Baumeister, R. F., Smart, L., & Boden, J. M. (1996).  Relation to threatened egotism to violence and agression: The dark side of high self-esteem.  Psychological Review, 103, (1) 5-33.

    Regardless of what area a forensic psychologists works in, it is likely that he/her will need to understand the basic underlying processes of criminal motivation.  For the longest time conventional thinking has told us that the criminal mind is one of low self-esteem.  This idea was based on dozens of studies of prison populations and other convicted felons.  Thankfully, someone thought to ask the question, is it that criminals really do have low self-esteem and thereby act deviantly in an attempt to increase it? Or rather is it just that prison populations test as low self-esteem subjects because of their incarceration?  Well it appears that the latter is true, and that the typical criminal is in fact an individual of high self esteem.  This fact has numerous implications in forensic psychology, ranging from criminal apprehension via profiling to treatment of incarcerated offenders.  This article provides an excellent review of all the relevant literature.  It also builds a compelling argument of why this new view should be accepted, and reasons why perhaps it hasn't been already.  A great read!
 
    Hess, A. K.  (1996). The past, present, and future of Forensic Psychology. Criminal Justice and Behaviour, 23 (1), 236-250.

    Discusses the validity of combining psychology and law into the primarily psychological realm of forensic psychology.  The article outlines future theory, trends, and research.  The article is a very good start for someone who is interesting in learning just what forensic psychology is and what it will become.