Dr. Hastings completed his undergraduate degree in psychology with a minor in criminal justice in 1991 at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin and his master's degree in forensic psychology in 1995 from John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY) in New York, New York.  He earned his doctoral degree in clinical psychology from George Mason University in 2005.  He completed three years of externship and internship training at John Howard Pavilion at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C. He has trained and worked in outpatient and inpatient psychiatric/forensic settings, as well as academia and private practice.

 

Dr. Hastings has worked in the Court & Correctional Services Program at the Loudoun County Mental Health Center for 25+ years where he has conducted forensic psychological evaluations of all kinds for the adult and juvenile court system.  He has provided individual therapy and group treatment for domestic violence, anger management, and sex offenders.  Dr. Hastings was a Research Assistant Professor at George Mason University for 10 years where he worked on an ongoing, large-scale recidivism study conducted at the local jail.  His duties included supervising Hare Psychopathy Checklist interviewing and scoring, as well as providing consultation and supervision regarding scoring and interpretation of various risk assessment instruments and personality tests used in the study.  He has presented research findings at national-level scientific meetings such as the American Psychological Association, the American Psychology-Law Society, and the American Criminology Society.  He has published research findings in peer-reviewed journals such as Psychological Assessment, Personality and Individual Differences, and Criminal Justice & Behavior.  He has taught undergraduate and graduate-level courses in forensic psychology at Marymount University and George Mason University, including Introduction to Forensic Psychology, Forensic Psychological Assessment, and Psychopathy: Theory, Research, and Practice.  

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In 2007, Dr. Hastings started working in private practice where he has done extensive work conducting sexually violent predator evaluations for both the state and defense.  He also conducts sexually dangerous person evaluations at the federal level for both the United States Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina and as a court-appointed examiner for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.  

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Dr. Hastings has conducted thousands of forensic psychological evaluations in his career, including more than 500 sexually violent predator and sexually dangerous person evaluations.  He has testified as an expert on a wide variety of forensic psychological topics in jurisdictions throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia and mid-Atlantic region and he testifies for both the prosecution and defense. Dr. Hastings is licensed in Virginia and Maryland and is a certified sex offender treatment provider in Virginia.  He has provided local and state-level training in forensic psychology, including sex offender evaluation through the Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy at the University of Virginia.  He recently provided a training for defense attorneys regarding sexually violent predator evaluations through the Virginia Continuing Legal Education office in Charlottesville, Virginia.

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In his spare time, Dr. Hastings enjoys reading, exercise, cooking/wine education, and traveling with his wife and dogs.