigation.
In 1998, Dr. Welner unveiled The Forensic Panel, the first peer-reviewed consultation forensic system in the country. The Forensic Panel’s system features eminently qualified scientific experts who oversee each other’s work to ensure diligence and adherence to prevailing scientific standards, and has adapted this model to the behavioral sciences, medicine, pathology and toxicology.
The architect of The Depravity Scale, Dr. Welner is currently standardizing this instrument for to assist juries and war crimes tribunals attempting to distinguish heinous crimes. He was also publisher and editor-in-chief of The Forensic Echo, now archived online as a journal of law, psychiatry and public policy.
Dr. Welner maintains a treatment practice as well, based in New York City. He has given invited testimony to state judiciary committees on several psychiatric-legal topics, and is a frequently quoted reference on forensic psychiatry in major network and print news stories.
